Pluviophile: Thunderstorm mix

Rain, thunder and wind on three sliders. No account, no subscription. I had never opened Xcode when I started.

Shipped

I could not find a rain app I wanted to use. They were packed with features, locked behind a subscription, or asked me to sign up before playing anything. I wanted rain, thunder and wind, and a way to set each one until it sounded right.

So I built it. It took about four months of evenings. I design apps for a living, but other people build them. This is the first one I have built myself.

View on the App Store

Role / Team
Design and build, on my own
Timeline
About four months of evenings, then 1.1 two weeks after launch
Platform
iOS, built in Swift and SwiftUI
Outcome
Designed, built and shipped to the App Store solo, my first app!

The idea

Pluviophile (n.), ploo-vee-ah-file: a person who enjoys rain and finds joy, peace and comfort in rainy weather. That is me.

Most sleep-sound apps give you a library of finished tracks and charge a subscription for it. Pluviophile gives you three sounds and a slider for each. Rain goes from drizzle to downpour. Thunder goes from a distant rumble to right overhead. Wind goes from a breeze to a gale. You can have heavy rain with far-off thunder, or a gale with hardly any rain. You mix the storm yourself.

iOS only, sorry.

At a glance

  • Three sliders and no presets. You mix the storm yourself.

  • Pro is a one-off purchase, not a subscription.

  • No accounts, no analytics and no tracking.

The design

I decided early on there would be no presets. With three sliders as the whole interface, there is no library to browse and no menu to get lost in. You open the app and press play.

People use it at the end of the day, so the interface is dark and low contrast. Audio keeps playing when the screen is locked. It plays to a HomePod, an AirPlay speaker or a TV.

Pro adds a sleep timer that fades the storm out, and saved mixes. You can name a mix, reload it with a tap, swipe right to rename it and swipe left to delete it.

There is no wall of text on first run. A short animated walkthrough builds a mix step by step, then you are in the app.

Screens

  • The launch screen. Faint rain falls behind the title Pluviophile (.app) and the dictionary definition underneath it: ploo-vee-ah-file, a person who enjoys rain and finds joy, peace and comfort in rainy weather.

    The launch screen

  • The mixer. Three rounded vertical bars stand at different heights: Rain at 75 per cent in blue with a cloud icon, Thunder at 51 per cent in gold with a lightning bolt, Wind at 28 per cent in purple. A row of round buttons underneath holds shuffle, save, a large blue play button, the sleep timer and AirPlay.

    The mixer: three elements, three levels

  • The Save Mix sheet, over a dimmed mixer. A name field reads Thunderstorm 1, and a panel below it lists the levels being saved: Rain 75 per cent, Thunder 51 per cent, Wind 28 per cent.

    Saving a mix

  • The sleep timer sheet. Two wheel pickers, set to nought hours and thirty minutes, sit above a Set Timer button.

    The sleep timer

  • The system AirPlay picker open over the app, the mixer blurred to coloured light behind it. iPhone Speaker is ticked, with Bedroom, an Apple TV in the Living Room, and Office listed under it.

    Playing out over AirPlay

  • The settings screen. A Pro unlocked row marked with a crown confirms full access to all Pro features forever, followed by Restore Purchases, a link reading How to create your perfect storm, and Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Version 1.1 sits at the foot.

    Settings, and the Pro unlock

Building it

I had never written Swift and did not know what StoreKit was. I now know more about non-consumable in-app purchases than I expected to.

I learned mostly from YouTube at 1.5x speed. About half the videos were out of date, recorded against a version of Xcode that had since changed. Many evenings went on finding out that the code I had just copied was two releases old.

What shipping taught me

The last stretch was not design, and not really engineering. App Store Connect is confusing, and mistakes in it matter. The icon went through several rounds and I now have strong opinions about gradients. I also had to set up a GitHub repository just to host a privacy policy. That was the least relaxing part of building a relaxation app.

Version 1.1 went out two weeks after launch. Both changes came from watching people use 1.0. You can now tap anywhere to skip the launch animation, and the mixer and controls have haptic feedback. The launch animation was the part I was most pleased with. It was also the first thing people wanted to skip.

Two decisions I would make again. Pro is a one-off purchase, not a subscription. I did not want to build a storm that stops when a payment fails. And there are no accounts, no analytics and no tracking. Your mixes stay on your device.

What people say

5.0 out of 5 · 4 ratings on the UK App Store · Updated

  1. Go to Storm Sounds

    Bisquit Girl

    Such a useful app; genuinely my go-to for storm sounds.

    Love how interactive it is, especially the sliders so you can mix everything exactly how you want it.
    Simple, satisfying and does exactly what you need it to. ⛈️

    App Store · United Kingdom

  2. Dreamy!!

    Wench86

    I LOVE that I’m able to toggle each sound section to my preference to get the perfect sleep soundtrack! It’s also super handy to have the sleep timer setting on there. I listen to storm sounds every night on a popular music platform and while it does the job of getting me off to sleep, I do get woken up periodically while it plays through the night.. Problem solved with this tidy little app! Very simple user interface too which is an added bonus 🙌🏻

    App Store · United Kingdom

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