Refresh the Flutter snapshot: LAUNCH.md and the iPhone verification pass

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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2026-08-17 09:45:10 -05:00
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# Launch
How Rippr gets from "on my phone" to "on the App Store with money coming in" — in stages,
because the jump is much bigger than it looks and most of it is not code.
**Where things stand:** the app is feature-complete on both platforms and has never
recorded a real ride. Nothing below should start before
[port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md](port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md) is done.
---
## Stage 0 — you and your friends *(today, free)*
What works right now, with no accounts and no stores.
### Android — genuinely easy
Send them the APK. That's it.
```bash
adb install -r rippr-flutter-1.0-debug.apk # or just message them the file
```
They tap it in Files and allow "install unknown apps". It works, it keeps working, and it
costs nothing. **For riding buddies on Android, this is a complete answer** — you may
never need the Play Store.
Worth switching to a **release build** before handing it round: the debug APK is ~172 MB
and slower. That needs a keystore, kept somewhere you will not lose it:
```bash
keytool -genkey -v -keystore ~/rippr-release.jks -keyalg RSA -keysize 2048 \
-validity 10000 -alias rippr
flutter build apk --release --split-per-abi # ~3 files, ~20 MB each
```
> **Back that keystore up.** Lose it and you can never update an app that shipped with it.
### iOS — awkward, and the awkwardness is the point
Free signing (see `INSTALL.md` in the samplez repo, alongside the APK) gives **7-day
builds**, three apps at a time, and needs your Mac every time. Fine for you. Miserable for
a friend who just wants to ride.
There is no free way around it. Apple deliberately does not allow casual iPhone
sideloading.
**If any of your friends ride with an iPhone, Stage 1 is not optional.**
---
## Stage 1 — a real group of testers *(~$99/yr + $25 once)*
This is the stage that actually fits "me and my friends", and it is a big quality-of-life
jump over Stage 0.
### TestFlight — the single best upgrade
Requires the **Apple Developer Program, $99/yr**.
- Builds last **90 days**, not 7
- **100 internal testers** and up to **10,000 external** via a public link
- Friends install the TestFlight app and tap once — no Mac, no cables, no trust dialogs
- Updates push automatically
- External testers need a light App Review pass (usually a day); internal testers do not
For a riding group this is effectively "the app store, for people I choose". Many projects
happily live here forever and never publish publicly.
### Google Play internal testing — optional
**$25, one time, forever.** Up to 100 testers, no review for the internal track. Worth it
mainly if handing out APKs starts to annoy you, or you want automatic updates on Android
too.
### What you must add before either
- **A privacy policy URL.** Both stores require one for anything touching location, even
in testing. It can be a single static page: what is collected (GPS while recording),
where it goes (nowhere — stays on the device), and how to delete it (delete the ride, or
the app).
- Switch the bundle id from `com.rippr.port` to something you own, e.g. `com.dylan.rippr`.
- A release build, on both platforms.
---
## Stage 2 — public launch
Everything in Stage 1, plus the parts that are genuinely work.
### Apple
- **Privacy nutrition labels** — Location → Precise, *not* linked to identity, App
Functionality only. Details in [port/RELEASE-IOS.md](port/RELEASE-IOS.md).
- **Expect to justify background location.** It is the most common rejection for apps like
this. Head it off with a **demo video of a real ride** in the review notes, showing the
user pressing Start.
- App name, subtitle, keywords, screenshots at several device sizes, a support URL.
- Review is typically 24–48 hours, and a rejection round is normal. Budget two weeks.
### Google
- **Data Safety form** — the Play equivalent of nutrition labels, and it must match
reality.
- Background location gets **extra scrutiny on Play**: a written justification and often a
video. Rippr's case is strong (a ride recorder is the textbook example), but it is a real
review step.
- Store listing, feature graphic, screenshots.
### Things that only matter once strangers use it
- **Crash reporting.** Currently none — the v3 backlog notes a recorder that dies mid-ride
leaves no trace beyond logcat. Sentry or Crashlytics before public launch.
- **A support address** people can actually reach.
- Whatever the real ride teaches you about battery. Strangers will not forgive what a
friend would.
---
## A positioning note, since you ride bikes *and* motorcycles
Everything user-facing currently says motorcycle, but the recording pipeline is entirely
activity-agnostic — it records positions and speeds, and nothing in it cares what you are
sitting on. `V3-BACKLOG.md` already carries **activity type per ride** as an idea.
