Independent Apple-platform studio

Native Apple apps that ship properly.

I help founders and product teams build, fix, and extend iOS, iPadOS, and macOS apps. One senior engineer, clear decisions, and native-first judgment where Apple-platform quality matters.

Discuss your project View selected work

You work directly with Hugo — from the first technical question to the release in people’s hands.

Chat Explorer showing a private conversation archive on a Mac
Chat Explorer timeline with milestones and conversation summaries on an iPhone
Chat Explorer Designed and shipped for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Studio products

I build products too.

That means I know what it takes after the code is written: App Store review, real users, messy data, pricing, support, and the details that decide whether an app is worth keeping.

Studio product · Released

Designed and shipped for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Chat Explorer

Turn your WhatsApp exports into one archive you can actually search, browse, and understand. Chat Explorer gives you messages, media, timelines, and analytics without asking you to sign in anywhere, and it is growing: sync through your own iCloud and Messages on the Mac are on the way.

  • Your own iCloud, coming soonSync across your devices, never through our servers.
  • No logins, anywhereYour credentials are never needed.
  • Even better on the MacMessages support in the works, plus faster, stronger on-device inference.
Download on the App Store
Open product story Visit the app website
Chat Explorer timeline showing milestones and monthly conversation summaries
Private by design. Powerful in practice.
Bar High active workout showing completed sets and previous-session context
A quiet, native logbook with the last useful detail close at hand.

TestFlight beta soon · iPhone with Apple Watch

Set the Bar High

Log the set, see what you did last time, and keep moving. Bar High is a private lifting logbook with fast entry, ghost values from your last session, free exports, and no account.

  • No account, no social layer
  • Markdown and JSON export
  • Fast set entry
Open product story Visit the app website

Selected proof

The work should change something.

Faster exports, fewer crashes, shorter builds, better ratings. Here are a few results from shipped work.

Crash rate
1.5% → <0.1%
Reliability work for a multi-country streaming platform.
App Store rating
3.0 → 4.5
Better startup performance and a more dependable product experience.
Video exports
40% faster
Native AVFoundation editing and export for a real-estate media product.
Apps shipped
17
Founder products and client apps across consumer, enterprise, media, finance, and utilities.

Professional software since 2012 · Apple platforms since 2014 · Selected experience: BNP Paribas Fortis · Nodalview · Zappware · UHasselt

A collection of app icons representing shipped native products.

Studio engagements

Where I can help.

Direct help for founders and product teams that need an Apple app built, rescued, modernized, or moved forward by a senior engineer inside the team.

Start with a focused sprint, a product build, or ongoing senior support. If the problem is unclear, a short audit can be the first step rather than a separate consulting layer.

Native where it matters. Swift, SwiftUI, UIKit, Apple frameworks, and AI features that belong in the product — with pragmatic integration choices when they serve delivery better.

Discuss your project

Understand

Solve the real problem

Start with the user, the constraint, and the smallest useful outcome. Extra screens and clever abstractions do not count as progress.

Make

Make it feel at home

The app should belong on Apple platforms: familiar behavior, good performance, accessible UI, and details that hold up outside the happy path.

Release

Ship, learn, adjust

A working slice teaches more than a long planning document. Release useful increments, watch what happens, and improve the part that matters next.

Start a conversation

Tell me about your project.

Share where the product is today, what needs to change, and your timeline. I’ll reply personally with an honest view on fit and a practical next step.

You’ll talk to me from the first message, not to a sales team. A few lines of context are enough for me to tell you what I would look at first.

Email Hugo directly hello@halonso.dev
Based
Belgium · Remote EU
Languages
English · Spanish
Focus
Native Apple products

Tell me about the work