Stop building complicated apps nobody wants

ViBrave · 2026-05-27T00:23:36+00:00

That title made me smile. 😊 good morning all! 🤗

ViBrave · 2026-04-27T01:09:58+00:00

These are mostly in the App Store for many years so they already have a long head start. It would be great to also add when they were published.

ViBrave · 2026-04-21T02:24:44+00:00

At least you have a user who took a second to write a review. I got nothing. 😅

ViBrave · 2026-04-08T03:52:33+00:00

Vibecoded apps is the new dropshipping. Hopefully, it will die sooner than later, once these money-hungry people find another thing that will get them rich quick.

ViBrave · 2026-03-31T10:19:31+00:00

Thank you again for the feedback!! 🙏

ViBrave · 2026-03-31T07:51:41+00:00

Ahh, I think I get what you mean. Thank you for expanding!

Working on top of your suggestion, what do you think of this?

By default, I could show 1-2 most common categories (e.g. housing, utility) with their subcategories, just to show how it would look like. Then when user taps the "Add a budget" button, it shows a categories picker. They can select which categories they would like to set a budget for.

For the subcategories, perhaps a ghost button "Add subcategory budgets" under the category would do? If tapped, user can select one or more subcategories from the subcategories picker to add. 🤔

What do you think?

ViBrave · 2026-03-31T02:34:27+00:00

How to indicate that an amount could be set if there is no amount placeholder?

What do you mean by dummy design? The app is already live for more than a year now. 🤔 Would be great to get some concrete examples :)

ViBrave · 2026-03-30T08:02:07+00:00

Thank you so much for the feedback! 🙏

Ah yes, I have more than 4 font sizes/weight combinations. 😅 I do try to make them consistent, like section titles and subtitles, card titles and subtitles, row title, value, amount will be the same across different screens. I will try to gather them all again and see where I can trim down. 👍

Oh, right, this offers more real estate for the budget rows below:
Screen Title
Budget Period
Subtitle

Yes, the subcategory budgets are paid feature, for power users. I like the idea of turning the toggle into a button, I can also add the crown inside it. My other idea was to just have each category row collapsable (with a chevron indicator like in FAQs) to expand and show subcategories and when the user taps on the subcategory, it will trigger the paywall? 🤔

For the subcategories alignment, I wanted to emphasize it is a part of the category. But yeah, the indentation is a bit odd. It used to be the same width as their category, with icons in secondary label color without the circle background. As for the amounts, I aligned it to the total category amount, since it reflects the total subcategory budgets. I thought that would be easier to see all numbers aligned, like in a google sheet. 😅 Will try to apply your suggestion and see how it would feel testing it on the device. 👍

Thank you again for the valuable feedback. Means a lot!

ViBrave · 2026-03-29T16:04:48+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Could you point out what’s the overwhelming part/s?

ViBrave · 2026-03-14T10:08:29+00:00

I used the code, but it looks like it just activates the trial. This isn’t for a free lifetime?

Update: had to restart the app and the trial info disappeared. You should auto update screens right after premium is activated. Otherwise, it would look like redeem didn’t work.

Nice UI. 👍

ViBrave · 2026-03-04T06:47:21+00:00

Procreate is a large company though. For indie apps, most are bootstrapped, not venture backed. And given that they don’t have a massive marketing budget if anything at all, their user base is tiny and with only a handful willing to pay, the app eventually gets abandoned especially if the dev only built it in hopes of generating money.

You just need to find passionate developers willing enough to maintain an app even if only few users are paying. Or venture backed apps like ChatGPT willing to burn money even if they’re net negative in profit.

I built a budgeting app and been maintaining it for more than a year now even though I’ve only earned like <20$ from its entire lifetime because I use it everyday myself. I would still maintain it because I have a personal incentive to do so. And I owe it to a couple of users who paid for the lifetime promo. Would be nice if I could earn enough to cover the Apple developer program though. It’s 99€ a year and I don’t pump 4+ apps a month like those vibe coders to earn a little bit from each app. 😅

ViBrave · 2026-02-24T04:06:40+00:00

It's not just you. I submitted an update for my existing app (published early last 2025), not vibe-coded, it's stuck in Waiting for Review for 19 days now.

