After 30 years writing Java I spent several months teaching myself Swift to build my first iOS app for my son — Mr Beans lets you create video montages and schedule them to arrive on future birthdays and holidays. Just launched an update on the App Store this week.

Hey r/SideProject! Long time Java developer (30 years), first time iOS builder.

**The Origin Story**

My son Jack's nickname is "Mr Beans." He's 22(with down syndrome) and loves making videos, celebrating family, birthdays, and holidays as much as I do. I wanted a way for us both to create video messages and schedule them to arrive on future dates — birthdays years from now, holidays planned months in advance, special moments captured and delivered at exactly the right time. Looked for an existing app. Nothing quite fit:

- Time capsule apps: Too basic, text only, no creation tools

- Video editors (CapCut etc): Powerful but overkill for this use case

- Social media: Not private, not scheduled, not personal So I built it.

**What Mr Beans Does:

- Create photo montages (12-24 photos) with licensed music, borders, Ken Burns motion, and custom captions

- Stitch 2-3 videos together seamlessly into one message

- Schedule delivery for any future date via secure email link

- Recipients don't need the app, they just get an email on the right day with a private link to their video - or receive scheduled videos in the app if installed

**The Technical Journey**

For the developers here:

- Frontend: Swift/SwiftUI (~80 files, MVVM architecture)

- Backend: AWS serverless (Lambda, S3, DynamoDB, Cognito)

- ~25 Node.js Lambda functions

- Email delivery via Postmark

- Video transcoding pipeline (hardest part by far)

Coming from Java, SwiftUI was humbling. Declarative UI after decades of imperative thinking broke my brain for about 6 weeks. Then it clicked and now I love it.

Biggest technical challenge: Video transcoding in Lambda. FFmpeg, memory limits, cold starts, and cost optimization all hit at once. Not fun. I made the demo video entirely in Mr Beans.

**Pricing**

Free: 3 messages/month, up to 12 photos per montage

Pro: $3.99/month — 30 messages, up to 24 photos for each montage

Family: $7.99/month — 6 family members, 90 messages

**What I'm Still Figuring Out

Honestly — marketing. I can build. I have no idea how to find users beyond my personal network. If you've launched a consumer iOS app targeting non-technical users (parents, grandparents, families), I'd genuinely love to know what worked for you.

What do you think? Honest feedback welcome — especially the critical stuff.