What Hikari is?

Daily Quotes in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Offline first… it works without internet, without an account, without giving up anything. iOS widgets that rotate quotes on your home screen. An adaptive theme that shifts warm in the morning and dark at night.

One-time purchase: $4.99. No subscription. No ads. No tracking.

That last part is the one people ask me about the most. I don't run any analytics SDK. I have zero telemetry. I literally don't know who uses Hikari, how often they open it, or which quotes they read. And that's intentional.

The business case for zero tracking is terrible. I can't optimize onboarding, can't A/B test screenshots, can't retarget anyone. But I can ship something I actually believe in, and that matters more to me right now than optimizing a funnel.

The build: 21 days, solo

The stack: React Native + Expo SDK 54 + SQLite + WidgetKit (native Swift bridge).

I chose React Native because I know it well and I'm building multiple apps sharing knowledge across projects matters more than native performance for a quotes app. Expo because the dev experience is unmatched for a solo dev. SQLite for offline storage. And WidgetKit through a native module because Expo doesn't have a first-party widget solution yet. , now with the new SDK is a new world :)

The WidgetKit bridge was the trickiest part… react native doesn't talk to iOS widgets natively, so I had to write Swift Code that reads from a shared App Group container. The quotes get synced to the widget through UserDefaults in the shared group. It's not elegant, but it works reliably and that's what shipped.

The timeline was tight but real:

- Days 1-4: Core app structure, quote database, basic UI

- Days 5-9: Theme system, adaptive colors, language support

- Days 10-14: WidgetKit integration, the bridge, testing across devices

- Days 15-18: Polish, screenshots, App Store metadata, all three languages

- Days 19-21: TestFlight, final QA, submission

I submitted to App Store review on a Friday evening. By Monday morning, it was approved. First try.

Seeing my name on the App Store

I've shipped a lot of software. Enterprise dashboards, retail systems, logistics platforms. But seeing “Dionisio Fernandez” as the developer on the App Store that was different.

It's not a big deal objectively. Thousands of people ship apps every day. But after 15 years of building things that went out under a company's brand, having something with my name on it felt like crossing a line I didn't know I needed to cross.

The numbers (raw)

Revenue: $0 … Downloads: I don't know the exact number yet. The App Store Connect data is still sparse… Ratings: none yet.

I set a kill criteria before I launched: 100 downloads in 12 weeks. The clock started March 4. If Hikari doesn't hit either target by late May, I'll evaluate whether distribution is the problem or the product.

Right now, distribution is definitely the problem. I built the app but I haven't pushed it anywhere. No social media campaign, no Reddit posts, no Product Hunt launch. That starts now.

What's next

Hikari was the first product out of what I'm calling my solo factory, I have more apps in various stages, Chokin a task-rewards app for kids, 90% done, coming back this week, Shirube a Daily Tracking Journal with find the dots, and a project with friends that's picking up speed.

The Japanese names aren't random. With my family spent time in Japan in 2024 and we want to go back. Each product name means something: 光 (light), 貯金 (savings), 標 (trail marker). It's a small thing, but it makes the work feel personal.

I'm documenting everything. The revenue ($0 included), the decisions, the mistakes. If you want to follow along, I'm @dionidev on X and @dioni on Peerlist.

And if you're on iOS and want to try Hikari App Store