Speaking of the joy of well-made native iOS apps, Christian Selig’s Apollo — a client for Reddit — has a nice update out today. For all my pessimism regarding the state of software development today, Apollo is a shining example of the right way to do something. Reddit is a completely free website with its own completely free first-party iOS app. But Selig has made Apollo a successful product that users are willing to pay for — it’s free to use with in-app purchases and subscriptions for additional features — simply because the experience on iOS is so great.

I enjoy that part of the fun for paying users is simply getting custom app icons. People will pay for fun. There’s a level of joy and enthusiasm in the Apollo user base, and a true community between them and Selig, that epitomizes the best of the indie development ethos.

★ Monday, 2 March 2020