Manuel Kehl

@manuelkehl

iOS/macOS/watchOS indie dev currently building @zenitizer.bsky.social Previously worked at a Cupertino-based fruit supplier 🍎

904 Folgt2.154 Follower330 Posts

Bluesky

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir manuelkehl.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· 7d

Fighting all day to get @zenitizer.bsky.social to play nicely with #SiriAI. All this worked so well with "Old Siri" via #Shortcuts / #AppIntents but this is a lot trickier 😞 At least querying, playing and stopping meditations through media playback schema works now 😅 #iOSDev #iOS27 #Siri

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· 21d

My first month of dabbling in the wild world of open weight models (and #OpenCode as my new coding harness of choice) has come to an end and I'm sold! Been a Max subscriber since Claude Code came out and this is the first time I felt confident to cancel it. #iOSDev #AI

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· 29d

And the journey continues for another year 🚀 #iOSDev

A screenshot of email app window on macOS showing the beginning of a Apple Developer Program renewal notice. It is addressed to Manuel.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 30

Apple's post-WWDC event in Berlin was such a blast! Great energy, interesting presentations and a chance to hang out with folks from the amazing #iOSDev community 🤗 One of my highlights were the inspiring talks by fellow indies @strasser.bsky.social and @leomehlig.bsky.social 👏

A hand holding a tag with lanyard from the Apple event with my name Manuel Kehl printed on it and the Berlin Cathedral in the background

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 16

Ah man, not even made it to 50% of #iOS27 #Spotlight indexing… Anyone done already? How's spotlight and mail search for you in practice? Hope it's going to be a notable improvement 🤞 Thanks to @9to5mac.com for sharing the log line to filter for 🤓 9to5mac.com/2026/06/15/still-...

A screenshot of Console.app showing that my phone is currently at 40% of the new Spotlight indexing progress after installing iOS 27 last week.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 16

As an #iOSDeveloper, I gotta say that #DeviceHub has been a huge productivity boost in those few days since #Xcode27 was released! All simulators in one window, quick access to accessibility settings and mirroring + controlling physical test devices 🤯 It is a real game changer IMO 🤓

A screenshot of device app showing a simulator running for a branch of my app where I'm currently working on some spacing related issues. There's a red outline around the text size accessibility setting and an arrow pointing from that Bad setting to the simulator.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 7

Less than 20 hours to go until the keynote starts! So excited 🍿 Wishing everyone who gets to be there in person an amazing time! Can't make it myself, but watching virtually with friends helps a little with the FOMO 🥲 #WWDC26

A screenshot of the Daylish app's "Peeking Ahead" view showing tomorrow's schedule (Jun 8). A stack of back-to-back events: "Get Ready for Watch Party" 6:20 to 6:30 PM, a "Virtual Keynote Watch Party" on FaceTime 6:30 to 9:30 PM, the "WWDC26 Keynote" 7 to 9 PM with Apple event links and a countdown reading "In 19 hr, 59 min," and "WWDC26 Platforms State of the Union" 10 to 11 PM.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 4

Me, grocery shopping: Not buying snacks, so we only have healthy food at home. So smart💡 Me at 10pm: Okay let's see… we got butter, sugar and a frying pan to make some caramel and then throw in some almond chips and pine nuts 👨‍🍳 Past me isn't feeling so smart anymore. But it turned out delish 🤷‍♂️

A close up shot of roasted almonds and pine nuts covered in sticky caramel

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· May 11

Happy Monday, everyone! Almost done with the accounting. Main motivation: getting this over with quickly so I can go back to coding for the rest of the morning. And coffee. Lots of coffee. Like, LOTS OF COFFEE.

Manuel, with brown hair, round tortoiseshell glasses, and a curled handlebar mustache, sits in a chair holding a white coffee mug up to the camera with a wide-eyed look. The mug shows the 'This is fine' meme. Bold red text reads 'STEP 1: Really Strong Coffee.'

Manuel, with brown hair, round tortoiseshell glasses, and a curled handlebar mustache, wearing over-ear headphones, sits at his desk in front of a large monitor displaying the Apple Music Mac app with a 'Synthwave Focus' playlist open. The 'This is fine' coffee mug is visible on the desk. Bold red text reads 'STEP 2: Put On My Focus Music Playlist.'

An iPhone screenshot of a day planner app showing 'Today, May 11, 2026.' A 'Finish Q1 Accounting' task is shown with an active timer, with a two-hour 'Coding' block scheduled after. Bold red text overlay at the top reads 'STEP 3: Finish Accounting 😭 ... so I can spend the rest of the morning coding 🤓.'

