What Tabida is
Every app on your phone was made for someone else. Tabida is a home for apps made for one person: you.
You describe what you need to the AI assistant you already use, like Claude. Together you shape the app in conversation, and Tabida puts it on your phone. It runs on the device and keeps working offline, and when you allow it, your assistant can read from and update the app without you exporting anything.
Tabida doesn’t build the apps. Generation belongs to the assistant you already pay for. Tabida is everything after: where the app lives, what it runs in, and how it gets to your phone.
- Live at
- tabida.io
- My part
- Brand, the tabida.io website (design and build, in React and GSAP), its illustration, and the app-kit design for the iOS and Mac apps
- Status
- Invite-only, iPhone and Mac
My part
I designed Tabida’s brand and its website, and built the site: a painted Parisian street that falls from morning into night as you scroll, then opens into a run of illustrated scenes, each one explaining a piece of the product. The idea was that personal software should feel like a neighbourhood, not a dashboard.
I also designed the app kit, a running prototype of the iOS and Mac apps (splash, onboarding, library) that the native apps were redesigned from. On the site, the FAQ is a whole newspaper, signing up is a trip to the box office, and the footer is a café table.
The site, in motion
Scene by scene
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01The problem
A woman leans on the page’s first sentence: every app on your phone was made for someone else.
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02Made to measure
Lit windows, one person in each, each living with an app shaped around their day.
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03What will you make?
A whole street of passers-by. Hover anyone and they tell you the app they’d make.
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04Four steps, one conversation
Each step of how it works is told as a painted scene, from the first ask to the app arriving.
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05Stay in conversation
A brass pneumatic tube runs from the café counter to a reader’s desk: your assistant and your app keep talking, with no exports in between.
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06The box office
Tabida is invite-only, so signing up is buying a ticket: fill in a booking slip and a stamped ticket comes back.
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07Something for the road
The baker’s basket tips over, and every pastry that rolls out hides an idea for an app.
The Daily Tabida
The FAQ arrives as a newspaper: a newsboy cycles past and throws it, it lands folded, opens, and turns to the questions. Ten pages, all real text: the answers, the news, an op-ed, classifieds, a crossword and the sport. Turn the pages: drag one, click its edge, or use the arrows.
The Daily Tabida
Local woman builds app by asking nicely
“Just a little tracker for my plants” appears on her phone before her coffee goes cold. Neighbours stunned, one pigeon unimpressed.
By our Street Correspondent
Ms Ellie Marsh, 34, had “no intention of becoming a developer” when she sat down with a flat white on Tuesday. By the time the foam had settled she owned an app that knows the watering needs of every one of her eleven plants, including the fern she describes as “dramatic”.
“I just told my assistant what I wanted and it asked me a few questions back,” said Ms Marsh. “Then my phone asked if I wanted to install it. I said yes. That was it. I am still slightly annoyed that it was that easy.”
A crowd of eight gathered. A man with a dachshund asked whether she could make one for walks. She could.
Continued on page 6
In brief
One sign-in, no manual
Connecting an assistant to Tabida takes a single sign-in. The instruction booklet remains “in mint condition”.
Works in a tunnel
Commuters on the Northern line report their apps “just kept going”. The apps live on the phone, not on a server.
Nothing installs uninvited
Every new app and every update asks first. Officials described the policy as “polite”.
Fern speaks out
A fern at the centre of today’s top story has declined to comment.
“I am still slightly annoyed that it was that easy.”
Ellie Marsh
Do I need to know how to code?
No, and you never will.
Chat with your assistant about what you need. You can refine the app conversationally, then approve its launch on your phone.
Describe the app the way you would to a friend: what it should track, when it should nudge you, what you never want to see. Your assistant does the building; Tabida keeps the app, builds it and puts it on your phone.
Is Tabida an app builder?
No. Making the app is your assistant’s job. Tabida is everything after: where the app lives, what it runs in, and how it gets to your phone.
Which assistants work with Tabida?
Compatible assistants that support connecting to Tabida.
Can my assistant read app data?
Yes, if you connect a compatible assistant and allow access to that app. It can pull permitted entries, status, history and records directly. No export or attachment needed.
Can I keep an app away from my assistant?
Yes. Mark an app private and your assistant can no longer read or change its data.
Can my assistant update the app?
With your permission, it can add information, update records or trigger actions the app supports. You can also ask it to change how the app itself works, then choose whether to install that update.
“You describe it. Your assistant builds it. Tabida puts it on your phone.”
The editors
What happens offline?
You can keep using the installed app on your phone. Assistant access and syncing need a connection, so those actions happen when you are online again.
What does my assistant get access to?
Only the apps you connect and the permissions you grant, app by app. Connecting one app does not automatically expose your others.
Where does my data live?
On your phone first. Syncing between your devices and backups are extras on top; an app never waits for the internet to open.
Who can see my apps?
Only you. Your apps belong to your account, and Tabida never hands them to anyone else.
