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Developer Update: April 2021

Hey FoodNommers. I have a few exciting updates I want to share.

Where FoodNoms is at Today

  • FoodNoms recently crossed $3K MRR 🎉
  • It also recently surpassed 750 ratings in the US App Store (the countdown to 1K ratings begins!)
  • The FoodNoms Community Database has been doing really well! It continues to receive >1K contributions weekly. Barcode scan success rate has increased 2.5x inside the US (30% to 75%) and 6.7x outside the US (3.4% to 23%). More and more users are logging into the Community Database, and almost 1 out of every 10 foods logged comes from a Community Database contribution.

What I'm Working On

I have big news to share. 🥁

I have begun a major (think "2.0") update for FoodNoms. My goals for this update:

  1. Address many top feature requests
  2. Make it easier for me to differentiate FoodNoms from the competition
  3. Provide more reasons for users to subscribe to FoodNoms Plus
  4. Speed up key interactions and workflows
  5. Create a solid foundation for the next two years

In order to achieve these goals, I need to rearchitect a lot of the the app's codebase. I've started a new sync engine, a new local database, and I'm working on overhauling a lot of user interface code. I'm also investing more into automated testing.

This update is going to take much longer than previous updates due to its ambitious scope. I have already made some nice progress, though. I have a build on my phone right now that:

  • Syncs bidirectionally with HealthKit
  • Syncs with CloudKit, which is powered by a new sync engine
  • Has the start of a new UI, written almost entirely in SwiftUI
  • Lots of "under the hood" changes that will enable me to ship more-complicated features more confidently and frequently

What to Expect

  • Targeting a Fall 2021 release 🤞
  • I will be more secretive about this update. I think it will be more fun that way. 😎
  • I do not plan on doing any public TestFlight betas. I will conduct a private, invite-only beta at some point.
  • I do not plan on adding any new features to FoodNoms until this one launches.

Disclaimer: This is not a promise. Plans could change at any time.

Special Note to FoodNoms Plus Subscribers

If you support FoodNoms via a FoodNoms Plus subscription, I want to give you an extra “thank you”.

Even though I mainly work on FoodNoms because it’s my passion project, I wouldn’t be continuing to spend nights and weekends to work on it if it weren’t for your support. Seriously – thank you! 🧡

– Ryan (@ryanashcraft)