I Built and Shipped an iOS App in 3 Weeks Using Claude — Here’s How

Jiho Lee — Mon, 04 May 2026 13:05:30 +0000

The Idea

After deciding to build an iOS app using AI, the first thing I set out to create was a metronome app designed for dark stage environments.

Back in college, I played drums — and while that was a while ago, there weren’t many metronome apps that felt both clean and professional. (Turns out, that’s still true today.)
Most apps are packed with features but suffer from dated design and cluttered interfaces, making them impractical to pull up quickly on stage.

That’s what led me to the idea: a simple, black-and-white metronome where the beat is front and center — and nothing else gets in the way.

Claude Free vs. Paid

I’d already made up my mind to use Claude as my AI of choice. I’d been using things like Gemini and Google AI Studio recently, but the word on Claude was hard to ignore.

So I started with the free plan — and honestly, it held up pretty well. (This was on Sonnet 4.6.)

I think if you’re patient and chip away at it a little each day, you could probably build something at the level of this metronome app entirely on the free tier.

But building an app turned out to be more than just building the app.
Once the core structure was in place, there were countless small tweaks to make. And throughout the App Store submission process, I had a lot of questions for Claude — about Apple’s requirements, review guidelines, all of it.

The token usage from all of that adds up faster than you’d expect.
I eventually upgraded to the paid plan. I went with Pro, and found that an hour or more of intensive vibe coding tends to burn through the session limit. That said, Max felt like more than I needed.

Claude Projects vs. Claude Code

In hindsight, Claude Code might seem like the obvious choice — but for this first app, I used Claude’s Project feature instead.

Projects let Claude maintain context across long, ongoing conversations. You can also store conversation context in markdown files, which helps a lot.

My workflow was simple: ask Claude to write the code, take what it gave me, and paste it into Xcode.

Claude had no access to my files — I didn’t give it any — but it kept the full structure and logic of the project in mind throughout. When something needed fixing, it knew exactly where to look.

For a simple app, Claude Projects is more than enough.

That said, the moment things get even slightly complex, Claude Code is the better call — no question.

Built and Shipped in 3 Weeks

I’ve studied Swift before, but I’m honestly not at the level where I could build something like this on my own — certainly not to a standard I’d actually be happy with.

And yet, with Claude, I put together a metronome app I’m genuinely proud of in about two weeks, then spent another week navigating the App Store submission process to get it live.

It’s kind of remarkable, when you think about it.

What This All Means

AI still isn’t perfect, and strong fundamentals still give you an edge — that much is true.

But the knowledge barrier is coming down. It might sound like I’m getting ahead of myself, but the direction things are heading seems pretty clear.

In the end, what matters most now is the idea and the will to act on it. Though at some point, maybe AI will take that from us too…

Dark Metronome

Give it a try. And if you feel like buying me a coffee, I’d really appreciate it.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dark-metronome/id6762466734?l=ko
Dark Metronome

Battery Engineer by Day, App Developer by Night — Here’s Why

Jiho Lee — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 13:29:31 +0000

Ever since I was a kid, I've been drawn to things that move on their own — machines, systems, anything that just runs.

Maybe that's just a boy thing. But looking back, I think it was more than that. I wasn't some kind of prodigy, but the pull toward "things that work automatically" was always a little stronger in me than in most people around me.

That curiosity eventually led me down a winding path between science and engineering — and I ended up in the battery industry, which was a pretty exciting place to be in Korea for a while. These days I spend my days doing battery research, and honestly, I love it.

But the itch never really went away. The need to build something that runs on its own.

Video games didn't scratch it. I tried iOS development once, but the gap between imagination and working code was wide — and I'm no genius. Late nights only go so far.

Then AI showed up.

And I started to realize that my broad-but-shallow knowledge, combined with the right tools, could actually turn ideas into real things. That's been a genuinely new feeling.

So I'm going to start building apps. Properly, this time.

The first one is Dark Metronome — a metronome app I always wished existed when I played drums. Clean UI, built for dark environments. No fluff. (More on that in the next post!)

The second one is still in progress — something to help cut through the noise of information overload and keep me focused on what actually matters. I'll get into that as it develops.

Anyway. This is the beginning. Should be fun. **

DEV Community: Jiho Lee