Ask HN: What Is the State of App Development in 2026?

Recorded: May 30, 2026, 5 p.m.

Original

Summarized

robgough 2 minutes ago | next [–]
I had a go at building both a Mac and iOS dictation app the other day (dictator.robgough.net) thinking that with Claude's input, this probably wouldn't work... but it was a real problem I had, and I wanted to see how far we could get. Best way to learn the tools, right? I'd already spent the day playing with alternative apps that didn't quite do what I wanted.The app itself is fairly straightforward, but it included some intermediate complexity in terms of audio capture and calling local models. Both something I'd never done, and as not-a-mac dev something I probably wouldn't have attempted for a side-project while I'm meant to be bootstrapping my own thing.I didn't touch a line of code, and I was blown away. I'm so impressed in fact that I'm predicting we'll see a resurgence in native apps in the near future. By far the worst (and slowest) part of the process is having to deal with the App Store, and the ridiculous hoops you have to jump through to get past review.replydrrob 30 minutes ago | prev | next [–]
I'm have a game on both app stores, built in .net Maui. It earns enough to keep a roof over my head.AI is useless when developing with Maui, as it's too new of a development framework for any AI's knowledgebase to have a clue what to do with it.replymattmanser 17 minutes ago | parent | next [–]
https://github.com/dotnet/maui/wiki/Using-AI-to-Work-on-.NET...replymrKola 1 hour ago | prev [–]
It is bad. Layoffs everywhere. Google is becoming apple. Companies want you to do the job of 6 engineers using ai.The market is saturated for new apps.replyMattDamonSpace 4 minutes ago | parent [–]
I’ll be curious to see how many new vibe coded apps make it to a 2.0reply

Discussions surrounding the state of application development focus on the impact of artificial intelligence and large language models, the evolution of native versus cross-platform development, and the future career landscape in the mobile application sector. One participant reflected on attempting to build a native iOS and Mac dictation application using tools like Claude, noting that while the process involved intermediate complexity in audio capture and local model calling, the experience was highly impressive and sparked a prediction of a potential resurgence in native application development in the near future, despite the inherent difficulties associated with navigating the App Store review process.

The market context reveals significant industry shifts, as indicated by concerns raised regarding layoffs and the sentiment that companies are increasingly leveraging AI to perform the work of multiple engineers. There is a perception that the market for new applications is currently saturated.

Regarding development frameworks, some developers utilize cross-platform solutions such as .NET Maui for building applications, although one comment suggested that incorporating AI tools proves less immediately useful within this framework due to the relative newness of Maui as a development platform.

The overall conversation touches upon the fundamental questions of what defines a career in sole application development and how the landscape has changed over the past two to five years. The discourse implicitly weighs the advancement of AI-assisted coding against the established hurdles of platform distribution, such as the rigorous review processes imposed by app stores. The outlook suggests a tension between adopting new AI-driven methods and the persistence of challenges inherent in platform-specific development.