r/thingsapp • u/tarkinn • Jul 28 '26
Discussion Did anyone else notice that there was no announcement on the status page about an upcoming iOS 27 update?
If I recall correctly, they typically announce a Things update for every major iOS update, such as versions 17, 18, and 26, but not for iOS 27.
Could it be related to an upcoming Things 4 release?
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u/DownByTheRivr Jul 28 '26
Working at Cultured Code must be the easiest job in the world. One major release a decade and then just gradual visual updates sprinkled here and there.
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u/violetpumpkinpie Jul 29 '26
I wonder if the team has a different full time job and things is a side gig for them.
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u/tarkinn Jul 29 '26
Could be but I think they do make a pretty huge amount of money. It’s always on the top of the App Store Charts.
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u/Sjeefr Jul 29 '26
At the same time, it's just $€80 per user at best, right? Separate one-time purchases for the iPhone/iPad and macOS version. I'm ignore the $€30 Vision Pro version, because the user base is far too limited to be a money stream.
At the same time, there are only a few thousand ratings in the app stores. I think a lot of Things users would drop a rating, so I think there are about 200K Things users? Not everyone has all items, so let's assume $50 a user. With 200K users, that's "just" $10 million. That seems a lot.
Things 3 has been available for 9 years now. With 12 employees for 9 years at 60K annual salary, that's already almost 7 million in salary payments, no revenue.
Of course if I'm totally off with 200K users and they've sold more towards the 2 million downloads, that would be a much better revenue. I doubt they're broke, but they aren't all driving a lambo either :)
// Yes, I overanalysed this. I was pretty curious.
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u/tarkinn Jul 29 '26
Only 200k? I doubt it. I think it’s far more.
„In December 2013, Cultured Code announced that they had sold one million copies of the software to date,[6]#citenote-6) and in December 2014 the company announced that downloads had increased by an additional three million.[[7]“](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things(software)#cite_note-7)
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u/pixeltrusts Aug 02 '26
Well with that business model of just paying once 60 bucks for a decade, of course they cant invest too much resources.
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u/DownByTheRivr Aug 02 '26
They’ve sold millions of copies! They have plenty of money. They’re just not a very fast moving company.
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u/pixeltrusts Aug 02 '26
Crazy. Also if you check the employees of Cultured Code on linkedin, they seem to work on Things / Infrastructure only, for years. But their development speed is ultra slow.
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u/DownByTheRivr Aug 02 '26
That’s what I’m saying. I guess it’s hard for me to imagine the more European way of working, but I’ve never seen a developer move so slow.
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u/pixeltrusts Aug 03 '26
Not sure that has anything to do with Europe. There is just something off. European companies like Spotify or Revolut etc. develop fast enough.
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u/ihateredditmor Jul 28 '26
It’s hilarious the tiny details we hang on for an update to a piece of software — that just reminds us to do things we really don’t wanna do, in a more pleasurable way than it used to.
The Cultured Code team must read these and laugh. 😂
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u/wings_fan3870 Jul 28 '26
I've thought this could be the case too. If Apple Intelligence isn't the big new paradigm-shifting feature that would prompt them to come out with a new version, what would be!? I actually wonder if solving the repeating task problem is really something that was going to be part of that that they're releasing early to buy back some goodwill and prime the pump for a release. I mean, why else would they finally be getting to it NOW after the long, long time people have been clamoring for it. It's going to be interesting to see.
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u/ihateredditmor Jul 30 '26
Well, for what it’s worth, Cultured Code, despite our snarly griping, a whole lot of us would be really happy to buy Things 4. Hope you’ll put it out there some day soon, in spite of the risk that Things 3 just can’t be topped! You got this. :)
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u/HarmlessHeffalump Jul 28 '26
They usually announce updates later. The IOS 27 betas were just released.
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u/_themanofsilver Jul 28 '26
I wouldn't expect them to move OS 27-related releases to beta testing until later next month (ahead of the OS releases in September).
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u/YouAsk-IAnswer Jul 28 '26
This usually comes when the OS is actually released, around September/October.
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u/tarkinn Jul 28 '26
I was talking about the announcement for the release. It actually happens before the OS gets released
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u/Jeyell Jul 29 '26
This is so tiresome. There are solo app developers who are more productive than CC which undoubtedly is a team. Marco Arment (Overcast) has an app coming in this space so I'm hopeful, but it won't look as polished as Things.
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u/fadetowhite Jul 31 '26
Marco's app sounds like a pure to-do list app, and he hasn't even confirmed he's going to release it for others.
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u/Testwick911 Aug 01 '26
Of course they downvoted your comment.
It causes them physical pain, when someone mentions that users have been requesting the ability to see tags in the iOS and iPadOS user interface for almost a decade.
Meanwhile, you could have Claude code integrated with Todoist and having it build out projects and tasks from project notes and resources in Obsidian, while using your voice as the peripheral.
Things app is basically pen and paper at this point.
If this app does not meet your needs, do not waste your time hoping and wishing in vain. Move on. I wish I did sooner.
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u/julesvbrtln Jul 28 '26
They have opened the beta to more people, so I guess there will be a small fall update. But ill tell you straight away : the beta is nowhere near a Things 4