Best Apple Vision Pro pickup experience possible: discovering that your new app is featured on the main page of the App Store!
What a start to this new era of spatial computing.
I hope y’all will love what I have been cooking the last few months with CardPointers. Huge thank
Does anyone know who makes these iPhone stands? Seen them in a few different WWDC session videos this year, looks like it collapses and could be awesome for travel?
First time fixing a bug/adding a new feature to both iOS and Android at the same time, and it’s crazy how much code I can copy & paste and then search & replace thanks to the similarities between Kotlin and Swift. I even use the same comments to help keep myself sane.
The asshole list keeps growing… come on, people, it’s not *that* hard to be a decent human.
Side note: highly recommend this variable naming system, it’s a big stress reliever to add someone to a list literally called asshole_uuids.
“App Store features don’t matter anymore” my ass. This graph shows new users over the last 30 days.
Notice anything different about iOS release day when I was lucky enough to be included in some App Store editorial lists?
Lots of users upgrade on day 1 and look there for apps.
Excited to share the first public preview of the fully independent
@CardPointers
Watch app on
#watchos6
built 99% in
#swiftui
. The
#ios13
app with tons of native features will be shared shortly. Awaiting
#testflight
review, send me a message with your email if you'd like to test!
Only caught the briefest of mentions of this in the WWDC videos, but .contextMenu can now take a preview which will render on top of the menu options. So simple and slick. Any ideas how to make this iOS 15 safe and disregard the preview in that case?
@ChristianSelig
Part of me thought you might release that iPad-optimized version you’ve been teasing for years just for one last day to troll us all.
Wearing my Apollo shirt today in your honor.
On to even bigger and better things — can’t wait to see what else you get up to.
Hey
@evernote
, when your product has been going downhill for years you think a 40% price increase to your oldest users is a good move? Quickest cancelation I’ve ever done.
Here it is, everything I've been working on for Apple Vision Pro these last few months, launching to the world tomorrow, and I couldn't be more excited! 🎉
# AutoPilot
Turn on AutoPilot via Siri, in-app, or the Safari extension, place it anywhere in your environment, and
App of the Day results:
* 5x normal downloads
* 3x more trials
* 4x revenue (lifetimes)
* 320 congrats messages from users
* Lowest unsubscribe rate of any email (sent announcement to Apple users)
* Endless smiles from me all damn day
Thank you SO much
@AppStore
editorial! 💜
Absolutely over the moon to find CardPointers included in the main iOS 16 story in the App Store. Thank you so much editorial team, it’s truly an honor to be included with apps I’ve used and loved for years.
I don’t think I’ve downloaded an app from the official App Store since
@AppAirport
app came out. By far my favorite way to keep up with what other indie devs are up to, especially during beta season pre
#ios14
.
I am *so* proud to have been able to make this happen.
Not even sure where to go from here, this is peak CardPointers.
What users have been asking for over the last 4 years.
Finally possible thanks to iOS 17.
Automatically know the right card to use for more points + savings.
Here it is! My most-requested feature, made possible thanks to the deep integration into Apple’s frameworks and the last 4.5 years of work.
Start a shopping live activity, head out for your errands, and your Lock Screen will update automatically with which card to use.
Someone finally realized that they should put Twitter in as a subtitle so that folks can actually find the app with the new name, and look, people are downloading it again.
ASO matters.
cc
@arielmichaeli
2 week check-in after quitting my job and going full-time indie: fucking fantastic.
* Already close to my best revenue month ever, and it’s only 14 days in.
* Stress is way down.
* Sleep is way up.
* Appreciating and enjoying life again.
Highly recommended when you’re ready.
I’m guilty of procrastinate by reading great apps’ reviews sometimes. Helps to know that everyone has some bad ones sometimes, even the apps I really look up to.
This developer response for
@FlightyApp
cracked me up (are you to thank for this
@rjonesy
?)
“You’re not a horse.”
About to check off the last of the must-have iOS 14 updates that every app needs:
✅ Widgets
✅ Native color picker
✅ App Clips
✅ Scribble on iPad
✅ Sidebar on iPad/Catalyst
✅ New Menus
✅ Add watch faces from the app
☑️ Interface with PS4 controller light bar (!?!?)
Talk about the best week imaginable… what a way to finish it off. Thank you
@AppStore
team, such an honor to have feature artwork in the App Store!
Huge shoutout to
@matthewskiles
for the awesome artwork,
@ChristianSelig
for the rec, and
@jordibruin
for his fantastic insight.
This might be the coolest debug tool I’ve ever seen to help users debug issues happening in deployed apps. First saw it used in the new URLy app (which I also recommend). Thx
@henrik_dmg
@jknlsn
watchOS 10 Beta 3 fixes all outstanding issues. Ready for launch! Look at that smoooooth transition between vertical TabViews now.
