52 Apps in 52 Weeks

I started my morning on the treadmill around 5:50 AM, thinking about what my next project should be for my 52 apps in 52 weeks challenge. An idea popped into my head about a little joke at work where people wanted a “tie tracker” app to keep tabs on who wears what tie. I figured, why not try it? I hopped onto ChatGPT, told it to create a SwiftUI iOS app, and let it generate a complete code base. Within ten minutes, I had something that could add people and track their tie colors and patterns on a day-to-day basis—enough to see each person’s preferred style. It wasn’t perfect, but it seemed workable.

The only real code issue showed up on iPad. There’s a recurring bug I see whenever I use ChatGPT o1 Pro to generate Swift code: the app defaults to a blank screen on iPad until I fix a missing line of code for the sidebar. Because I’ve seen that bug enough times, I already knew exactly how to fix it. I also added a small block of code for Firebase Analytics. In retrospect, I could’ve included both the iPad fix and the analytics setup in my original prompt, but I ended up doing them in parallel anyway.

Next came all the “fun” stuff for the App Store. I created an icon using my usual design templates—just dropping in an image that looked like ties—and generated the marketing copy with one more ChatGPT prompt. Then came the most painful part: screenshots. I had to run the app on iPhone and iPad simulators, capture it in action, and time it just right to show off each feature. Even though I know how to have AI write code to automate screenshots, sometimes it’s just not worth it for a one-and-done app like this.

All told, I spent about 40 minutes of actual hands-on work. I started at 5:50, took a break to go for a run, and by 7:20, I was submitting the finished app to the App Store. By 8:00, I got a notice they were already reviewing it, and a few hours later at 9:42, it was approved and live in the App Store on the first try. From first spark of an idea to an approved app in the store, it was about four hours total, with less than an hour of active effort. Sure, this isn’t going to make me rich or famous, but it proved that one prompt (plus a quick bug fix) can be enough to build and publish a real iOS app in record time.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tie-tracker-coworker-tie-log/id6741110620

Jake