Will an app ever change without asking?
Never. A new version asks before it installs, and if you roll back, your data goes back with it.
What can an app use on my phone?
Only what it lists before you install it, such as notifications or dictation, and your phone asks again the first time it uses each one.
Who does what
| You | Your assistant | Tabida |
|---|---|---|
| Say what you need | Builds the app | Keeps and builds it |
| Approve the install | Changes it on request | Puts it on your phone |
| Use it, offline too | Reads data you allow | Asks before updates |
A short glossary
Assistant
The AI you already use, such as Claude. It makes and changes your apps when you ask.
Connecting
One sign-in that lets your assistant work with your Tabida account. You can disconnect it any time.
Installing
Saying yes on your phone. Nothing arrives without it, including updates.
Groundhog Streak tops the box office for 12th straight week
Critics call it “the same day, but better every time”
By our Arts Desk
The surprise hit habit tracker held on to the top spot again this week, extending a run that industry analysts had called “frankly suspicious” in week three and “a lifestyle” by week nine.
Its star, a groundhog who declined to be interviewed, was seen on the red carpet ticking off a calendar page before posing for photographers. Fans queued round the block, mostly because they had all set a reminder.
Asked for the secret of its success, a spokesperson said only that the app “forgives a missed Sunday”, which several audience members described as “more than my family does”.
Around town
Focus timer “made forty minutes disappear”
Users of Focus Pocus report losing track of time, in the good way. An inquiry is scheduled for after lunch.
Pigeon denies wanting a ticket
Witnesses say the bird “lingered meaningfully” near the box office. It left without booking.
Record milk awareness
Households using a pantry list have run out of milk 0 times this month, down from “always”.
Spreadsheet retires
A household budget spreadsheet has retired after nine years. A coin jar app has taken over.
Man’s water tracker finally gets him to drink water; doctors baffled
Mr Dev Raman, 41, of Hackney, reached his daily water goal for the first time in recorded history. “I asked for one glass at a time and a little blue circle,” he said. “It turns out that’s all I ever needed.” His doctors have asked for a copy, and for him to stop sending them photographs of the circle.
Study finds apps work better when they are about you
Researchers at the Institute of Obvious Findings confirmed that a tracker which counts your goal is more useful than one which counts somebody else’s. The study took four years and one afternoon.
A follow-up will examine whether reminders work better at the hour you are actually awake.
In defence of apps that do one thing
The app on your phone that does forty things was made for forty million people. It is very good at being average. It nags at the wrong hour, counts a goal you never set, and asks you to make an account before it will tell you the time.
A personal app does one thing, the way you do it. It knows your bottle holds 750ml and that Tuesdays are hopeless. It does not need an advertising budget, a growth team or your date of birth.
We think there should be more of them, and we think they should be yours: on your phone, working offline, changing only when you say so.
I asked for a to-do list. I got something that knows me
By Margot Pell, columnist
I have downloaded nineteen to-do apps in my life. I have finished zero of them. Each one wanted me to become a different person: someone with “projects”, “contexts” and a strong opinion about colour-coding.
So I tried something else. I told my assistant how my week actually goes: badly on Mondays, brilliantly at 11pm. It asked me three questions and made a list that only ever shows me three things.
It is the first app I have used that seems to have met me. When I asked it to stop nagging on Fridays, it asked whether I would like to install the change. I said yes. It has not nagged on a Friday since.
The shop with no shopkeeper
Tabida doesn’t build your apps. It’s the place they live, the shelf they sit on and the key to the door.
By our Features Editor
Continued from page 1. Ms Marsh’s plant app was not made by Tabida. It was made by her own assistant, the AI she already pays for, through a single connection to her Tabida account. Tabida is everything that happens next.
It keeps the source, builds the app and puts it on her phone, where it runs on the device itself. It works with the network cable cut, and her data lives on her phone first. Syncing and backups are extras laid on top, never something the app waits for.
Nothing arrives without a yes. Each app lists what it wants to use, from notifications to dictation, before it installs, and new versions ask before they replace old ones. If an update goes wrong, rolling back brings her data back too.
And the apps are hers alone. Nobody else can install them. “It’s less like an app store,” says one regular, “and more like a shop that only stocks what you asked for.”
“It’s less like an app store and more like a shop that only stocks what you asked for.”
A regular
The house rules
Your apps run on your phone
Open them on a plane, in a tunnel, in a field. They don’t wait for a server.
Your data starts at home
It lives on your device first; syncing and backups are optional extras.
Updates ask first
A new version is a question, never a surprise. Rolling back restores your data too.
Yours alone
Your apps belong to your account. Tabida never hands them to anyone else.
12 newly opened apps on your street
- The water glass. Your bottle, your goal, one sip at a time.
- The plant shop. Every plant’s schedule, including the expressive fern.
- The coffee bar. Flags the last cup before it ruins your night.
