June 10, 2023 · 3 min read
Devblog: Flow for iOS is now built entirely with SwiftUI
Hello everyone. We’re excited to announce the latest major update to our app, version 3.0.0 for iOS and iPadOS! This update represents a major refactoring of the project, which has been completely rewritten from the ground up.
Major Update 3.0.0
This update has taken us quite some time, as it’s essentially a complete rewrite of the iOS portion of the project. The mobile version of Flow is now completely written in SwiftUI. We believe this will make development more efficient in the future, and we’re excited to see the benefits of this change.
In addition to the major refactoring, version 3.0.0 also includes some new features. One of the most requested additions is a volume slider for the notification sound and metronome. Another feature we’re excited about is the ability to long press the timer for easy access to all duration options. This feature will save you some time and effort when setting the duration of your session. Also, as announced in our previous development post, your completed sessions on Apple Watch will now sync with iCloud.
Finally, version 3.0.0 includes a new daily quote and daily statistics home screen widget. These new widgets are a great way to stay motivated and track your progress. The new widgets come in a variety of sizes and styles so you can customize your home screen to your liking.
Upcoming Update 3.1.0
We’re currently working on using the Screen Time API to add an app and web blocker to Flow on iOS. This feature already exists in Flow on Mac and we’ve been wanting to add it to iOS for a long time. We’re happy with how it works on iOS and look forward to showing it to you soon.
We also completely rewrote bar charts on iOS using the new native framework called Swift Charts. This gives us more options to display the stats in different chart types. We also added some nice animations to the charts.
We’re optimistic that version 3.1.0 will be available next week.
What’s next?
Looking a little further ahead, we want to finally add real-time sync of the timer and session progress across devices. We’re still in the early stages of development on this, but after trying to use iCloud for this feature and not being happy with the results, we’re now planning to use Firebase for this. Firebase has shown to be more reliable and updates much faster, which is what we need for real-time sync across devices.
In addition, we are also planning to refactor the macOS version of the app using SwiftUI, which will not only mean improvements in terms of UI and UX, but will also help us to bring new features to you faster.
And of course, we followed the WWDC23 very closely and are eager to use some of the technologies presented.
Thank you!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read today’s devblog! Stay awesome everyone! We hope to see you again in our next post.
And as always, if you enjoy using Flow and would like to support its development, we’d be grateful for a review on the App Store. Every review is important and helps our tiny developer studio tremendously.
We appreciate you all very much. Cheers!
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Thank you so much for this update! I have the Pro subscription and was going to drop it but I decided to check your website to see if you had any news on new features, and this article has convinced me to keep supporting you.
Your UX is amazing and I love a good designed, the new features were a must, but until you have device sync I will need to keep using a much unpleasant app (Freedom). I really need app blocking across all devices otherwise it is too easy to cheat.
By the way, you have a decent integration with shortcuts, so maybe you could share some examples of workflows such us combining Flow focus time with Apple Do not disturb mode or something like that.
Keep the great job!
Hi Arnau 👋 Thank you so much for your kind words and for your support! We really appreciate it!
At the moment, our plan is to add a timer sync across devices. But thanks for letting us know that you’d be interested in having the app blocking synced as well. 🙂
Hi,
I‘m a Pro User and really enjoy the app blocking update. However, some apps seem to always escape the blocking (e.g. Twitter). I tried reinstalling both app multiple times and turned the checkmark next to Twitter ob and off multiple times.
Do you have any idea on how to fix this?
Best regards
Hi Lorenz 👋 thank you so much!
We’re sorry that you’re experiencing issues with the App Blocking feature. This shouldn’t be happening. It would be great if you could contact us at support@flowapp.info so we can take a closer look. Are you using Apple’s Screen Time in addition to the Flow’s app blocking?
Thanks for your work! I just upgraded to Pro and my big hope is for an Apple Watch complication some time soon.
Hey Avi! 👋 Thank you so much for your kind comment and support! We really appreciate it. An Apple Watch complication is planned. Thanks for letting us know you’re interested in that.
could you develope some widget on apple watch so i can see time counting on apple watch (when i use app on apple watch or mirror from my iphone). And add function to select or edit activity name on watch. Thank you so much
Hi Duy! 👋 Thanks for your feedback! An Apple Watch complication is planned. We’re also currently working on a Live Activity for iPhone. Maybe you’ll be interested in that, too.
Flow’s Pro features, including the ability to edit the session title, will be added to Flow on Apple Watch at a later date.
Love this app. It’s so close to being perfect for my scatter brain needs. Easy to use but really powerful. If you guys could get synced timers and blocked sessions across all devices, I’d purchase a lifetime license in a heartbeat. Using Freedom at the moment for that but it’s not nearly as elegant as what you guys are doing.
Hi Jay! 👋 We’re happy to hear that you love Flow. Thank you so much for the kind words! And thanks for letting us know you’re interested in these features. A timer sync is definitely planned. Syncing blocked sessions would be a little further down the road.
Syncing the app and web blocking list across iOS and iPadOS shouldn’t be too difficult to implement since they share the same implementation. However, app and web blocking on Mac works completely different. Do you use Flow on Mac and iPhone or on iPhone and iPad?