My Countdown App Journey ⏳
In December 2021, I embarked on a project to create a simple countdown app to display time left till midnight. Then I decided to count the days leading up to the New Year. Since then, it has evolved into something much more comprehensive and exciting! You can check out the site here:
I invited Nathaniel Nyakotey to help with some UI improvements, and he did an amazing job on the ✨#ui.
What Can You Do with This App?
-
Create and Sort Countdown Timers: Provide a date and descriptive text to create and manage your own countdowns.
-
View the nth Day of the Year: For example, May 19th, 2022, is Day 139/365. You can share this directly to WhatsApp on mobile (iOS and Android).
-
Customize Appearance: Change color themes, toggle between night mode and light mode, and set custom backgrounds.
-
Progressive Web App (PWA): Install the app on Android to enjoy native mobile app behavior, even without an internet connection.
Learning and Future Improvements
Working on this project has been a tremendous learning experience in JavaScript and web development. For instance, did you know you can store images as strings of text?
Future Improvements and Suggestions:
- Remote Countdown Storage: Sync countdowns across multiple devices and time zones 🌍.
- Additional Features: Include birthdays, confetti effects, repeat countdowns, and shareable countdowns for team deadlines, reminders, and notifications 🔊.
- Mobile App Version: An alpha version built with Flutter for iOS and Android is underway. We’re also exploring using an AI model to classify and group countdowns.
We’ve received many feature requests and comments from users and testers (notable testers are shown on the about page). This project is more than just a reminder app—it’s a platform with growing capabilities. We welcome contributions, especially those who can design a time-themed logo ⏱⏳.
Currently, we’re on version 2.3.0 and aiming for version 2.5.0 before the end of the month. What started as a simple app during Christmas vacation has grown into a robust tool! 😊
Explore the app here:
For development details, check it out on GitHub:
Tags: #github #javascript
Screenshots of the app on desktop and mobile: