I’ve been working on a new app for a while now, and I’ve been meaning to write about it here on my blog, but I just keep putting it off. But as the beta process has been going for a while, and I think the development has progressed to a more stable (I mean slow) development cycle. Probably not good for most of my projects, but I’m treating this as a more long-term project. More specifically, I want to do each step well, so that in the end it’s a product that I want to use myself, and potentially a lot of other people too.
So, a slight break here, so I can explain what this project actually is.
In the simplest terms – it’s a water intake tracker for iOS. Being slightly more descriptive – it’s an app where you can manage your water intake, get a quick glance on how you are doing compared to your daily goal, and also look back and see how hydrated you were in the past.
That’s not the final description however, as I have many things I want to add to the application (which I will describe below), and I’m probably also missing out features that I’ve already implemented.
Oh and it’s called Hydrate. Original, I know.
There was no big reason for the app, except that I wanted to start tracking my water intake, and as an app developer, I thought I’d put the two together. I was actually asked on Twitter about the difference between Hydrate and other “competing” apps, my answer was what I just said – I’m making it for myself. If other people enjoy it, then that’s even better!
The layout and overall design is aimed to be as simple as possible, and therefore is designed around having “Quick Add” buttons, which you can set up with default quantities, making it even easier to add water intake. Mainly because, it’s not fun entering data as boring as this, so if I can make it quick, I will.
At the moment, the current features are:
- View daily intake.
- Add predefined quantities via Quick Add buttons.
- Add custom amounts.
- Set a daily goal – Which is the basis for the main ring.
- Support for ml and fl oz (US).
- Dark/Light mode – I just have to have a dark mode, and the other one is for “normals”.
- View your past water intake (last 21 days).
- Today widget with Quick Add buttons, to do it even faster.
Of course that’s not all the features I want to add, therefore I have a basic list of future main features:
- Watch App
- Make the ring animate.
- Possible reward for hitting the daily goal.
- A way to share your progress.
- A maybefeature – Some way to add a drink when you start drinking it, which you can then tap to add to the actual data when it’s finished.
I’m most likely going to add more to this list, but that’s what I want to definitely (apart from the last one) add before I release.
If you want to try out Hydrate, then the beta process has already started, just enter your email on the Hydrate website, and I’ll add you to the TestFlight group!