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Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

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Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#41

Post by jacobx »

jaccola wrote: post #36

It doesn't seem like this is the direction you are going, but this feels like what Siri could become (though I have little faith given the history). With your sunscreen example, I should be able to just ask Siri to do exactly this, and it could tap me in my pocket, show me a custom UI to log periodically and then disappear. Not sure on limitations of APIs on iOS but definitely feels like there is space for a better v…

Yeah, I think that whole area of dynamically generating UI is really interesting. And having a Swift interpreter like we're using would unlock doing that with native UI components.

Our background is more in making developer tools, so bitrig was the first product we were excited about, but I think there's a lot of overlap with dynamic UI generation, and we'd love to explore that too.

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#42

Post by avarun »

jacobx wrote: post #11
avarun wrote: post #6

Seems like a cool concept! I downloaded and entered an email address but haven't received a verification code yet after 10 minutes. It's an Apple Private Relay email if that matters. Also, side note: magic link or email-based OTP login is by far my least favorite method of login, especially for a phone app. It's cumbersome, annoying, and completely unnecessary now that passkeys exist. Barring that I'd still rather us…

That's weird, can you try hitting back and then the forward arrow again? That should resend the email. If that still doesn't work, let me know and we can investigate on the backend. We've definitely been hearing from users who don't like OTP, we'll try to get additional login options added soon.

I eventually had it come in another few minutes after I left the comment. And sounds good! I’ve had good success with Clerk for auth in the past.

Now that I’ve gotten to play around with the app I have to say I’m impressed with how smooth it feels and how well the Swift interpreter works (at least on the basic prompts I’ve tried). One suggestion: allow toggling between an “edit” mode and a “view” mode. The latter would full screen the app and hide the interface for follow up prompts, etc. that would make it easier to approximate how the app will behave in the wild.

I could see this eventually turning into sort of a social platform for mini-apps, by the way! Where users don’t even necessarily need to publish to the App Store if they’re just creating something for themselves and a few friends.

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#43

Post by markden »

kylemacomber wrote: post #39
markden wrote: post #35

First, as a non-developer geek -- super fun. What happens if you go over 100 messages/month? I just burned my 5 free messages to get a simple toggle button working that just says "win" (with animated fireworks!) and "lose". I'm sure I'm not an efficient prompter, but it seems I'd knock out 100 messages easily in an afternoon, which looks to be the monthly limit at $20/mo. (This is coming from someone who has no idea…

Don't tell anyone, but once you're on the paid plan we're not actually enforcing the 100 message limit right now ;) We're still in the learning phase, and are going to adjust the plans based on exactly the kind of considerations you're raising

Your secret is safe, hah! It's almost like you need an intermediate 'cheap/dumb' AI as a proxy to flesh everything out ahead of sending it off to be coded ... something that crisps up all the requirement and ultimately crafts a more cost-effective and likely all-around-better prompt. Even being semi-technical, I'm always surprised how much the details matter when describing something to AI (e.g., the fireworks should only explode _outward_, not inward, lol). Thanks!

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#44

Post by Erazal »

tdonnelly wrote: post #23
Erazal wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick note: it’s hard to pull down the prompt panel down, and makes for a frustrating UX (just there)

Thanks for the feedback - that one has come up before so stay tuned for updates.

Sorry for the support query here - but I’m blocked in a bus and am HOOKED.

At the moment the prompt just loops for a second and then produces no answer :(

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#45

Post by wahnfrieden »

kylemacomber wrote: post #31
fragmede wrote: post #28

I'm on an iPhone SE, and the UI doesn't quite fit. The response text isn't easily scrollable, so I have to drag the text up, instead of just scrolling.

Thanks for the heads up. I confess, I did not test it on an SE. We'll take a look!

I always do my dev testing on the smallest and largest iPhones. I recommend going with smallest only as your primary driver if you don’t make use of the sidebar behaviors on the largest ones.

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#46

Post by jacobx »

avarun wrote: post #42
jacobx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's weird, can you try hitting back and then the forward arrow again? That should resend the email. If that still doesn't work, let me know and we can investigate on the backend. We've definitely been hearing from users who don't like OTP, we'll try to get additional login options added soon.

I eventually had it come in another few minutes after I left the comment. And sounds good! I’ve had good success with Clerk for auth in the past. Now that I’ve gotten to play around with the app I have to say I’m impressed with how smooth it feels and how well the Swift interpreter works (at least on the basic prompts I’ve tried). One suggestion: allow toggling between an “edit” mode and a “view” mode. The latter wou…

We probably need to make this more discoverable, but if you keep swiping down on the prompt area, you can swipe it completely off screen and your app will be full screen (with a small movable floating button to exit).

I really like the idea of a platform for people sharing mini-apps! It would be great if people could make lightweight specialized apps for different niches and share them with less friction.

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#49

Post by travisgriggs »

ripped_britches wrote: post #47

I love what you guys are doing but highlights how absurdly hard iOS development is compared to web

I don't share your assessment. Is it because I did iOS apps before web apps? Curious how many others feel the same?

Seems like a reasonable poll question: Which is harder: web app development or native app development?

I was telling a younger colleague the other day how back in the day, I was "competing" with a peer at a company doing nuclear design software (Siemens Power Corp at the time). I was doing it in VisualWorks Smalltalk, he was doing his in straight C and X Windows. Competition aside, both of us built multi window complex graphical design tools that front ended heavy duty simulators, managed various batch jobs, tons of IO, parsing, and lots of color graphic drawing (mine was for fuel assembly (pin and axial enrichments) design, and his was for core layout (where the assemblies go during each reload)). The graphics were simpler (no antialiasing, any alpha we did with clever dithering tricks, not much in the way of animations, though we did each roll some). Both even stored /retrieved into a sort of database (a homegrown data versioning system). But... it was just one of each us for each "app".

Sadly, all Ux development seems orders of more magnitude complicated and beuqacratic now days. Some things are easier and vastly simpler than they used to be, and yet, the sum result is more difficult. I'm not exactly sure why.

Re: Launch HN: Bitrig (YC S25) – Build Swift apps on your iPhone

#50

Post by travisgriggs »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #24

Not to be confused with Bitwig music production studio/software.

My mind immediately reread your comment using Bawwy Kwipke's voice. I think I've watched too much BBT at this point.

(https://bigbangtheory.fandom.com/wiki/Barry_Kripke)

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