I couldn't find a boxing timer that wasn't bloated with ads, so I built one

https://lemmy.world/post/44545002

I couldn't find a boxing timer that wasn't bloated with ads, so I built one - Lemmy.World

All I wanted was: set rounds, set rest, press start, hear a bell. That’s it. Every timer app I found was either full of ads, required a subscription, or had 47 features I didn’t need. I just want to hit the bag without watching a 30-second ad between rounds. So I built BoxTime [https://apps.apple.com/app/id6759327767] — a dead-simple round timer for boxing, Muay Thai, MMA, whatever. You set your rounds, rest time, and go. No account, no subscription, no interruptions. Features I actually use: - Custom round/rest times - Warning bell at 10 seconds - Different sounds for round end vs rest end - Works with screen off (this was huge for me) But honestly, even a kitchen timer taped to your wall works. The point is having STRUCTURE in your training. Random bag work without timed rounds is just cardio with extra steps.

I’ll note that this does have ads: boxtime-12edc.web.app/privacy.html

And it seemingly stores data server-side. For a simple app like this, why does it need to do anything with someone else’s computer? How often are people needing to sync data between devices? Why isn’t this an offline sync with the app talking to itself?

The Lemmy pitch here is also LLM-ified, which isn’t bad by default, but it seems a bit deceptive especially it does require an account! It is right there in the privacy policy. And your data remains in their care until you delete the account.

Datenschutzerklärung – BoxTime

I am not familiar with iOS package binary sizes, but 52.4 megs for such a “simple” app seems a tad excessive and red-flaggy. lots of dependencies to pull along with it, huh?
Paypal on android has 500MB. An app that displays a number and some text.

totally understood and differences in frameworks, features, etc make a difference. however there are currently maintained android interval timer apps that are much smaller (all fdroid links)…

TimeR Machine - 4.85MiB

Interval Timer (privacy friendly build) - 7.89MiB

I have no apple to apple (heh!) comparisons, but these seem similar.

TimeR Machine | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

A highly customizable interval timer

Thanks!

I didn’t intend to defend op. Just wanted to add context