Last week, I had to release eight versions of my apps — most of them were updates, and most involved apps with multiple localizations. A developer friend of mine had just released a Mac app designed to simplify this process, which on App Store Connect is usually incredibly slow and frustrating, so I decided to give it a try.
The app is called Dock, and I instantly fell in love with it!

Dock: Ultimate ASO Tool for App Store Success for macOS

Subscribe and support me if you like using my Patreon page

Medium has updated its promotion and payout systems, so your likes and comments now make a BIG impact. Thanks for your support!

The First Launch

On the first launch, you’re asked to enter a couple of details: the AuthKey and Issuer ID, to allow the app to connect to Apple’s platform. Of course, I couldn’t remember exactly what they were or where to find them. Luckily, Dock provides an info page that walks you through the entire process step by step. Within 5 minutes, I had everything filled out and was ready to go.

It’s worth noting that one of Dock’s key strengths is its focus on privacy and data security. Your App Store Connect credentials are never transmitted to external servers — they’re stored locally on your Mac. This eliminates the risks of sharing sensitive access and ensures you have full control over your credentials.

Once that’s done, all your apps on the store are loaded instantly (in the screenshot, I’ve blurred out a few that are still in development):

If we select an app, the screen updates and we’re presented with four main sections: text contents, screenshots, reviews, and competitors.

Text Contents

This is perhaps the most important section — and of course, it comes first.
Here, you’ll configure all the text content for your App Store listing:

We can immediately see that, depending on the selected version and language, Dock shows how we’re handling titles, subtitles, and keywords to achieve optimal positioning in App Store searches — what’s known as ASO (App Store Optimization).

The app automatically analyzes each keyword, indicating whether it’s been repeated elsewhere and showing its popularity on the store.

Using Artificial Intelligence, Dock performs a keyword analysis and provides smart suggestions. It’s up to us whether we want to follow them or not.

Moreover, when creating a new version, Dock is also capable of suggesting relevant keywords to improve discoverability.

One feature that saved me a ton of time during the publishing process is the ability to copy text — like the promotional message — from previous versions.

Otherwise, you’d have to manually re-enter it for each language, which is incredibly tedious and time-consuming.

Screenshots

The second tab takes us to the screenshot management section for the images we’ve uploaded to the store.

Things get really interesting here as well.
We have the ability to change our existing screenshots, analyze them, and even create new ones.

By clicking the button below each screenshot, you can trigger an AI-powered analysis to evaluate its quality and effectiveness:

This is incredibly useful if you don’t have a design team or if you’re an indie developer doing everything in-house.

To support this DIY approach, the app also includes a screenshot editor, so you can create your own visuals directly within Dock.
In just a few minutes, you can produce a high-quality screenshot — perfect if you’re not familiar with design tools like Figma or similar.

Even with the screenshot editor tool, there’s the option to use Artificial Intelligence to generate a screenshot.
This feature is still experimental, but it can be a great starting point to build upon and refine.

Reviews

We’ve now reached the third tab, which allows us to manage reviews.

In this screen, we can read and reply to user reviews posted on the App Store.
Here too, Artificial Intelligence comes to the rescue by analyzing the overall trend of the reviews.

Now, if you only have a handful of reviews, it’s easy enough to understand everything just by reading them. But if your app is getting a flood of feedback (lucky you! haha), the AI tool really helps by providing a summary and highlighting what users are asking for.

…Oh, and yes — I did end up adding Push Notifications to Beezly 😄

Competitors

In the last tab, we have the Competitors page.
Here, you can add apps that you consider to be competitors of your product and get a head-to-head comparison.

On this screen, by clicking the “Compare” button, you can run an ASO analysis between your app and the selected competitor.

You can also view a comparison in terms of app size and performance, giving you insight into how your product stacks up against the competition.

Conclusions

In conclusion, Dock proves to be an incredibly powerful and developer-friendly tool for managing every aspect of App Store Optimization on macOS. Whether you’re an indie developer juggling multiple roles or part of a larger team looking to streamline your workflow, Dock offers smart, efficient solutions — from text and keyword management to AI-powered screenshot editing and review analysis. With its focus on privacy, speed, and usability, Dock is more than just an ASO utility — it’s a productivity booster that brings clarity and control to the often chaotic app publishing process.

