Once again. Hello, World!

Hello, from the Lagooners! We're four Filipino 🇵🇭 brothers who decided to take on RevenueCat's Shipaton 2026 together. Two weeks have now passed since the Shipaton submission period began, and a lot has happened.

Building the features was one part of the journey. Getting an app ready for real users meant dealing with permissions, platform restrictions, testing requirements, unfamiliar devices, and challenges we didn't even know existed when we started.

Our First Hackathon as Developers

RevenueCat's Shipaton 2026 is our first experience joining a hackathon together. More importantly, it is our first time trying to ship a mobile application to both the Google Play Store and Apple App Store. We're still rookie developers. There are plenty of concepts we haven't encountered before, and Shipaton makes us learn them much faster than we expected.

We quickly discovered that building an app that works is very different from building an app that is actually ready to ship.

So, what did we actually do during our first two weeks of Shipaton 2026?

The Roadblocks We Faced

1. Dealing With App Permissions

One of our earliest challenges was something that initially sounded simple: Permissions.

** Todochi** relies on certain permissions to deliver its reminders and alarms properly. Getting those permissions configured correctly, however, was a different story. We spent a considerable amount of time figuring out which permissions were needed, how the operating system handles them, and why an application can behave completely differently depending on how those permissions are configured.

It was one of those problems where everything looked correct on the surface, until the feature simply didn't work.

That was our first reminder that mobile development isn't just about writing the feature itself. You also have to understand the operating system that the feature lives on.

2. The Google Play Closed Testing Challenge

We had never dealt with Google Play's testing requirements before. For new developer accounts, Google requires an app to go through a closed testing period before the developer can apply for production access to the public. That meant getting at least 12 testers to opt into our test and remain opted in for 14 continuous days.

For a small team of four brothers who are kinda introverted, that was a challenge. We immediately started looking for people willing to test ** Todochi**.

And this wasn't something we could simply postpone. One of the goals of Shipaton is to actually ship a working mobile application, so getting ** Todochi** through the Play Store process became an important part of the hackathon itself.

3. Entering Apple's TestFlight

We also wanted ** Todochi** to reach iOS users! There was just one small problem. None of us initially had an iPhone.

We had been developing primarily around Android, so moving into Apple's ecosystem meant learning an entirely different environment.

We eventually started working with TestFlight so that we could distribute ** Todochi** to iOS testers and gather feedback before an eventual App Store release.

This opened another door of a set of challenges. And that's when we discovered just how different the two platforms can be.

4. Learning the iOS Way

One of the biggest surprises for us was how iOS handles alarms and background behavior.

Because ** Todochi** is fundamentally a reminder and alarm application, we wanted its notifications and voice alarms to behave as reliably as possible. On Android, we had much more flexibility in how we could approach these features.

On iOS, we quickly discovered that Apple puts much tighter restrictions on how applications can interact with system-level alarm behavior.

We couldn't simply treat an iPhone like an Android phone and expect everything to work the same way.

This forced us to revisit parts of our approach and learn the platform instead of trying to force our Android assumptions onto iOS.

The Development Continues

We didn't join Shipaton expecting everything to go smoothly. We're fresh, aspiring, and hungry to learn.

Every roadblock has given us something new to understand. From Android permissions and Google Play's testing process to TestFlight and Apple's restrictions. And fortunately, we've managed to push through the challenges that initially blocked us.

Now, ** Todochi** has reached a stage that feels especially exciting for us.

So where is Todochi now?

Todochi

** Todochi **is now in public testing on

both Android and iOS.🎉

We've started sharing the app with friends, colleagues, and other wonderful people who have been willing to give us their time and feedback. We've also reached out to fellow Shipaton 2026 developers.

In fact, we're offering to cross-test or swap-test with other Shipaton developers so we can help each other find bugs, improve our apps, and experience what our fellow developers have built.

It's been amazing to see ** Todochi** go from an idea being discussed between four brothers to an application being used by people outside our team.

And we're not done yet.

What's Next for Todochi?

Public testing means we're finally entering the stage where the most important question isn't:

"Does the app work?"

It's:

"Does the app actually help people?"

That's something only real users can tell us.

Over the next few weeks, we'll be collecting feedback, fixing bugs, improving the experience, and continuing to prepare ** Todochi** for its eventual public release.

Two weeks ago, we were mostly focused on getting the app built. Now, we're learning how to get it into people's hands.

And for four rookie developers from the Philippines, that's already one of the biggest lessons we've taken away from Shipaton 2026.

The journey to ship is just as important as the journey to build.

Want to Try Todochi?

We've reached the public testing stage, and we'd love to have you try ** Todochi**!

If you're interested in helping four Filipino developers test their first hackathon app, you can join our public tests below:

🤖 Android Testers:

Step 1: Become a tester

Step 2: Install Todochi

🍎 iOS Testers:

Join our TestFlight beta

We'd especially appreciate any feedback, bug reports, or suggestions. Every bit of feedback helps us make ** Todochi** better before its official release.

See you in the next update, beautiful people! 💜

— The Lagooners