Hi peeps, it’s been a while since we last caught up. I’ve been pretty occupied, but I’m making sure to stick to my monthly posting routine without fail.
Today I’m gonna talk about an app, that I’ve built & launched recently — ⭐️Harmonize ⭐️
I wrote about how the app launch on Product Hunt went here.
TLDR: I got ~$100 revenue, #10 Product of the day and lots of lessons learnt.
What is Harmonize?
Harmonize is a spotlight-like app that allows you to control your Spotify music, from anywhere at anytime.
If you’re unfamiliar with Spotlight, it’s the native system-wide search feature found in macOS.
By pressing ⌘ Command and ⎵ Spacebar, you can fire up a window like this that you can use to search for apps, files, do calculations etc.
The main goal of Harmonize was to put in robust music control features, into an app that could be accessed globally.
This is a short demo of how you could launch it any control your music 👇
So… Why did I build Harmonize?
For extreme productivity lunatics (like myself):
every extra keyboard press
every additional glance to a different part of the monitor
every ounce of movement to move your mouse
MATTERS. A LOT.
I love to optimize productivity, doing days of work in hours and hours of work in minutes.
I am a compulsive song skipper and I love having music controls down to the second as I’m working.
So to answer the question to which why I’ve built this, it was simply to help maximize my productivity, and enhance my workflow.
How did I build Harmonize?
Harmonize was built with a key theme in mind — convenience & simplicity.
Convenience:
Every keystroke and keyboard shortcut, has been carefully crafted to mimise movement of your fingers, when you need to perform any actions.
Every button on the screen is also intelligently mapped to a shortcut, eliminating the need to ever move your mouse to click them.
Simplicity:
Even though the app was designed to handle robust music features. It’s also designed to make things as simplistic as possible.
The app is also always center screen and detects which monitor (if more than 1) your mouse is on, so that you never have to “find” it.
What are key features that make it worthwhile?
The 2 main features that really set Harmonize apart as the ultimate global music control app on macOS.
#1 Omnipresent Search
The search bar at very top is constantly focused. No matter which tab you’re on, or whatever you’re doing.
As soon as you start (or continue) typing, the search function fires and the results are populated right away.
This again feeds into the central idea of the app design of minimising your finger movements and superior UX.
#2 Dedicated Now Playing page
Challenges faced & how I solved them?
As this app was built using the Rust programming language and a library called Tauri. I was extremely unfamilar with how Rust works.
I wanted to use it because of how lightweight and performant, the final app build would be for users.
The app is tiny (~20mb) and takes up extremely little RAM and CPU usage.
Thankfully, thanks to ChatGPT heavily contributing to 80% the code for this app and me just piecing the puzzles together.
I was able to make a complete product that was lightweight, powerful and aesthetic.
Do people like it?
Well, for the most part: Yes.
If you dial in to Harmonize’s landing page, you’ll see a bunch of reviews from users that actually love and enjoy using it.
Users on Reddit had slightly differing opnions, but that was the 1.0 version was released at double the price and half the fatures 😆
So, I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
Why the name Harmonize?
One day, I was ranting to my mom about how stressful it can be balancing work & building a profitable business on the side.
Her reply was: “Sometimes just let life be and things will harmonize”.
The name resonated with me because the app was not meant to replace Spotify but rather work in harmony together with it.
Hence, Harmonize.
Is Harmonize free?
Harmonize comes with a basic version that features the powerful search bar and a streamlined way to access your saved songs/albums/playlists.
An additional $9.99 will unlock extra features like viewing your song queue and a dedicated now playing page.
Current & Future plans with Harmonize
Although Harmonize is a relatively new project but I initially developed it, to scratch my own itch of boosting my productivity.
The initial hurdle has been crossed with enough features for it to be fully functional and sustainable.
Currently Harmonize has been put in maintenance mode.
Meaning resources will be allocated to address customer-reported issues, prioritize bug fixes.
However, I’ll occasionally review feature requests to assess their feasibility and impact on the existing system.
The goal is always still to provide ongoing support to users and maintain a high-quality software experience.
Closing Thoughts
Developing an app from scratch and launching it is wholesome but humbling experience.
Looking forward to develop more apps that give real value.
Thanks for reading.
~ Tim