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· May 6

Just realized @zenitizer.bsky.social got featured in two App Store editorial stories: "Learn to Meditate" and "Build a Meditation Practice". "Sometimes a timer is all you need" - Couldn't have said it better myself ☺️ Thanks App Store team 🙏 #iOSDev #BuildInPublic

Three iPhones on a coral-to-mint gradient showing Zenitizer in two App Store editorial features. Left phone: a highlighted pull-quote "Sometimes a timer is all you need" above a Meditation Timer Zenitizer app card. Center phone: Zenitizer's App Store page with a "Featured In" section displaying both story tiles — "Build a Meditation Practice" and "Learn to Meditate". Right phone: the "Set aside the time" timers list featuring Meditation Timer Zenitizer alongside Insight Timer.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Apr 23

The best part of building apps for everyday life? I get to use my own product every day 🤓 This is what my mornings look like now: laundry, deep focus, bread in the oven, daycare pickup, all in a single @daylish.bsky.social timeline! In separate apps? no chance I'd stay on top of it 😅

Screenshot of the Daylish iOS app showing today's timeline for April 23, 2026. Laundry runs from 9:25 AM to 1:40 PM (4h 15m) with a Focus Work block (9:31 to 11:35 AM, 2h 3m) nested inside it, and Oven Bread Baking (9:50 to 11:00 AM, 1h 10m) nested inside Focus Work. After a 5-minute gap, "Get ready for Daycare Pickup" runs from 11:40 to 11:50 AM, followed by a 10-minute bike journey to daycare at 11:50 AM, and Daycare Pickup itself starting at 12:00 PM. Each task shows a progress bar, with the morning block in warm peach tones and the pickup tasks in soft blue.

iPhone lock screen at 10:53 on Thursday, April 23, showing the Daylish Live Activity expanded with three running timers: Laundry at 2:47:27 elapsed (9:25 AM to 1:40 PM), Focus Work at 41:39 (9:31 to 11:35 AM), and Oven Bread Baking at 6:50 (9:50 to 11:00 AM). Below, a widget shows the next Oven Bread Baking task, a Deep Work streak counter at 0 out of 5 minutes, and shortcut buttons for flashlight and camera.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Oct 31

📣 PSA: if you're migrating from #Affinity Designer, the "Export Persona" features are now in the "Slices Studio". Was happy to find this as I need it to export layers for iOS 26 Icon Composer app icons 🤓 (Btw. you can show which "studios" should be visible and hide the Canva AI stuff altogether 😏)

A screenshot of the new affinity app with the “Slices” studio selected. It offers complex exporting logic that used to be under the export persona in Affinity Designer.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Oct 8

Such an honor to give my first conference talk at @swiftconnection.bsky.social yesterday - an amazing conference in a beautiful city! Thanks to the organizers and helpers who made this possible and to the #iOS community as a whole for being so supportive and welcoming ☺️

Me on stage presenting my talk. There is a banner saying “Swift Connection 25” in front.

A snippet of the conference schedule showing my talk right after the coffee break. The title is “SwiftUI Apps that Effortlessly Scale from your Smallest to your Biggest Screen”

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Oct 3

On the train to Paris for #SwiftConnection 🚄 First time speaking at a conference! Little nervous tbh… 😳 Oh and of course I'm not just wrapping up the final polish of my slides on the literal train there - who would do such a thing? 😅 Looking forward to meeting many fellow iOS folks again soon ☺️

A screenshot showing my plan for the day with the Eurostar train ride from Cologne to Paris and a focus timer that is nested DURING that time… :)

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 29

Happy to report that we made it there exactly on time 🚴‍♂️💨 (One minute early, actually 😁) Everyone who knows me in real life, knows what a testament to the effectiveness of @daylish.bsky.social this is 😅 🙈 #TimeManagement #Productivity #BikeCommuting #Cycling #Planning

A photo of my bike with the toddler chariot and two helmets in tow. I’m holding my Apple Watch which shows that I arrived one minute before the planned time.

A screenshot showing my daily timeline at the same time

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 29

☕️ Good morning! My morning's all scheduled and if things go as planned I should get a nice bike ride in AND finally wrap up recording my @daylish.bsky.social demo video for the @@revenuecat.com shipaton (last minute, I know - been a busy couple months 😅) #BuildInPublic

A screenshot of Daylish with my morning schedule. It shows a current focus timer with the task of finalizing the demo video script, followed by preparation and bike ride to day care drop off and then bike ride back from there. After that until lunch I scheduled a time block to actually record the demo video.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 19

Oooooh nice, iTerm2 got the Liquid Glass treatment on #macOS26 and I think it's looking really cool 😎 That tab bar is 😙🤌

A screenshot of item 2 running in drop down terminal mode on my Mac. There are two tabs open for each of my main app projects: Daylish and Zenitizer.

