Step by step, took the journey from idea to App Store release, solo

Context

The idea came from a personal need — I work remotely, live a sedentary life, and realised I don't move enough. I decided to build the app for myself: to dig into new tech and start walking regularly along the way.

About the product

Steplease

App ↗

Role: Product owner Product: iOS app Scope: Design, development and release

Widgets

Three widget formats for different contexts that remind you how close you are to your goal. A handy way to see progress without opening the app. The home-screen widget shows steps and a progress ring among other apps. The lock-screen version is compact and visible every time you glance at your phone. Live Activity and Dynamic Island show real-time progress at the top of the screen.

Tracking & statistics

Detailed stats by day, week and month — so you see not just today's number but how your activity changes over time. Comparison with the previous period shows whether you're moving more or less, and helps you spot patterns: which days drop, when you manage to walk more.

Achievements

Achievements and streaks turn walking into a habit. Three types of rewards: daily goals (first steps, 5K, 10K per day), streaks for consistency (from 3 days in a row up to 30), and milestones for total progress (from 100K to 1M steps all-time). Everything is split into tabs, so it's easy to see what you've earned and how much is left until the next one. Total progress shows how many of the available rewards you've unlocked.

Leaderboard & friends

The leaderboard adds a competitive element and helps keep motivation up. The global ranking shows everyone's results, and the friends list shows only the people you actually want to compete with. Add a friend by sending a deep link — they install the app and instantly appear in your ranking.

Metrics

To evaluate user behaviour I plugged in Amplitude, set up tracking for key events, and built a dashboard with the core product metrics. The app grows organically without an ad budget: users come through the App Store and recommendations. Even though this is a hobby project, the metrics show real engagement — people don't just download the app, they come back and use it regularly.

Tech

The app is written in Swift — I chose native development to get full access to iOS features: HealthKit, widgets, Dynamic Island, Live Activity. Design was done in Figma, code was written with Claude Code: I framed the task, got code, iterated and debugged. I figured out Xcode on my own, hooked up GitHub and set up pushes for every iteration. Publishing was a separate challenge — I had to understand Apple's review process and sort out the question of a Russian developer account. In the end, the app passed review and appeared in the store within a week.

Wrap-up

Went all the way from idea to App Store release solo. Got into Swift, Xcode, iOS app architecture, widgets and Apple's APIs. Learned to use AI tools for coding, set up analytics, and keep developing the product. This experience deepened my understanding of how development actually works — now I understand the platform's capabilities better and speak the same language as engineers. I also started walking a lot more — in January I walked over 500,000 steps.