(Well, lots more left to do for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, but damn do I love the new watch app sooo much)
⚠️ Warning to other indies: every major iOS release, this NewsWatch scam rears its ugly head where they spam every new and featured app in the App Store. It’s a pay for a play and a total ripoff. Don’t even bother replying to them. cc
@marcoarment
What’s that feeling when you learn that one of your competitors raised $3M, bought 1,000s of reviews, spent tons of money buying ads to acquire users, only to end up with fewer users than ye ol’ lil indie?
I’m going with smug as fuck.
Hey devs, want to get featured in the App Store for the iOS 17 launch?
Let Apple know what you’re been working on. Advance notice is best, so fill out this form today (even if your update isn’t finished, share your plans), and cross your fingers:
I turned on “check for sensitive photos” in the new iOS 17 beta.
It even warns you when you *send* any photo with nudity.
Pretty great when paired with parental controls.
(And no, I’m not sharing the test photo, and yes, I triggered this accidentally — no shame)
@michael_tigas
Woohoo, I got it! I really need to publish all of these for iOS 16 and have folks contribute their additions to it, a la
@jordibruin
with Swift Charts. Original link on the backport idea thanks to an Apple eng during a lab:
At long last, the
@vestaboard
has arrived and I couldn’t be happier hearing that amazing flapping sound every time there’s a new
@CardPointers
purchase/conversion. Crank up the volume and enjoy!
“App Store features don’t matter” people say.
They do.
They help a ton, especially for an indie like me. In addition to the world-class WWDC videos and labs every year and all of the employees who engage and help us on Twitter, this is why I think Apple deserves 15% of revenue.
Is this a new fitness activity in watchOS 9? I couldn’t find it anywhere.
What a pleasure to finally meet
@jordibruin
and
@mufasaYC
after all this time knowing each other online.
#WWDC22
I got the memo about February being the slowest month for app sales but I tore that shit up and threw it away.
Celebrated CardPointers turning 5 years old with a big sale and some awesome new rev-share partners.
Officially my best month of all time.
2024 let’s gooooo!
Android users are literally the polar opposite to iOS users in one weird way:
Feedback emails from iOS users come almost exclusively from paying users. With Android, almost all feedback emails are from users who aren’t paying and demand something.
In case anyone else wanted to match the new watchOS 10 presented sheet transparency toolbar buttons, tint it with `Color.secondary.opacity(0.25)`, seems to be an exact match.
Totally digging the new watchOS 10 design language.
Pretty sure all of us indies have this moment of panic when subscriber growth flattens.
There are 100+ things you can do to bend that curve again. The first few might not work, but keep plugging away and you’ll get things back on track.
Running an app is never boring for long.
@rsgnl
Judging by all of his responses thus far and the recent AMA, I don’t see any compassion at all. It’s entirely business and profits for him as they IPO.
Speaking of App Clips... full flow using an NFC tag through to full app install with the App Store builds. Smart app banners seem to be MIA though. Neat new loading animation as it downloads! Cc
@_inside
Fuck it, I’m owning the fact that I’m the only native Android app in this space. It took me a while to get here, but dammit if I’m not proud of the result, and my future roadmap for the Android version is quite rad to boot.
P.S. Tailwind really does rule, cheers
@JordanMorgan10
Congratulations to all of my fellow Indies who are being featured in the What's New in macOS Sonoma story and big thank you to the App Store Editorial Team for the indie love!
@malinsundberg
@airkai
@viditb
@jamesthomson
@kevin_reutter
(I know I'm missing some others, pls tag)
My excitement about getting an Apple Vision Pro of my own today is through the roof.
But what makes me even more excited is seeing people’s reactions today in the store when they first get to try it on and discover spatial computing.
It truly feels like a huge inflection point.
If you’re submitting an iOS 17 update today:
* Create the new version in ASC pre-keynote and draft the update notes
* Upload your new screenshots now as those can be buggy when slammed
* Fill out the promo form for Editorial
* Take some time off soon!
Happy
#AppleEvent
y’all
Just realized this was my last flight w/out Vision Pro.
Strapping that on to pass the time to code or watch movies will be an incredible experience to zone out aboard a plane.
But boy will I be self conscious using it for the first few months. Have to remove for FAs right?
Get your App Shortcuts ready for iOS 17 using these new keys in your info.plist to customize the icon tint and platter. I ended up changing from a rounded rect to a circle to match the default shortcuts — these need to work in the Shortcuts editor, too; tough to design for all.
Here we go, last update before the public launch of CardPointers for Apple Vision Pro was just approved, firing on all cylinders! Hope y’all will love it!
For those who don’t know, r/apple is a *huge* subreddit that is (usually) quite welcoming of new launches just after big releases through Self-Promo Sunday. If you have a big update, consider posting it there (but read their rules!). Here’s mine:
With 5 hours left to go on the first
@indieappsanta
promo of 2021, here are the current stats for
@CardPointers
since 12am:
* 35,000 new users
* 28,000 cards added
* 60 new paid subscriptions (free trials started instead of free lifetime!?)
