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Case study, our own app

Cuefold: a teleprompter camera that cuts your retakes

Cuefold is our own iPhone and iPad app. You read your whole script to camera in one take; when you flub a line you just say it again, and Cuefold keeps your last good read of every line and cuts out the rest. We designed, built and published it ourselves.

Download on the App Store
Client
Our own product, published by Tyche Labs Ltd
Platforms
iPhone and iPad, iOS 26 or later
Timeline
First commit 5 October 2026; on the App Store 16 October 2026
Team
Designed, built and released in-house
Take 1 struck, take 2 kept. The creator shown is AI-generated.

What we built

  • A prompter that follows your voice

    The script sits just under the lens and scrolls as you speak. When you restart a line, it eases back to that line instead of running on.

  • Clean Cut: the edit happens for you

    Cuefold matches your speech to the script word by word, on the device, and splits the take into reads of each line. It assembles the last good read of every line into one video, with tidy joins, and flags any line worth checking.

  • Every take kept, one swipe away

    Each line keeps its other reads. Swipe a line to try a different one and the video updates instantly.

  • Captions spelled the way you wrote them

    Captions use the script's own spelling with the timings from your speech, so names and jargon come out right.

  • iPad, and the outer screen on iPhone Duo

    Cuefold runs natively on iPhone and iPad. On iPhone Duo, your script appears on the outer screen.

  • Nine languages

    From version 1.0.1 the app is available in English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional).

The stack

Language
Swift 6 with strict concurrency checking
Interface
SwiftUI, with Observation and SwiftData for storage
Video
AVFoundation: a custom capture pipeline writing video and audio with AVAssetWriter, and AVMutableComposition for the automatic edit
Speech AI
Apple's on-device speech recognition with word-level timings, plus our own alignment of speech to script. Audio never leaves the device.
Writing tools
Apple's on-device Foundation Models for optional script tools, shown only where Apple Intelligence is available
Payments
StoreKit 2 subscriptions, with Apple's standard subscription screen
Analytics
Our own first-party usage-data service on Google Cloud Run and BigQuery in London: anonymous events only, never scripts, audio or video, and no third-party SDKs

How long it took

  1. 5 October 2026First commit. First versions of the capture pipeline, prompter, speech alignment and Clean Cut committed the same day.
  2. 8 OctoberFirst submission to App Review.
  3. 15 OctoberRejected under Guideline 5.1.1(iv) (see below). Fixed the same day.
  4. 16 OctoberApproved and released on the App Store, 11 days after the first commit.
  5. 17 OctoberVersion 1.0.1: eight more languages and links that open straight into recording.
  6. 26 OctoberVersion 1.0.2: new search keywords for each English-speaking App Store and an in-app code redemption screen.

App Review, and what we fixed

Guideline 2.1: information needed

As a new developer account, Apple asked for more information before reviewing. We recorded the app running on a real device, attached the recording to the submission, and wrote review notes explaining how to reach every feature, including the paywall.

Guideline 5.1.1(iv): one button on a permission screen

Before iOS asks for camera and microphone access, Cuefold explains why in one sentence. That screen's button said "Allow camera and microphone". Apple's rule is that a button shown before the system prompt must say something neutral like "Continue", so it can't look like the permission itself. We changed it to "Continue" in every language and replied to App Review; the app was approved the next day. It's now a rule in all of our apps.

Stuck in App Review yourself? Our App Store rescue takes two working days.

Privacy by design

Scripts, audio and video never leave the device: speech recognition, the edit and the script tools all run on it. The app has no account and no ads. From version 1.0.1 it sends anonymous usage data (a random install ID and a fixed list of events) to our own service, with consent: outside the US people are asked first, in the US they see a one-time notice, and anyone can turn it off or delete their data in Settings.

Read the Cuefold privacy policy

After launch

Keep it working after launch

We keep Cuefold current on every iOS release ourselves. App care gives your app the same attention: each year's iOS update, App Review changes, crash fixes and 4 hours of changes a month.

Already have an app or site that needs looking after?

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After launch
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