iOS apps
A native app for iPhone and iPad, built the way Apple intends so it feels right at home on the device.
I build native apps in Swift and SwiftUI, using the system’s own components rather than reimplementing them. That’s the whole reason to go native: gestures, Dynamic Type, Dark Mode, VoiceOver, and state restoration arrive for free and behave the way your customers already expect, because they behave the way every other app on their phone does.
An app earns its place on the home screen when it needs the device. Notifications that land at the right moment, the camera, offline access, Apple Wallet, widgets, background sync. If your product doesn’t need any of that, a web app is usually faster and cheaper, and I’ll say so on the first call.
What an iOS app can include
- Swift and SwiftUI
- Product definition and UX
- TestFlight builds as we go
- App Store submission and review
- Push notifications
- Offline support and sync
- Apple Wallet, widgets, App Intents
- Accessibility and Dynamic Type
- The API and backend
- Automated builds and releases
- Crash and performance monitoring
- Accounts in your name
Also covered
The backend too
When your app needs a backend, I build that too: the API, the data model, the sync, and the infrastructure it runs on. Both ends get designed together, and you have one person accountable for the result rather than a handoff to manage.
Selected work
Sonato
The app private club members use to book, order, and get in the door. Rebuilt from scratch to a 5-star rating.
Little Memory
A diary you can actually keep. Featured by Apple three times.
Sonato Pass
Tap your phone to get into your club: an Apple Wallet membership pass with NFC.
Hipmunk
The travel app with the visual flight search. Led the iOS team; featured by Apple in 2019.
Ready Time
Backward planning for getting out the door on time.
RandTxt
iOS messaging MVP, built with the future Firebase founders. Acquired.
Bonjournal
Travel journaling app, featured by Apple. Consulted on the iOS app.
LOOKBOOK
Fashion community. Consulted on web, the iPhone app, and SEO.
Magic
On-demand personal assistant service. Built features across the React Native app and the backend.
Monkey Inferno / Zuno
Mobile e-card app. Built the iOS app and Python API.
Hugg
Social iOS app for sending well-wishes to friends. Built the MVP.
How it goes
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Discovery
A few weeks that turn the idea into a buildable plan with a roadmap and costs.
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Build
Short cycles where you get real TestFlight builds at a regular rhythm, so you see the app working every week rather than at the end.
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Ship through review
I've been through App Store review hundreds of times: the guidelines, the rejections worth appealing, and the entitlements that take a conversation with Apple, like Sonato Pass's NFC.
The full walkthrough, from first call to launch, is on the services page.
Is this you?
Good fit
You have a product idea that needs the phone, or an audience already asking for an app. You want the product decisions and the code owned together, and you'd rather see working builds every week than a spec document.
Less good fit
Your product doesn't do anything a browser can't. If the app would be a website with an icon on the home screen, you want the web app, and it will cost you less to build and less to keep running.
Also: Web apps · An existing product · Fractional work · All services
Let's build it
I'm taking on new projects. Tell me what you're working on and I'll tell you how I'd build it.
Get in touchI read every message myself.