My First iOS App Journey: Building Cluck

Not sure if anyone will read this, but I just deployed my first app to the iOS App Store. I am very new to this, and I thought sharing my story may help some others that are new and having trouble getting started.

About Me

I have worked in Salesforce for 10+ years, but with the advancements of AI, I recently decided to take a swing at mobile apps. I wanted to build something quickly so I can get an end-to-end understanding of the process and tools out there. My thought was to try to build something that would be beneficial to me personally, as I don't expect anyone else to use this.

What I Built

I'll start by telling you what the app is and then go into how it was built. The app I created is called Cluck - it is a morning and night routine tracker. A user can set a time for their routine to start, an audio alarm, set their habits, and be reminded constantly to finish their routine. The idea was to "nag" the person with Rooster Clucks so they feel no choice but to finish the routine.

The Build Process

Getting Ideas

I saw a post about Claude prompts for generating app ideas and decided to post this into Claude to get ideas. The ideas generated were very high level, and some I wasn't a fan of, but there was one that stuck out to me - a morning and night routine tracker. This is something I have struggled with - staying consistent in my routines, so I thought something like this would be beneficial to me.

Planning and Design

I went back and forth with Claude for planning, then I was ready to build. I took the idea and plugged it into Appthetics.com - which I found on a community post. I asked it to give me some mockups of what the screens could look like. I really like this app - I was able to have a good back and forth to get the screens just right.

Next, I had the Claude web create an MD file with the build plan. I chose to go with React Native and Expo, since I have some familiarity already. I took it and put it into my Claude Code and told it to build. This did take a while - there was a lot of back and forth with me testing and working through the functionality.

Challenges Faced

Claude definitely did a great job, but there were some things it struggled with:

• Alarm functionality - The trigger audio that begins playing when it's time to start your routine
• Push notifications - Took a lot of back and forth with testing
• Refreshing issues - Required multiple iterations

Cost-Saving Tips

I wanted to spend as little money as possible here, since it's not an app I plan to make money on. I wanted free audio, which took a little while to find. I finally found it on Pixabay - they had a good selection of free audio samples that I considered "motivational" enough. At some point, I want to look into if it's possible to get famous speeches or something.

I used ChatGPT to generate an app icon. I asked Claude for a prompt, pasted it in, and I got something pretty quick. I was really happy with these results.

App Store Deployment

Getting it on the App Store was a little challenging. They require a lot of detail for submission. Luckily, they accepted on my first attempt. It's a very simple app - I don't collect any data or use any backend. Your routine is stored in the phone itself. I would imagine more complex apps have a lot less luck. It took 3 days for the app store to approve.

Key Takeaways

• Start simple - My app is very basic but got approved
• Use free resources - Pixabay for audio, ChatGPT for icons
• AI tools help - Claude Code was great for building, though needed iteration
• Don't overcomplicate - No backend needed for simple apps

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If you stuck around this long, I appreciate that very much. This was a fun process, and really didn't take too long. I hope this helps someone.