52 Apps in 52 Weeks

A few months back, a friend at work pitched me an idea for an app. We both have kids who play sports, and we’ve all been in that situation where you don’t want to record the whole hour-long game, but you also don’t want to miss the few amazing plays that happen. The concept is pretty simple: passively record the action, but only keep the last 30 seconds or a minute when something cool happens. This way, you save storage space and still capture those highlight-reel moments.

I’d actually tried to build something like this before, but video recording apps can be really tricky to get right. I ran into a bunch of bugs I didn’t know how to fix, so I put it aside for a while. Then I decided to give it another shot using a newer model called o1 Pro, which is better at interpreting and writing some of that specialized video code. It took many tries, but eventually it all came together. Now, the app isn’t packed with tons of features, but it does exactly what I need it to do: it passively records and lets you save just the best parts.

When I was getting ready to release it, I did some research into what else was out there. Turns out, several other apps already tackle the same problem, probably more elegantly than mine. Plus, the keyword search volume for this kind of app is pretty low, which means it’s not likely to be a big money-maker. Still, I went ahead and launched it for free on the App Store—no ads, no fees. My main goal was to see if the new video code approach would work, and it did, so I count that as a win.

If you want to test it out, I’d love to know what you think. For me, this has been a fun learning experience and a neat tool to help my friend (and myself) capture just the best moments in our kids’ soccer games. It may not be a game-changer, but it solves a real problem and it’s proof that the right code (and a little persistence) can go a long way.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/instant-replay-camera-recorder/id6740041593

Jake