@dadederk@iosdev.space

Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · May 14, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

👀 ‼️

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 27, 2026

Replying to @KyleBorah@mastodon.social

@KyleBorah@mastodon.social Oh, I see! Not yet, but would love to explore that idea!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 27, 2026

Replying to @KyleBorah@mastodon.social

@KyleBorah@mastodon.social Hey! Yes, both text and audio. The main idea is that I concentrate better while reading while listening to it and as sentences and words highlight. In the iPhone, I use it to listen to stuff that I want to read when I’m out, all the time too.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 26, 2026

Working on something cool! Hello, Mac! 🖥️

Since day one of building Xarra, I've wanted a seamless multi-platform experience. Import content on your Mac, sync it to your iPhone with iCloud, and continue listening on the go. That vision is becoming real, soon.

Want a sneak peek? The beta is on TestFlight
https://testflight.apple.com/join/ysbKq74Z

testflight.apple.com

Join the Xarra! beta

Available on iOS

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 20, 2026

Replying to @marco@caneandable.social

@marco@caneandable.social Oh, really?! Definitely not expected. The location should not be relevant. Let me investigate what might be the issue... I'll keep you posted. You should be able to find any books in the library, including titles in German.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 20, 2026

Looking to build accessible mobile apps? You should! Abra has compiled some genuinely useful resources. Worth bookmarking.

https://abra.ai/blog/key-mobile-app-accessibility-resources

#A11y #MobileAccessibility

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 17, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Also working on DAISY file support in Xarra! DAISY is an accessible book format designed for people with print disabilities. If you have any DAISY files, please give it a go and let me know what you think! 🙏 Learn more about the format at: https://daisy.org

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 17, 2026

Working on something special for #Xarra to celebrate World Book Day! Integrated with the Gutenberg Library. Download classics like Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, or Alice in Wonderland, then read them, listen to them, or both! Want a sneak peek?

TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ysbKq74Z

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 16, 2026

Massive FOMO last week for Deep Dish Swift AND try! Swift Tokyo!

Caught up on some talks... and @klemensstrasser@mastodon.social
you are so awesome! It felt amazing to see that me and RetroRapid were part of it in a small way.

Thank you so much! 🙏

The Art of Caring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nAZUW62t5c

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 10, 2026

You asked, we listened!

The number 1 request since launch has been more control over voices, so we got to work.

Xarra 1.1 introduces Voice Management, a new setting that lets you choose your preferred voice for each language, not just the default.

We've also made it clearer how to download Premium or Enhanced voices in iOS Settings for a much more natural sound.

Thank you for the feedback! Keep it coming!

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xarra/id6759402266

#indieApp #iOSDev

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 09, 2026

When building RetroRapid, I had three things in mind: simplicity, accessibility, and fun. Mission accomplished? I'll let these reviews speak for themselves 😊 Please, keep them coming!

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/retrorapid/id6758641625

#indieGame #accessibleGame #iOSGame

App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Download RetroRapid! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like RetroRapid!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 08, 2026

Replying to @filmaniac@kind.social

@filmaniac@kind.social Looking forward to it! 💪

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 08, 2026

Going to @iosdevuk@iosdev.space has been on my bucket list for aaages. This year, I won't just be going, I'll be speaking! And it looks like it's going to be an incredible conference. 🎉 See you there?!

https://www.iosdevuk.com/speakers

#iOSDevUK #iOSDev #Swift

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 06, 2026

Yesterday was the best day for downloads by far with 108! And just like that, it marks RetroRapid’s first 1k downloads! 😱 Pretty amazing! Thanks everyone! 😊

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/retrorapid/id6758641625

#RetroRapid #IndieGame

App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Download RetroRapid! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like RetroRapid!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 05, 2026

It's been such a big week for RetroRapid!! 🎉 Best week for downloads so far: 363, with 70 just yesterday! Second best week for revenue too, with 3 more Unlimited Play purchases. Some exciting updates coming soon. Stay tuned! 👀

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/retrorapid/id6758641625

App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Download RetroRapid! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like RetroRapid!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 05, 2026

Replying to @pesh@mastodon.social

@pesh Hey Peter, no worries. Thanks a lot for trying out the app! Those are great suggestions and I'll put them in my roadmap for sure. Will keep you posted!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Apr 05, 2026

