I've been using Claude to help with iOS development lately and the results have been kind of wild. It handles Swift and SwiftUI context really well and actually understands the nuances of the platform. If you haven't tried it as a coding assistant for your iOS projects yet, it's worth giving it a shot.
I was convinced something was seriously wrong with my animation logic. Checked timing, checked frame rates, profiled in Instruments. Turned out I had the wrong easing curve applied and swapping it out made everything buttery smooth instantly. I don't even know what to call that kind of debugging session. Anyway, I'm going to bed.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately after looking at my own app portfolio. The one I spent months architecting and designing barely moves the needle, but a simple utility I threw together over a weekend keeps bringing in steady revenue. I'm wondering if this is a common pattern or if I just got lucky with the quick one. Would love to hear what's actually working for other iOS devs right now.
I've been thinking about whether the whole 'build in public' thing still has the same value it did a few years ago. The space feels a lot more crowded now and it's harder to stand out or get genuine engagement. Curious if anyone here is still doing it and actually finding it useful for growing an app or getting early users.
I've been using Claude and Cursor pretty heavily for iOS development lately and something has genuinely shifted. The gap between writing code and seeing whether it works has basically collapsed. I used to spend so much time context switching and debugging before I could even tell if my approach made sense, and that friction is mostly gone now. It's changed how I think about prototyping features entirely.
I've been experimenting with Claude Code lately and it's been pretty interesting for Xcode-adjacent tasks. Curious how others are integrating it into their workflow since it's a bit different from the usual Copilot or Cursor setup. Would love to hear what's actually working for people and where it falls flat.
Turns out I had the wrong easing curve the entire time. I was digging through timing, frame rates, layer compositing, all of it. Pasted the relevant code into Claude and it spotted the issue almost instantly. I genuinely need to step away from my desk and touch some grass.
I've been vibe-coding a side project with AI help and honestly the development phase felt almost effortless. But then I hit App Store review, provisioning profiles, privacy manifests, and all the other hoops Apple makes you jump through. The gap between having a working app on your simulator and actually getting it into someone's hands is still massive, and AI doesn't really help you there yet.
I've been experimenting with TikTok ads to drive downloads for my iOS app and stumbled onto some things that seem to work way better than the default approach. The usual advice you find online feels pretty generic and not really tailored to getting quality users who stick around. Curious if other indie devs or small teams have found specific creative formats or targeting strategies that moved the needle for them.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately because the app I'm most proud of creatively barely moves the needle, while a pretty unglamorous utility I threw together keeps bringing in steady revenue. It feels like there's always this tension between building something you genuinely care about and building something people will actually pay for. Curious if others are experiencing the same split or if you've managed to find something that's both.
Been using Claude a lot for SwiftUI generation and noticed it fairly consistently reaches for outdated patterns — things like UIHostingController setups that feel slightly off, or using the single-argument .onChange modifier in iOS 17 contexts where Apple changed the signature. It's not a dealbreaker but it's bitten me a few times when I just copy-pasted without thinking. My rule now is to treat any API it gives me that touches lifecycle or modifier signatures as 'verify first,' especially if the code is targeting anything iOS 16+.
She sent 'sounds good' instead of 'sounds good!' and I spent three hours dissecting it. I'm not exaggerating. I screenshot it, zoomed in like there was hidden information in the pixels, compared it to old texts. By hour two I had constructed an entire narrative where she was pulling away, had probably been faking our friendship for years, and was too polite to just tell me she was done with me. All from two words and a missing exclamation point.
What actually broke the spiral wasn't talking myself down or distracting myself. It was writing out two columns: what do I actually KNOW, and what am I assuming. What I knew: she responded, she confirmed plans, the message was neutral. What I was assuming: literally everything else. The whole catastrophe I'd built lived entirely in the second column. There was nothing in the first column that supported any of it. Seeing it written out like that made the spiral feel embarrassing in the most clarifying way possible. Not shameful, just... small. Like the fog lifted and I could see how little was actually there.
I've been using an app called Underthink when I catch myself doing this, and it helps me run through that same kind of structured check before I've already lost three hours to my own head. Anyway. If you've ever forensically analyzed punctuation choices at midnight, you're not alone and you're not broken. The brain just does this sometimes.
Ran into this enough times that it's now part of my workflow. If Claude spits out UIHostingController setup that looks weird, or uses the single-argument .onChange modifier in iOS 17 code, that's usually a sign it's pulling from older API patterns. The model doesn't always have accurate assumptions about which iOS version introduced or deprecated what. I just keep the docs open and verify anything version-sensitive before it ends up in a PR.