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Indie App Spotlight

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Indie App Spotlight is a weekly 9to5Mac series run by Michael Burkhardt, showcasing the latest developments in the indie app world.

If you’re an indie iOS app developer and have recently launched a new app, major update, or just have an app you think is interesting – let us know! All submissions can be emailed to michaelb@9to5mac.com.

Indie App Spotlight: ‘Mirage’ brings your Mac display to iPad and more with retina quality

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Mirage is a brand new app that brings best-in-class desktop wireless screen sharing to your entire Apple ecosystem. You can stream from your Mac to your iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro, or even another Mac. It’s very low latency and has a plethora of great features that make it the one stop shop for remotely using your Mac.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Brink’ brings a feature-rich experience to iPhone podcast listening

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re looking to level up your podcast experience, check out Brink. It’s a well made iOS podcast app with rich features, including a news tab, podcast summaries, trending podcasts, AI playlists, and much more. It’s also well made for iOS 26 and Liquid Glass, and feels right at home on the iPhone.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘oh my hours’ counts the hours you’ve wasted, not your screen time

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Many people want to spend less time on their iPhones, whether that be for productivity, socializing more, or something else. Screen time tools prove useful here, providing users with an idea of how much time they’re spending on their iPhones. For many people, though, they end up being too lenient to be effective.

With ‘oh my hours’ – the app flips the script, and instead makes you aware of how many hours you’ve wasted in an undesired app, rather than simply telling you you’ve hit your screen time limit.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Grit Method’ builds character with 4 daily goals

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Habit tracking apps are a dime a dozen, but Grit Method sets itself apart by requiring you to be more thoughtful. With your input, the app clearly outlines four clear goals for you to work towards daily, and it’s about more than just being more productive.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘NextThere’ helps you navigate public transit with rich insights

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Navigating across different cities and figuring out their public transportation can sometimes be a bit messy. Maps apps might not always have the best information, or the apps that do exist aren’t presenting data in a super readable manner.

NextThere aims to tackle that problem, and also packs loads of historical data for providing more informed information regarding delays, on-time performance, and so on. It’s great for tourists and frequent commuters alike.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Poppy’ is a proactive AI assistant that handles what Siri still can’t

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


In a world full of AI assistants and tools that try to make your life easier, Poppy takes a different approach. Rather than requiring your effort up front, Poppy does its best to be proactive – and give you helpful context before you even know you need it.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Cats Lock’ is a fun Mac app that solves cat keyboard spam

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

If you’re a beloved cat owner, you might often have your cat running across your Mac’s keyboard, causing loads of unnecessary keyboard input, and sometimes even unwanted communications. Cats Lock has a solution for it, and soon your cat will be able to roam your MacBook keyboard freely.

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Indie App Spotlight: The ‘Before You’ bundle offers four effective screen time apps

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

Most people believe they’re spending too much time on their phones – but don’t necessarily know how to do better. Developer Florian Schimanke has created four great apps to help you with your screen time in different ways. You can get them individually, or you can also buy them all as a bundle at a discounted rate.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘This Day’ turns photo cleanup into a simple daily habit

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Everyone probably has a massive photo library going back for years, maybe even over a decade. Over time, that consumes more and more storage – and this becomes a problem, especially if you’re paying for iCloud storage. On the other hand, decluttering isn’t easy.

This Day turns photo decluttering into a habit, by designing an interface that allows you to address it one day at a time.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘InnerPulse’ is an in depth, private, and on-device mood tracker

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Mood tracking apps can be really important and useful, whether you want to be more mindful – or if you need to track it for your therapist. That said, lots of apps either charge a subscription, are lacking in depth, or don’t have everything you might need. InnerPulse aims to solve that, while keeping privacy at the center.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘QuakeInfo’ is a fast and easy way to monitor ongoing earthquakes

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you live in a earthquake-prone climate, you might be interested in a tool to help monitor them. QuakeInfo is a long-standing app on the App Store, and it’s recently been updated with a Liquid Glass design and new features.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘PackGoat’ intelligently helps you pack for trips in an easy manner

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.

