My girlfriend and I are long distance. Different countries, different time zones, the whole thing. And a while back, I made this really simple website that did exactly one thing: it showed how many days until we see each other again.
Nothing fancy. No design, no logo, no features. Just a number on a screen. I threw it together in maybe an hour and sent her the link.
But here's the thing - checking that number every morning became one of my favorite little rituals. Wake up, open the page, see the number go down by one. It sounds stupid when I write it out, but there's something about watching that number shrink that makes the distance feel more manageable. Like okay, it's 47 days now. Yesterday it was 48. We're getting there.
She started checking it too. We'd text each other the number sometimes. "34 days." "33 now!" It was our thing.
The bucket list moment
Then one day she said something like "I wish we had a bucket list somewhere - like all the things we want to do together, in one place." And I was like... I mean, I could add that. I'm a developer. It would take me a weekend.
So I did. And then I thought - what about a timeline? All our milestones in one place. Our first trip, first "I love you," meeting each other's families. The kind of stuff you think you'll remember forever but actually start to forget the specifics of. When was that exactly? Where were we?
And that's when things snowballed.
One feature at a time
Every feature in Together exists because we genuinely needed it. That's not a marketing line - it's literally how the app was built. Feature by feature, based on things that came up in our relationship.
Mood check-ins happened because we kept falling into the "how are you" / "good" / "good" loop. You know the one. You ask how they're feeling, they say good, you say good, and neither of you actually said anything real. I wanted a way for us to actually share how we're doing without it feeling like a therapy session.
Private notes came from me constantly forgetting things. Her ring size. That restaurant she mentioned wanting to try. An inside joke I wanted to remember. I needed a place to jot these down that was separate from my regular notes app - somewhere connected to us.
Widgets happened because I got tired of opening the app every time I wanted to check the countdown. I just wanted it on my home screen. Glance down, see the number, keep going with my day.
The nudge feature - that's just a poke button. For when you're thinking about someone but don't necessarily want to start a whole conversation. Sometimes you just want to say "hey, thinking of you" and that's it.
Looking at what was already out there
Before I committed to building this properly, I looked at what couples apps already existed. And look - no offense to anyone who uses them - but they weren't for us.
Some were really cluttered, packed with features we'd never use. Some were built entirely around daily quizzes. Some felt like they were designed for a demographic we weren't part of. And almost all of them had streaks.
I genuinely hate streaks. I'll get into that more in another post, but the short version is: streaks turn something that should feel sweet into an obligation. Miss a day and you feel guilty. That's not what a relationship app should do.
So I decided to build the thing myself. Not because I thought I could do it better than everyone else, but because I knew exactly what we needed - and it turned out to be pretty different from what was already available.
Building it properly
I'm a developer by trade, so once I decided to actually make this a real app, I went all in. Backend, database, proper authentication, the whole stack. I designed it to feel clean and minimal - no clutter, no noise. Just you and your person.
The core of Together is pretty simple:
- Countdown - days, hours, and minutes until you're together again
- Mood check-ins - how you're actually feeling, not just "good"
- Bucket list - everything you want to do together
- Timeline - your milestones, all in one place
- Private notes - your personal notes, locked behind Face ID
- Widgets - countdown right on your home screen
- Nudge - a poke for when you miss them
No ads. No tracking. No streaks. No quizzes. Just the stuff that actually matters.
It got out of hand (in the best way)
What started as a number on a screen is now a full app on the App Store and Google Play. I still find that kind of funny. My girlfriend needed a countdown and I accidentally built a product.
But I think that's also why it works. Every single feature came from a real moment in our relationship. Nothing was added because a competitor had it or because it might increase engagement metrics. It's all stuff we actually use, every day.
If you're in a long-distance relationship - or any relationship, really - and you want a private space for just the two of you, that's what Together is. Nothing more, nothing less.
And yeah, we're down to 23 days right now. But who's counting.
