A number of weeks in the past, I wrote about an app that appears at you thru the Mac’s webcam, and as quickly because it detects a slouching posture, it sends a notification. The app even logs all of the cases and offers a every day posture rating. It was an open-source app, however quickly after it was shared on Reddit by the creator, an enormous chunk of fellow Reddit lurkers began asking about the way it processes and shops knowledge. These had been existentially legitimate queries.
In any case, you might be giving an app entry to the digicam, which may monitor you and the world round you in real-time. Is there a backdoor that enables a nasty actor to take a sneak peek? What else is the app logging within the background, and the way a lot of the audio-visual stream is being relayed or saved on an exterior cloud server? Fortunately, the app works absolutely on-line, and all of the processing occurs regionally on my Mac. However the sense of unease prevailed.
That pushed me to strive creating my very own software program. However as an alternative of utilizing the digicam to see and detect unhealthy posture, I assumed, why not use the movement sensors contained in the AirPods? I had no concept how the system would even work within the background, so I turned to the wizard that everybody lately is visiting to search out solutions — an AI chatbot. For me, that wizard was Anthropic’s Claude.
And the wall got here crashing down
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
The large drawback? I’ve not written a single line of coherent code in my complete life. I barely even know the coding languages which can be used to construct software program for cell and desktop platforms. And to my utter shock, I used to be capable of create a completely useful app by speaking to Claude AI, with out ever seeing what the app seems to be like visually.
I requested the AI chatbot if such an app was possible, and as soon as I acquired an affirmative reply, I let Claude take the lead and construct the entire app. I didn’t even take a look on the underlying code. It simply requested me a number of questions by way of the method about my preferences, and I replied with a number of phrases. Inside half an hour, I had the app operating on my Mac.
Claude even created a menu bar icon, the posture notification banner (and the warning language), the menu bar UI field once I work together with the app, and even the calibration controls. The AI dealt with colour-changing animations, set the principles for detecting unhealthy posture period, added an alert chime to the entire move, and created a two-stage warning system.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
It began with “I wish to construct this app” in a chatbox, and what adopted was a full dialog app growth expertise. I didn’t even instruct it on a majority of the app’s visuals and the interior protocols. I noticed the entire idea of front-end and backend coalesce and disappear within the background. The one layer that remained was pure language.
Claude requested if the app ought to have XYZ options, and I simply YES-d my manner by way of all of it.
To say that I used to be shocked could be an understatement. Claude even created a becoming app icon and saved all of it neatly in a folder. As soon as the code was compiled, the entire means of launching and operating the app felt identical to every other app put in from the web. Besides, on this case, the app was created and saved solely on my Mac, and no exercise knowledge ever leaves my system.
How does the app work?
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
The core concept, as described above, is to make use of the AirPods’ movement sensors to detect modifications in your posture and shoot a warning message. Once I launch the app, it asks me to take a seat upright (or the naturally wholesome posture) and units it as the perfect posture primarily based on the angular knowledge logged by the AirPods’ movement sensors. Subsequent, it asks you to take a seat in a nasty posture, the slouched or face-forward hunching posture, and data the spatial knowledge for it.
That’s all.
You put on the AirPods, launch the app, calibrate the nice and unhealthy posture, and also you’re good to go. I don’t should manually enter any peak or angular knowledge. I simply sit in the suitable and incorrect postures, let the app document every, and I’m good to go. I don’t even see the app operating within the dock. As an alternative, Claude created it solely as a Menu bar utility, the place I can all the time see it, with out having to fret about display screen muddle or operating a Command+Tab shortcut for checking the exercise.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
When I’m sitting straight, the app’s icon is gray. As quickly because it detects a change in posture, the icon turns yellow. If the posture worsens, the icon turns pink with movement indicators. If the unhealthy sitting posture is sustained for over 12 seconds, the app’s icon turns right into a fiery pink triangle, and a notification banner pops up within the top-right nook of the display screen, telling me to repair my posture.
This notification is rather like every other, despatched by the apps put in in your Mac. It respects the main focus mode behaviour, and I can select to behave on or dismiss it with a single click on. I used to be initially skeptical about the entire premise, however the app did a incredible job with movement sensing and detecting posture change. I had my siblings and 4 pals strive the app utilizing my second-gen AirPods Professional. They had been pleasantly stunned by how responsive it was, praising the genuinely useful premise of such a utility.
What subsequent?
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
Now, I’m not inclined to push it on the App Retailer. It’s simply an excessive amount of work. Doing so would require getting an Apple developer account, going by way of Apple’s infamous high quality test course of, and nearly actually hiring somebody to handle it in the long term. That was by no means the target within the first place. I simply wished to test if it’s potential to construct a private app utilizing an AI, and I discovered the reply.