Packing for trips can be stressful at times. PackGoat makes the process much easier, and utilizes Apple Intelligence to help make just the right list for your trip – even down to the weight.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘VariAlarm’ brings proper schedules to your alarm clock

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Juggling loads of alarms in the Clock app can be annoying. VariAlarm aims to fix this, by dynamically adjusting your alarms based on your schedule, rather than having fixed times.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Yogi Breath’ is a guided breathing app that progresses with you

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re someone looking to add more meditation to your life, Yogi Breath could be the right fit. Yogi Breath is a guided breathwork app that moves at your pace – with a number of helpful features to keep you motivated.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Tasks’ adds 50+ app intents, refreshed interface in latest update

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Tasks, a very popular productivity app for the Apple ecosystem – just got a massive new update with support for loads of App Intents, an all new interface, as well as automations to help you manage your tasks. We covered Tasks when it initially launched back in 2020, and this week’s new update is a major one.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Kiosk 27’ makes your iPhone camera feel like film

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


iPhone cameras have come a long way over the years, but if you find yourself yearning for more of a classy, filmic look versus the computational photography of today, Kiosk 27 might be a fun fit for you.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Weather mini’ packs trip forecasts and more in a beautiful design

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Weather mini is a nicely designed weather app for the entire Apple ecosystem that adds a couple key features that Apple Weather misses. You can plan out trips, chat with the on-device Apple Intelligence model for forecasts, and it even includes a fully featured Apple Watch app.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Itsyhome’ adds smart home controls to your Mac’s menu bar

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re someone who spends a lot of time on their Mac, you might often find yourself wanting to control one of your lights, thermostats, or just check on your camera. At the same time, you might not love Apple’s Home app.

Itsyhome adds all of the home controls you’ll need to your Mac’s menu bar – and it isn’t even HomeKit exclusive. It also supports Home Assistant, and has loads of useful features under the hood.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Summit’ is an all-in-one portfolio tracker for iPhone and iPad

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re a heavy investor, you might find yourself having accounts across various brokerages. Or, perhaps, you only invest with one brokerage but you find their app interface very ugly. Summit solves both of these problems, providing a clean all-in-one interface for tracking all of your investments across Apple devices.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Peaks’ uses Apple Health data to help you manage your energy

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re an Apple Watch user, the Apple Health app has loads of useful data based on what it can collect from the watch. However, it’s not always easy to analyze that data and turn it into actionable health advice. Peaks solves one part of the problem, by utilizing your sleep data to help you plan your circadian rhythm.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘WatchFit’ lets you make custom workouts for your Apple Watch

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re an avid Apple Watch user, you might find yourself wanting more workout choices than what the Workout app can offer you. WatchFit bridges that gap, allowing you to build custom, structured workouts to your choosing.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Within Reach’ helps you track your weight loss journey

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Obesity remains a rampant concern in America, with 2 in 5 adults struggling with obesity. GLP-1 medications have become popular in recent years to help people manage their weight – and Within Reach is a companion app to help you track everything related to the journey.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Phozzle’ is a unique puzzle game that taps into your photo library

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


Everyone has thousands of photos in their iPhone’s photo library, but you might not necessarily go back and rediscover them often. In recent iOS versions, the Photos app has gotten better at surfacing old memories – but Phozzle has a unique approach to photo rediscovery.

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Indie App Spotlight: ‘Radiance’ is a fantastic, free wallpaper app for iPhone users

Welcome to Indie App Spotlight. This is a weekly 9to5Mac series where we showcase the latest apps in the indie app world. If you’re a developer and would like your app featured, get in contact.


If you’re looking for a fresh set of wallpapers for your iPhone or iPad, Radiance is a great app to check out. It has a nice feeling interface, and it’s completely free of ads.

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