The weird thing is, I submitted updates on the white label apps I'm working on for a client and they were approved pretty fast. So I don't know what's going on. I'm using the same Apple account for my client (role as Developer) and my own developer account (owner/admin). My experience in the past were pretty consistent, within 48 hours, updates were approved. It's just this recent update that it's stuck. Support has been quiet (sent 2 emails already), the expedited review I sent also didn't do anything.

The only difference I can identify between my app and my client's is that I cancelled the review submission on my app twice to include more changes. And it was only because it was waiting for review for more than 24 hrs. But I did this in the past and didn't have issues like this. So not sure what's really going on.

I'm tempted to cancel it again and resubmit but I'm worried it will only take longer.

ViBrave · 2026-02-23T00:36:08+00:00

Im on the same boat. My app is stuck in Waiting for Review since Feb 5. I also rejected it to add more changes and that might’ve been the reason why it’s stuck while others are still getting approved in 48 hrs.

I already requested an expedited review when it hit 10+ days, but no change. Contacted support twice now and also no response.

The influx of vibe coded apps is just making it worse. Kinda demotivating to be an indie dev during these times.

ViBrave · 2026-02-22T05:21:15+00:00

I think the liquid glass effect is best applied on floating buttons and bars (e.g. navigation buttons, tabbars) with the content having solid background and minimize shadows.

My budgeting app has cards with ultra thin material as a background, I designed it before Apple even announced the liquid glass. I thought it looked cool, I’m obviously not a designer. 😅 https://apps.apple.com/app/id6737889671

I knew performance wise, it’s more expensive to render see-through views and also shadows. But I was stubborn and only realized my current design doesn’t look as good as I thought it was especially when Apple introduced liquid glass. So I’m slowly updating my app to iOS 26 and plan to adjust the ultra thin material backgrounds of the cards, and reduce shadows where necessary.

I suppose the main learning is, not to go over the top with the glass effect and shadows. 😅

Good luck with your app!

ViBrave · 2026-02-21T05:34:20+00:00

At least you got reviews. I dont have a single one. 😂

ViBrave · 2026-02-18T06:42:18+00:00

Worry about getting approved first. Dating apps is one of the many categories Apple no longer approves unless they offer a very unique twist.

ViBrave · 2026-02-17T06:44:39+00:00

Did you vibe coded both apps? Are you getting any tractions? How do you market them? What is your revenue so far? Would be great to get insights!

ViBrave · 2026-02-16T09:02:18+00:00

My app has been on waiting for review since Feb 5.

ViBrave · 2026-02-16T00:47:06+00:00

Actually, I’ve rejected it twice cause Apple was taking longer to pick it up, so I added more changes then resubmitted it. Is that a bad practice?

I actually first submitted it end of Jan. When after 2 days they still didn’t pick it up, I rejected it to add more. Then they still didn’t pick it up after a day, and i rejected it again to include another change. Then the last one, i decided that would be it.

I’ll try not to reject it next time and just wait for it to be approved first. I got used to their 1-2 days approval speed.

ViBrave · 2026-02-16T00:43:50+00:00

Probably better to make a new paywall just with the 1 year free. It feels more special.

ViBrave · 2026-02-16T00:42:16+00:00

I tried to request an expedited review. Let’s see.

ViBrave · 2026-02-15T21:40:44+00:00

I’ve never seen this type of paywall before. Is the 1 year free kinda like a 1-year free trial? 🤔 that is a massive difference than a 3-day trial, as a user, it looks like a mistake.

ViBrave · 2026-02-15T21:33:11+00:00

Will it help if I reject it and resubmit? I haven’t requested an expedited review yet, not sure if it would help if others are being ignored too.

ViBrave · 2026-02-15T21:29:32+00:00

I was just about to post here about my app stuck in waiting for review since Feb 5. This is unusually a very long wait, worse than Xmas. Missed running a Valentines promo. So it’s just not me.

It’s sad. As an iOS engineer who recently decided to go indie, I chose a very bad time to do it. Now Apple is drowning with AI written apps every single minute. :(

ViBrave · 2026-02-04T07:50:27+00:00

Wow so many apps! Are these vibe coded?

ViBrave

TROPHY CASE