Shipping Notifications Without Asking First — Provisional Authorization in Rork Apps, and the Expo Snippet That Quietly Undoes It
iOS lets you start delivering notifications with no permission dialog at all, via provisional authorization. The catch: expo-notifications reports granted as false for provisional devices, so the registration snippet in Expo's own docs re-requests permission and fires the very dialog you were avoiding. Here's why granted lies, a hook that models authorization as five states, how to write notifications for quiet delivery, when to ask for the upgrade, and how to keep provisional out of your CTR.
Building Fortune & Manifestation Apps with Rork — Daily Delivery Design That Survives Day Three
Fortune apps lose most users in three days. A Rork design for daily delivery, push timing, and widgets that turns the niche into a habit.
Designing a Rork App That Doesn't Get Deleted — A Solo Developer's Playbook for the First Week
Most Rork apps die in the first three days. Starting with where deletion data actually comes from (not Firebase, on iOS), here is a first-week design for D0, D1, D3 and D7 — with the code that makes each stage measurable.
Rork Max × Apple TipKit — Designing In-App Guidance That Cuts Onboarding Drop-Off
Wire Apple's TipKit framework into a Rork Max app via Expo Modules to ship contextual in-app guidance that meaningfully reduces onboarding drop-off — with eligibility rules, localization, CloudKit sync, and analytics covered end to end.
How I Push a Rork-Built App Toward $700/Month — A Field Guide to Pricing Tests, Retention, and Churn Defense
A premium playbook for taking a Rork-built app to roughly $700/month in revenue, focused on pricing tests, retention engineering, and churn defense. Distilled from 12 years of running indie apps in parallel — what actually moved revenue, what didn't, with realistic numbers and code.
Retention and LTV for Rork Apps — Separating the Two Numbers I Kept Confusing
Install retention and subscription retention use different denominators. Starting from the LTV miscalculation that came from mixing them, this walks through reading Day1/Day7/Day30 correctly, costing in generation credits, and catching churn signals early — from an indie developer's desk.
When Bumping Push to Three a Day Cut Next-Week Returns — Field Notes on Measuring Notification Frequency by D7 Retention and Opt-Out Rate
The assumption that heavier push means more returns was quietly eroding my D7 retention. These are field notes on re-measuring notification frequency by install-cohort D7 and opt-out rate, and walking from three a day back to one.
When In-App Review Prompts Fire but Your Ratings Never Move — Field Notes on Measuring Display Opportunities and Timing
You wired expo-store-review into your Rork app, yet the star count won't grow. The OS silently suppresses the dialog, so calling it doesn't mean it shows. These are field notes on measuring display opportunities and redesigning timing.
Putting Your Own Control in Control Center — ControlWidget Design That Adds Launch Paths to a Rork Max App
Implementing iOS 18 ControlWidget to place custom controls in Control Center, the Lock Screen, and the Action button: working ControlWidgetButton and ControlWidgetToggle code, its value as a launch path, and how it feeds retention.
DAU Went Up but Retention Didn't — Rebuilding Gamification That Actually Sticks in Rork Apps
Points, badges, and leaderboards lift DAU, but retention is a different story. Field notes on a server-authoritative point ledger, streaks that forgive, and leaderboards that don't crush newcomers — with working code for Rork apps.
A Wallpaper App's Real Work Starts After Launch — Content, Retention, and Revenue Notes from Running One on Rork
A wallpaper app is decided less by its launch and more by how you tend it afterward. Building on a Rork implementation, here are field notes on scheduled publishing that keeps content fresh, onboarding that survives the first week, and a revenue setup whose per-download return doesn't thin out over time.
Stop Burning Your One Push-Permission Shot on App Launch — Pre-Prompt Priming for Rork Apps
If your Rork (Expo) app fires the OS push-permission dialog at launch, every 'Don't Allow' tap closes that channel forever — iOS won't let you ask again. Here's how a self-built pre-permission screen lifts your opt-in rate, with the Expo code to do it.