Cheats & Checklist for GTA 6

The cheats app that refuses to guess, and tells you the moment a code is real.

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Inspiration

Search "GTA 6 cheats" today and you get pages of codes for a game nobody has played. They are predictions, recycled GTA V inputs, or invented outright, and they rank because people want them. When GTA VI launches on 19 November 2026, the first real codes will be buried under a year of guesses. I wanted the one place that publishes nothing until it is true.

What it does

Vicedex publishes a cheat code only after a person has entered it on a retail copy. Until then the Cheats tab says so, plainly: nothing is verified yet. Around that promise sit three things people genuinely use before launch:

  • Intel: a live countdown to 19 November and a sourced news feed. Every item carries an OFFICIAL or COMMUNITY label and names its source.
  • Checklist: a personal launch-day plan, saved on the device.
  • Alerts: the reason to install. When the first verified code exists, you get one notification, for your console, with the code already loaded when you open the app.

It works for PS5 and Xbox, has a spoiler-safe mode, and asks for notifications once.

Who it is for

GTA players who plan to play at launch and are tired of fake codes. The PS5 and Xbox split matters: console codes differ, so a PS5 owner must never be sent an Xbox sequence.

How we built it

Native SwiftUI on iOS 18, generated with Tuist, with a WidgetKit countdown widget and a Notification Service Extension. Content ships in the build and updates itself from a versioned JSON feed, so a new code or news item goes live without an App Store update. The companion site, vicedex.app, is built from the same feed.

RevenueCat powers the one purchase: Supporter, a non-consumable (com.max.vicedex.pro, entitlement pro). It unlocks two alternate app icons and nothing else. There is no paywall and there are no ads. Charging for codes we did not invent would be the opposite of the point.

OneSignal is the delivery layer for the whole product:

  • Users are tagged with platform (ps5 or xbox), spoiler_safe, news, supporter, content_version and app_version.
  • Saved segments split PS5 and Xbox owners, so launch night sends each console its own sequence. A third, News on (tag news = 1), carries everything that is not essential. Spoiler preferences are filtered at send time.
  • Pushes carry tab (cheats, intel or checklist) to open the right screen, and refresh so the app pulls the new content before the user opens it.
  • The Notification Service Extension shares an App Group with the app for rich media, badge counts and confirmed deliveries.
  • The SDK is pinned to exactly 5.5.1, so no point release can change behaviour between now and launch night.
  • Only two kinds of push ever go to everyone subscribed: the launch-day alert and the first verified code. Everything else is news, and goes only to people who kept news on. That promise is on the opt-in sheet, in Settings and in the privacy policy.

Campaign deployed: "50 days to GTA VI", created in the OneSignal dashboard and scheduled for 30 September 2026 (exactly 50 days before launch) at 17:00 in each subscriber's own time zone. It targets only the News on segment (tag news = 1), says honestly that no codes are verified yet, and carries tab = intel so it opens the news feed.

Challenges we ran into

Before OneSignal, the core promise rested on iOS background refresh, which iOS runs when it chooses. A notification that might arrive hours late is useless for "the first code is live". Push made the promise dependable.

The subtle one: iOS issues a device token whether or not the push provider can actually deliver to it. The app keeps a local 00:05 launch-day alert as a fallback, and suppresses it once OneSignal reports a subscription. So the release was set to manual rather than automatic on approval. Even so, on release day, 28 September, OneSignal still listed iOS as inactive: the Apple key uploaded a week earlier had never taken effect, because OneSignal only activates a platform once all three setup steps are finished. It was found and fixed the same day, before the first campaign was scheduled.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

An app whose most important screen is honestly empty, and still worth installing. Every news item is sourced. The first code will go to the right console, spoiler-safe, with the content already on screen.

What we learned

For an event-driven app, the notification is the product. Segmentation is not decoration: sending a spoiler to a spoiler-safe user, or an Xbox code to a PS5 owner, breaks the one promise the app makes.

What's next for Cheats & Checklist for GTA 6

Version 1.1 went to App Review on 30 September and is not in the store yet. It redesigns the app in the box-art style of the companion site, with tabs for Home, Map, Plan and Cheats:

  • Map: the six places Rockstar has named, on our own sketch of Leonida. Save places to lists, number your day one route, add notes and drop your own pins. Everything stays on the phone.
  • Home: the expected unlock time for your own time zone, a guide to pinning the countdown to the Lock Screen, and local reminders for the key dates.

Launch night on 19 November: verify codes on retail PS5 and Xbox copies, publish them, and push them per console. Then keep the checklist and codes current as the game is explored.

Independent app. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Built With

  • apns
  • cloudflare-workers
  • ios
  • json
  • onesignal
  • revenuecat
  • swift
  • swiftui
  • tuist
  • widgetkit
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