It’s not hyperbole to call DualShot Recorder an overnight sensation. The camera app hit number one on the App Store’s list of top paid apps just 12 hours after release. But the app’s origin story is even more surprising: it all started with a cadre of friendly neighborhood squirrels and their favorite caretaker.
Derrick Downey Jr. built a career on short-form videos documenting his interactions with the squirrels that visit his patio in Los Angeles. His Instagram and TikTok accounts each have well over a million followers who know the regular cast of characters: Maxine, Richard, and less frequent visitors like Hoodrat Raymond. Downey treats them to nuts, custom-built shelters, and trips to the vet when needed. It’s wholesome content that resonates with millions.
He wanted to create a YouTube series but struggled to capture both vertical and horizontal footage simultaneously. Other creators use rigs with two phones or crop clips in post-processing. “I tried going out and buying different devices and rigs and gimbals, and additional phones to set up to accommodate for that… but it became too taxing,” he says. Cropping in post also has drawbacks: the iPhone camera uses a crop of the full sensor, so taking a vertical 16:9 crop from that already-cropped frame uses only a small portion of the sensor, losing resolution and limiting framing options.
Last year, he got the idea to create an app to solve this. Despite not being a software developer, he experimented with ChatGPT to try vibe-coding something. It was unsuccessful initially, but earlier this year, he tried again. “I went into the code and the camera activated. And I said okay, we possibly got something here.” He researched Apple’s camera API, which allows third-party developers to access footage from the entire sensor. This capability could save horizontal and vertical crops from the original video in-camera without losing resolution. After three or four months of prompt engineering, mainly with Claude (though he also used ChatGPT and Google’s Antigravity), he had a working app.
“You would think that because you’re giving the prompts to this machine that it would give you accurate data. But I found that not to be the case,” Downey says. He learned to double-check and triple-audit everything the AI generated. He recognized inaccuracies and corrected them, relying on his understanding of the product’s functionality.
With the app ready, he looked into submitting it to Apple’s App Store and priced it at a one-time cost of $6.99. Within 12 hours, DualShot Recorder became the number-one paid app in the store, remaining in the top spot for eight days. The price is now $9.99, but there is no subscription and no user data collection. Videos stay entirely on the user’s device. The app includes granular controls over quality and resolution and allows recording from two different cameras on the same device at once. However, the lack of automatic data collection has made bug fixing harder; Downey is working on a troubleshooting feature for error reports.
The success has been overwhelming but invigorating. “I’ve been losing a lot of sleep, which I don’t mind, really,” he says. “I’m all about balance, but when something is fueling you, sometimes you lose sleep over it. And that’s what’s been going on.” He acknowledges that maintaining a successful app might require a pivot but embraces the new challenges.
Downey is open about his mental health with his followers, crediting his interactions with squirrels for helping him through dark times. When his channel goes quiet, he shares updates about his mental space. His community is supportive. “They’re like oh, take your time. We’re not going anywhere. We’ll be here.” Despite the chaos of the app launch, he still dedicates time to Richard, Maxine, and his other furry visitors. “They met me in a space when I was going through depression. And that’s family. So even if I really haven’t been able to show up online like I usually do, I’m still taking care of them.”
DualShot Recorder is a testament to how AI tools can empower non-developers to create successful products, all inspired by a love for squirrels and a need to share their stories.
Source: The Verge News