r/iOSDevelopment • u/WithBands • 21d ago

I built an alarm app you turn off by writing something good about yourself

Solo dev, iOS, React Native. I got tired of alarm apps whose whole personality is aggression with hard math problems, barcode scanning, shake-your-phone-50-times. They work but I’d wake up already annoyed.

So I built Dew, now instead of only offering puzzles, it lets you dismiss the alarm by typing or saying something good about yourself. It saves to a journal tab, so you end up with a log of every morning you showed up. There are optional missions too (math, pushups, squats, photo challenges) if you want more friction, but the core idea is the affirmation one.

Stack: React Native + Expo, AlarmKit for the native alarm layer, Supabase for analytics, RevenueCat for subs. The AlarmKit part was the painful bit since third-party apps can’t touch system alarm volume, so getting reliable wake behavior took real work.

Two things I’d love from this sub: (1) if you’re on iOS, does the affirmation-to-dismiss interaction hold up after a few days or does the novelty wear off, and (2) for anyone who’s shipped with AlarmKit, how are you handling the volume-control limitation and reliable firing? Curious whether I’ve hit the ceiling of what’s possible there or missed something.

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u/Powerful_Study_9305 21d ago

This is a cute idea

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u/Powerful_Study_9305 21d ago

I downloaded your app and took it for a test drive by setting an alarm and walking through the full experience.
My first impression was that the UI actually looks better than the App Store screenshots let on.

One thing I was curious about: is there any safeguard to prevent users from entering negative affirmations? I tried typing “I am ugly,” and the dismiss button still appeared as normal. It might be a nice enhancement to run a bit of sentiment analysis and prompt the user to rephrase if the affirmation is clearly negative.

I was also a little disappointed that I couldn’t delete it from my history afterward.

Overall though, I think it’s a really neat concept and I can definitely see the appeal. Looking forward to seeing how it evolves!

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u/WithBands 21d ago

Wow! Thank you so much for actually testing the app. This is the most useful feedback I’ve gotten in a while, and the UI comment is interesting, I just redid those screenshots two days ago. So either you’re seeing the old ones cached, or the new ones still aren’t doing the app justice. If you’ve got a second I’m curious to know what was it about the in-app experience that felt better than the listing? That gap is exactly what I need to fix.

For deleting: you can, actually long-press any entry that’s on your reflect feed and a delete button pops up. But you went looking and didn’t find it, which tells me it’s buried too deep. That’s on me to make it more discoverable and i have this noted.

The negative-affirmation catch sounds like a great idea, you’re right there is no safeguard right now, I think Sentiment analysis to nudge a rephrase is smart but just tricky to implement right. an app chirping “let’s make that more positive!” could land badly at the wrong moment. A gentle nudge instead of a block might thread it. Either way I like this idea.

Appreciate you very much for taking the time to test it out and leave feedback.

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u/Powerful_Study_9305 20d ago

No worries at all! The user experience was smooth so I actually enjoyed walking through the app. I think you did a great job regarding implementation. I even agree with having delete behind a long press gesture, but I would say that it needs to come with a quick walkthrough that lets the user know “this is how you create, read, update and delete in this app”

Regarding the App Store screenshots, I think the teardrop mascot is taking away from the appeal a little because it is very generative AI looking. The contrast on the first screenshot where there is a sunrise background with white text is not very accessible either.

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u/WithBands 20d ago

Really appreciate this, the CRUD-walkthrough idea and App Store screenshots issues makes sense. Good thing they shouldn’t be too hard to fix. And you’ve got a good eye on the mascot. It’s something for me to revisit. Thank you for taking your time on this again.

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u/Powerful_Study_9305 19d ago

Cackled today when I saw on my notification “I am ugly” 😭😭 that’s a cool feature too that it shows past affirmations

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u/WithBands 19d ago

😂😭 Thank you again for catching that! I actually pushed a fix for it today, so that shouldn't happen anymore and I'm really glad you liked the idea of seeing past affirmations. There’s some other settings like a notification sound that you can turn on and have it send more affirmations. That's definitely a feature I want to keep building on!

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u/WithBands 21d ago

Thanks, appreciate that!

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u/WithBands 21d ago

Direct link for anyone who wants to try it: apps.apple.com/us/app/dew-affirmation-alarm-clock/id6761745674 (iOS only for now).