Jun 22–28, 2026
I finally released I Need That Widget v1.5. It shipped later than I originally planned because, while building the new feature, I kept adding one more thing at a time. One of the new features was an interesting experiment. Even though it was experimental, I wanted to make it well, so I kept polishing it as I built. It felt good to work on something fun again after a long while. Along with the release, I also made a few ASO improvements. I added keywords to the app title and subtitle, and made some changes around specific keywords as well. I also prepared another screenshot A/B test. The price parity calculator I tried before seems to be showing a very small effect. Revenue came in from a country where there had been no sales at all, so I plan to keep watching it over time.
I have more or less finished shaping the idea for the new app now. Last time, I built a prototype and confirmed that the feature was possible. Now I am starting to build it properly, one piece at a time. It has a different concept from the INTW app I am working on now, and since it is not a paid app, I want to think through the revenue model properly while building it. I have a lot of ideas, but I will have to see whether it actually works. I want to build and ship it quickly, but while the trend is to make apps quickly with AI, I want to do this a little differently and put more care into making it well. If there are many similar ideas, I think the important question is what kind of differentiation it can have. Is there something special that makes someone choose this app among many others? And the most important thing is that I need to use it myself. I think the time and energy I put into an app I make for myself will be very different from an app I make only to earn money. I also need to use it myself to understand how to improve it and where it should go next.
Summer is getting closer. Before it gets even hotter, I went on a short trip with friends, and recently I spent the week eating food that fit my taste.
June is almost over. The first half of 2026 is almost over too. A lot has happened. Some things are getting better, while others are still not going well. Through those experiences, I have also learned more about how I should move forward. I hope the second half of the year will be better than the first.