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We’re live! Foxifier is in the Mac App Store
We did it: Foxifier is in the Mac App Store. After a lot of work, plenty of puzzling and even more hassle with Apple, I can finally say so.
What is it?
Foxifier is a mail notifier with a little fox. It sits in your menu bar, keeps an eye on your mail and shows at a glance what is new. You can read, reply to and tidy up your messages, with a preview. You choose the theme yourself: in gold, in evening mode or in retro terminal. The basic version is free. There is also a paid option, for anyone who wants to support the fox or wants more.
Honestly, it started as a joke. I wanted to know how something like this works, and a fox watching your mail seemed like a perfectly good excuse. It has mainly become a learning journey, in building software and in the whole process on Apple’s side. That last part is a subject in itself.
The challenges
The building itself was the most fun part, although it wasn’t easy. Reading mail sounds simple, but as soon as you work with multiple accounts, passwords and connections, you run into all kinds of quirks. And an app that fits into a Mac environment neatly and securely takes more than an app that merely works.
Then the real adventure began: the App Store. Certificates, profiles, signing, setting up the in-app purchase, making screenshots and texts, filling in privacy questions. And then waiting for the review, and waiting again. Every rejection or question from Apple meant another round of changes and resubmitting. I won’t say it made me happy, but it made me a lot wiser.
Why the effort?
I don’t expect Foxifier to reach millions of downloads. But it feels good that the whole journey succeeded, from idea to an app that anyone can download. And the experience is worth its weight in gold for the bigger project I am working on now: Declaruur, time tracking for freelancers. Everything I learned with Foxifier I can put to use there straight away.
Declaruur is on its way
Declaruur is the app that lets freelancers keep track of their hours, costs and kilometres per client and produce a neat timesheet in a few taps. The foundation is in and I am working hard on it. Thanks to Foxifier I now know what is waiting for me at the App Store, and that saves a lot of hassle. So this won’t be a Foxifier-style joke: this will be a real, serious app.
Want to know how it is going? Then read the latest update on declaruur.nl. There is also a button on declaruur.nl to stay informed. Sign up there and you will know as soon as Declaruur is in the App Store.
Try it yourself
Do you have a Mac and want to know how the fox behaves? You can find Foxifier in the Mac App Store. I would love to hear what you think, and a review in the App Store helps the fox along a little too.
Thanks for reading along, and until next time!
Pim