About

Hey there! I’m Mac, the creator of Textually Yours. (It feels a bit weird calling myself that, but here we are). Let me take you on a little journey about how this app came to be—spoiler alert: it involves a lot of late-night coding and maybe a few questionable decisions. If you're not into hearing about all the little details, now’s probably a good time to hit the back button. But if you're curious, here’s how it all started.

If you haven't already checked out what Textually Yours is all about, I highly recommend taking a peek first, it’ll help make the "why" part a lot clearer. But since you're here, let me answer the most common question: "Why would anyone want features like no unsending messages, real-time typing previews, or event planning?" and "How did you come up with this?" Let me walk you through it.

Picture this: once upon a time, there was someone I’ll refer to as "Pineapple" (because why not?). Full disclosure: I’m pretty terrible at texting, especially when it comes to texting someone I'm into. I’m basically a walking typo. Pineapple, on the other hand was my exact opposite.

Every time we exchanged messages, I’d type, delete, rewrite, and second-guess myself endlessly. I even resorted to unsending half of my texts (because that’s totally a normal thing to do, right?). It wasn’t. Pineapple got super frustrated and made it clear that if I didn’t stop unsending 80% of my messages, I would be in serious trouble.

And that, my friends, is how the "no unsending messages" feature came into play. Pineapple wished for an app where the unsend button didn’t even exist. So, I did exactly that.

But that wasn’t all. I’d still type out messages, stare at them for 30 seconds, and then delete them. Meanwhile, Pineapple could see that I was "typing" (awkward, right?). And then there were the complaints from Pineapple, “Just send it already!” So, I thought, “Why not let her see exactly what I’m typing—even if I don't hit send?” Hence, "typing previews" were born.

Now, "event planning". Yeah, that wasn’t really my thing. But Pineapple loved organizing everything from A to Z. I was the “let’s just wing it” type, but Pineapple enjoyed planning things. Since I wasn’t exactly the event-planning mastermind, I figured I could make it easier for people who actually do enjoy it.

Finally, and most importantly; "the one-connection rule". Why just one person? Simple: It means total focus. No distractions. Just you, the app, and your one connection. Trust me, it’s way more fun that way. I personally believe this is a good way to show someone that they are someone who I am confident about using the app with. I can't explain it in any other way.

And that’s the story of Textually Yours. An app born out of my endless second-guessing, Pineapple’s patience, and some very awkward text convos. It’s basically everything Pineapple wanted to have when Pineapple texted me.

So with all these ideas in mind, I decided to build the app for Pineapple. An app that would make texting easier for me (and less annoying for Pineapple). I broke the whole project into three phases: The Backend (the logic that powers the app), The User Interface (how the app looks), and Testing (self-explanatory).
I kicked off the project in November 2024; and let me tell you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My original goal was to wrap everything up by Valentine’s Day (I know, I know, super cheesy—but hey). So, armed with a deadline, I dove into coding. Minutes turned into hours, hours into days, and days into weeks.

The backend was surprisingly smooth. Phase 1—saving messages, implementing the one-connection rule—was a breeze. Phase 2, the user interface, went pretty well too. I thought to myself, “Hey, this isn’t too bad, I’ve got this.” And then came testing. Testing… let’s just say that’s where things really got interesting (or, rather, frustrating).

Integrating both phases together was the hardest part. Nothing seemed to work. I tried every trick in the book, and more... but nothing clicked. However, once I finally got the basic logic right, everything else started to fall into place (though, not without some serious struggle).

As for features like Dynamic Typing? That was a beast. I mean, I almost gave up a few times, but after many long nights, it finally came together. And Event Planning? Let’s just say it was a love-hate relationship, but I managed to pull it off.

So here we are—Textually Yours, born out of countless hours of coding, debugging, and questioning every life choice I’ve ever made. But hey, it was all worth it, and I couldn’t be more proud of what it’s become.

And that’s the story behind Textually Yours. It started as a simple gesture, a way for me to appreciate Pineapple’s presence in my life. For someone who only knows how to speak in code, this was my way of acknowledging Pineapple. We all have a Pineapple in our lives—the one person who makes us feel understood and safe, the one who makes us smile, laugh, and overthink every word we say. I hope you get to use this app to connect with your Pineapple, too. To say those unsaid things, to let your real-time thoughts flow without hesitation.

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a pineapple again, but one thing’s for sure: sometimes, the most important connections aren’t the ones that last forever. It’s those small moments that teach us how to be more genuine, more present, more safe, and more caring. So here’s to appreciating what we have while we have it.

And if you happen to be texting your Pineapple right now, I hope you tell them something you never thought to say before. Because afterall, they are Textually Yours.