←back to thread

Show HN: I built a simple ambient sound app with no ads or subscriptions

(ambisounds.app)
313 points alpaca121 | 7 comments | 12 Oct 25 14:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.221s | source | bottom

I’ve always liked having background noise while working or falling asleep, but I got frustrated that most “white noise” or ambient sound apps are either paywalled, stuffed with ads, or try to upsell subscriptions for basic features.

So I made Ambi, a small iOS app with a clean interface and a set of freely available ambient sounds — rain, waves, wind, birds, that sort of thing. You can mix them, adjust volume levels, and just let it play all night or while you work. Everything works offline and there are no hidden catches.

It’s something I built for myself first, but I figured others might find it useful too. Feedback, bugs, and suggestions are all welcome.

https://apps.apple.com/app/ambi-white-noise-sleep-sounds/id6...

1. sudo712 ◴[12 Oct 25 19:09 UTC] No.45560871[source]▶
I love the idea, and thanks for doing this. I would like to create free apps too just for the heck of it but one of the biggest issues I find with creating free app store apps is that, regardless of whether you are charging money or not, you need to keep feeding Apple $100 per year, which is excruciating, especially for countries where the developer population is much higher and the income disparity is high. Since the Play Store only charges 25$ ish and one time, it is much more feasible to do it on the Play Store, hence the availability of such apps is more on Play Store.
replies(2): >>45560959 #>>45576924 #
2. jpablo ◴[12 Oct 25 19:18 UTC] No.45560959[source]▶
The $100 is per year.
replies(2): >>45561316 #>>45561328 #
3. OptionOfT ◴[12 Oct 25 19:59 UTC] No.45561316[source]▶
It is still disgusting. There is no need for that fee to be there, because remember, it sits on top of the purchase of at least $1,500 (a decent Mac).

I tried to see if I could make improvements to Immich. No can do, as half of their entitlements require a team account (and even then begging Apple to get the entitlements).

Now, they do offer a private account, so I spent time removing those entitlements. Guess what? Starting over 3 times and you're hit with a 'you can only sign 10 apps / week'.

Why do apps built for my iPhone, which I explicitly need to put in Developer mode, need to be signed by daddy Cook?

replies(2): >>45561335 #>>45561550 #
4. sudo712 ◴[12 Oct 25 20:00 UTC] No.45561328[source]▶
yeah. sorry my brain was on auto pilot.
5. sudo712 ◴[12 Oct 25 20:00 UTC] No.45561335{3}[source]▶
True. I completely forgot about that part. I absolutely love my windows PC, but I had to buy a mac so I can support cross platform
6. kiba ◴[12 Oct 25 20:21 UTC] No.45561550{3}[source]▶
Apple can charge you that because they have a platform which is a monopoly.

Granted, they did the work that built and maintain the platform, but at some point it's actually the countless developers who contribute value, not Apple.

7. jezek2 ◴[14 Oct 25 06:36 UTC] No.45576924[source]▶
You can create PWA apps for free. The installation process is a bit hidden, you need to instruct users to "Add to homescreen" the app, but a popup with instructions will do. For most apps there is not much difference of being in the AppStore or not, you need to market it yourself anyway.