Hi r/SideProject, I'm Will, an indie developer in LA. I used to be a software engineer at Tencent, and I've been hooked on large language models ever since they showed up. This is my first app of my own. I wanted to see what living with a bit of software would feel like if it weren't another assistant doing tasks for me, just something small that keeps me company. So I made Maozai (猫在, roughly "the cat is here"). What it does: It gets hungry at mealtimes. Tap "Eat together" and it eats with you. Between meals it gets thirsty, which is my cue to drink some water. With permission it reads Apple Health: it works out when you work out, celebrates when you close your rings, and checks on you if your heart races while you're sitting still. The health data never leaves the phone. It keeps a one-line diary of the day you actually had: steps, meals, how many times you petted it. On Apple Watch you pet it by holding the screen and tease it with the Digital Crown. It never runs away or dies if you forget about it. I didn't want a pet that guilt-trips you. The business side, since this sub likes the details: free to download, six kittens free, no ads, no account. There's an optional subscription for unlimited AI chat ($4.99/month), and six more breeds come in mystery boxes ($1.99 each). The odds are on screen before you pay, and a box never repeats a cat you already have, so six boxes always get all six. Honest disclosure: the kittens are AI-generated images and video clips. Getting them right took longer than the code. Early versions of the orange one had six legs, and I spent an evening counting paws. Chat replies come from a language model only if you opt in; otherwise it answers with simple rules on the phone and nothing is sent. I'd love feedback, especially on anything that feels annoying, and what you'd want it to do on the watch. App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6822157747?pt=129600156&ct=reddit-sideproject&mt=8 Website: https://pocketcat.app/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=sideproject   submitted by   /u/Ok_Cook_5314 [link]   [comments]