Why PocketCode is taking so long

I've spent a year on PocketCode and it still isn't on Google Play. If you've been waiting months for it, I think you deserve to know why.

Everywhere else on this blog I write as "we", because that's what sounds natural when you talk about a product. But there's no team here. It's me, and I'm the one writing this.

What's already built

I'm starting here because I sometimes forget to say it.

Inside the app there's a code editor with real autocomplete, a Linux terminal with SSH, a PostgreSQL running on the phone itself, an API client, a visual designer, a marketplace, and an AI assistant that runs on your own account. Nine tools, in one application, working.

It's by far the biggest thing I've ever built. And it didn't come out of a company with a team and a budget — it came out of a laptop, at night.

December

The year hasn't been a straight line.

I started in September 2025 with some savings and the assumption they'd last me to the finish. They didn't. In December I did the maths, it didn't add up, and I had to stop and look for work.

December, January and February are blank in the repository history. I didn't touch the project. I came back in March, and since then I work as a developer at a company and PocketCode is what I do when I'm done: nights, weekends, whatever hours are left.

I'm not telling you this as a tragedy, because it isn't one, and because it happens to a lot of people building something on their own. I'm telling you because it's the real reason for the delay, and I'd rather say it than invent a better one.

Why I'm not shipping it now

I could have published something months ago. A cut-down version, half the tools, and fix it as I go.

I don't want to do that.

An IDE is where you leave your work: your code, your keys, your databases. If something breaks the first time you open it, you don't come back. And you'd be right not to. There's no second first impression, and this app only launches once.

I want it to work when you install it. It won't be perfect — nothing is. But I want it to be something you can use without having to make excuses for it.

Where I am now

What's left isn't building, it's polishing and testing. Going over the edges, finding the bugs that only show up on phones that aren't mine, and not breaking things that already worked. It's the slowest part and the one nobody sees.

My estimate is the end of this month or the start of the next one.

It's the first date I've given seriously. If it slips again, I'll write that here too, the same way I wrote this.

I'm not asking you for anything

I just wanted anyone who's been staring at a "coming soon" to know there's someone back here working on it, and why it's taken this long. Thanks for sticking around.