Terry Godier

Mea Culpa - Dark Hours

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 04:20:40 -0500

Last week I launched a project called Dark Hours, which was a website utility to give you an idea of what could be seen in the sky that night.

A developer who created another web app called DarkHours.app replied to my comment on Bluesky yesterday to show me how similar the project was to his, including the name. The thread is here.

I told him I’d significantly differentiate the featureset, change the name, and write up a blog post to show people his project.

About an hour later, once it became clear to me that the web app I had launched using Claude was strikingly similar to his open source project, even reproducing a bug he had later fixed, it was clear that there wasn’t anything to do except to redirect the domain directly to him and kill any plans I had to launch an iOS app for the project.

I’d like to give credit where credit is due. I think he’s made a wonderful open source app and if you liked the features that were included in what I launched, please use the actual version of the project. That’s what I’ll be doing.

I’d also like to apologize for my irresponsible use of AI to build such a thing. While I had genuinely never seen DarkHours.app before yesterday, I was careless in relying on AI to generate the project without doing the work to understand whether it closely resembled an existing project. That’s on me, and I am responsible for what I published.

Going forward, I won’t be using AI in this way to create any more web stuff, and I do not use it to anything close to this extent on iOS software. I do ask questions, debug issues, things like that, but I do not create apps with Claude for iOS.

Browsers have standards, the App Store has judgment

Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:06:23 -0500

There is a post going around called Native Apps Should Be Avoided Whenever Possible. I first saw it through Matt Birchler’s response, Native App Propaganda is Working.

This quote got me thinking:

Most native apps collect far more data than their website equivalents ever could. They request permissions to hardware, sensors, and background processes that browsers deliberately restrict. The third-party software embedded in these apps frequently transmits your location, device identifiers, and behavioral data to third parties before you even see a consent prompt.

That’s categorically true. It is possible to do such things, and scanning the App Store around astronomy apps today, holy smokes do people do this. I downloaded the top twenty or so, and the number of permissions I was asked to grant before an app ever displayed me a starfield was incredible. Not to mention the requisite $60 a year, or somehow even worse, $10/week subscription. But I’ve written about the “free to install, but not free to use” problem before.

Today what’s on my mind is something a little different.

It occurs to me that the browser has standards and the App Store has judgment.

On the web, if I build something that works within the standards, it works. Whether people use it is up to them. On iOS, there is another question entirely: whether Apple decides it should exist.

Every platform shapes the software that’s built for it. The problem isn’t that Apple reviews apps. The problem is that when those reviews become unpredictable, developers stop taking creative risks.

In the past couple of years I’ve built three apps that were rejected from the App Store on various grounds.

The latest is one that I’ve spent ~4 months refining. It exists in a well-trodden category. There are literally hundreds of apps that do this exact same thing, sitting in the App Store today. My contribution is careful curation, world building, and innovation on the UI and UX front, as per my philosophy. Thus far, Apple has decided that my app can’t sit alongside them, even though they haven’t tested the app at all. The process is frustratingly inconsistent, when it’s coherent at all.

Note: the original version of this post had a section here about an astronomy app I am working on that began as an astrology app and was rejected after having the astrology content removed. App store review reached out to me and let me know that they had apparently never been given the updated build and that the app should be fine to submit now.

The point is that I can’t predict where the line actually is.

Apple says it doesn’t want spam. Fair enough.

If your plan is to build the fiftieth identical flashlight app, I understand why Apple might decide the world doesn’t need another one. But that isn’t what I see when I open the App Store.

I see countless ChatGPT wrappers with nearly identical icons and eye-watering subscriptions. I see astronomy apps requesting permissions that have nothing to do with looking at the night sky. My kids download games that interrupt play every few minutes to advertise the developer’s other subscription apps, each with their own $20–50 yearly plans.

Apparently those are acceptable. Maybe the flashlight app developers aren’t doing the right kind of spam.

Meanwhile, an app that tries to do something genuinely different inside an established category can be rejected for existing in that category at all. Some of the best apps for Apple platforms were innovations on existing categories, and I’d argue that the platform today is incredibly valuable because of it:

Overcast
Things
Carrot weather
Halide
Fantastical

That asymmetry is what worries me and has begun to give me pause when thinking of building for Apple platforms.

If building something different means spending four or six months on an app that might ultimately be rejected for reasons you can’t predict, while building yet another subscription wrapper is comparatively low-risk, rational people start choosing the safer project.

Not because they’re less creative, but because they are incentivized to do so.

