In brief: The emergence of AI-driven "vibe coding" tools has resulted in an astounding 84% increase in new app submissions to Apple's App Store within a single quarter, marking the highest surge in the last decade. This influx is taxing Apple's review system, with approval times escalating from 24 hours to as much as 30 days. In response, Apple has begun removing apps that breach its self-containment rules, resulting in a confrontation with the platforms responsible for this trend.
Apple's App Store is currently experiencing the highest number of new app submissions in ten years, not due to a rise in professional developers, but rather a new trend called vibe coding. This term, which was named Collins English Dictionary's word of the year for 2025, was introduced by Andrej Karpathy, a co-founder of OpenAI and former AI lead at Tesla, in a social media post in February 2025. Vibe coding allows users to create software by simply describing their needs in plain language, and a large language model generates the corresponding code. This capability has significantly lowered the barriers to app development, overwhelming the infrastructure Apple has created to manage its platform.
According to reports, the number of new apps submitted to the App Store has surged by 84% in a single quarter as vibe coding has gained prominence. This is supported by broader data from Sensor Tower, which noted a 56% year-on-year increase in iOS app launches in December 2025 and a 54.8% rise in January 2026, marking the highest growth rates seen in four years. Overall, Apple recorded a total of 557,000 new app submissions in 2025, the largest annual influx since 2016.
The Tools Driving the Surge
This increase can be attributed to a select group of platforms that have transformed natural language into deployable software. One notable platform, Cursor, created by Anysphere, has gained traction among seven million developers and achieved over $2 billion in annual revenue as of March 2026, boasting a valuation of $29.3 billion after a $2.3 billion funding round co-led by Accel and Coatue in November 2025. Lovable, which caters to non-technical users, reported $200 million in annual revenue by late 2025—a fiftyfold increase within a single year—after raising $330 million in a Series B funding round at a valuation of $6.6 billion in December 2025. Additionally, Replit generated $240 million in revenue throughout 2025 and serves over 150,000 paying customers, with ambitions to reach $1 billion in revenue for 2026. Bolt.new has also emerged as a popular platform for quick idea-to-prototype development.
The business proposition for these platforms is clear: virtually anyone with an idea and internet access now has the potential to create and submit an app. However, for Apple, the same dynamic that makes vibe coding attractive commercially is fundamentally at odds with the App Store review process.
The Structural Issues for Apple
The strength of vibe coding lies in its ability to generate and execute new code instantaneously, based on user prompts, without a fixed codebase. Conversely, Apple’s App Store review process was established for a different paradigm: a developer submits a static version of their app, Apple reviews it, and the approved version is what users receive. According to Guideline 2.5.2 of Apple’s App Review Guidelines, apps "may not download, install, or execute code which introduces or changes features or functionality of the app." However, vibe coding applications inherently do just that.
The repercussions of this volume surge are already evident within Apple's infrastructure. Developers submitting apps to the App Store in March 2026 reported review delays ranging from seven to over 30 days, compared to a historical norm of 24 to 48 hours. The majority of the wait was spent in the "Waiting for Review" queue, where submissions linger before being picked up by a reviewer. The influx of AI-generated apps is placing immense pressure on a system that was designed for an era when app development took months, not minutes.
Initiating a Crackdown
Apple's enforcement actions have been both progressive and at times unclear. In mid-March 2026, it was reported that Apple had discreetly blocked updates for various vibe coding apps, including Replit and Vibecode, without providing a public explanation. Developers have described receiving rejection notices citing Guideline 2.5.2, yet without any prior indication that enforcement was intensifying.
The most notable casualty of this crackdown was an app named Anything, which allowed users to create small tools and automations using natural language commands. Its co-founder, Dhruv Amin, revealed that Apple had been blocking updates since December 2025 and ultimately removed the app entirely on March 30, 2026. Amin attempted to modify the app to allow vibe-coded outputs to be previewed in a web browser rather than executed within the app itself, but Apple blocked that update and removed the app regardless.
An Apple spokesperson stated that the company is not specifically targeting vibe coding as a category but is rather enforcing guidelines that prevent apps from altering their behavior after review. However, this distinction is minimal in practice; the essential feature of a vibe coding app is its capacity to generate and execute new functionality on demand, which directly contradicts Guideline 2.5.2.
The Counterargument
The underlying conflict is rooted in gatekeeping economics. The App Store review process serves not only as a safety mechanism but also as the foundation for the 15-30% commission that Apple collects on in-app purchases and subscriptions. A surge of vibe-coded applications that evade review by generating code outside the approved bundle poses a structural challenge to the business model of the App Store itself. Regulators in Europe have already scrutinized Apple's App Store gatekeeping under the Digital Markets Act, and the vibe coding issue adds another layer to this ongoing examination.
A Reckoning for the Platform
The rise of vibe coding has highlighted a disconnect between the pace at which AI can generate software and the speed at which the existing review infrastructure can process it. At its peak in 2025, Apple reviewed approximately 200,000 weekly app submissions, yet this surge has outstripped that capacity. The platform is now faced with a decision: it can either significantly enhance its review capacity, modify its guidelines to permit controlled dynamic code execution, or continue to enforce current rules while managing the friction this creates with an increasingly large group of developers.
The substantial investment being made in AI infrastructure throughout 2026 suggests that the volume of vibe-coded apps is unlikely to decrease organically. These tools are becoming faster and more affordable, leading to the emergence of some of the technology industry's fastest-growing companies. As AI transitions from being a novel concept to a foundational commercial infrastructure, the question of who controls the distribution layer—and under what conditions—is becoming the central battleground of the platform era. Apple originally established the App Store as a solution to that question. Vibe coding is forcing it to reevaluate the issue from the ground up. The AI-driven acceleration of 2025 is now at the threshold, and Apple must decide whether to embrace it.
Source: TNW | Apple News