I got tired of habit apps asking for my email, draining my battery, and locking basic streaks behind a subscription. So, I built My Momentum. **
A few months ago, I downloaded three different habit trackers just to keep tabs on my evening reading and daily workouts.
All three asked me to create an account before I could even tap a single checkbox. Two wanted me to start a free trial just to track more than three habits, and one kept pinging my phone with guilt-trip notifications at 9 PM.
A habit tracker is basically a glorified checklist. It shouldn't need a cloud server, user telemetry, or a monthly subscription to work.
So, I decided to build my own: My Momentum.
Keeping things strictly local
When I sat down to build it, I gave myself one main rule: no cloud dependencies.
Everything lives directly on the device using a local SQLite database. When you open the app, you aren't greeted by an onboarding funnel or a Google Sign-In button—you just see your routine for today.
Building local-first solved a few annoying problems right out of the gate:
Zero latency: Checking off a habit or switching dates happens instantly because there is no network round-trip.
Complete privacy: Your daily routines, sleep schedules, and personal goals never leave your phone. I don't want your data, and I don't want the liability of storing it.
Works anywhere: Whether you're on a flight, in a basement with zero bars, or saving battery on airplane mode, the app works the exact same way.
Fighting feature creep
The hardest part of building a utility app isn't writing the code—it's stopping yourself from adding things nobody asked for.
I intentionally left out social feeds, leaderboards, gamified avatars, and complex analytics dashboards. If an app takes more effort to manage than the habit itself, you're going to stop using it within a week. My Momentum stays out of your way so you can log your day in five seconds and put your phone back down.
Where things stand
I'm wrapping up the final polish and getting ready to launch it soon. Right now, I'm focused on making sure the local backup and export flow is rock solid so users always own their data, even if they switch phones.
If you're also building local-first mobile apps—or if you have strong opinions on what makes a daily routine app actually stick—I'd love to hear how you handle local storage and data exports in your projects.
Drop a comment below!
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