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Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

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Re: Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

#81

Post by zesfy »

jamil7 wrote: post #74
zesfy wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. I'm happy to share that iCloud sync and MacOS app is something that already in the plan for future development. In the meantime, if you have an M-series Mac, you should be able to run the app directly on your Mac since I've enabled Mac Catalyst support.

Just a heads up from someone who's gone down iCloud sync path before. Make sure you're aware of the tradeoffs before relying on it for your app. It has a lot of downsides that aren't immediately obvious due to it relying on the user's iCloud storage quota. Many user's don't understand this and will leave 1 star reviews etc.

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. I’m curious though, what other downsides did you run into when using iCloud sync? Would love to learn from your experience.

Re: Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

#82

Post by jamil7 »

zesfy wrote: post #81
jamil7 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a heads up from someone who's gone down iCloud sync path before. Make sure you're aware of the tradeoffs before relying on it for your app. It has a lot of downsides that aren't immediately obvious due to it relying on the user's iCloud storage quota. Many user's don't understand this and will leave 1 star reviews etc.

Thanks for the heads up. I’ll definitely keep that in mind. I’m curious though, what other downsides did you run into when using iCloud sync? Would love to learn from your experience.

In general it's a bit of a closed box, it's not that easy to work with and to me felt unreliable and difficult to debug. Running migrations can be easily forgotten and this needs to be done in the dashboard as far as I remember. There aren't official APIs to check certain things like if the user has quota, what to do when the quota is full, how to communicate that etc. I think you may be able to check if it's enabled though. Another one is its not cross platform in any meaningful way, I thought this would be fine initially but as the app I worked on developed it was clear a web or Android version would be nice to add without being tied to an Apple account. I ultimately removed it and wrote my own optional sync layer with my own auth and no one seemed to mind. This thread might be useful https://mastodon.social/@marcoarment/109540935902363728

Most of those things can probably be worked around and might not be applicable to your app but for me it went to the bucket of technologies not to touch again.

Re: Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

#83

Post by devmor »

earthnail wrote: post #56
devmor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

fwiw the expectation of post-sale maintenance would not be nearly as egregious if companies were not regularly pushing new updates that cause new issues it is a problem of ones own making

Well, on mobile the underlying operating system is moving so fast that companies must continue to update their apps or else they stop working. It's the absolute inverse situation to the backwards compatibility story of Windows. That kind of backwards compatibility is a wet dream for every mobile developer.

I don't believe this is generally true. I have automatic updates for apps disabled on both my Android phones and iOS devices, and regularly use some apps that were installed years ago.

There are obviously going to be some exceptions for apps that rely on specific types of system services, of course.

Re: Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

#84

Post by petralithic »

devmor wrote: post #83
earthnail wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, on mobile the underlying operating system is moving so fast that companies must continue to update their apps or else they stop working. It's the absolute inverse situation to the backwards compatibility story of Windows. That kind of backwards compatibility is a wet dream for every mobile developer.

I don't believe this is generally true. I have automatic updates for apps disabled on both my Android phones and iOS devices, and regularly use some apps that were installed years ago. There are obviously going to be some exceptions for apps that rely on specific types of system services, of course.

You're not the average user if you have auto updates disabled. Notice you also said "some" apps, well, most do need to keep up with OS updates or fall behind.

Re: Show HN: I built a local-first daily planner for iOS

#85

Post by devmor »

petralithic wrote: post #84
devmor wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't believe this is generally true. I have automatic updates for apps disabled on both my Android phones and iOS devices, and regularly use some apps that were installed years ago. There are obviously going to be some exceptions for apps that rely on specific types of system services, of course.

You're not the average user if you have auto updates disabled. Notice you also said "some" apps, well, most do need to keep up with OS updates or fall behind.

I did not claim to be the average user. Most of my apps do not get updated unless they rely on APIs that force them to update. Furthermore, I have several android apps I published over 15 years ago that still function without updates on the newest version of Android.

What updates do you think need to be made to not “fall behind”? There aren’t many other than things like integration with Google Play services or App Store subscription billing.

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