That matters here rather than only in the backlog, because it decides the store category,
the screenshots and who finds the app. Cyclists are a far larger audience than
motorcyclists and are already used to paying for ride apps. Deciding whether Rippr is a
motorcycle app or a ride recorder is a positioning question worth settling **before**
writing a store listing, not after.
It is also cheap: an activity column on `Trip` and a picker. It needs a real `Migration`,
since the destructive fallback is gone.
---
## Stage 3 — monetization
Only worth designing once people are actually riding with it. But the shape matters
because it changes the architecture, and it is worth knowing which door you are opening.
### The options, from least to most commitment
**Paid up front — a few dollars, once.**
Simplest possible. No servers, no accounts, no recurring obligation. Sells poorly in a
category where Strava is free, but the cost to you is nearly zero and it fits an app that
works entirely offline.
**Free, with a one-time unlock.**
Recording free forever; pay once for extras — export formats, unlimited history, themes.
No servers needed if the extras are local. Good match for Rippr as it exists today.
**Subscription for cloud features.**
The v3 backlog already points here: accounts, cloud backup, group rides. This is the only
model that justifies recurring money, because **you have recurring costs**. It is also the
biggest jump: a server, authentication, a privacy stance, and an obligation to keep
someone's ride history alive.
> Note the coupling. Cloud backup needs accounts; accounts need a privacy policy with
> teeth, GDPR-style deletion, and — on iOS — **in-app account deletion**, which Apple
> requires of any app that lets you create an account. Group rides need all of that plus
> live location sharing between people, which is a consent question, not a technical one.
### The numbers
- **Apple and Google both take 30%**, dropping to **15%** under their small-business
programmes (under $1M/yr). Enrol; it is not automatic on Apple's side.
- Apple: $99/yr. Google: $25 once.
- Server costs are yours. A modest VPS runs a group-ride backend for single-digit dollars
a month until it doesn't.
- Payments are handled by the stores for digital goods — you may not route around them for
in-app features.
### What I would actually do
Keep it free while it is you and your friends. If it grows, the honest first step is a
**one-time unlock** for local extras — no servers, no obligations, no privacy surface.
Only build the subscription once someone who is not your friend asks for cloud backup.
Paid storage of other people's location history is a commitment that outlives your
interest in maintaining it, and that is worth entering deliberately.
---
## The order of operations
1. **Ride with it.** [port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md](port/REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md). Nothing
else matters until the numbers are right — and iOS background suspension (item I3) may
still force a change of GPS engine.
2. Release builds, real bundle id, a keystore you have backed up.
3. A one-page privacy policy.
4. $99 Apple → TestFlight. Your friends stop needing your Mac.
5. Live with it for a season. Let real use decide what is missing.
6. Only then: public listings, crash reporting, and a monetization model chosen from
evidence rather than from a table like this one.

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# iPhone verification — what a Mac can prove, and what needs a phone
Scoped and then executed. Everything in the first table has been **run**; everything in
the second cannot be done without hardware and a rider.
Reproduce with:
```bash
xcrun simctl location booted start --speed=15 --interval=1 \
51.0447,-114.0719 51.0530,-114.0719 51.0610,-114.0800 51.0700,-114.0900 &
( for i in $(seq 1 90); do xcrun simctl privacy booted grant location-always com.rippr.port; sleep 1; done ) &
flutter test integration_test/ride_simulation_test.dart -d <sim-id>
```
---
## The finding that matters most
**The iOS simulator moves, but still reports zero speed.**
`simctl location start --speed=15` genuinely interpolates between waypoints over time —
unlike Android's `adb emu geo fix`, which teleports. That looked like it might finally
make speed testable locally. It does not:
```
RIPPR-PROBE fixes=8 speeds=[0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
```
Eight fixes, every one zero. Measured, not assumed — the assumption was worth attacking
and it survived.
The consequence is visible in a real recorded ride:
```
trip=1 points=18 distanceM=245.5 maxSpeedKmh=0.0 movingMs=0 segments=1
```
**245 metres travelled, zero moving time.** Distance comes from consecutive positions, so
it works. Moving time comes from `speedKmh >= 1.5`, so with speed pinned at zero every
sample falls under the noise floor. That is correct behaviour on bad input, and it is
exactly why `REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md` cannot be skipped.
