When I was young, my friend and I wanted to make iPhone games under the name Games Galore. We never got there, but I have always wanted to have an app listed on the iOS App Store. I’ve made a few attempts, Moneyminder and BasicWeather, but I recently had an idea for a simple app, and it got approved.
The app is called Bit Buddy, and it was made with a specific purpose in mind. For those in the creative field, having multiple external hard drives can be stressful. It’s great to have the extra space, but juggling between drives is anything but fun. That’s where Bit Buddy comes in.
Thought process
I wanted it to be simple to add devices, so there is no device connection when adding a device. Instead, you manually add each of your devices and log their capacity, content type, and any other useful information you want. From there, as your collection grows and gets more chaotic, add new drives, helping to better manage the chaos. I also wanted the app to look beautiful, and that process took a lot of work.
When designing Bit Buddy, I wanted something visually interesting. It is just a list of devices, after all. With that in mind, I created various custom elements to help shape the app into what is, in my opinion, a pretty good-looking interface. Privacy and security are built in, with Biometric Authentication (Face/Touch ID) and Secure Wipe, but Bit Buddy goes one step further. Everything is stored locally on your device, meaning there is no communication with the cloud. That also means I don’t see any of your information. Only you do. Privacy, especially when it comes to storage devices, is of the utmost importance. Oh, and there are home screen widgets.
Putting it together
Putting this all together, on the other hand, was a more time-consuming practice. I won’t lie, I’m not the best when it comes to SwiftUI or coding. There is a lot I still don’t understand. As I mentioned, I’ve attempted some iOS apps before, some more ambitious than others. This is the first app that I’ve made from scratch, without using a template or messing around. To do this, I used Apple’s code editor, Xcode, which, all things considered, has worked pretty well. There are a lot of bugs, and The Brains doesn’t have the largest hard drive, but it’s been an overwhelmingly positive process. To help understand things and check errors, I utilized ChatGPT, which honestly helped on more than one occasion. I also watched a lot of YouTube tutorials, mostly from Kavsoft.
It was a lot of fun bringing Bit Buddy to life, and I’m still working on it! I’ve been working on including new features and elements to the app since launch and plan on regularly updating it. If you think Bit Buddy could help you with your storage woes, give it a shot by clicking here. Bit Buddy is available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS (iPad app).