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Yoink for iPad and iPhone's App Icon

Today, Yoink for iPad and iPhone is 3 years old 🥳. Time surely flies when you have… bugs to fix.

It certainly doesn’t feel like three years. It feels like only yesterday, to be honest.
On the other hand, the release process, yes, that felt like it took three years, because I was eager to release alongside iOS 11 (which, due to its drag and drop capabilities, made Yoink for iOS possible in the first place), but there were some serious delays with App Review, who rejected the app multiple times because of its keyboard extension, and later, its File Provider (while other, similar keyboard/FP extensions were apparently perfectly fine and allowed on the App Store. This is my single biggest gripe with App Review – the inconsistencies in rejections. It’s obvious why these things happen, and it’s understandable, but it’s frustrating nonetheless).

But all that’s in the past. Yoink for iOS has been out there for three years now, and it has been doing great – thanks to all of you who use it, leave ratings, reviews or send feedback.
It’s been featured on the App Store on numerous occasions – here are a few examples:

Yoink featured on ios app store

Yoink iOS App Store Feature 17 09 2020 14 39 25

Yoink iOS iPhone App Store US Feature 07 12 2017 13 06 01

So thank you all for three amazing years. Let’s hope for many, many more 🤗

P.S.: Keep an eye out on my social channels (twitter | facebook | linkedin), as I’ll be posting a few promo codes there!

 

– Matthias
mail | website | twitter | instagram | facebook

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Screenshot showing Yoink and its update-timestamp on the Mac App Store

7 months. I look in disbelief at the Mac App Store’s timestamp of Yoink’s last update, and I’m deeply embarrassed.
As a user, I’d think the app is abandoned. As its developer, I know that’s not true, because soon after I’d released v3.5.8 of Yoink for Mac, I began working on the next one:

Yoink for Mac's GIT commit messages, showing the date of the v3.5.8 commit and the date of when work on the next update began (3 days later)

The user, however, doesn’t know.

The situation isn’t any better for Yoink for iPad and iPhone, either, where the App Store states 5 months since the last update (v2.1.6).
Here, too, I began working on its subsequent update the day after submitting it to the App Store:

Screenshot of GIT commit messages of Yoink for iPad and iPhone, showing the date of v2.1.6, and when work on the next update began, a day later

I cringe even mentioning ScreenFloat (10 months), flickery (11 months), Glimpses (11 months), or Transloader (5! years!).

The problem, I think, is that I do not plan ahead much. I give my attention to the app that – in my view – currently needs it most (which has been mostly Yoink for Mac, and Yoink for iPad and iPhone lately), and whenever I feel the update is done (an arbitrary line I draw spontaneously most of the time), I release it and move on to the next app (or the same one again, if need be).

I want – and need – to do much better here.

So here’s how I’d like to improve:

  • Release what’s ready once a month
    If there have been changes made to apps and those changes are ready for prime-time, release the updates
  • Unless absolutely necessary, after an update, move on to the next app, not keep working on the one I just released an update for
    Aside from the positive effect of giving other apps the attention they need and deserve, it also reduces the possibility of me getting burnt-out working on the same app all the time
  • Be more vocal about what’s going on
    I should be more transparent about what I’ve been and am working on – it’s fun to share!

Here’s hoping. Thank you all for bearing with me 🙂

– Matthias
mail | website | twitter | instagram | facebook

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