Inspiration
As a young Computer Science student, I began my SwiftUI journey the moment I got my first MacBook on July 3rd. I was instantly captivated by Apple’s developer-friendly frameworks and the endless possibilities they offer. Like many, I started by learning from Sean Allen's demo apps and working through the "100 Days of Swift" challenge. But by mid-July, something exciting happened—I heard about RevenueCat’s Shipaton. It felt like the perfect opportunity to build my very first app and take a dive into real-world app development. With no time to lose, I paused my theoretical learning, picked one of my many app ideas, and threw myself into the project, knowing I’d learn faster by building something real.
The inspiration for Abs God comes from my personal passion for fitness, particularly abs workouts. I’ve seen firsthand how much of an impact abs exercises can have. It’s a muscle group often overlooked by casual gym-goers, yet it’s central to almost every sport, connecting the upper and lower body, improving posture, and symbolizing strength and aesthetics. And the best part? You don’t need fancy equipment—just some knowledge and a bit of space at home.
One big pain point for me was trying to follow YouTube workout videos. I found the coaches’ instructions repetitive, and the background music uninspiring—especially when I wanted to play my own motivational tracks. I resorted to using a stopwatch and scribbling workouts on paper, but that quickly became impractical. I soon realized that the perfect solution was an all-in-one app that would let me follow my personalized abs routine while jamming to my favorite music.
After browsing the App Store, I saw a lot of competition. But that didn’t stop me. The biggest apps were overly complicated and expensive for what I had in mind, while the smaller ones were either poorly designed or lacking essential features. I knew there was a gap, and that was my entry point.
That’s when the idea for Abs God was born.
What it does
Abs God is designed to help users strengthen their abs from the comfort of home, offering a range of features that make workouts both effective and engaging:
Custom Workout Creation: Users can build fully customized workouts using a set of documented exercises. The advanced customization options let them adjust duration, intervals, sets, and more. Once the workout is created, it can be saved and revisited anytime, offering flexibility and control over their fitness routine.
Workout Generation: This unique feature lets users generate a random workout, ranging from 6 to 15 minutes, by simply choosing a difficulty level. Even though abs training can feel routine, this feature adds variety, allowing users to spice things up daily. Incorporating diverse exercises is not only fun but also beneficial for muscle development.
Pre-Made Workouts: I’ve designed 12 pre-made workouts, each ranked by difficulty, for users who prefer a structured challenge. These workouts are strategically built to create synergy, encourage competitiveness, and tie into the app’s “lore”, adding an element of progression and achievement.
Live Workout Stopwatch: This is the heart of Abs God. Users can follow real-time workouts with visual cues, instructions, and timers, whether they’re doing their custom-built routines, pre-made workouts, or generated sessions. The intuitive design ensures the workout experience is smooth and motivating.
Progress Tracking: Tracking progress is key to staying motivated. That’s why Abs God includes a gamified XP system that rewards users for every workout. The more exercises, difficulty, duration, and streaks they complete, the more XP they earn, leveling up from "Human" to "God." This adds a fun layer of competition and personal achievement to the workout journey.
Effective Exercises: Users have access to a library of tried-and-tested exercises, complete with execution instructions, visuals, difficulty ratings, and the specific abs muscles each exercise targets. It’s a valuable resource for anyone serious about their abs workout routine.
All of these features are wrapped in a sleek, native design with a bold red-and-black color palette. The app’s theme revolves around a journey to greatness, channeling the mindset of stoicism and determination. This not only sets Abs God apart from other apps but also provides users with a deeper, more engaging experience.
How I built it
I built Abs God using Xcode and SwiftUI/SwiftData, Apple's declarative framework for building user interfaces. Choosing iOS as the initial platform was a no-brainer given the seamless integration and power of Apple’s ecosystem. Apple's APIs and frameworks allowed me to focus on creating a smooth, native experience that feels intuitive and responsive.
SwiftUI enabled me to quickly build a sleek, modern interface that adapts effortlessly across different device sizes. The declarative nature of SwiftUI made it easy to prototype and iterate on the app's design, ensuring that every element—from workout displays to timers—was optimized for usability and aesthetics.
SwiftData was used to manage user data and workout history. This allowed me to build a robust progress tracking system that stores and retrieves workouts, XP levels, and user achievements in a way that feels invisible to the user but keeps the app’s experience seamless.
Custom Algorithms were implemented to handle the random workout generation feature, ensuring that each user gets a unique and well-balanced routine based on their chosen difficulty level.
The UI/UX Design was heavily inspired by Apple’s design guidelines, with an emphasis on simplicity and functionality. I chose a dark, red-themed color palette to match the app’s intense, motivational vibe while ensuring it remained visually clean and minimal.
Leveraging Apple’s frameworks and ecosystem has been a huge advantage. Everything from gesture controls to animations is handled natively, allowing me to focus on delivering a high-quality user experience. This approach not only simplifies development but also ensures that Abs God feels like a true native app, built specifically for iOS users.
One important aspect of Abs God is its commitment to privacy. The app does not access any user data, and all information is stored locally on the device. There's no need for sign-ins, and no network connection is required for users to enjoy the app.
The business model is simple: every user gets a 7-day full free trial without the need for registration or a credit card. After the trial period, users can continue using the app by becoming an Abs God member, with subscription pricing ranging from $2.50 to $4 per month.
Challenges we ran into
Building Abs God came with its fair share of challenges, especially with the tight deadline and my beginner status in mobile app development. I had to learn and build at the same time, which was both time-consuming and mentally taxing. With only one month of holidays before returning to school—where my demanding studies would undoubtedly slow down my progress—I was all-in. At my peak, I was working 10 hours a day on Abs God, sacrificing a bit of my summer vacation and activities to push the project forward. But I’m not complaining; this was the first time I felt a deep love for what I was doing. The sense of watching my app grow and learning new skills daily was incredibly motivating.
