Vibe coding led to an 84% increase in App Store submissions. Apple is intensifying its enforcement.

      In summary: AI-driven "vibe coding" tools have led to an 84% increase in new app submissions to Apple's App Store within a single quarter, marking the highest growth in a decade, as reported by The Information. This surge is putting pressure on Apple’s review system, with approval times extending from 24 hours to as long as 30 days. In response, Apple has begun removing apps that breach its self-containment policies, resulting in conflict with the platforms driving this growth.

      The App Store is currently experiencing the largest influx of new apps in ten years, primarily due to not a rise in professional developers, but rather the introduction of a term coined by Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI, and former AI lead at Tesla. Vibe coding, which allows users to create software by simply describing their needs in natural language and having a large language model generate the code, has significantly lowered the barriers to app development, overwhelming the infrastructure that Apple established to manage its platform.

      As reported by The Information, the number of apps submitted to the App Store increased by 84% in a quarter, coinciding with vibe coding's rise to prominence. This is supported by data from Sensor Tower, indicating a 56% year-on-year growth in new iOS app launches in December 2025 and a 54.8% increase in January 2026, marking the highest growth rates in four years. In total, Apple saw 557,000 new app submissions in 2025, the most substantial annual increase since 2016.

      The reason behind the surge can be attributed to a select group of platforms that are transforming natural language into operational software. For instance, Cursor, developed by Anysphere, reported over $2 billion in annual revenue by March 2026 and reached a valuation of $29.3 billion following a $2.3 billion funding round led by Accel and Coatue in November 2025. Lovable, which caters to non-technical creators, also saw its annual revenue soar to $200 million by late 2025, a fiftyfold increase in just one year, and secured $330 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation of $6.6 billion. Replit generated $240 million in revenue in 2025, providing services to over 150,000 paying customers and aiming for $1 billion in revenue in 2026. Bolt.new has emerged as a favored option for quickly turning ideas into prototypes.

      The business rationale for these platforms is clear: anyone with an idea and internet access can now create and submit an app. However, for Apple, the same factors that make vibe coding commercially attractive conflict with the App Store's review process.

      The challenge arises because vibe coding generates and executes new code in real time in response to user inputs, without relying on a fixed codebase. Conversely, Apple's App Store review process was established for a different approach: developers submit a static version of their app, which Apple reviews, and the approved version is what users receive. Apple’s App Review Guidelines explicitly state in Guideline 2.5.2 that apps “may not download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app.” By nature, vibe coding apps tend to violate this guideline.

      The impact of increased volume is evident within Apple’s system. Developers submitting apps in March 2026 reported review delays ranging from seven to thirty days or more, compared to the historical norm of 24 to 48 hours, with most of the delay attributed to the “Waiting for Review” phase before a reviewer examines the submission. This influx of AI-generated apps is burdening a system created for an era when app development required months, not minutes.

      The response to the situation has been gradual and at times unclear. In mid-March 2026, it was revealed that Apple had discreetly halted updates for a series of vibe coding apps, including Replit and Vibecode, without a public explanation. Developers reported receiving rejections referencing Guideline 2.5.2 but noted the absence of advance warnings about increasing enforcement.

      The most notable casualty of this situation was Anything, an app that enabled users to create small tools and automations using natural language prompts. Co-founder Dhruv Amin stated that Apple had been blocking updates since December 2025 before entirely removing the app on March 30, 2026. Amin attempted to modify the app so that vibe-coded outputs would preview in a web browser instead of executing within the app, but Apple rejected that update and removed the app irrespective of the change.

      An Apple spokesperson informed The Information that the company was not specifically targeting vibe coding as a category; instead, it was upholding guidelines that stop apps from altering their behavior post-review. However, in practice, the distinction is minimal: the core feature of a vibe coding app is its ability to synthesize and implement new functionality on request, precisely what Guideline 2.