It’s been a bumpy road, but ZenTasktic version 1.4 (iOS) is finally live in the AppStore. It’s the first release in the last 7 months. I already wrote about the submission, and I expected it to go smoothly, but it took longer than I expected.
There were a couple of reasons for that: first, the latest iOS upgrades broke some of the UI in the subscription controllers (for reasons beyond my comprehension), and second, Apple updated its privacy models, and that turned out to be quite a challenge.
It’s been a while since I got an app rejected on the first submit, so I was a bit surprised when I learned ZenTasktic didn’t make it. I did all the required testing and the app wasn’t crashed on any of the new features. And yet, the UI for subscription was broken, so I had to spend a few hours to realize from where it came and fix it.
After I did a new build and resubmitted, I expected it to go live instantly, only to learn that I need to take care of a whole set of privacy rules I had no idea about. ZenTasktic doesn’t track users, but it still uses a third party advertiser for its free version, and it took me a while to understand that some tracking is still performed in that area, to actually being able to deliver banners.
I fixed that part too, by implementing a new framework which basically asks the user if he’s ok with tracking. If the user doesn’t allow tracking, ads are not served. But the app is still limited to only 5 “marked as done” items per day, and it also doesn’t display the Zen status in the free version – which is basically ZenTasktic “secret sauce”. The premium version doesn’t have these limitations, obviously.
It’s been nice to get back to the process and release a new version. It seems downloads are picking up too, which should generate more feedback . If you want to play with the app, it’s free to use (except if you want to go premium, of course) and you can download it by tapping any of the icons below (there are separate versions for iOS and macOS):
I’m focusing now on the Mac version. Looks like editing information in MacCatalyst is a bit more complex, so I decided to refactor that area completely. This involves some heavy modifications of the UI, but it will make the whole process easier, and faster. Hopefully, it won’t take longer than a couple of weeks, and I will still be able to keep up with my release schedule, which is one version per month.
