I Made an App Where You Pet a Cat Before Opening Instagram

#ios #swift #cats #buildinpublic

I love cats. My life has two things: cats and AI. So I made an app that puts cats between you and social media.

That's it. That's the whole story.

Why This Exists

I kept opening Instagram at weird times. 2 AM, during meetings, while cooking. The usual app blockers felt wrong. Opal made me feel like I was in digital jail. One Sec's breathing exercises annoyed me. Forest's virtual trees were stupid.

None of them understood something basic: I don't want to fight the urge to scroll. I just want a moment to think about whether I actually want to scroll right now.

Cats are good at making you pause. They don't rush. They judge you first. Then maybe they let you proceed.

How CatGate Works

You pick which apps get gated. When you tap Instagram or TikTok or whatever, instead of the app opening, you get a cat. The cat is sitting with its back to you.

You have to pet the cat gently. Too fast and the cat gets annoyed. Too slow and nothing happens. Get it right and the cat does a slow blink, then your app opens.

Sometimes after petting the cat I realize I don't actually want to open Instagram. Sometimes I do, but I'm more aware of it. Either way works.

The Technical Stuff

Built in Swift. Uses the Screen Time API to intercept app launches. Apple doesn't let you actually block apps, which was annoying at first. But redirecting through our interface turned out to be better anyway.

Making the petting feel right took forever. Real cats are particular about touch. We tried different haptic patterns until we found something that felt natural. Turns out cat purr frequencies are 25-35 Hz, so we matched that.

Eight breeds now. People keep requesting specific cats so I add them monthly. No free version - ads would kill the whole point.

No Startup Story Here

I'm not trying to revolutionize productivity or fix humanity's relationship with technology. I just made something I wanted to use.

The app just launched. I can't tell you about retention rates or MRR because I don't have meaningful data yet. It's $12.99 a week or $59.99 a year. Some people think that's expensive. Maybe it is.

Taiwan users like it more than US users so far, which surprised me. Americans seem to prefer the Ragdoll cats. Taiwanese mostly keep mixed-breed cats — we call them "mixed" here — so I made sure there's one in the lineup.

What I Learned

Cats don't try to motivate you. They don't give you breathing exercises or inspirational quotes. They just exist and judge you slightly. That's weirdly effective.

I spent years in publishing. The whole industry talks about "user engagement" and "sticky features." Cats taught me something different: sometimes the best user experience is the one that lets you leave.

People started calling them "their" cat. Sending screenshots of different breeds. Getting annoyed when the cat ignores them. That relationship dynamic is something you can't design directly.

The Reality Check

This might not work. I don't know if people will keep paying for an app that makes their phone slightly less convenient. The market might be tiny.

I'm not quitting my day job. I'm not raising funding. I'm not building a team or writing a manifesto about digital wellness. I made a thing I like and put it in the App Store.

If enough people want it, great. If not, I still have cats.

Building in Public, Sort Of

Since this is dev.to, here's what building CatGate actually looked like:

Revenue so far: nothing meaningful. The app just launched. I'll update when there's something worth reporting.

Core Animation handles the cat interactions. Everything stays local for privacy. No backend, no user accounts, no analytics beyond what Apple provides.