I don't install apps unless it's for an event or something. I just make my own to fit my needs. I can get a functional pwa out in about a day or two now.
What do you use for hosting the PWAs?
Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
41–50 of 91 posts
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#42I had a go at building both a Mac and iOS dictation app the other day (dictator.robgough.net) thinking that with Claude's input, this probably wouldn't work... but it was a real problem I had, and I wanted to see how far we could get. Best way to learn the tools, right? I'd already spent the day playing with alternative apps that didn't quite do what I wanted. The app itself is fairly straightforward, but it included…
could you talk more about the hoops? i’m getting close to the point i’d like to release something and it’d be my first time.
Do you want to release it to the general public or just a circle of friends and family? TestFlight lets you have up to a hundred users forever without ever truly releasing. I have a couple of home-relevant apps I am managing that way.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#43I've been dipping my toes back in after nearly 10 years away from native development.
I finally just got an Android app shipped to the Play Store for https://wordtrak.com, after several weeks of back and forth with what I am assuming are mostly robots managing the Google side of this. I was stunned to see how far Android distribution has come (and especially that all changes are now reviewed).
What I was most surprised by though, was all of the ridiculous red tape around the actual process of getting an app listed. Best example: I had to confirm I didn't change the outcome of the Korean War in order to list on Play Store in Korea.
In any case I got most of this done with Claude and expo.dev - it was a huge relief to let Claude Code churn through this and not have to worry about spending months re-learning frameworks and ecosystems.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#44idea ->claude ->public
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#45My perspective: I've been supporting and working with Mac and iOS developers since the last century, when Apple moved me from Chicago to be an evangelist at Apple HQ in Cupertino. I know as much as anyone about AI-assisted app development, as the creator/maintainer of the free/open source Axiom ( https://charleswiltgen.github.io/Axiom/ ) for iOS/macOS devs. It's not as dire as you might think. To software developers,…
Admittedly, I’ve gone through waves of feeling scared for the future of software engineering. I manage many people so I care about them and their futures. But the more I use AI in writing software, not just vibe coding, the more I align with this perspective. And the way I see it, when AGI does come it’s going to affect a whole lot more than the software engineering job market. That’s global societal-level impact typ…
It will create more inequality. Not in the way that you think.
The best will always be the best. But the upper average and average and below will become all one and the same.
And that’s kinda how society should be really. Equal opportunity. Not equal outcome.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#46I had a go at building both a Mac and iOS dictation app the other day (dictator.robgough.net) thinking that with Claude's input, this probably wouldn't work... but it was a real problem I had, and I wanted to see how far we could get. Best way to learn the tools, right? I'd already spent the day playing with alternative apps that didn't quite do what I wanted. The app itself is fairly straightforward, but it included…
Not just native apps.
There will be consolidation all over the place. Expect government services to take over and control things that were once private.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#47[dead]
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#48My perspective: I've been supporting and working with Mac and iOS developers since the last century, when Apple moved me from Chicago to be an evangelist at Apple HQ in Cupertino. I know as much as anyone about AI-assisted app development, as the creator/maintainer of the free/open source Axiom ( https://charleswiltgen.github.io/Axiom/ ) for iOS/macOS devs. It's not as dire as you might think. To software developers,…
AI is not an abstraction. I still can’t believe engineers are making this basic, definitional mistake.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#49So a bit different from the other comments. We're a wearable company which of course pairs with an app. We built iOS first because that's what most of our users have, though the team is mostly on Android. We built our logic in Rust, so that compiles cross platform. It's really just the UI layer that is per platform. Though I had initially written our first demo in React-Native, the team wanted to go with native UI. L…
> We built our logic in Rust, so that compiles cross platform. It's really just the UI layer that is per platform. Having never created a mobile app, how's that work exactly?
Check out tauri.
Re: Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?
#50I had a go at building both a Mac and iOS dictation app the other day (dictator.robgough.net) thinking that with Claude's input, this probably wouldn't work... but it was a real problem I had, and I wanted to see how far we could get. Best way to learn the tools, right? I'd already spent the day playing with alternative apps that didn't quite do what I wanted. The app itself is fairly straightforward, but it included…
Looks nice. Funny, I also made a dictation app using claude ... yet just for iOS. https://kaikunze.de/aimemo/
That looks great! It's so clearly going to be the dominant way of working with your computer. I was such a cynic, so I was completely shocked at how quickly it became my favourite way to interact with my devices.
I'm fully expecting to be completely sherlocked during Apple's WWDC event in the coming weeks. In fact, I'm hoping we will be. However, I fear that they might not be quite ready for that yet. This functionality really should sit at the top OS level, equal to Keyboard/Mouse/Trackpad etc.