My app Xarra has been featured as the Indie App of the Week in @createwithswift@bird.makeup newsletter issue 101, and it makes me sooo happy! 😊

A lot of care has gone into developing this over the last few months, and I hope lots of you find it useful, and that it helps you go through your reading in a delightful way. If you're curious, check out the link in the comments to learn more!

https://www.createwithswift.com/weekly-newsletter-issue-101/

#IndieApp #IndieDev

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 29, 2026

Replying to @pesh@mastodon.social

@pesh Thank you!!! It has been out there for a couple days now. Modest release, but very happy with it! 😊 On the support for DAISY, I was starting to give it a go, and I have a first version ready on TestFlight, if you'd like to try it out: https://testflight.apple.com/join/ysbKq74Z Still some tweaks needed, but seems to work alright with the sample files provided by the Consortium. Don't have any real Bookshare books to try out though... Would love to know what you think! Thanks!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 23, 2026

Replying to @pesh@mastodon.social

@pesh Hey Peter, that's a great idea! It wasn't in my plans so far, but I'd love to do that. Full audio support might be tricky, but I'll definitely look into supporting text DAISY files very soon. Thanks! I hope you like the app once it becomes available this week.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

@kevinrj My principles are: accessible, native, multi-platform (I plan to port it to macOS, watchOS...), and respectful (no data collection, no ads, small app size...). There might be overlap with other apps. But I think it is just great that users have more options.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @kevinrj@mastodon.social

@kevinrj It's a great question, Kevin. This is an app I've been thinking about for a long time. I do think that just because something already exists doesn't mean you shouldn't build it, if you can give it your own spin. Because I'm not trying to compete with these apps, but do my own thing, I haven't tried them out, so I can execute my idea unbiased.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Feels at home on iPhone and iPad, with an adaptive design and making the most of Liquid Glass. Built to be helpful and respectful. Works offline. No ads, no trackers, no accounts required. Lightweight, and focused on helping you engage with text in the way that works best for you. https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xarra/id6759402266

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Powered by Apple Intelligence! I'm particularly proud of this feature, which uses Foundation Models to explain what a piece of code does in an audio-friendly format.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Accessibility, front and center! Supports VoiceOver, Dynamic Type, Voice Control... both portrait and landscape orientations... light and dark mode... Increase Contrast, Reduce Transparency... you name it!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Your library of Audio Documents goes with you. It syncs with iCloud across devices, and it remembers where you left off, so you can get straight to it.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

On-device voices in many languages! Download Premium voices in iOS for a more natural listening experience. Language is automatically detected for you, no hassle!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Go as fast or as slow as you want. Skip forwards or backwards to get something repeated. Scrub along to quickly jump to the interesting bits.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Jump easily to the content you're looking for using a list of extracted chapters and sections.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

But the simplest way to get content into Xarra is to use the Share extension from Safari, Notes, or your favourite app.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

You can enter plain text, use one of your PDF documents, or import content from a URL!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Lines, and if you want, words, are highlighted in sync with the audio.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Xarra lets you turn text into audio. For moments when reading alone isn't ideal, listening alone isn't enough, or when combining both helps you stay focused and engaged with the content.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 19, 2026

Xarra is my newest app! And you can hit the Get button now! The app will become available on the 26th of March. What is Xarra, I heard you ask? More about it in the thread 🧵

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xarra/id6759402266

App Store

Xarra! App - App Store

Download Xarra! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like Xarra!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 17, 2026

Step 1. Your app icon in Helm's app wall. ✅
Step 2. Your app icon in Apple's WWDC keynote app wall... 🤞

That's how it works, right? Right?

#RetroRapid

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 14, 2026

RE: @iosdevweekly@iosdev.space

What an awesome surprise to see my post "Learning to develop more accessible iOS games" featured in @iosdevweekly@iosdev.space this week! And what a lovely comment to introduce it, @daveverwer@mastodon.social thank you!!! 😊 It really made me super happy!

iosdev.space

iOS Dev Weekly: "iOS Dev Weekly – Issue 745 is out! Happy Friday, …" - iOS Dev Space

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 14, 2026

Replying to @tayarndt@techopolis.social

@tayarndt @swiftlee Nice! Really glad this might be useful! Great initiative, will take a look! Happy to submit a PR to add the skills?