---
## ✅ Verified locally, on a Mac
| What | How | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| App builds and launches on iOS | `flutter build ios --simulator`, `simctl launch` | Runs |
| The real UI renders | Screenshot of the record screen | Wordmark, SPEED headline, Ready state, 72dp button all correct |
| **The permission dialog and its usage string** | Screenshot | *"Rippr records the GPS track of your ride… Nothing is recorded until you press Start."* — the Guideline 5.1.1 item, confirmed rendering |
| Drift opens against real iOS storage | Integration test | `rippr_db.sqlite` + WAL created in the app container |
| Plugin registration resolves | Integration test | geolocator, path_provider, shared_preferences all load |
| CoreLocation delivers fixes | Integration test | 18 fixes in ~15 s |
| **Distance accumulates from real movement** | Integration test | 245.5 m, latSpan 0.00197° — consistent |
| A trip persists and is listed | Integration test | `completedTrips=1`, Card present |
| Segments are created | Integration test | `segments=1` |
| Trip detail renders, including the map | Integration test | `DISTANCE` found on screen |
| Navigation record → rides → detail | Integration test | All transitions land |
| Cold start with no ride | Integration test | Lands idle, no crash |
| App icon under the iOS mask | Rendered preview | Ring and orange accent survive the superellipse |
## ⛔ Needs a real iPhone
| What | Why a simulator cannot |
|---|---|
| **Max speed, average moving speed** | CoreLocation reports 0.0 — measured above |
| **Moving time** | Derived from speed; reads 00:00:00 locally even after 245 m |
| **Speed colouring on the map** | Every path renders in one colour |
| **Elevation gain** | Simulated altitude has no correlated GPS error; the ~30 m drift question is unanswerable here |
| **Background suspension when stationary (I3)** | The simulator does not model iOS's power-management suspension. **This decides whether `geolocator` is sufficient or the paid engine is needed.** |
| **Screen-lock continuation** | Real background lifecycle only |
| **Phone call / interruption handling** | No telephony |
| **Battery drain** | No meaningful power model |
| **The blue background-location indicator** | Real background mode only |
| **Real GPS accuracy and dropouts** | Simulated fixes are perfect; the accuracy gate never rejects anything |
| **App Store review** | Requires submission |
## 🟡 Gap in local coverage, worth naming
**No screenshot of the iOS trips list or detail screen.** They are verified
*functionally* — the integration test asserts the Card and the `DISTANCE` readout are
present — but not *visually*, because tapping the iOS simulator is not scriptable the way
`adb shell input tap` is, and every fresh install re-prompts for location, which sits over
the UI during the capture window.
Android's equivalents were checked visually. On iOS this is worth a manual look next time
the app is built for a device: launch it, record a short ride by hand, and eyeball the
list, the detail stats and the map.

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**What remains is not code.** It is a rider, two phones, and
[REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md](REAL-RIDE-CHECKLIST.md).
---
## iPhone verification pass
Scoped and executed: [IOS-VERIFICATION.md](IOS-VERIFICATION.md).
**An assumption was attacked and survived.** `simctl location start --speed=15`
interpolates between waypoints over time — unlike Android's teleporting `geo fix` — which
looked like it might make speed testable locally at last. A probe captured 8 fixes, every
one reporting **0.0 m/s**. So "no simulator produces velocity" holds on iOS too, and the
real-ride checklist remains mandatory.
A full ride was recorded on the simulator through the real UI:
```
trip=1 points=18 distanceM=245.5 maxSpeedKmh=0.0 movingMs=0 segments=1
```
245 metres of travel with **zero moving time** — correct behaviour given speed is pinned
at zero, and a compact illustration of exactly what local testing cannot reach.
Also confirmed visually on iOS: the record screen renders correctly, and the location
permission dialog displays the specific usage string written for Guideline 5.1.1.
`integration_test/ride_simulation_test.dart` is kept — it is a reusable local
verification, not a throwaway.
**Named gap:** no screenshot of the iOS trips list or detail screen. Both are verified
functionally, but tapping the iOS simulator is not scriptable the way `adb shell input
tap` is, and a fresh install re-prompts for location over the UI. Android's equivalents
were checked visually.