The app finally works, and it has two tabs.

Two days ago the app finally started working. Today it got a new shape: a Stories tab and a Music tab, and a small player that stays at the bottom of every screen.

The two weeks before that were the worst of the project so far. The app looked finished and wasn’t. Adding a show from the phone failed every time, and the player was still playing the episodes I’d hard-coded in July. Every fix from Claude changed the app and left the bug alone. And I couldn’t explain the difference between a feed and a playlist myself, which isn’t a great sign for a screen built around both.

What fixed it was small, and I found it myself: one wrong setting in how the app asked the player to add a show. Claude is fast. It isn’t a substitute for thinking. From here it does the heavy lifting and I do the review.

The two tabs are the music and stories split from August, showing up in the app first. And a new player now comes with some music on it, so it plays something before anyone opens a phone.

The remaining work for a first version is now a list. Two weeks ago it was a loop.

Next: simpler words and a simpler library. Feeds and playlists are on their way out. Also an app icon. The first sketch is a red circle.

The first icon sketch, December 7, 2025, and the two that followed on December 22.