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

300 downloads! 🎉 Thanks everyone!!! Can we do 300 more?! 😉

https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/retrorapid/id6758641625

#RetroRapid

App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Download RetroRapid! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like RetroRapid!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

What a night! @NSLondonMeetup@mastodon.social at Apple's in Battersea Power Station was super fun! Incredible organisation, as always! Had the chance to see new and old Macs, and it was also awesome to start handing out #RetroRapid stickers! 🏎️

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Xarra works completely offline once content is imported. No accounts. No data collection. No ads. You can listen to 4 documents for free. After that, a subscription or one-time payment is required to support development. Pre-order now! (no upfront payment).

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Of course, Accessibility has been front and center throughout development: VoiceOver, Switch Control, Full Keyboard Access, Voice Control Dynamic Type Dark/Light mode, Bold Text, Increase Contrast Portrait and landscape Alt text from images extracted into the audio experience

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

And listening on the go beats having to sit down to read. So what does Xarra actually do? Import text, docs, or webpages Listen with line and word highlighting Auto-generated chapters for long content Proper playback controls + speed adjustment iCloud sync across iPhone and iPad Automatic language detection And it's under 6MB.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 13, 2026

I've been building an app, and I'm really excited about this one!

Xarra is a read-aloud app for iPhone and iPad. Paste text, import a doc, or share a webpage, and listen with word and line highlighting, chapters, and playback controls.

Pre-order now: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xarra/id6759402266

It started as scratching my own itch.
I struggle to stay focused reading long pieces of text. But when I listen and read at the same time, especially with highlighting, I stay engaged.

App Store

Xarra! App - App Store

Download Xarra! by Daniel Devesa Derksen-Staats on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips and more games like Xarra!.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 12, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

I'll be at @NSLondonMeetup at Apple's offices in Battersea Power Station today! If you see me around, just tap my shoulder if you'd like a sticker! 👋

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 12, 2026

RetroRapid! is one month old today! 🎉 I'm super pleased and surprised that it has had downloads every day since release! Almost 300 downloads (295)! And 70 people bought Unlimited Play!

That's almost $60 in proceeds. A (10%) $6 donation for AMMEC (we'll do 20% this first month, hopefully much more in the future), and you bought me about 15 coffees! Although I decided to spend the proceeds on stickers... Was it a wise choice? 😁

#RetroRapid

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 10, 2026

RetroRapid for macOS, anyone?! Another update coming soon in v1.3. For now, download it from the App Store and start practicing on iOS and watchOS. 🏎️

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 09, 2026

Replying to @chrisgervais@hachyderm.io

@chrisgervais Nice one! If you have any questions, please shout. I wouldn’t like for the skill to minimise open discussion in the community either. Thanks!

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 09, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Here are two other resources you should absolutely check out: https://github.com/rgmez/apple-accessibility-skills by Roberto Gómez, the first iOS Accessibility skill I came across. https://github.com/PasqualeVittoriosi/swift-accessibility-skill by @pasqualevitt great coverage of Accessibility Nutrition Labels, WCAG, and other platforms like macOS.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 09, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

Accessibility is about users. It's about intention, experience, taste, and judgement. No tool is going to do that work for you. But hopefully this one can help you along the path of continuous learning, and maybe even make you appreciate, or become passionate about, iOS accessibility.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 09, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

And this is what I really hope you take away from it: I'm hoping this skill becomes a learning companion more than anything else. It won't be a magic tool that suddenly fixes all the accessibility issues in your app, but something that offers possible implementations, surfaces trade-offs, makes you think about what could actually work for your users, and prompts you to test that your changes work as intended.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats @dadederk@iosdev.space · Mar 09, 2026

Replying to @dadederk@iosdev.space

It's been a couple of months in the making, on and off, with some hesitation about actually putting it out there for fear some people use it thinking that Coding Agents are going to do their accessibility work for them from now on. And I don't think that's the right approach. But here it is.

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Dani Devesa Derksen-Staats

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Join the Xarra! beta

RetroRapid! App - App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Xarra! App - App Store

iOS Dev Weekly: "iOS Dev Weekly – Issue 745 is out! Happy Friday, …" - iOS Dev Space

RetroRapid! App - App Store

Xarra! App - App Store

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