Access central (shared) database across multiple iOS clients? [on hold]

I have a very common design in the mobile world (iOS specific here though).

Skip the next paragraph if you know Tinder, OkCupid, or similar.

Imagine a mobile dating site: you are one user who uploads a picture and a short bio, then log off or turn off your phone. I then log on and want to browse. I need to access the database that you populated when you made your submission. Those contents need to fill a table view or something similar on my mobile client. "Refresh" button clicks should re-grab all new information submitted by other users since the last refresh.

Google searches are coming up with lots of information that I can't quite sort out. Core Data doesn't seem to work as it's local to your client, rolling your own web server seems overkill as this is an extremely common app structure, I've checked out Parse and some others, ...

I'm a full-time C++ developer with self-taught knowledge of Obj-C and Swift, Xcode, JavaScript, PHP, and some experience with schema design and SQL procedures. There simply must be frameworks that wrap up the lower level stuff, but I'm pretty much just getting started with iOS devel and could use a pointer or two. Even a link to some online doc that you found useful would help a lot. I don't want to travel down some rabbit hole for a week and find out that my Google search terms were a little off and I just wasted my time.

Thanks! :D