What makes it even stranger is that none of these apps were rejected in TestFlight. Even the ones that ultimately never made it onto the App Store were happily approved for external testing. If these issues are fundamental enough to block release, why aren’t developers finding out months earlier?

Reading Native Apps Should Be Avoided Whenever Possible made me realize my concern isn’t really about privacy.

It’s about governance. Apple doesn’t just decide which apps reach users. It quietly influences which ideas are worth pursuing in the first place.

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 11:51:06 -0500

Just FYI - hit a delay on the new app that was supposed to launch this week. I submitted a last minute small change and Apple has rejected the app. So I’m stuck in paperwork-land for now.

I remain optimistic that I can get this pushed through!

I have a new app coming out next week.

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 10:54:08 -0500

I forgot how nervous and uncertain it can be in these last few days before public release.

My inclination is to question everything that I’ve already questioned, refined, iterated and agreed on a thousand times. Maybe some day I’ll learn to trust my judgment, but that day isn’t today :D

Maybe it’s just excitement.

Current Now Supports Feedly in v1.0.15

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 08:37:46 -0500

A new version of Current is rolling out now for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.

The headline change here is that Feedly is now supported as a sync provider. Here’s the story of how that happened.

This has been, by far, the most requested feature since the app debuted back in February. I’m relieved that I can now offer it.

I had originally reached out to Feedly during the development period, well before the app was announced publicly. It’s clear that they’re one of the largest, perhaps the largest RSS aggregator/service.

But they’re also the only one who didn’t respond to my (numerous) requests for integration. As it turns out, they had closed their third party API to new apps some years ago, effectively grandfathering in a handful of RSS readers.

I was finally able to get a response from them after having numerous Current users (or would-be users) reach out to support to ask about getting an integration.

Their response, in full:

Hi Terry,

Thanks for reaching out about Current - it sounds like a great project! I appreciate you doing your homework on the integration options. I need to give you some disappointing news: Feedly isn’t currently onboarding new third-party sync partnerships, and the developer API situation has changed significantly from when apps like Reeder and NetNewsWire set up their integrations. Here’s what happened: The legacy developer API that those existing apps used has been retired. API access is now only available through our Enterprise plans (starting around $1,600/month), but that’s designed for companies using the API for their own internal purposes - not for third-party app integrations like what you’re describing. About existing integrations (Reeder, NetNewsWire, etc.): Those apps were set up under specific partnership arrangements that were established years ago when Feedly had an active third-party developer program. Those partnerships are grandfathered in, but we’re not currently expanding to new sync integrations. Why this is confusing: You’re absolutely right that the docs don’t make this clear - they’re legacy documentation from when the developer program was active. The fact that other apps still work makes it look like there’s an obvious path forward, but unfortunately that pathway is currently closed for new integrations. Your options: Alternative sync backends: You might need to focus on other sync options (iCloud, self-hosted solutions, etc.) for Current’s initial launch. I’m really sorry this isn’t the answer you were hoping for. If you’d like me to escalate your inquiry to the partnerships team, I’m happy to do that - just let me know a bit more about Current (user base size, timeline, App Store presence) and I’ll forward it along. Would that be helpful? 😊

This felt to me a lot like I’d be paying thousands per month if I wanted to integrate Feedly with Current. That’s not sustainable for me as Current is a one-time purchase, and the fact is that I’m not making any payments whatsoever to any other RSS sync provider. All have been happy relationships and easy to work with.

So, I started telling folks, naw, sorry, Feedly won’t be coming to Current.

And then a couple of days later, I get an email from an engineer at Feedly who was able to get Current added to the legacy program. I’m not sharing the contents of that email here, but this person has been fantastic to work with, and very thorough and technical, in the way that I (a fellow longtime engineer) can appreciate.

So, finally, Current has Feedly integration.

In addition, here’s the full changelog for v1.0.15

- Significant performance updates across the board
- Feedly is now available 
- Most feeds that don’t work are blocking us with Cloudflare, so now we provide that detail when adding a feed, rather than “no feed found” (and are still working on being allow-listed w/ them) 
- A11y Scrub has been extended and is now fully implemented
- Fixed an issue where linkblogs (daring fireball, etc) sometimes link to themselves and get suppressed. 
- Adjust the feed picker to disambiguate each feed when a source has multiple. 
- Blackholed a handful of “helper cards” that were indeed not helpful. 
- Fixed an issue where if you don’t launch the app on the 2nd device within 7 days you could end up with orphaned stories that don’t expire. 
- Fixed an issue where the source list could fall out of sync between two devices related to above. 
- Fixed an issue where offline requests may clog up the queue once you go back online. 
- Adjusted the reading time insights to account for when you leave an article open in a pane (iPad primarily) and aren’t actually reading. 
- Fixed an issue where “Auto advance after release” would get reset by the cloud. 
- Over 30(!) small visual and interaction fixes across macOS, iPadOS and iOS. 
- Over 50(!) source fixes for parsing and identifying feeds.

