How to make an iPhone app with AI: 7 steps (2026)

By Sigsten Gustavii· 26 October 2026· 11 min read

A few years ago, making an iPhone app meant a Mac, Xcode, a few months with Swift and a lot of patience. Today an AI can write the whole app from a description, and the hard part has moved. It is no longer the code. It is knowing what you want, saying it clearly, and checking that what came back really works.

This guide walks through the whole route in seven steps, using Borel, an AI builder made for iPhone apps. Borel writes the app in Swift and SwiftUI, the language and framework Apple builds its own apps with, compiles it with Xcode on its own Mac, and shows it to you running on an iPhone in your browser. The steps hold for any tool, though, and the tips on writing prompts and avoiding mistakes apply wherever you build.

What you need before you start

Less than you might think. Here is the full list, and what each piece costs.

The one real requirement is an idea specific enough to describe. That is step 1.

How to make an iPhone app with AI, step by step

Step 1: Write down the one job your app does

Before you open any tool, write one sentence that starts with "An app that helps me…". A habit tracker that shows a streak. A shared shopping list for a household. A log of the wines you liked. If you need two sentences, you probably have two apps.

Then list the three to five things a person does in it, as verbs: add a habit, tick it off, see the week. Those verbs become screens and buttons. An AI builder is good at turning a clear list like that into an app, and much less good at guessing what a vague idea was supposed to be.

Also decide early whether the app is just for you or for other people. An app for yourself can keep everything on your phone. An app for others usually needs accounts and data in the cloud, and if it is going to the App Store it needs to meet Apple's rules from day one.

Step 2: Describe the app in plain words

Now write the prompt. You do not need special words or technical terms. Describe it the way you would to a friend who is going to build it for you: who it is for, what is on each screen, and what happens when you tap things. Here is a template you can copy and fill in.

Make an iPhone app called [name] for [who it is for].
The main thing it does: [one sentence].
Screens:
1. [Screen name]: [what is on it, what you can tap]
2. [Screen name]: [what is on it, what you can tap]
3. Settings: [what can be changed]
Data: [what the app keeps, e.g. habits with a name, a colour and the days they were done]
It should feel: [calm / playful / bold / minimal], in [colours or a mood]
Not needed yet: [anything you want left out]

A filled-in version can be as short as this: "A habit tracker for me. Habits with a name and a colour, a tap to tick today off, a streak on each one, and a week view. Calm, with soft greens." Borel's real builds started from one sentence each, which you can see on the real builds page.

Step 3: Answer the planning questions

A good AI builder does not start writing code the second you press enter. Borel reads the request, and when a detail would really change the result, it asks one short question at a time: which look you want, whether data should sync between devices, whether the app needs sign-in. Clear requests often go straight to building.

Take these questions seriously. Each answer saves you a round of changes later, and changes cost credits and time. If you do not know the answer yet, say so and pick the simplest option; you can always add more.

Step 4: Watch it build, then try it in the simulator

Once the plan is set, the AI writes the app. In Borel, the code is SwiftUI, Xcode compiles it on Borel's Mac, and the app opens in Apple's iOS Simulator, streamed to your browser. You tap, scroll and type in it as you would on a phone. It is the real app running, not a picture of it or a web copy.

This is where most of your time goes. Use the app like someone who has never seen it. Add an item, delete it, close the app and open it again, try an empty state, type something long. Note everything that feels wrong in plain words. The simulator is free for everyone, so test as much as you like. Our guide to testing an iPhone app without an iPhone covers this step in detail.

Step 5: Change it by talking to it

Every change is another message. "Make the streak bigger and put it on the right." "Add a note to each habit." "The save button does nothing when the name is empty; show a message instead." Borel changes the code, rebuilds, and the simulator shows the new version.

Small, specific changes work far better than a list of twelve at once. Ask for one or two things, check them, then ask for the next. If something breaks, say exactly what you did and what happened, the way you would report a bug to a person.

