diff --git a/gRPC.podspec b/gRPC.podspec
index 05ead228de860ee016cdff3d7f9b5a783958e02d..20db5ccd285aab23ed997ce6dbc0a69958b9d92c 100644
--- a/gRPC.podspec
+++ b/gRPC.podspec
@@ -44,7 +44,8 @@ Pod::Spec.new do |s|
   s.authors  = { 'The gRPC contributors' => 'grpc-packages@google.com' }
 
   s.source = { :git => 'https://github.com/grpc/grpc.git',
-               :tag => "release-#{version.gsub(/\./, '_')}-objectivec-#{version}" }
+               :tag => "release-#{version.gsub(/\./, '_')}-objectivec-#{version}",
+               :submodules => true }
 
 
   s.ios.deployment_target = '7.1'
diff --git a/templates/gRPC.podspec.template b/templates/gRPC.podspec.template
index 316208b47bcc263574bf7954bbd114211e9fe0bb..d822d6c64e768b90f9b4214587519c2d6e713d01 100644
--- a/templates/gRPC.podspec.template
+++ b/templates/gRPC.podspec.template
@@ -62,7 +62,8 @@
     s.authors  = { 'The gRPC contributors' => 'grpc-packages@google.com' }
 
     s.source = { :git => 'https://github.com/grpc/grpc.git',
-                 :tag => "release-#{version.gsub(/\./, '_')}-objectivec-#{version}" }
+                 :tag => "release-#{version.gsub(/\./, '_')}-objectivec-#{version}",
+                 :submodules => true }
 
   
     s.ios.deployment_target = '7.1'