Filip Němeček Blog

New friendly place to share updates about your indie apps <p>Have you ever tried sharing your indie app on Reddit?

SwiftUI KFImage notes <p>This is not traditional “how to” blog post.

Getting view size in SwiftUI without GeometryReader <p>Recently I needed to know size of SwiftUI container to layout horizontal carousel.

The weirdest Core Data crash I have seen <p>This week, I spent many hours trying to diagnose and fix weird and random Core Data crashes in one client project.

How to support tinted home screen widgets in iOS 18 <p><em>If you are like me, perhaps you just now realize that iOS 18 offers the option to tint the icons and widgets with it.

My experience with the “Blinkist trial”: Big boost <p>At the end of January 2024 I decided to change how my onboarding works in <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/switchbuddy/id1563251210">SwitchBuddy</a> in relation to subscription offer.

Fixing weird shadow animation glitch in SwiftUI <p>Recently in a work project I was working on a SwiftUI view with prominent part that had “glow effect” animation that I built with the <code>shadow</code> modifier and the standard SwiftUI animations.

How to update widgets for StandBy mode <p>The new StandBy mode that Apple introduced in iOS 17 was probably the main reason we <a href="https://nemecek.be/blog/192/hotfixing-widgets-for-ios-17-containerbackground-padding">had to start using “containerBac…

UX Diary: Onboarding without onboarding <p>I am trying a new article format about my "UX learnings" from my development.

Hotfixing widgets for iOS 17: containerBackground + padding <p>If you built your app that has Home Screen widgets with Xcode 15 you might notice they are broken now.

Sharing data with UIActivityViewController - tips & tricks <p>When you want to share data in iOS via the “share sheet" the basic workflow can be to create <code>UIActivityViewController</code>, and pass it some data like <code>URL</code>, <code>UIImage</…

How to: Implementing “Shared with You” APIs <p>One of the new frameworks that iOS 16 brought is the 3rd party support for Shared with You.

The weirdest bug/crash in widgets?

Implementing “double tap tab bar to scroll to top” <p>My <a href="https://switchbuddy.app/">SwitchBuddy</a> app has a couple of “main” screens that have a lot of content, and the user can scroll pretty far.

How to successfully launch app on Product Hunt: Balance by Alexander Sandberg <p>I first heard about <a href="https://alexandersandberg.com/apps/balance/">Balance</a> when Alexander Sandberg <a href="https://twitter.com/alexandberg/status/160042534124768…

SwiftUI Tip: Always correct corner radius for subviews <p>While working on widgets for <a href="https://switchbuddy.app">SwitchBuddy</a>, I found a great way to have nicely-looking rounded corners for views inside my widgets without manually specifying a…

How to customize share sheet content for AirDrop <p><em>Some time ago, I changed how articles are shared in my <a href="https://switchbuddy.app/">SwitchBuddy</a> app.

How to allow landscape for single screen in your UIKit app <p>I recently had quite a fun challenge - how to allow the gallery in <a href="https://switchbuddy.app/">SwitchBuddy</a> to work in landscape while keeping the rest of app portrait only.

How to combine Dynamic Type and monospaced font <p>Have you ever had a label in your app that showed a live countdown?

The day my app got thousands of downloads and in-app unlocks <p>This year, my document scanner app <a href="https://apps.apple.com/app/scan-it-scan-and-export-pdf/id1509634112">Scan it</a> was part of the fantastic <a href="https://www.indieappsanta.com/…

Adding private analytics with TelemetryDeck: Quick Start <p>I have recently decided to try TelemetryDeck for the first time in my <a href="https://switchbuddy.app/">SwitchBuddy app</a>.

Dynamic Island (and Live Activities): Quick start tutorial <p>Before we get started with the tutorial, <strong>you need at least Xcode 14.1 Beta</strong> or later to be able to use the newest APIs.

PSA: iOS 16 is a huge opportunity to promote your app <p>So iOS 16 is coming soon, probably mid-September.

How to get featured on the App Store <p>Being featured in the App Store is a pretty good deal.

Press Releases: Step-by-step guide <p>I have written previously about press releases, but never in a truly detailed manner.

Does your app need a Press Kit?

How to add swipe actions to Collection View <p>One of the reasons you might not want to replace your Table Views with Collection Views might be that the former has excellent support for swipe actions that are pretty common in iOS.

How to create a list with Compositional Layout <p>Lists are one of the most common layouts in iOS apps, and while in the past, we created these with the <code>UITableView</code>, we can quickly achieve lists with <code>UICollectionView</code>, which gives

Xcode: How to upload build with different Bundle ID to TestFlight <p>There are cases when you want <strong>your app to appear like two or more apps in TestFlight</strong> or even in the App Store.

How to use UICalendarView in iOS <p>Since iOS 16, we can use a dedicated calendar view to let users select dates in a way that offers more control than with the standard <code>UIDatePicker</code>.

How to use Live Text API in your iOS app <p>With iOS 16, the Live Text feature is available for developers.

How to configure UIKit bottom sheet with custom size <p>iOS 15 brought great UIKit addition in the form of “bottom sheet”.

How to resize image in Swift <p>Resizing images in Swift is nowadays pretty straightforward.

How to let user select file from Files <p>iOS lets us - apart from importing media from the Photos library - also <strong>import either iCloud or local files from the Files app</strong>.

Press Kit examples for inspiration <p>Creating the first press kit mobile app isn’t straightforward.

Stuff to implement before you launch on App Store <p>Having launched a few of my apps and another bunch of client ones, I thought I would try to come up with a list of more minor things worth adding before your app goes live for the first time.

Boost your Press Kit with lifestyle photos <p>When preparing image assets for your app Press Kit, some of the assets are more obvious than others.

Are Press Kits still relevant?

Customizing the navigation bar in UIKit <p>This post will be pretty different from the others.

Debugging files in iOS <p>I bet you have already used FileManager at least a few times.

Lessons from reviewing 10+ press kits <p>I <a href="https://twitter.com/nemecek_f/status/1504076224662024196">asked</a> fellow iOS devs on Twitter to send me their press kits for review.

5 tips for reaching out to press <p>In most cases, when you want journalists to write articles about your app, you need to tell them first about its existence.

Open your app's Documents folder programmatically in Files app <p>While adding the gallery feature to SwitchBuddy, I implemented a way to open the app's Document folder in the built-in Files app.

Gradient borders in UIKit <p>While playing with the <a href="https://nemecek.be/blog/143/always-correct-gradient-text-in-uikit">gradient text in UIKit</a> using rendered <code>UIImage</code>, I wanted to use the gradients for other stuff, and borders are…

Always correct gradient text in UIKit <p>This was supposed to be a super short post about how to easily achieve gradient text with <code>UILabel</code> in UIKit. 🙈 Gradient text is something I am not using that often to remember how to do it quickly, so I

Creating patterns with UIColor.

How to show page indicator with Compositional Layout <p>When you have horizontal sections where items take the entire width of the Collection View, it makes sense to give the user some indication that more items are available.

8 "marketing" ideas for your app <p>As an indie developer, you probably know you should be doing "some marketing" so that people have a chance to find your app.

Quickly preview app icon on a real device <p>Some days ago I was working on alternate icon for one of my apps and thought that it would be nice to see it on a real device.

Fixing wrong animations with Diffable Data Source <p>The magic of Diffable Data Source, either for <code>UICollectionView</code> (with <code>UICollectionViewDiffableDataSource</code>) or <code>UITableView</code> (with <code>UITableViewDiffableDataSource<…