The Winning Variant

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 12:01:43 -0500

I made another short film, this time a little bit inside the sausage factory that makes Current, my rss reader.

I won’t be able to hold up this cadence of two videos in a week, but this one was quicker to film because it’s mostly just me waxing philosophical about some choices I am facing with the app itself.

I hope you’ll give it a watch.

A Room You Can’t See

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:26:27 -0500

Aside from apps, music, and tech, one of my longest running hobbies is filmmaking. I’ve been building visual essays for the better part of this year, and it’s likely that you’re here because of that.

My next thing isn’t a visual essay, it’s a short documentary about music formats, streaming, and the quiet thing that disappeared when your library became endless. Oh, and a musician (me!) trying to work out whether the music changed, or I did.

I sincerely hope you’ll give it a watch. I’d love to make more things like this.

A Room You Can’t See

Sun, 24 May 2026 19:41:17 -0500

I’ve been a little distant lately, just super head down on something worth it.

A short list of what it entails: FX3, A7, Misc Aputure rigs, an iPod, lots of black paper, a few paperclips, and a hell of a story. 👀

Be back soon.

Wed, 20 May 2026 08:40:09 -0500

Just added an OPML to the Sourcefeed discover page.

This little service continues to grow by leaps and bounds and there’s a real culture developing here. It’s been inspiring and heartwarming and interesting to see how it develops!

Fri, 15 May 2026 08:55:37 -0500

I’ve been experimenting with a flagship Android device for the past few days.

Can anyone point me to some incredible paid up front / commercial indie apps for Android? I want to see the best of the best. Bonus points if it’s something crafted by one person.

I've been prototyping a fun little GUI over the top of Finder

Thu, 07 May 2026 17:38:33 -0500

Jokingly calling it Finder++. Here are a couple of videos from the past few days of playing around.

You can use cmd+shift+. to summon the shelf from the bottom of the screen at any time.

It’s a pure canvas with a visual representation of the files. Move them anywhere, rotate them, make some larger, some smaller.

Draw relationships between items, visually, and navigate through those.

Not sure what this becomes, if anything, but it’s been a lot of fun. I’m a visual thinker and I love files over anything else. Let me know if you have any use cases you can see this for, or what you might want to do with it!

Oh, and this is 100% swiftui - no funny business.

Wed, 06 May 2026 16:08:22 -0500

Listen, friends. I love Linux, but I can’t, in good faith, deliver software with the level of information density you seem to require. But I love you anyway <3

Wed, 06 May 2026 13:30:11 -0500

What I want to build are things that work the old fashioned way, on protocols that give users sovereignty and agency, but with modern thinking applied to the UI and UX.

That’s it. That’s my whole shtick. Thanks!

Tue, 05 May 2026 20:48:34 -0500

All I want in life is a modern version of Yojimbo that re-imagines Finder as a surface to drag and drop and save and recall and organize various things.

Text snippets, memes, contacts, dmgs, webpage archives, bookmarks, json files, whatever.

Persistent, visual, spatial, wonderful. Too much?

Current v1.0.14 is rolling out now.

Tue, 05 May 2026 17:21:39 -0500

After 9 days (yes!) in review…

You can now save articles on macOS via the plus button on the saved view, or by pasting a url into the command palette (cmd+k)
You can now right click any source or current in sidebar on macOS and release all, or release all read.
Added changelog rss feed quick add under help (so you can keep up to date with what’s changing inside Current)
Fixed an issue where Inoreader users would get duplicated currents created from folders.
Fixed an issue where Currents may un-delete themselves from sync provider.
Added a feature to re-build currents from sync provider tags/folders at any time.
Fixed an issue where after editing a source the list would jump to the top on macOS.
Fixed an issue where feedbin may give us urls with hashes that don’t map to feed locations (for newsletters for example).
You can now set a default browser to open in on macOS (not just safari anymore)
Made logged in sessions persist more reliably.
KaTeX and MathJax are now supported for all the math.
Many other small tweaks and bug fixes.

apps.apple.com/us/app/cu…

Tue, 05 May 2026 16:20:18 -0500

Exceptional thinking, once again courtesy of Gruber.

daringfireball.net/2026/05/s…

Tue, 05 May 2026 11:18:16 -0500

Hell yeah. Same.

shkspr.mobi/blog/2026…

Tue, 05 May 2026 10:00:15 -0500

📢 New Essay: The Boring Internet

The internet you grew up on isn’t dying.

