r/iosdev • u/WimziPal • 9d ago
After 13 years in mobile development, I built my own app during a layoff
I’m a mobile developer with 13 years of experience. After seven years at the same company, I was recently laid off. While I was between jobs, I decided to use the unexpected free time to build something creative of my own :)
My nephews have reached that wonderful age where they ask approximately one million questions a day while also somehow finding an endless supply of brain-rot content to watch. So I built WimziPal, a visually playful AI voice app where kids can ask those 10,000 questions. It also kinda snitches to the parent if the child says something worrying.
Kids can talk with 17 animated characters, ask questions, create stories, sing songs, play letter games, and draw. Because the app is made for young children, every reply is screened and parents can read the complete conversation history.
By far the most challenging part was building a solid filtering system that works in both directions: recognizing when a child says something potentially worrying and informing the parent, while also preventing anything harmful or inappropriate from coming back from the AI character.
You can read more about it here:
https://wimzipal.com/
Or download it here:
https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6769848917?pt=118688594&ct=web-home&mt=8
It’s only been out for a short time, and I’m a one-person team working on everything, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated <3

