thoughtbubbl
thoughtbubbl, a voice note-based diary and productivity app, is my first Apple iOS app store launch. I intended this to be an exploration into the complete, start to finish process of creating an app and getting it onto the app store because I had no guidance from anyone else on how to start and what to do.
I spent countless hours in a staring competition with my computer trying to figure out what I was doing, why it was or was not working, and what the next step should be. I stand by that method as the best way to learn and I found the whole process very different from building a website yet much simpler because there are only so many things I can do within the constraints of and iOS app with all data stored in a user's cloud account.
The app is built entirely though Xcode (RIP my computer storage) and will likely sit on the app store as version 1.0.0 for a while until I have made enough edits to warrant an update. Feel free to download and give me a glowing review!
LANE FOUR
LANE FOUR, my 2026 summer project and first fully-fledged website, is a training platform for masters swimmers with daily swim sets and dryland workouts, and creating an account unlocks a full personalized training plan complete with rest days, tapers, meal plans, and workouts tailored to the users abilities and goals. Other features include a blog, weekly newsletter, welcome email, and workout archives.
It took me about 6 weeks to build and is run through GitHub and AWS. My only coding knowledge comes from self-taught HTML in high school (not even coding I know) so I couldn't explain much of anything I've built beyond 'if you press this and copy this, then you get a newsletter.' However, I did learn a lot about working with different AWS apps and integrating Bedrock AI into the workout generation and training plans.
This being my first vibe coding attempt, I was more focused on learning as much as I could about building, SEO, and marketing rather than attempting to immediately monetize it. My current philosophy is in order to make money, I need users, and in order to get users, I need to try and fail and try again in finding what works to get the most clicks.
I am running marketing through Pinterest and Twitter, and plan to scale up to Instagram once I set the first two up to essentially run themselves.