From One App to Three: Notes on Learning Mobile Development in Public
A year ago, I shipped my first app. Today, I’m juggling three.
I want to write this down partly as a record for myself, and partly because I remember exactly what it felt like reading posts like this before I’d shipped anything, reassuring, a little intimidating, and useful in ways I didn’t expect at the time.
Where it started: dPasswordManager
My first real app was dPasswordManager, a password manager for iOS and Android developed in ReactNative. PWDSAFE is a powerful and secure password manager designed to keep your credentials safe while ensuring a seamless user experience.
It’s been live for over a year now, and that milestone matters more to me than it might sound like it should. Plenty of side projects get 80% finished and quietly die in a folder somewhere.
But getting something all the way through design, development, App Store review, Play Store review, actual users, actual bug reports, actual updates that’s what teaches you things that no tutorial does. Things like:
- How different “it works on my machine” is from “it works for someone who just wants to log into their bank account and doesn’t care how the sausage is made.”
- How much of shipping is really about the boring 20%: privacy policies, App Store screenshots, signing certificates, crash reporting, and metadata, and not the fun 80% of writing features.
- That a year of maintaining something live teaches you more about your own code than the month you spent writing it.
If you’re earlier in this than I was a year ago: the gap between “I can build a prototype” and “I can ship and support a real app” is bigger than it looks, and almost entirely made up of unglamorous work.
That’s not a discouraging thing to say but actually shape of the skill, and it’s learnable.
What’s next: two apps at once
More Apps…
Right now I’m building two new apps in parallel in Flutter along with learning courv , which is its own kind of lesson, mostly in how much context-switching costs you.
HouseKeep
Highlighting specifia shared chore board for the whole household. Tasks rotate fairly between everyone, admins set it up in minutes, and every completion gets a quick approval and a point. No more arguing about whose turn it is.c functionalities and capabilities.
Dice Roller
a free, offline dice roller for tabletop games on iOS and Android. Mix any dice from d4 to d100 plus a coin, add modifiers, and use D&D-style Advantage/Disadvantage. Lock dice between rolls, track your history with a fairness chart, and skin it with six themes. No accounts, no backend, no ads on the roll screen.
Senior FullStack Developer
Software Engineer
I’m a fullstack developer with over 20 years of experience (since 2002) building and optimizing backend and frontend applications — from MVC architectures and SPAs to modern JavaScript applications and REST APIs. I’ve delivered web applications and backend solutions across a range of data-handling systems, with a consistent focus on quality and meeting deadlines.
Beyond the technical work, I enjoy taking ownership of projects and leading them through to delivery. I’m a collaborative team player who supports colleagues, stays curious, and is always open to learning new tools and technologies.
Let’s connect, I’m always happy to talk about innovative solutions, share knowledge, or explore new opportunities.
Hobbies: Running, (v)blogging, gaming, watching cricket, and playing table tennis & padel tennis. I also enjoy photography, particularly nature and abstract subjects.
danyal.dk
New runner has born 🙂