What is the app?

Bird search - Supercharge your search on Twitter

Twitter is a gold mine of content that anyone can retrieve tweets, conversations, media etc just the way you want but the problem with twitter advance search is it demands you to learn "how" to search it. While it is great for tech geeks but it is not a cup of tea for all others, that's where Bird search app comes in.

Checkout app here https://birdsearch.carrd.co/

So, I've prioritized these problems

1. Build a solution that focuses more on "what" to search instead of "how" to.
2. Unlock several search filters (these search filters are currently not visible on default twitter advanced search)
3. Library to store all the search phrases.
4. Introduce "Discover" section to educate user how to find the best content.

Checkout app here https://birdsearch.carrd.co/

How did I build?

Tech stack:

• Frontend: Swift
• Backend: iCloud/Xano

Not much to talk about frontend here. But when I've decided the tech stack for backend I wanted to make sure "Privacy" is the by product for the user generated data.

User generated data is stored in iCloud.(Private)
Data generated in Discover section is stored in Xano.(Public)

Xano is a low-code server-less for backend development

Pros:

• When you create a table, a default CRUD APIs are automagically generated (this itself saves you 4-8 hours easily)
• No need to manage servers, just watch out the peak usage to scale your servers.
• Easy to adopt for beginners (no need to have backend knowledge, but a decent knowledge is enough on building tables and using APIs)
• Export data to another service provider
• Integrations with 3rd party providers many more...

Cons:

• The product is not matured enough in a sense that if you want to build complex server-side logic you are limited to it(While, I've not checked out how their server-less functions are working, but if you so, leave your feedback in the comments :) )
• Not many 3rd party integration providers
• Usability issues on their dashboard
• Expensive pricing (they could do little better in terms in increasing usage limits on their $59 plan)
• Abstraction layers such as Xano are not great to build scalable products(of course it depends on how you are scaling your product) but for small & medium size products is more than enough.

Conclusion

• Don't reinvent wheel, you've lot to work when you are hacking in Indie world.
• Don't think scalable solutions unless you know the product work until then use low code solutions like Xano
• If you want to introduce low code tools in your company, start with projects that are short lived, it is a good place to build MVPs and convince your team. Ex: We've introduced low code and no code tools for marketing projects initially.

(Note: I am not affiliated to Xano)

Checkout my other blog post: https://dev.to/pradeepb28_/with-this-macos-app-declutter-your-workspace-and-organize-it-in-1-click-30nh