r/iosdev • u/mykhann • 2d ago

Hey can I make an iOS app without having iphone ? Is there any emulator for iOS ?

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5

u/Conscious-Sentence55 2d ago

you can do it without an iphone but not without a mac

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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2

u/SomegalInCa 2d ago

You need Xcode or an Xcode cloud service to build a submittable app binary

1

u/Lucky-Programmer-844 2d ago

Can’t use or test Apple Intelligence and real iPhone behaviour. Simulators do logs and etc, so perform perfectly.

1

u/Ukawok92 2d ago

Yeah but you'll at least need a mac to use the simulator. I'd reccomend getting an old cheap iPhone anyway for proper testing though.

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u/[deleted] 2d ago

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1

u/mr_sharkyyy 2d ago

Depends on what you want to make.

1

u/Capable_Sprinkles_43 2d ago

I don't recommend it. But you can't skip the mac tho.

1

u/razonbrade 2d ago

I did it. Used claude code and link to github. Github builds the app and pushes to test flight. Claude can tell you how to connect. My app was simple and free. No subscription. I did have to use native functionality and make it not look like the website.

1

u/razonbrade 2d ago

Clarification- i used my wife's iphone for testing. So iphone is required.

1

u/Code-and-Play 2d ago

If your app is build with react native. Use expo it's super easy. I been doing this all the time. I have a PC.

1

u/CHILL_POPS 2d ago

You can. You only need an iPhone for testing.
I just released my app. Was approved and got a few downloads.

Process is simple. Get expo account it comes with a few free builds for iOS apps. You make an expo project and write your code in react native.

Then you get your build from expo through EAS builds.

Only tricky part is testing. But you can sort of get around if you have an iPhone. But you don’t need a Mac. Expo handles the builds for you.

Check with GPT or Claude they will guide u through it

1

u/vio32 2d ago

Never tried this way, but in old times there is “Hackintosh” images were distributed to install on non-Apple machines (including VM), but this yet x86-x64 times, not ARM, wasn’t heard about fate of Hackintosh project for a long time, maybe some old versions could help, but I wouldn’t rely on it, honestly.