Ex-Apple Employees Launch bitrig: AI-Powered SwiftUI App Creation on iPhone

This vibe coding app develops SwiftUI apps right on your iPhone - 9to5Mac

A group of ex-Apple employees who co-created SwiftUI has launched a vibe coding iPhone app that takes voice or text input, writes SwiftUI apps in seconds, and even lets you distribute them through TestFlight. Honestly, it is kind of awesome. Here's how it works. Love it or hate it, vibe coding is here to stay. And while you probably can't vibe code your way to a Fortune 500 company (yet), there are genuine use cases in which using AI to jumpstart (or completely handle) a coding project can be quite helpful. In fact, that was the original idea behind vibe coding, when OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy coined the term back in February: While there are entire platforms and businesses working on evolving vibe coding into an actual advanced coding agent, there is still plenty of room for services that might let non-developer users turn their ideas into simple apps for their own use. That's exactly what bitrig does. Let's get the downsides out of the way: bitrig accepts only 5 daily messages, which is pretty strict. Free users can send up to 30 messages per month, while Pro users who subscribe to the $19.99 monthly plan get more monthly messages, although they're still limited to 5 daily messages. Hopefully, these limits will improve in the future. That said, bitrig is really well-thought-out, and it is fast. It comes with three pre-baked prompts: Tip Calculator, Metronome, and Stock Chart, but you can also just type in what you need, and it'll get to work. During the inference process, you can see its chain of thought, and after the app is done, you can tap the ellipsis button and even choose to view the code so that you can make adjustments yourself. bitrig supports dozens of frameworks, such as , , , , , and even Apple's foundation models if you've got an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone running iOS 26. In the future, they plan on expanding this support to dozens more, including , , and . Once you're happy with your app, well... you're done. Or, if you're a Pro subscriber with a paid Apple Developer Account, you can distribute your app to TestFlight. To be clear, this is obviously not meant for advanced developers, although many of them can also see how asking an AI agent to build a simple app can save time. However, for regular users who have specific needs or app ideas, and who never got around to learning how to code, bitrig is one of the most impressive and empowering apps that the App Store has seen in a while.

This new app lets you create your own iPhone apps in minutes, and it requires absolutely no coding experience

Vibe coding, the ability to write code simply through the use of AI, has taken off recently. It has given those with no coding ability the opportunity to make their own websites, apps and more. Now, a group of ex-Apple employees is making it even easier with an iPhone app that lets you build more apps. Bitrigis only available on iOS right now, and it lets you create an app on your phone, simply by chatting with an AI chatbot about whatever you want. "I'm going to the beach this afternoon and don't want to burn. Make an app to let me log my sunscreen and send me a notification to reapply based on my UV index at my current location," Kyle Macomber, the co-founder of the company, asks Bitrig in a promotional video of the product. A few minutes later, he's given an app that does exactly that, letting you adjust a bar to fit your UV index and see notifications for reapplying. This alone isn't anything new. All of the biggest AI chatbots have been unveiling similar technology to this, most notably Claude with its Artifacts feature, letting you write web apps and save the URLs for them. Where Bitrig stands out is that it is writing apps directly for your smartphone that can be saved all in one place. While there is a free plan available, it limits you to a total of 30 messages (from the initial prompt to the subsequent refinements) per month. For a lot of people, that will probably be plenty. The $19.99 a month plan unlocks all features and gets you an additional 100 messages a month. However, whichever version you use, you are limited to sending five messages a day. While there are some pre-made options to try, including a tip calculator and metronome, it is the ability to type (or speak) any app idea and see it come to life that could be a game-changer for many iPhone users out there. This can allow you to make incredibly specific and personal apps for any situation. You could make an app to track a very specific hobby, a planning app for an event you have coming up or a recipe app that only sources ideas for certain tolerances. Like a lot of other AI vibe coding systems, you'll see the code flash in front of you as it is designed. You can ask for it to make changes (but this will eat into your daily messages each time).

Bitrig: SwiftUI apps from voice using Apple Intelligence

A group of former Apple employees involved in the creation of SwiftUI has launched bitrig, an iPhone application that generates functional SwiftUI apps from voice or text commands, utilizing a method described as "vibe coding." The term "vibe coding" was introduced in February by OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. This method uses large language models (LLMs) to generate code from natural language. Karpathy stated, "There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It's possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper..." The concept positions AI as a tool to initiate or manage coding projects, especially for non-developers with ideas for personal apps. The bitrig application allows users to articulate an app idea via text or voice, which the tool then uses to generate a SwiftUI application in seconds. The primary audience is non-developers with simple app concepts, but the tool is also presented as a time-saving utility for experienced developers on basic projects. The app is designed to translate ideas into functional software without requiring traditional coding skills. The service operates with specific usage limits. All users are restricted to five message inputs per day. Free plan users can send up to 30 messages per month. A Pro subscription, priced at $19.99 per month, provides a higher number of monthly messages, but the daily limit of five inputs is maintained for these subscribers as well. To assist users, bitrig includes three pre-configured prompts for creating a Tip Calculator, a Metronome, and a Stock Chart application. Beyond these templates, users can input custom ideas for the app to build. During the code generation process, referred to as inference, the application displays its "chain of thought" to provide transparency into its logical steps. Once the application is generated, users can access the underlying code by tapping an ellipsis button. This feature allows them to view and make direct edits to the code, offering a degree of customization over the final product. The application integrates with an array of Apple's existing frameworks to enable diverse functionality. Supported frameworks currently include: Additionally, bitrig is equipped to use Apple's foundation models on iPhones that are compatible with Apple Intelligence and are running the iOS 26 operating system. The development team plans to expand this support to include other frameworks, with SensorKit, NearbyInteraction, and VisualIntelligence being specifically mentioned as upcoming additions. A key feature for Pro subscribers is the ability to distribute the applications they create. Users with a Pro subscription and a paid Apple Developer Account can send their generated apps directly to TestFlight for testing and distribution. This function streamlines the process of moving an app from concept to a shareable build without leaving the bitrig environment. The bitrig application is available for download on the App Store. Further information and access to the service are also provided through the official bitrig website.