I used to use AppCode few years ago. But it was discontinued. It was easy for me to use AppCode since it was from JetBrains and I was used to using IntelliJ.
It is a pain to use XCode due to being used to JetBrains IDEs.
Does XCode have monopoly for IOS development?
Ink Flashcards is a app that lets you create cards using both text and handwriting.
You can type your cards normally, or use the built-in canvas to write, draw, and sketch with Apple Pencil or your finger. This makes it useful for things like formulas, diagrams, language characters, handwritten notes, and visual concepts.
It also includes spaced repetition, quizzes, typing, matching, cloze deletion, and games for different ways of reviewing your cards.
Your decks sync across iPhone, iPad, and Mac with iCloud, and you can import existing decks from CSV.
If you're looking for a flashcard app that combines traditional text-based cards with handwriting and drawing, Ink Flashcards may be the app for you.
Check out the app on the app store.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ink-flashcards-study-review/id1602851047
Check out my post on my App Developer Journey here.
https://www.reddit.com/r/appledevelopers/comments/1vp0ais/app_development_journey/
Started with developing my first app after I got my Ipad and Apple Pencil in 2019. Wanted to try IOS dev as a side project. I have many years of software experience and abit of mobile android dev experience. Still had a full time software dev job and could only spend a few hours everyday on this side project.
Set about to create a note-taking app, but with a container/card concept. So users could add cards into the canvas and each card will be a self contained canvas. Caveat is that I did not own am macbook at that time. So I had to start coding on my windows PC.
Flutter app
Decided on using flutter as the programming framework. Flutter was quite new at that time. It was exciting to program on as I could preview immediately any changes that i made. So planned on releasing on both IOS and android as flutter could build for both platforms.
Working on the app logic was very interesting and I learnt alot. Things like canvas layers, touch inputs etc.
This was pre AI days and I coded every single line of code. I had to understand every single line of code.
Due to lack of a macbook, I had to use a cloud CICD platform to build for IOS and then had to download the build and run on my Ipad. This was a time consuming and tedious process.
Macbook purchase
A few months later, purchased my first macbook and started using that for dev. This was a great productivity boost.
SwiftUI
Next bottleneck was flutter. For a notetaking app, I found that flutter may not be the best platform as the app was not very performant.
Decided to scrap the flutter codebase and start from scratch. This was the start of my SwiftUI journey. Had to learn SwiftUI from scratch. It was newly released. Things like HStack, VStack etc.
Widget Notebook App Release
Spent close to a year creating my app called WidgetNotebook. It had a canvas where notes can be taken and many other features. Had to be disciplined to not let scope creep.
Now it was time to release the app. App store deployment/review was another interesting process that I had to learn. I also had to learn other things like creating app icons.
But it did not gain traction after I released the app. But it was not a problem as this was just a side project and I only spent few hours on days when I had free time. But I learnt alot of coding techniques and became more proficient in IOS programming.
Ink Flashcards
Around this time, I had another app idea. It was a flashcards app, but with a twist. In addition to text cards, user can also draw/annotate into cards, either through Apple Pencil or finger.
I already had the codebase for the drawing part. So I created a new codebase, copied over the drawing/notetaking part from WidgetNotebook. Had to make some minor tweaks. Then I went about creating the flashcards, review part of the app.
The app had things like flashcard flip animation, spaced repetition and basic analysis. I spent around just 17 days from start of coding to deployment to app. This was pre AI/vibe coding era. So this was very turnaround time. I was able to do it this quickly because I was proficient in SwiftUI already from months of creating WidgetNotebook. Another major reason for the speed was that I was able to port over the drawing feature from the existing codebase.
Ink Flashcards Release
After the app was released onto App Store, unexpectedly, it gained a little traction. This was an app that I churned out in less than 3 weeks. A few even purchased unlimited cards IAP.
It can be hard to know what will gain traction. I spent many months of WidgetNotebook, but there was not traction at all. And here was a app that I released in 3 weeks that was making money.
After this, I tried my hands on localization. I engaged translation services using Genko. Spent more than USD1000. This cost is probably not needed in AI era, but back then it was necessary.
I could not commit my time to bug fixes after some time, so was considering removing it from the app store.
AI era
Coming to 2026, with AI coding becoming more powerful, I set about using AI assistance to revamp the UI of Ink Flashcards. The structure of the app was still the same. Added more features.
I sent the app for review. But to my surprise, it was taking longer than usual for the app review process to complete. Back then, it took at most 2 days. But now, it was taking close to week. This is due to the large number of apps being submitted to the app store. AI has allowed quick creation of apps. I also noticed is that product page is getting lesser impressions and downloads.