* Over 100 tips
What a start to 2021!
Just totaled up how much I’ve paid
@RevenueCat
since 2019. It’s a lotta socks (wearing my App Rejection socks as I type this).
And every month I’m happy to give them more money as it means I’m making more, too. Such a good business model, and an awesome team.
Looks like all of the hard work I put in for the v5 update is paying off: more than double the active trials, consistently, since the launch with iOS 17, where it seems to have stabilized.
2x the subscription revenue from one update? Yes please, thank you, let’s do that again.
I’m having visions… of a very, very exciting launch next year.
The visionOS lab is *fantastic*, definitely sign up if you’re thinking to launch a version of your app for the platform, nothing better than trying things out in real life and understanding all of the conventions.
Actual real-world examples, and focusing a selection by typing its name without focus in a search field or anything thanks to .onKeyPress. So, so lovely.
I honestly feel that being a developer in the Apple ecosystem is the best job imaginable.
Every single year we get a slew of new huge APIs and features to learn and build with, without fail, and it’s absolutely electrifying.
Huge thank you to everyone at Apple.
#WWDC21
iOS 16 is almost here! Here’s my plan to help get an App Store feature on launch day for
@CardPointers
which you can follow, too.
I found new WWDC features which would be a great fit:
* Lock Screen Widgets
* App Shortcuts
* Focus Filters
* Shared with You
* Passkeys
Details 👇
I’m about 99% sure that our jobs as software engineers is *really* easy when we have time to just focus on coding.
It’s all the rest of the BS (support emails, calls, meetings, life distractions) which makes things slower than they should be.
It feels like a lot of widgets are going to break in iOS 17 with the new auto-margins and required .containerBackground modifier.
What’s the reason for these changes? Standby support and a bit more consistency?
In many cases just an empty .containerBackground does the job.
Feels pretty special when you hit a new MRR goal while on vacation and offline.
1 more week to go in Hawaii — vacations feels that much sweeter after busting ass for months on end.
Only 2 “urgent” support requests, so that’s been a non-issue so far. What a relief.
My month of no marketing so I could just focus on coding the v4 update with all of the iOS 16 goodies hasn’t gone as expected… my highest revenue month so far, and second only to
@indieappsanta
for new users. Delighted to see all the things I put in place this year paying off.
Full demo showing the easy way to add Keyboard Shortcuts to any
#SwiftUI
app:
Includes switching to any tab using ⌘-1, ⌘-2, etc, open a modal with ⌘-O, close it with Esc, ⌘-W, ⌘-., or `.
Text emails are *really* powerful tools that almost no companies use.
This is 2 days worth of automated text emails (5 min delay) when a user cancels a trial or paid subscription which got replies.
I’ve already un-churned > 20% of these by just talking to them like a friend.
My first yearly renewal! Can’t believe it’s already been a year since I launched the Pro tier. And in 13 days it will be 1,000 days since my soft launch of the PWA. Definitely need to do a recap post in the near future. The indie life is definitely the one for me. 🎉
I kinda freak out anytime any of my metrics start to dip at all, which pushes me to try something new to bend that curve back. Fave ones:
* New video posts highlighting features
* Discounts for non-paying users
* Help users find the best features
4 years in, works every time.
75k points can get you a double bed on a plane for 10 hours.
Just booked this honeymoon flight for my gf’s sister as a wedding present.
Neither of them have ever flown business, and her husband has only flown 6 times in his life.
75k points. One good card’s signup bonus.
🤯
I signed up for
@stripe
8 months ago to offer a web checkout flow for direct marketing opportunities and full control over pricing and discounts.
Went exclusively indie in January.
In May, Stripe sales surpassed App Store + Google Play combined.
Marketing + sales = 🚀
I set a crazy revenue goal at the start of 2023.
In August I did the math and realized I’d have to 2x all of the remaining months to hit it, so it seemed impossible.
And then each of the last 3 months has surpassed that.
1 month left, you bet your ass I’m hitting that goal.
I’m usually the one tweeting about
@RevenueCat
so it’s kinda surreal to see the opposite today. Truly an honor to be invited to talk with Jacob and David on one of my favorite podcasts from which I’ve learned so much. Hope you enjoy the episode!
In less than a year,
@emcro
grew
@CardPointers
from zero revenue to his full-time gig.
He shared what he's learned on our podcast – including how to make affiliate marketing work, how to best use Stripe payments, and why a web app should come first.
First time I’ve seen CardPointers in print, and it makes me *so* happy after having worked for years in that industry. Thanks so much for making my day
@iphonelife
Seriously though, thank god for credit card points + CardPointers.
Booked $14k in business-class flights for 120k points +taxes.
The cheapest economy flights would have cost me $3k.
My current favorite thing about being an indie developer:
I can just be me. No BS corporate speak. I literally reply to every email in my normal tone, like I was talking to a friend. Someone wants a longer trial? Sure, here you go. I know you’ll love it.
Best fucking job ever.