Of course, there were difficult moments. Implementing complex features like the workout generation and live workout stopwatch algorithms was particularly tough. On top of that, I made the rookie mistake of jumping into beta versions of macOS, iOS, and Xcode, not realizing how unstable and buggy beta software could be. This added unexpected challenges to my development process. Balancing the release of Abs God with my classes was no easy feat either. In fact, I had to prioritize development over some of my math exams, which resulted in a few failed tests.
But in the end, I pulled it off—just two days before the deadline! It was such a rewarding feeling. That being said, I had to fast-track a lot of the development, which meant leaving out many enhancement ideas I had in mind. I had to focus on building a strong MVP to meet the deadline, with plans to add those extra features later on.
Another major challenge was building in public. I’d never engaged with an audience before and had only been a spectator on platforms like X ). But sharing my journey turned out to be one of the best decisions I made. The iOS dev community on X was so welcoming and helpful! In a short time, I built a small but engaged audience, which gave me valuable feedback on features, design ideas, and even bug fixes. It was incredible to feel supported by others while working on my passion project. While Shipaton may have been my initial reason for tweeting daily, I plan to continue building in public because of the amazing connections I’ve made along the way.
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
I'm incredibly proud to have shipped Abs God on time, even though it’s far from a perfect product. The fact that I managed to complete it within the tight deadline, despite being a beginner, feels like a huge win. I can't thank RevenueCat enough for pushing me outside of my comfort zone with their Shipaton challenge. Without that, I probably would have waited much longer before starting my first app, and I definitely wouldn’t have the depth of knowledge I do now.
Another thing I’m proud of is my experience with building in public. It was amazing to see other participants building alongside me, dealing with similar challenges, celebrating their wins, and sharing the journey together. The sense of community and shared progress made the entire experience so much more fulfilling, and interacting with fellow developers brought me fresh ideas and invaluable support.
What I learned
It’s hard to list everything I’ve learned through this project—it’s been the biggest learning experience of my life. But here’s a recap of the key lessons:
Market Research: I learned how to analyze the competition, identify gaps in the market, and understand what features other apps do well (or poorly). This insight was critical in shaping Abs God into a product that could stand out and address user pain points.
Branding: Crafting a cohesive identity for the app was a new challenge for me. From selecting a color scheme to building a narrative and choosing the right name, I realized how important it is for everything to fit together. Branding is crucial to the long-term success of an app.
Becoming a Better Developer: I grew immensely as a developer. From properly using GitHub for version control, learning how to debug effectively, structuring my code for maintainability, and digging into documentation—this project pushed me to improve in so many areas.
iOS Development: I started as a complete beginner, and by the end, I had transformed into an indie developer launching an app. The growth I’ve experienced as an iOS developer is something I’m really proud of.
Design: I followed tutorials, courses, and Apple's guidelines to improve my design skills. This was a totally new area for me, but I enjoyed it more than I expected. I’ve always loved creating clean, visually appealing things, and designing the UI/UX for Abs God was a rewarding challenge. Plus, I got hands-on with Figma to create my logo and screenshots!
Marketing: Marketing is another area I knew very little about, but I’ve learned so much by working on Abs God. Understanding how to position and sell a product is essential. This included everything from copywriting, crafting a paywall, setting prices, and finding ways to generate traffic.
Sharing & Building in Public: I learned how to interact with an audience. From discovering patterns that made certain tweets go viral to engaging with and supporting others in their projects, building in public was a completely new and rewarding experience for me.
These are just a few of the lessons, but building an app is so much more than just the technical side. This experience has been truly unique, and I’m incredibly grateful for the journey.
What's next for Abs God
The journey doesn’t stop here—there’s so much more on the horizon for Abs God! Although I had to focus on delivering a basic MVP to meet the deadline, I have an exciting roadmap ahead:
Localization: Expanding Abs God into multiple languages is a crucial next step. Due to time constraints, I had to postpone this, but translating the app will make it accessible to a wider audience.
Redesign App Screenshots: I didn’t have as much time as I would have liked to dedicate to creating the perfect app screenshots. Now that my skills with Figma are improving, I’m eager to create a more compelling and polished set of screenshots.
Enhance Paywall Design: The current paywall is quite basic. I have ideas to make it more visually appealing and effective in converting users.
Voice Feature: I’m already working on incorporating voice guidance and sound effects into the workout stopwatch. This feature, inspired by a suggestion from one of my tweets, will allow users to follow their workouts without constantly looking at their screens. The goal is to keep the audio cues unobtrusive so as not to interrupt users' background music.
Award Feature: I plan to further gamify the app by introducing rewards and achievements. This will offer users additional motivation and celebrate their progress with various awards based on workout challenges and milestones.
Photo Feature: Another idea is to implement a photo feature that allows users to unlock pictures of their progress. Users can take a photo at key stages in their journey and view their progress after reaching significant milestones.
Social Features: Looking further ahead, if Abs God receives positive feedback and grows, I envision adding social and networking features. This could include user profiles, friend connections, and collective challenges to foster a sense of community.
Bug Fixes: There are a number of small bugs that I’ve noted but had to set aside for now. Addressing these will improve the overall user experience and ensure the app runs smoothly.
There’s still so much to do, and while I have to slow down my development pace to focus on my studies, Abs God remains a top priority. I’m committed to continuing improvements and updates whenever possible.
A big thank you to the organization for inspiring the creation of so many innovative apps!
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