You can find the app here:

Dock: Ultimate ASO Tool for App Store Success for macOS

Subscribe and support me if you like using my Patreon page

Medium has updated its promotion and payout systems, so your likes and comments now make a BIG impact. Thanks for your support!

Let’s sum it up!

2024 has come to an end, and it has truly been an extraordinary year. Many things have changed since last January, and above all, I have learned and understood a great deal.

It was undoubtedly the year I put in the most effort as an independent developer: I published new projects and updated almost all of my previous ones.

This year, I also tried to give a bigger push to my YouTube channel and my Patreon page. In that regard, I realized two important things: the marathon wins, the sprint loses!

In the last few months, due to daily work commitments, family life (I’m married with two children), and my hobbies (fitness, prog metal guitar, and Warhammer miniature painting), I sometimes neglected my online content. As a result, I noticed a drop in subscribers across my channels — rightly so, I’d say. It’s better, therefore, to maintain a steady flow of content, even if smaller in scope, rather than posting large pieces once a month or every two months. Next year, I’ll try to follow this path more consistently.

Another lesson I learned is that quality always pays off! This year, I released several apps. Some, like Beezly, are the result of significant work; others, which rely on AI, were developed in a single evening, and I’ve come to understand that quick, almost useless apps serve no purpose other than “playing around” with new technologies. Granted, thanks to OpenAI’s APIs, I gained a lot of valuable know-how — useful for some talks at my company — but in terms of earnings, these apps weren’t particularly fruitful.

Another takeaway: don’t develop apps “just to make money,” but create ones that solve a real problem you have yourself. I am, for instance, focusing on apps that make everyday family life easier — my own situation!

Anyway, if you want to support me, you can take a look at my Patreon page!

Let’s take a look at the apps released in 2024!

Beezly:

‎Beezly Family: Expense Tracker

This app steals the show: it helps manage family finances fairly, ensuring each person spends the same percentage of their income. It’s very handy when a couple earns different salaries, so that whoever earns more contributes more. My wife and I had been using a private “alpha” version for years, until I decided to remake it from scratch, add iCloud and Firebase for push notifications, and finally make it available to everyone. Since it deals with personal expenses, I made privacy my top priority: all data stays on iCloud and isn’t shared on external servers.

Calcolo Stipendio Netto

‎Calcolo Stipendio Netto

This salary calculation app for Italy, which I’ve been maintaining for about four years, got a major graphical and functional overhaul. It was also the first app where I introduced an annual subscription, allowing me to learn how to use StoreKit 2 to manage transactions. It was great fun!

Menu Scuola Roma

‎Menu Scuola Roma

This app also benefited from a nice upgrade. It allows users to see the daily school menu for children in Rome. It’s simple but has brought me a lot of satisfaction because it’s widely used by parents in my city. I’m happy to have provided a helpful service to the community. I hope to release an Android version soon.

AI Projects
This year, I created three small apps that use OpenAI’s APIs:

AI Car Detector

‎AI Car Detector

Snap a photo of a vehicle, and the AI will provide information about it. The idea came from a game I played with my kids during our vacation in Europe: “Dad, what car is that?” Now, the AI answers for me!

AIPostMaker

‎AI PostMaker

Why not take a photo, have the AI analyze it, and create an Instagram post? That’s exactly what I did! In just three hours, I built a dedicated app.

IAduvio

‎IAdiuvo: Traduttore Latino

In high school, I was strong in math and physics (and later became an aerospace engineer), but I struggled with Latin. Now the AI can help! Just take a picture of the text to translate, and the AI handles the rest.

Resolutions for 2025?
I’d like to learn how to create at least simple Android apps and produce content more consistently. I also have some interesting ideas for a new YouTube channel… but I’m not going to share them yet!
With that said, I wish you all a new year of coding filled with success!

I hope you liked this article, if you did please clap it and consider to support me in my Patreon page, where you can find the full project of the code of this article, and download it in PDF.

If you are interested in learning more, a lot more about SwiftUI, I strongly suggest to take a look at this great interactive books (updated to iOS 18):

Big Mountain Studio SwiftUI Resources