Empty
Empty is a fasting tracker that I'm building with Rafael. We’re launching on Tuesday March 12th, 2024.
Features
Empty is simultaneously minimal and rich with features. The app includes:
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Custom Scheduling (daytime & overnight fasting routines, cheat days)
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Data Visualizations (calendar and weekly summary stats)
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Rich Personalization (6 color themes, 18 icons, + light & dark mode)
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Widgets & Live Activities
Why make a fasting tracker?
I decided to pick up intermittent fasting again at the start of 2024 and wanted a simple tool to keep myself accountable. When I went to the App Store I was somewhat let down.
The big fasting apps all had extra features that I didn’t want like water tracking, weight tracking, and meal planning. It felt like they had gotten bloated over time in order to justify their premium subscriptions, and I really only wanted a nice timer tailored to the cadence of my fasting practice.
There were also many free indie apps that worked well, but they felt just a bit too bare. The more I thought about it, the more a fasting tracker felt like a great product to go deep on…
From a technical perspective, a fasting tracker doesn’t need to do much more than start, stop, and cancel/reset a timer. At the same time, fasting means so much to those who practice, so every moment of the experience matters. The presentation of data (history and streaks) are especially important since most people have strong intent to build and maintain healthy habits when downloading this sort of app. Our hope is that a cleaner UI can create stronger feedback loops and improve accountability.
I started building an early prototype in December and brought Rafael onto the project in February. Once he took over the code, things really kicked into gear.
About Us
Rafael and I were introduced to each other by our friend Raphael (I know 😅). Before Empty, Rafael was the solo developer of Dime (a popular budgeting app) while I’ve been working on an exercise planner called Steddy.
Both of us are mobile app fanatics and followed each other’s work closely on Twitter, so when the opportunity to collaborate showed up we jumped on it. It was pretty obvious right away that a simple and practical utility with a focus on craft would be the right intersection for us. Rafael is in Singapore and I’m in Chicago, so we’re constantly syncing up at odd hours to jam on the product.
We’ve also had the pleasure of collaborating with a bunch of other people around the world while building Empty. Our app icons were designed by Hannah Lee, our landing page was developed by Cory Etzkorn, and we’ve received technical advising from a bunch of friends, including Raphael, along the way.
We’ve even had some of our beta testers offer to translate the app into different languages, which we hope to do soon! Special thanks as well to Toni, Adam, Sulley, and Miles who have been consistent sounding boards for Empty and many other mobile apps and concepts that I’ve worked on.
Business Model
Empty will be listed on the App Store as a paid app and sell for $1.99 in the United States. We think the “buy once keep it forever” model makes sense for this sort of app which stores data locally on your device and has almost $0 in overhead costs.
The large fasting apps (Zero and Fastic) charge up to $70 - $100 per year for their premium versions and justify this with personalized plans, extra features, and educational content.
While this may work for some people, there are also many others who just want the tool. Many of our beta testers frequently tell us that they are annoyed by the feature bloat and constant upselling, which is why they were so eager to give Empty a try in the first place.
Of course, Zero and Fastic are listed as free apps on the App Store and rely on in-app purchases to get you to upgrade… but are they really free if this is what you see when you open the app?
Contact
If the story behind Empty resonates with you and you’d like to write about our app or just chat with us, please reach out!
Links