It’s potential.
The entire course of is so easy that I didn’t even have to fret about which Claude mannequin is finest for the job. There are a number of specialised Claude fashions, by the way in which. I merely described the app’s premise, and the Mac app routinely picked the suitable mannequin and kicked into motion.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
Possibly I used to be fortunate, as a result of Claude is famously good with coding-related chores. My earlier experiments with vibe-coding ended up in a large number the place I merely bumped into partitions with no technical know-how of how you can proceed additional.
So far as operating the app goes, Claude gave step-by-step directions on what to do with the folder it had created, how you can launch the terminal, and the precise command I needed to sort (once more, I copied it from the Claude chat field), and construct a completely functioning app. To my utmost shock, the code ran and not using a single error, and within the first try. And thus far, the app has labored reliably, with none abrupt crashes or stutters. It even maintained the consistency after I requested a number of useful modifications.
Alright, what in regards to the privateness?
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
A recurring concern that I typically hear from customers is the privateness facet of health and well being software program, particularly when wearables are concerned. Do you really need an impartial developer’s app to get entry to a horde of your well being knowledge, out of your coronary heart knowledge to your sleep patterns? I’m not simple with giving that knowledge to Google, Apple, or Samsung. There’s loads of previous precedent for leaky well being apps.
Blindly trusting an app with out poring over its knowledge sharing and privateness insurance policies is like letting a stranger get entry to your medical data and leaving them with full management over how they wish to promote that knowledge to anybody they need. That’s principally how exercise monitoring on the web works, creating an ecosystem the place you see hyper-personalised adverts in your telephone and PC.
So, what’s the answer? On-device processing. Or in easy phrases, create a system the place no knowledge ever leaves your system. None of your well being logs are saved on a cloud server. Every part is recorded, processed, and the outcomes are proven — on the system in your pocket, lap, and wrist. Or on this case, one thing that sits in your ears for hours every day.
Going a step additional — and one thing that immediately ties into the theme of the app that I created — is to maintain the software program restricted to your self. Construct an app for your self, one thing that by no means leaves your personal units. Consider it as making a shortcut in your iPhone, or an automation routine that solely works for the good dwelling units in your house.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
This manner, I don’t should share my knowledge with anybody. No third get together is concerned in gathering or monitoring any info. I’m merely pushing the AirPods’ sensors and utilizing the information collected by them to supply actionable outcomes. All I want is a Bluetooth connection, and the entire sensing-to-warning operation runs solely on my MacBook.
Why is that this a game-changer?
I’ve by no means written a single line of code in my complete life. Not as a result of I by no means acquired the chance. I simply discovered the method too intimidating. The sight of random color-coded traces, phrases like syntax, loop, repositories, and logic, killed any enthusiasm that I had about turning into a “builder” sometime.
When AI coding instruments first landed on the scene, with sky-high hype of turning each non-coder right into a builder, I used to be psyched. There was lastly some tangible hope for me. ChatGPT Codex, Lovable, Vercel, and Replit chatter flooded my X timeline. A few of them are actually even promising a “prompt-to-publish” pipeline, straight out of your telephone.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
The truth is sort of completely different.
Even you probably have a killer concept for a million-dollar app and handle to immediate your manner by way of from begin to finish, really turning the code right into a operating app is a frightening job. And if you happen to dream about publishing it on the App Retailer or Google Play Retailer, it’s essential undergo a vexingly sophisticated course of with registering developer accounts and going by way of the platform tips.
On high of it, if you happen to’re attempting to tie your app into info or intelligence pulled from one other platform — let’s say Google Search or social media — it’s important to undergo the method of determining APIs, pondering over the cost processing pipeline, and extra. As a no-coder, how do you intend to ship fixes and new options with updates? Yeah, that too.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Tendencies
You see, having a cool concept for an app is simply scratching the floor. However if you happen to hope to construct a enterprise atop it, or simply wish to share the fruit of your psychological labour with the world, you want somebody with deep information of the entire app growth and publishing pipeline. The desires of a one-man enterprise constructed atop vibe-coding foundations are just for somebody who already has some prior expertise.
I fall far past that class of dreamers.
Most of us merely need utilities that work for us. Up to now, if one thing didn’t exist, we needed to watch for a developer to finally construct it. Or stay with an current app that will get the job finished, with its personal set of lacking tips and frustrations. Instruments like Claude put the ability within the fingers of a median Mac consumer such as you or me. For now, I can’t cease fascinated with all of the concepts I can now flip into apps by merely speaking to Claude and prepared it into existence on my Mac. It’s simply fantastic.