The tab bar has a nice, modern Liquid Glass appearance with a matching plus button in the top right corner.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 17

One of my favorite traditions after  OS updates is taking some time during all the excitement to read the super thorough @macstories.net reviews - always a great read 🤓☕️ This year, I was excited to see @daylish.bsky.social in the AlarmKit section of the #iOS26 review. Thank you @viticci.macstories

A screenshot showing an excerpt from the article where Daylish is mentioned and depicted in two iPhone frames. One shows Daylish’s main timeline view and the other shows a popover with an alarm configured for one of the timeline items.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 16

After working on @daylish.bsky.social all summer it feels incredible to see it featured on its launch day 🤩 I'm so grateful 🥹 Big thanks to the App Store team for the feature and to @yanlu.chat for designing the beautiful promo artwork 🙌

A screenshot showing Daylish featured in the App Store on its launch day with Yannick Lung’s beautiful promo artwork. The artwork shows a lamp, a calendar and an alarm clock together on a surface.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 8

All set to watch the #AppleEvent tomorrow 🍿📺

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Sep 6

Finally added a placeholder view when the @Daylish timeline is empty. Makes such a difference IMO! I really hated staring at that blank screen - now it fills me with delight to see I have nothing planned for the day ☺️ 🌅 Wanna try? TestFlight link in reply 👇 #iOS26 #buildinpublic

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Aug 31

Been stuck like this for a while now... 🧐 Just that time of year, innit? 🤷‍♂️ #iOSDev #WaitingForReview #TestFlight

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Aug 28

Taking a quick break from working on my “TestFlight prep” branch… 💤 #buildinpublic #recharge

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 25

Oh no, even Xcode's gotta go to Squircle Jail (™️ @siracusa.social ) sometimes, it seems 🫠 Luckily installing the latest Xcode beta and relaunching it fixed it - I don't think I could've gotten any work done today with that thing sitting in my dock 😅 #macOS26

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 12

📣 #iOSDev PSA: new #Xcode26 projects default to Main Actor isolation, leading to errors with Sendable types ⚠️ Possible Fixes: 1: Change default isolation 2: Mark type nonisolated 3: Ignore #SwiftConcurrency 🫣 💡 Check out @massicotte.org's awesome post: www.massicotte.org/default-isol...

A screenshot showing a type that implements a protocol which includes sendable conformance. You can see that there is a compiler error due to the fact that Sendable cannot be main actor isolated. The type does not have an explicit main actor annotation, because in new projects this is the default.

A screenshot showing Xcode's project settings and how to change the default actor isolation from main actor back to non-isolated.

Another screenshot from the same type as in the problem scenario, showing that the compiler error is fixed by adding the non-isolated keyword to the type.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 10

💡 If you're on #macOS26 and want to access the new clipboard manager built into Spotlight with a single keypress (instead of CMD+Space followed by CMD+4), you can use BetterTouchTool to automate this. ❓Does anyone know if there's a built-in way to accomplish this? 🤔

Screenshot of BetterTouchTool with three actions configured in a row:
1. Send keystroke: CMD + Space (summon Spotlight)
2. Wait 0.2 seconds
3. Send keystroke: CMD + 4 (switch to clipboard history in Spotlight)

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 9

Indie #iOSDevs let's all share what our apps look like when built for #iOS26 with #Xcode26 🧵👇 Out of the box screenshots only - tweaking is cheating 😁 @zenitizer.bsky.social needs a lot of work to blend in and take advantage of #LiquidGlass but at least it compiles and is usable 😅

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· Jun 6

Good morning ☕️ Such a nice surprise to see that our one-year-old prepared breakfast for the whole family today 😌

An open bag of Dinkel breakfast flakes with much of its content distributed evenly on our kitchen floor.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· May 30

Recharge yourself while you're recharging your car! 🚘 🔋🧘 #EV charging breaks are such a great opportunity to do a quick #meditation during road trips! Completed my daily @zenitizer goal and feeling ready to continue the journey now!

A photo of my wrist with my Apple watch running a Zenitizer meditation. There is a steering wheel of our car in the background as I'm currently taking a fast charging break.

Manuel Kehl@manuelkehl· May 25

Do you know the feeling of using a part of your app you really dislike but never get around to fixing it? After wanting to redesign the @zenitizer sound picker for a really long time, I'm so happy to finally ship it in the next update! #appdesign #iOSdev #ui #ux #buildinpublic #swiftui