iOS indie dev 🚀 Building ComingUp in public | Sharing every win, mistake, and lesson along the way.
Joined January 2023
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The latest version of ComingUp just hit the App Store!
New features:
•Add attachments to events (tickets, photos, notes)
•Share events privately via iCloud (CloudKit sharing)
•Improved design + performance throughout
#indiedev #buildinpublic
apps.apple.com/gb/app/coming…
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I use ComingUp every day. I add things in the app, then the widget keeps them in front of me.
Plans on the same day stack up, and a tap flips through them on the Home Screen.
If you build something, use it every day. That's where you find what's missing.
#buildinpublic #iosdev
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Text("+\(count)") quietly ends up in your String Catalog as "+%lld", waiting to be translated.
If it's just a number, skip localisation:
Text(verbatim: "+\(count)")
Found it on ComingUp's Siri cards, where a "+2" badge was sitting in the catalog.
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How often do you ship app updates?
I've settled into releasing ComingUp about once a week. Whatever's ready by the cut goes in, the rest waits for next week.
Weekly, monthly, or when it's done?
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Something I didn't expect: about 60% of ComingUp's downloads last month came from App Stores that aren't in English.
France, Germany, Spain, Brazil, China and Japan.
Four of them don't have a single rating. So that's where my App Store work goes next.
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Planned the first slice of Siri AI for ComingUp. You'll be able to ask:
"What's coming up this week?"
"How long until Mum's birthday?"
"Who's going to the gig with me?"
"What's my next event?"
Four App Intents, plus events indexed so Siri can handle related questions too.
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Apple's new Xcode plugin for Claude Code beats xcodebuild and grepping logs.
It can:
• check one file for errors without a full build
• render SwiftUI previews, no build-and-run
• run named tests
• search Apple's current docs
/plugin install xcode@claude-plugins-official
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I use AI to build ComingUp every day, and I still have to check its work.
It'll happily write code that runs. Knowing if it'll scale, stay secure, or fall over in six months takes experience.
That's the bit I enjoy helping newer devs with.
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It's Sunday, and I don't really do lazy Sundays. I'd rather be building something.
A lot of you followed yesterday, so I want to see what you're building. Drop your app or project below, iOS or not, and I'll go and have a look 👀
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Lots of new faces since yesterday 👋
I'm Rob, building ComingUp, a countdown app that helps you build excitement, on your Home Screen, Lock Screen or with Live Activities.
Christmas is 47 days away 🎄
apps.apple.com/app/apple-sto…
ALT ComingUp's timeline: ticket-shaped countdowns for Flo and Joan in 1 day, Operation Mincemeat in 5 days and Joanne's birthday in 19 days, with gaps like '3 days later' between them.
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A few events on one day? ComingUp's Journey widget stacks them as tickets. Tap the stack to step through them on the Home Screen, without opening the app.
How: Button(intent:) runs an AppIntent that bumps that day's counter in the App Group and reloads only the Journey widget.
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My own scheduler had a bad day yesterday. The X posts went out on time, but two Bluesky posts meant for 4pm and 6pm only went out at 9am this morning.
That's the deal with building your own tools: you're also the one on call. Next job is finding out why.
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ComingUp's TikTok has 6 followers, and Wednesday's three story videos each passed 700 views: 735, 727 and 725.
A puppy, Santa, and a son home from uni for Christmas. They sell the moment you're counting down to, not the features.
Small account, but people are watching.
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A Live Activity countdown doesn't need you pushing an update every second.
Text(timerInterval: start...end, countsDown: true)
The system ticks it for you. ComingUp's Live Activity covers the last hour before an event, and this one Text does all the counting.
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Definitely need try this. With the speed AI is breaching everything. Best to check before I get caught out.
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Small numbers, but I'll take them.
ComingUp first-time downloads:
Last week: 6
This week, Mon to Wed: 9
X followers: 54 on 31 Oct, 77 now.
I might not be great at marketing, but just posting here does seem to help. Seeing the graphs go up keeps me going.
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Why generics are worth it:
func decode<T: Decodable>(_ type: T.Type, from data: Data) throws -> T
One function for any Decodable type, and the compiler knows exactly what comes back. No Any, no casting, no surprises at runtime.
Do you use them a lot, or only when you have to?
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Definitely need to implement this right away.
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