Tom De Villiers

I use Mobbin for inspiration on high-quality mobile UI patterns. It gives me access to real, best-in-class designs from top apps, which helps me make smarter decisions around onboarding, navigation and gesture design. I looked at tools like Screenlane and Pttrns, but Mobbin’s depth, tagging and constant updates made it the easiest way to reference modern iOS patterns while building Twogether’s interface.

ChatGPT has been a huge part of my workflow, especially for brainstorming copy, refining UX flows and troubleshooting code. I used Codex to help debug a few tricky SwiftUI issues and speed up repetitive work during development. I considered GitHub Copilot and Claude, but ChatGPT felt more flexible across writing, coding and problem-solving. It’s like having a second developer and a creative partner in one place.

I chose Canva because it’s perfect for creating clean, consistent visuals without needing heavy design software. Whether it’s app-store screenshots, Product Hunt assets or quick social graphics, Canva lets me iterate quickly with professional results. I looked at Figma for this, and while I use it for UI/UX, it’s slower for quick marketing assets. Photoshop was overkill, so Canva hits the sweet spot for speed, templates and brand consistency.

I use Descript because it makes editing videos for Twogether fast and painless. Being able to edit by transcript, cut filler words instantly and export clean screen recordings saves me hours every week. I considered tools like Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and CapCut, but they all felt slower for quick product demos and maker-story videos. Descript lets me move fast, keep everything simple and still produce high-quality content.

Twogether is built with SwiftUI because it lets me create clean, modern iOS interfaces at speed. Live previews, declarative UI and tight integration with Apple’s ecosystem make it the perfect fit for an iOS-first app. I considered frameworks like UIKit, React Native and Flutter, but UIKit alone slows down iteration, and cross-platform stacks add complexity I didn’t need. SwiftUI gives me the balance of speed, polish and native feel that I wanted for this project.

I chose RevenueCat because it takes care of all the messy subscription infrastructure for me: entitlements, receipts, refunds, billing issues, cross-device syncing and analytics. I looked at using StoreKit 2 directly, as well as tools like Qonversion and Superwall, but they either required more manual setup or didn’t offer the same smooth developer experience. RevenueCat just works, and it saves me weeks of debugging so I can ship features faster.

I use Firebase because it lets me ship fast without maintaining my own backend. Auth, database, storage and analytics all live under one roof, which keeps the entire architecture lightweight and simple. I considered alternatives like Supabase, AWS Amplify and even building a custom backend with Node or Rails, but they either felt heavier than I needed or required more maintenance and setup. Firebase lets me skip server headaches entirely and focus on building a great experience for couples.