Solarday

Launched 🌅 Solarday (mindful productivity app for iOS) last week on the App Store after ~90 days in TestFlight with a small group of people.

Why: I was tired of productivity apps that made me feel like I was drowning. This category of software has always kind of trended towards complexity and clunkiness. The goal becomes "clear all the badges" instead of "do purposeful work."

I wanted something that felt calm. Like a quiet place you could return to throughout the day. A canvas for just getting through the day.

What makes it different: Start with one daily intention (not a mountain of tasks). Focus on one task at a time (timer can become immersive or ambient, no distractions). End the day with reflection. Beautiful, minimal interface (adaptive themes, thoughtful spacing). Private by design (AES-256 encryption, iCloud sync, no accounts).

How the first week went: Hit Top 10 in App Store Productivity (Canada) during launch week (felt really cool). For the first few days, obsessed over rankings, then realized: I didn't build this for rankings. I built it for focus. Stopped checking obsessively. Recalibrated to listening to users instead.

How it's built: Sketches in Notability ➡️ Figma ➡️ native SwiftUI in XCode. I'm a designer-builder. Built solo / handcrafted (making iOS apps since 2015, Obj-C background), and Claude Code is helping me ship faster.

Revenue model: One-time purchase. I miss those the days when you could just pay for an app once and use it forever.
Uses on-device Foundation Models for intention generation (no inference costs). If users want more AI features, I might add a subscription tier, but only if it's genuinely useful, not as an afterthought. Don't want to jump on some AI bandwagon.

What's next: "v1 is for us" (credit: 37 Signals). Now, building features based on feedback from early users. Localization, more accessibility improvements.

It's Day 309 of the year, but it feels like Day 1 for Solarday.

Questions for community: What techniques did you use to get your first users? How do you ask for feedback? What products do you use for ASO? At what point is paid marketing (Instagram ads, Apple Search ads etc.) an option? (currently $0 spent on mktg)

📲 Solarday on App Store: link

—Siddharth