Ascend

Overview

Ascend is a mobile habit app for iOS and Android. You pick an identity: runner, patient parent, whatever fits. You attach daily actions to it and check in against that person, not a streak counter.

Problem

Every habit app I tried treated a completed checkbox as the win. Miss a day and you’re back to zero. That never matched how I actually think about change. I care whether today’s behaviour lined up with the person I was trying to be, even when the task list looked messy.

Solution

I built it in Flutter with Riverpod for state, Hive for local storage, and RevenueCat for subscriptions. You create identities, hang habits off them, and log check-ins. A journey view tracks progress over time; a weekly reflection flow looks back at what worked. Home screen widgets and Health Connect can mark actions complete without opening the app.

The UI keeps coming back to one check: did I act like that person today?

Architecture

Flutter (Dart + Riverpod)
      │
      ▼
Hive (local persistence)
      │
      ├── Home widgets
      ├── Health Connect
      └── RevenueCat (subscriptions)
      │
      ▼
Check-ins → Journey → Reflection

Lessons learned

• The habit engine wasn’t the hard part. Deciding what question every screen should ask was.
• Identity labels need to be loose enough to stick (“healthy”) but tight enough to mean something in daily actions.
• I put the paywall after someone has a week of check-ins, not on first launch.
• I’m also exploring pre-app onboarding on the web: a plan before someone downloads the app.