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iPhone and iPad app · 2026

Moonhop

A focus timer for iPhone and iPad where every focus session is a rocket flight to the Moon and beyond.

My role
Independent developer: product, design and engineering
Status
Coming to the App Store on December 29, 2026
Platforms
  • iPhone and iPad: Coming December 29, 2026
A rocket lifting off from the Moonhop spaceport, with the Moon in the sky.
Liftoff: the start of a focus session.
Moonhop during a flight, with the time left.
In flight while you work.
The Moonhop countdown on the iPhone Lock Screen.
The countdown on the Lock Screen.

The idea

Focus time as a trip through space

Each focus session, from 5 minutes to 3 hours or in Pomodoro blocks, is a rocket flight. You write what the flight is for, launch, and the crew flies while you work. Farther places only need longer flights: 20 minutes for the Moon, 30 for Mars, an hour for Pluto.

How it works

A web scene inside a native app

The 3D world and every screen are a web page bundled into the app and shown full screen; SwiftUI handles the parts a web page cannot do on an iPhone.

  • Live Activity, widgets, notifications and haptics are native.
  • three.js, the fonts and the NASA images ship inside the app, so it works offline.
  • The same page runs unchanged in a browser as the preview.

The hard part

No account, no server

Progress is saved by the app and in the player's own iCloud, friends connect through CloudKit with an invite link, and purchases are worked out on the device from Apple's signed transactions.

What's next

Launch

Moonhop is planned for the App Store on December 29, 2026, with the real sky over the pad: the Moon's phase, meteor showers and eclipses on their dates, starting with the Quadrantid meteors in January 2027.

What I did

  • Researched the market and wrote the product, game-design and launch plans before writing code.
  • Built the 3D world and every screen as a web scene bundled into a native SwiftUI app, with Swift handling what a web page cannot do on an iPhone.
  • Wrote the App Store texts, privacy answers, screenshots and press kit for launch.

Results

  • A realistic 3D spaceport and rockets, with Earth and the Moon painted from NASA imagery, and flights from low orbit to the Andromeda galaxy.
  • Native iPhone features: a Live Activity countdown on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, Home Screen widgets, arrival notifications and haptics.
  • Friends and progress sync through the player's own iCloud, so there is no account and no server.
  • No ads: a free core and an optional Pro subscription, checked on the device with StoreKit 2. In seven languages.

Key decision

Daily streak or weekly plan?

Choice

A weekly flight plan with flags at the pad, instead of a daily streak.

Why

The app is meant to be kind: coming back early keeps the minutes you flew, and a week off loses nothing.

Tradeoff

A daily streak pushes people to open the app every day; a weekly plan gives up some of that pressure in exchange for not punishing a missed day.

Built with

  • SwiftUI
  • three.js
  • StoreKit 2
  • CloudKit
  • WidgetKit
  • ActivityKit

More screenshots

Moonhop's weekly flight plan.
A weekly plan instead of a daily streak.
Moonhop's map of the Solar System.
The map, with the planets where they really are today.
Moonhop's crew of astronauts.
The crew.