Step 6: Put it on your own iPhone

When the app does what you want, put it on your phone. Borel Companion, a small app for Windows and Mac, installs it on your iPhone with your Apple ID: over a USB cable when you set it up, then over Wi-Fi. A free Apple ID is enough for apps you use yourself.

Apple sets two limits on a free Apple ID: an app installed this way lasts seven days before it needs re-signing, and you can have three such apps at a time. Companion renews each app while it runs, so in practice it stays on your phone. Read more about installing your own app without the App Store.

Step 7: Publish it to the App Store

If other people should get the app, publish it. On Borel this takes the Pro plan, from $20 a month, and a membership in Apple's Developer Program, $99 a year. Publish walks you through the App Store listing (name, icon, category, screenshots and description), connects your App Store Connect account, and then builds, signs and uploads the app from Borel's Mac. You never touch Xcode.

From there the build appears in TestFlight for a last check on real phones, then goes to Apple's App Review. Read how to publish an app to the App Store without a Mac for the whole publishing route, and what Apple checks.

What a real build looks like

Numbers help more than promises. These are four apps Borel built on 17 October 2026, each from a one-sentence prompt, timed from the prompt to the app running in the simulator, with the Mac's compile and start-up check included.

Each of them opened with every tab filled, could be tapped through at once, and kept its data on the phone. Your own app will take a few more rounds of changes than that, because a real idea has details a one-line test prompt does not. Even so, it is a matter of an afternoon, not a few months.

Native Swift or something else: why it matters for an iPhone app

Not every AI app builder makes the same thing when you ask for an "iPhone app". Some make a website that looks like an app. Some write React Native, a cross-platform layer that runs on both iPhone and Android. A few write native Swift. The difference shows up later, in what the app can do and how it feels.

Borel writes SwiftUI because it gives the AI the shortest path to everything an iPhone can do. If you want to dig into the trade-offs, read SwiftUI vs React Native.

What an AI-built iPhone app can include today

An app is more than screens. Here is what Borel can put into an app without you signing up for other services or pasting keys:

• AI inside the app: a chat assistant, summaries, reading what is in a photo, making pictures, through Borel AI with no API key. See built-in AI.
• Accounts and shared data: sign-up with email and password, a cloud database and file storage that Borel runs for the app.
• Data that stays on the phone: for personal apps, nothing leaves the device. See offline data.
• iPhone features: Face ID, the camera and scanning, the photo library, Apple Maps and location, reminders, haptics, charts.
• Selling things: subscriptions and one-off purchases through Apple's in-app purchases.

Common mistakes when making an app with AI

• Asking for everything at once. A prompt with twenty features gives you a shallow version of each. Start with the core job and grow it.
• Describing the code instead of the behaviour. You know what the app should do; let the AI decide how.
• Not testing the boring paths. Empty lists, very long names, deleting the last item, turning the phone sideways. That is where apps break.
• Leaving sample content in. AI builders often open an app with example rows so the screens look alive. Replace or clear them before you publish.
• Forgetting Apple's rules until the end. An app for the App Store needs a privacy policy, a working sign-in for the reviewer if it has accounts, and a way to delete an account. Plan for them early.
• Paying for a Mac you do not need. With a builder that compiles in the cloud, your Windows PC is enough.

How long it takes and what it costs

A simple app runs in the simulator within minutes of the prompt; the four real builds above took three to five and a half minutes each. Getting it to the point where you are happy with it usually takes an afternoon of changes. Making it costs nothing to start, with 5 free credits a day, up to 30 a month; the real builds above used between 2.85 and 5.56 credits each. Publishing adds Pro, from $20 a month, and Apple's $99 a year.

For the full breakdown, with what agencies and freelancers charge and what Apple takes from sales, see how much it costs to make an iPhone app in 2026.

I started Borel because I wanted to make iPhone apps without a Mac. If you follow these steps and build something, send it my way.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.