Yesterdays
I designed, developed, launched, and maintain a simple, private memory tracking iOS app.
I built Yesterdays to solve a problem I’ve had for years.
At various times, I’d used Evernote, Notion, Obsidian, and Airtable to write down funny things my kids said, or small meaningful moments with my family.
Problems:
- The notes were mixed in with all sorts of other stuff, work and personal.
- It was tricky to get the memories “out” of these tools to quickly reminisce about them.
- I felt icky about bigger companies owning and potentially having access to this sort of content.
Enter Yesterdays: a straightforward, private space for capturing memories. Stripping away the complexities of typical journaling apps, it offers a no-frills way to note and tag memorable moments. Things your kids said. Special little moments with friends that maybe aren’t tied to an event or a photo, or something you posted on social media. Stuff you might otherwise forget, but bring you joy when you remember them.
Before this, I’d largely worked in web technologies. Native apps had always seemed opaque. Yesterdays proved to be a great opportunity to learn some native iOS techniques. It was fun to build not only according to my values (private-first, no weird data tracking, no ads, etc) but also using brand new frameworks from Apple like SwiftData and SwiftUI.
So, I built Yesterdays for me, but I hope you enjoy it too :) You can download it on the App Store or learn more about it at yesterdays.app.