AI-assisted development really is a new era. Not hype — actual, measurable results. What used to require a team of three or four people — design, back-end, front-end, that one guy who knows Figma — one person can now deliver alone. As long as they have coffee. Coffee is non-negotiable.
I decided to take on a solo project. I chose Vue 3 because I genuinely believe it's the technology that fits best right now: organized, clean, with a learning curve that respects your time. Combined with Ionic to turn everything into a mobile app, the stack was lean and powerful. In 5 days, from flow conception to working code, the app was ready. Five days. I thought the hard part was over. I was wrong in a way that only hands-on experience can teach you.
Apple and the $100 that never had a chance
Before talking about Google Play, I need to mention the App Store, just to put it on record. Publishing on the App Store costs $99 per year. For a solo developer running an experimental project with no guarantee of return, that fee is simply a dealbreaker. For Brazilian developers specifically, the conversion rate turns it into a genuinely painful number. Noted. Moving on.
Google Play: the light at the end of the tunnel that turns out to be a train
Google Play charges a one-time registration fee of around $25. Reasonable for the challenge. I paid, uploaded the APK, and figured things would be live within a few days.
What I did not figure is that publishing an app on Google Play is the closest real-world equivalent of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with every single step forward. You advance, you breathe, you think you made it — and then you realize it was the train. With another massive step. And a review that can take 3 to 7 business days. Per step. Of many.
From the moment I finished the app to the moment it was actually live in production: over a month. Thirty-something days staring at the Play Console dashboard like someone watching the sky and waiting for rain.
I have 15 years of experience and I almost couldn't find 12 testers
Part of the delay, I'll admit, is not Google's fault. I've been a developer for over 15 years. And when I leave the catacombs of my safe, quiet, air-conditioned environment, it's usually to grab coffee and return to the code. I don't have a large real-world network. My introverted nature has served my productivity well and my contact list poorly.
The uncomfortable detail is that Google Play requires a minimum of 12 real testers before allowing your app into production. Twelve actual people who need to install, open, and use the app for at least 14 consecutive days.
I had to go outside. Literally. I reached out to family members, friends, acquaintances, and people who never imagined they'd be beta testing a mobile app — and they showed up. In the end, I gathered 13 testers. One above the minimum. Considering my social interaction history, that is a personal record worth acknowledging.
Forms, versions, and more forms
When the testing period finally ended, I naively assumed it was just a matter of waiting for the final review. It was not. Two more weeks appeared, filled with forms, declarations, and one particularly memorable requirement: submit a new version of the app. Not a single line of code needed to change. Just the version number. 1.0 became 1.1, Google was satisfied, and I spent a quiet moment wondering what exactly had shifted in the universe.
What the project actually is, and what I learned beyond the code
The app itself is straightforward and, I'll admit, kind of fun: palm reading powered by artificial intelligence. You take a photo of your hand, the AI analyzes it, and delivers a reading. I built it because I thought it would be an interesting project to learn things that everyday CRUD work doesn't teach you.
And I did learn. I had to study how to write effective prompts — which is a real skill, not just a buzzword. I had to learn how to protect the API against attacks, which takes time but stays with you. And I built a result-sharing feature that makes the reading visually polished, ready to post on social media. Maybe it drives engagement, maybe it doesn't. Worth trying.
It's live
Today the app is available on Google Play. If you made it this far, you've already helped me more than you know. If you can install it, test it, and share it with someone who might find it interesting, every interaction genuinely matters — and I now know exactly how much work sits behind an app reaching a store.
Before I forget: it speaks your language
The app is available in 10 languages — Portuguese, English, Spanish, Italian,
German, French, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, and Esperanto. Yes, Esperanto.
Someone out there needs their palm read in a constructed language and I respect that.
Thanks for reading. Until next time.
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