A commercial veneer glued on top of it is.

www.terrygodier.com/the-borin…

My plan with RSS

Mon, 04 May 2026 08:22:38 -0500

With Current, Sourcefeed, and Byline all in the world now, the thesis is probably close to being clear.

I fundamentally believe that people want to make things and people want to engage with things made by other people.
We’ve got robots now that are close to, if not already, making most of the things published online. This will only grow.

These two things are in conflict.

I see RSS as a protocol that offers very little incentive for a robot or a person with a robot to operate on. The reason for that is both cultural and structural:

No algorithmic amplification
No discovery surface
No sales funnels, behavior metrics, or things to optimize

It’s not a rich format, it’s not a billion dollar growth platform. It’s boring and it’s old and it’s wonderful.

Here is what I’ve done.

Current is my take on an RSS reader client. Modern, and with enhanced user agency. You get to control how much of each thing comes in and how long it lasts - crucial functionality I felt was missing. It’s also an easy place for me to push out experimental functionality that furthers this mission (more on that in a minute).

Sourcefeed is my take on RSS as a first-class-citizen. Instead of RSS being a byproduct of making a Wordpress blog, now it’s the whole thing. Sourcefeed launched about a week ago and it’s growing significantly every day. The sincerity of the writing there is emotional and inspiring. There are thousands of posts being created every day, a couple hundred public, the rest private. People are using it in ways I hadn’t thought of.

Byline is my take on extending RSS (and Atom/JSON Feed) in a way that helps provide more context about who writes a thing, and what that thing might be. I’ve been working with a handful of other folks to review and improve the spec, and soon it’ll make its way to Sourcefeed for creation and Current for consumption (in the voices view, of course). A handful of folks who had already stumbled across this implemented it already (hi Stuart!).

So, to recap: a client for people to use, a first-class publishing/distribution platform for people to engage with, and an extension spec to showcase the person behind the thing.

If you believe in this as I do, please, come hang out. Pop something up on Sourcefeed, sub to some tags, or think about implementing Byline (or contributing to the spec!), or keep an eye on Current for the Byline implementation coming soon. Or don’t - that’s what is amazing about RSS. You can bring your own tools and beliefs!

Introducing Tags for Sourcefeed

Sat, 02 May 2026 11:59:38 -0500

Tags are now a thing on Sourcefeed. When you write a post, you can pick one (optional). The post still goes to your subscribers the way it always has. It also shows up in a shared feed with everyone else who tagged the same thing.

The tags:

walk: a note from a walk

noticed: a small thing you saw today

daily: a short daily log

weekly: a reflection on the past week

prompt: a question for other feeds to reply to

sourcefeed: comments and ideas about the platform

Each has its own RSS feed. Visit discover or https://www.sourcefeed.app/tag/walk to see what one looks like. Copy the rss url at the top, drop it into your reader, you’ll get walks from every public Sourcefeed user.

I went with a small closed set instead of free-form hashtags. Open tags get gamed for visibility and a curated handful is more interesting anyway. These six are the ones I think actually prompt a behavior worth doing.

The picker sits at the bottom of the post editor.

Sat, 02 May 2026 10:59:57 -0500

Really interesting to see how sourcefeed is working in several ways. It’s a quasi social network for some, responding to each other and coordinating topics, a niche stream of links, daily journals, and software changelogs. Inspiring!

Two new features for Sourcefeed

Fri, 01 May 2026 11:28:34 -0500

Private subscribers

You can now create private feed urls for readers. Perhaps you have a membership program that offers full-text posts, or you want to kick off a feed to share just with a few personal friends. Easy peasy. Everyone gets their own distinct feed url and you can revoke access at any time.

Post Footers

Under edit (on each feed) you can enter some details that will show up at the bottom of every post. This is a good spot to put your name and a way to contact you for replies, if you wish.

Fri, 01 May 2026 08:36:54 -0500

Several people write posts on Sourcefeed saying “I have no idea if anyone reads this” - which I consider to be a feature not a bug.

I can happily report though, that every public feed has at least 75 subscribers. So, for now, yes, someone is probably reading that :)

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 09:08:20 -0500

If they launched full-time goblin mode, I’d use it

openai.com/index/whe…

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:54:00 -0500

AI bots are now blocked on Sourcefeed. Being RSS-only there’s not really much to scrape, so the surface area is small, but now they’re explicitly blocked from the feeds. If they ignore robots.txt there’s still a proxy/middleware that will blackhole them.