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Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

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Re: Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

#82

Opening this on desktop.. I'm not reading any of this. Glancing in more I see react-native mentioned, and expo+expo go mentioned, but like... it's been proven time and time again that Hacker News isn't your ideal feedback loop (ie: Dropbox, AirBNB). Why make 4 paragraphs of text when you could just say: - We obliterated X problem: (link) - We demonstrate why that problem is significant here: (public link or private d…

Personally, I prefer the text and most importantly the story. Your textbook solution is a great method IMO, but there's less fun in this.

Re: Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

#87
Personally, I'd love to see you optimize for people who start and iterate upon an app from a mobile device and preview/use the app on the same device. Since the messages are just English text, the extra presses to type curly/square braces don't constrain you on mobile. Sometimes I get writer's block at my computer in a way that I don't get on my phone.

In particular, I'd hide/disable the sign-in-with-Google pop-up on phone-size screens (it takes a third of the screen for me), and make sure that CSS/styling makes everything fit on the code and preview screens on a phone, even in mWeb.

Re: Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

#88
This is a great idea. LLM workflows are not nailing native apps right now; given Apple’s slow movement, it seems like you might have a little bit of a window here.

Couple comments - have you played with Aider’s architecture mode? I think your workflows would benefit from it.

Right now it looks like the UI expert specs something and builds it, and then it asks for follow up.

I think the right dev flow working with a product dreamer involves UI mockups, then follow up questions, then implementation, with checkins — combining the idea of the architect with a “Product Manager” role is what most people need to get an app out.

Second thought is that I think you could see value with a bunch of custom prompted flows later in the app process: “do you want to take stripe payments?” “Do you want to add referral tracking support?” I’m not a native app dev, but I imagine there’s a bunch of CI, Firebase, other integrations that are best practice type things. Automating this as well would be really useful, and provide value and some lock in for your customers. To expand on this, you might make the basic option use your API access to these providers, and upcharge them. They could always implement their own if they want to move away, but the default path would get you some billing off every app that grows.

Another random idea would be ‘appifying’ a web site as a simple flow for the user. This feels like it might be even faster for the average person as a way to explain what they want, and would feed a lot of technical and visual direction straight into your workflow at the same time.

Anyway, good luck! I hope you guys get traction.

Re: Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

#89
First, this looks great and congrats on the launch!

Is it possible to use Figma designs with this?

It's really hard to get something great through just a chat interface, and I've seen a lot of these AI tools don't allow me to actually give it more to work with like Figma designs.

Re: Launch HN: A0.dev (YC W25) – React Native App Generator

#90

How is this different from just using Cursor on my react-native codebase? Cursor in agent mode means: no copy paste, implements features and fixes errors iteratively, knows my codebase and adheres to existing patterns. If I need changes, I just ask Cursor and preview live app changes locally

Cursor is for programmers. Ultimately, you decide what the code should be.

v0/lovable/a0 will replace drag-and-drop "no-code" tools for non-programmers who don't care about code and only decide what the product should do. The tool will likely also manage hosting, either directly or through service providers, to ensure a seamless e2e experience, automatically fix runtime issues etc.

The question remains, will there be a need for Cursor and programmers in the future at all.

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