Every video I made cost me an afternoon. So I built the app that fixed it.

I make short videos — product clips, updates, the occasional talking-head post. And for two years, every single one ate half a day.

The loop was always the same:

1. Write the script in Notes

2. Open a teleprompter app to read it

3. Switch to the Camera app to film

4. Export to a separate editor to trim the dead air and add captions

5. Lose the clip somewhere in a camera roll with 4,000 photos

Three apps, three exports, and by step 4 I'd usually decided the video wasn't that important after all. I have a folder of scripts for videos that never got made.

So I built AploCam: script → rehearse → record → edit, all in one iPhone app, with folders so nothing disappears.

The feature I didn't expect to care about

Rehearsal with a natural voice. The app reads your script out loud before you film. I added it as a nice-to-have and it turned into the thing I use most — hearing your own writing read back exposes every clunky sentence instantly. It changed how I write scripts, not just how I record them.

What I got wrong

I built the editor first because it was the fun part. Wrong order. The teleprompter is what people actually open the app for, and the floating script overlay — the one that stays visible while you record — took three rewrites to feel right. Should have started there.

I also shipped v1.0 too thin. Real feedback only started after 1.1, when the workflow was actually complete end to end.

Where it is now

Live on the App Store, free with an optional Pro plan. iPhone only, iOS 26.2+ — which I know is aggressive, and it's the tradeoff I'm least sure about.

Two questions for this crowd:

1. For those who ship mobile apps solo — where did your first non-zero download days actually come from? Directories, ASO, or something else entirely?

2. Is a high minimum iOS version a real killer, or does it matter less than it feels like it does?

Link's in my profile. Happy to answer anything about the build, and I'd rather have honest criticism than upvotes.