This week was pretty busy for me. I spent a lot of time working on HabitKit, trying to make it the best habit tracking app I can. I also got some new App Store screenshots made, which I hope will help more people find and download the app. I also started learning SwiftUI again and picked a cool learning project.
📈 Business Updates
This week I released HabitKit 1.14.0 and it went really well. So far, I haven't seen any bug reports or crashes, which makes me very happy. I use the app myself every day and I have to say, the new Reminder system is working really well for me. I especially like the "Daily Check-In" notifications at the end of the day. They really help me to stay on track with my habits and I already build some great streaks since I started using this feature. It's a really great and calming feeling to see that everything is running smoothly after a big update.
This week I came across a post on X from Matt Cowlin (@MattCowlin). He was looking for apps on the App Store that had more than 20,000 impressions but a conversion rate below 20% in the last 30 days. HabitKit actually fits these numbers, so I reached out to him. Matt offered to help me improve my App Store screenshots to hopefully get more people to download the app. We had a long chat at the beginning of the week, and he quickly made some really nice new screenshots for me.
After being on the App Store for three years, I finally set up my first "Product Page Optimization Experiment" to A/B test these new screenshots. I’m excited to see if the new images will help increase the conversion rate. Over the next week or so, I’ll be running the experiment and checking the results. Updating the App Store screenshots has been on my todo list for a very long time and it feels so good to finally do this and hopefully improve the app’s performance.
🛠️ Development Corner
This week I also finished HabitKit 1.14.1. One of the main things in this update was upgrading Flutter from version 3.32.8 to 3.35.1. Because of this, I also had to update my Android development setup (Gradle and Kotlin) since I started getting some strange errors. I really don’t like these kinds of errors, they are always tricky to fix and take a lot of time searching for solutions, trying different things, and waiting for tools to update. It doesn’t feel like real progress, and I always wish I could just focus on building new features instead. But I guess this is just part of being a developer: you can’t have one without the other.
With this update, I also upgraded the FontAwesome version in HabitKit and found some nice new icons to add. The best part for me is that they finally added a "Meditation" icon, which has been the most requested icon from users since the start of HabitKit. I'm really happy that it's now available and I can include it in the app.
This week I also started a new learning project for iOS and SwiftUI development. I chose a project that fits my interests better, and it's in the productivity space, which is something I really enjoy. I can actually imagine releasing this app when it's finished, so that makes me even more motivated to work on it. Right now, I don't feel ready to build it completely in public, but I think I will share more about it very soon. I already managed to do a few deep work sessions on this project, and it was a lot of fun. It's exciting to try out the new iOS 26 APIs and play around with the "Liquid Glass" design.
💡 Indie Insights
One thing I learned during my indie app developer career is that it's better to focus on what you can actually do, instead of just chasing numbers. For example, instead of saying "I want to make $5k MRR this year," it's more helpful to set goals like "I want to release 5 big content updates for my app" or "I want to build a new productivity app." When you focus on these kinds of goals, you feel more in control and you can see your progress every week. It also helps you stay motivated, because you are working on things you can really influence.
If you only look at the numbers, like downloads or revenue, it can be very frustrating if you don't reach them, even if you worked hard. The truth is, you can't always control how many people will buy your app or how much money you will make. But you can always control how much you build, learn, and improve. So I try to focus on my output and the things I can do every day. In the end, this usually leads to better results anyway.
Can't wait to try Habitkit 1.14.1