- The calendar. A study planner that works around your commitments.
- The running shoe. Builds your weekly distance at your own pace.
- The moon. A sleep window that winds you down for tomorrow.
- The bookshop. One line a day, and this day last year.
- The dog bowl. Feeding, walks and meds, for the whole household.
- The tomato timer. Focus sessions in lengths that suit you.
- The coin jar. A savings pot for exactly one thing.
- The broom. A chore rota that settles who does the bins.
- The sun. A mood journal with one nightly question.
Shopkeeper’s tips
Start small
One thing you do every day beats ten you might do.
Say when
Tell your assistant the hour you actually need the nudge.
Keep talking
Rename a field, drop a screen, add what you forgot. Each change asks before it installs.
“Every shop on this street sells exactly one thing, and it’s the thing you asked for.”
Our Ideas Editor
Wanted
App to remind me to water the fern. Fern growing impatient. Box 14.
Somebody to tell me when to stop drinking coffee. Must be firm but kind.
A to-do list that only shows three things. Will not accept four.
Reminder that knows I am not a morning person. Serious enquiries only.
Lost and found
LOST: my streak, last Tuesday, near the sofa. Answers to “day 41”. Reward.
FOUND: forty minutes, inside a focus timer. Owner may collect.
LOST: the will to make a spreadsheet. No longer required.
Personals
Habit tracker, 6 months, forgiving, seeks someone who keeps coming back. No judgement on Sundays.
Pantry list GSOH seeks fridge with good intentions.
Mood journal asks one question nightly. Looking for honest answers.
For hire
Assistant, connected, references available. Will build apps for food (yours).
Experienced chore rota. Has settled 300 disputes over the bins.
Situations vacant
Fridge seeks tidy owner. Must appreciate lemons.
Wanted: one evening routine. Current one has gone missing after 9pm.
Births, marriages and launches
LAUNCHED: to Ellie Marsh, a plant tracker, 11 plants, all doing well.
ENGAGED: Mr D. Raman and his water bottle. Guests asked to hydrate.
RETIRED: one spreadsheet, after 9 years of loyal confusion. No flowers.
Notices
The box office is now booking. Leave your name; invites by email.
Thank you, St Jude of Lost Streaks, for prayers answered. R.M.
Property
TO LET: one home screen, recently decluttered. Room for exactly the apps you use.
FOR SALE: drawer of chargers. Buyer collects. Will throw in a spreadsheet.
Pets
Dachshund seeks walk tracker. Prefers mornings, refuses rain.
Cat available for lemon-related comedy. Experienced.
The Fridge
- “Just one lemon. Again.”
- “Could you make me something that remembers what I run out of?”
- “…it’s already on my phone?”
- Week three. The cat has taken an interest in lemons.
The quick crossword
Every answer reads the same across and down.
- 1 It hangs in the box office window (4)
- 2 A region, or space in square metres (4)
- 3 The back, like the last page of this paper (4)
- 4 A quick little trip across town (4)
This evening’s viewing
| Time | Programme |
|---|---|
| 6.00 | Groundhog Streak (repeat, again) |
| 7.30 | Thirst Contact: one more glass |
| 8.15 | Focus Pocus, uninterrupted |
| 9.00 | Mission: Impawsible, the walkies |
| 10.30 | The Big Sleep. Lights out |
All programmes available offline.
Overheard on the street
At the bus stop
“I asked it to only remind me when I’m actually home.” “Did it?” “It’s never been wrong.”
In the queue for coffee
“That’s my last cup. The app says so.” “You let an app tell you that?” “I told it to.”
Local streak reaches 100 days; crowd goes mild
Polite applause, four cups of tea and one spectator asleep
By our Sports Correspondent
Ms Priya Shah completed her hundredth consecutive day of stretching on Monday, to scenes of measured celebration. “I missed a day in week six,” she admitted, “but my app doesn’t count a single slip as the end of the world, so neither do I.”
Her coach, a tracker she described to her assistant in two sentences, was unavailable for comment, being an app.
Hydration Premier League
| Club | P | Pts |
|---|---|---|
| Thirst Contact | 30 | 88 |
| Kettle Rovers | 30 | 71 |
| Sparkling Utd | 30 | 64 |
| Dry January | 30 | 12 |
Dry January relegated.
Results
The Big Sleep wins by a nap
Lights out at 10.30 sharp. No extra time.
Focus Pocus 25, Distractions 0
Phones face down throughout.
Fixtures
Saturday
Couch to 5K v. The Sofa (away).
Sunday
Rest day. Streaks unaffected.
Round-up
Cricket
Rained off at Lord’s. Scorers’ apps unaffected; they were offline anyway.
Racing
Mission: Impawsible wins the 2.30 walkies by a nose, and a tail.
Chess
Focus Pocus draws with Procrastination after a 40-minute match.
The street, the paper, the box office and the bakery are all live.
Walk down it at tabida.io ↗