Lotus is out now!
The day is finally here - Lotus is live! As promised, you can use LOTUSFRIEND coupon to get 30% off on getlotus.app during checkout. If you haven't tried...
Pre-launch update
This week is going to be the shortest update in the past 6 months, because it's past midnight and I'm still in the race to make the deadline 😄 It looks like...
Selling Lotus outside Mac App Store
Self-imposed end of March deadline is approaching fast, so I've started figuring out what are my options to sell Lotus outside Mac App Store. If you have...
What I don't like about Lotus
Every Sunday I share my progress and tell you all about new ideas, plans, features and hopefully it sparks the excitement around Lotus! Sometimes it does and...
Making Electron apps feel native on Mac
When I only started thinking about Lotus, I knew I'd use Electron. Developers like to joke that you need 64 gigs of RAM to run any Electron app, but I find...
Announcing launch deadline
After releasing the beta and seeing other people use Lotus for the first time, I had a fear that all the ideas I've built into Lotus just wouldn't work in...
Integrating GitHub Sponsors
This week's format of "Building Lotus" newsletter is going to be different. Usually when I sit down to write a newsletter, I know what I want to share and...
Focus Zone
Lotus has been in the hands of early adopters for a few weeks now and I'm glad I decided to release the preview sooner than later. I'm thankful to everyone...
Setting up distribution and automatic updates
Two weeks ago I started inviting people to a first beta of Lotus, so I needed to figure out how to package the app so that others can install it. I also...
Separating work and personal notifications
You may remember that Lotus has a Do Not Disturb feature. The idea was to hide notifications from your 9-to-5 job after 5pm and on weekends. I always wanted...
Read notifications together and a first beta
Hello! I have two very exciting updates for you: New mode for reading notifications ⚡️ Call for early adopters to try out the first beta! Tiny refresher,...
Redesigned website
Hi there! I was on a holiday break for two weeks and I realize you may have forgotten what is this newsletter about. Some of you also recently joined and...
Moving towards native app experience
Happy holidays! I myself celebrate Christmas in January, so this week I had plenty of time to work on Lotus. There's plenty of stuff to go through, so I'm...
Marketing was an afterthought for me
This week’s newsletter is an unusual one. I’m not going to talk about new features or implementation changes. Instead, I’m going to be honest and tell you...
Introducing Screener
Hey! Few weeks ago I wrote my thoughts and early mockups about bringing Screener from HEY to Lotus and I'm so happy to tell you it's shipped! Screener Quick...
New inbox UI
Hello! Lotus is slowly shaping into a ready-to-use app and this week I'm glad to share another batch of updates with you. From removing tech debt to...
Do Not Disturb and SQLite data storage
Hello! This week's email about building Lotus is really exciting for me. First, I renamed Weekend Mode feature to Do Not Disturb and built it. But more...
Screener from HEY for GitHub notifications
Hello there! This is another edition of Building Lotus and this email is here to tell you about Screener - a feature I borrowed from HEY. What is Screener?...
Dark mode and weekend settings
Hi there, it's been a while! I procrastinated hard and didn't get enough done the week before, so I didn't want to disturb your inbox for nothing. However,...
Implementing "Log in with GitHub"
Hi there! This week I thought I'd take a step back and tell you more how authentication works in Lotus and what issues I need to solve to complete it. When...
Transforming limitations of GitHub API into exciting features
Hi there! I'm very excited to send out the first newsletter about creating Lotus! In case you forgot, Lotus is a Mac app for managing GitHub notifications in...