Where Haven is right now
This is the first entry in the dev log. I plan to use this first post as a snapshot of where the project is right now, where I am at right now, and where both are headed. Future dev log posts will be similarly styled "personal dev diary" posts. I never really did good at the sanitized marketing style "dev log" posts.
The web and desktop builds
Desktop was where it all started. Me and one idea, one platform. Learning everything as I went. From TypeScript, React, Electron, PgSQL, Realtime, Auth. Haven Desktop really was my first real venture into software. My minimal experience in the Next.js side was obviously helpful but nothing in comparison to this more varying stack. Thankfully, when I decided web was a new build target. Most of the work was transferrable across into a web client on Vite. Both of these platforms have a serviceable UX, but after grinding through four React Native mobile rebuilds I have learned a lot and want to bring that to the platforms that started it all.
The iOS alpha
There's now a public iOS alpha on TestFlight. This is early — it's an alpha on purpose, and it's the first time Haven has run as a native mobile app rather than a desktop one. Expect rough edges. The point of opening it up is to find them with real users on real devices.
If you join, the most useful thing you can do is tell me what feels broken or slow. That feedback is worth more right now than polish.
What we're exploring next
Part of building in the open is being honest that some of this is exploration, not commitment. A few things on the bench:
- A lighter desktop shell. The current desktop app is solid, but I'm evaluating a smaller, faster-to-launch native shell. I'm particularly interested in how Tauri + Solid.js would change my designing. Actively testing this stack on an exploration branch.
- Tighter cross-platform parity. Web, desktop, and mobile all lean on the same shared logic. The goal is that a feature lands once and shows up everywhere, instead of being rebuilt per platform.
- More platforms. Windows and the browser are covered today, with iOS now in alpha. The rest follows as each one earns its place.
The vision
Haven exists because community chat shouldn't come with dark patterns, surprise monetization, or your data quietly becoming the product. The long-term plan is a chat platform that's honest about what it is, sustained without extracting from the people who use it, and good enough that you'd choose it on the merits.
I'll keep posting here as things move. If you want to follow along or poke holes in any of this, the GitHub repo is public and the issues are open. Although I am very aware I need to clean up the issues board.
The personal stuff
I'm not afraid to throw some of these personal moments in public and I think it helps showcase the soul of Haven as a project. So expect some of these occasionally making their way into release notes, dev log entries, or social media posts.
I am not a software developer by trade, or by education. I'll be honest, I barely consider myself a developer in the first place. Haven is my only real project so far, outside of small websites or single use-case tools. So I genuinely don't have a lot of context for what projects like Haven should or should not be doing, focusing, optimizing or similar. I don't even know if Haven is as large an undertaking as I feel like it is. But from my chair, this project is huge. There are so many moving parts, so many considerations and so many potential pitfalls. That is both the fun and the painful part for me. As most of you probably can guess, I am an ADHD fueled individual. You can see it in my commits, my merges, and my notes and comments. I bounce between stuff a lot and it's both a strength and a curse.
I mention all of that to set the expectation a bit. I am a father of three with a full-time day job. I work this and all my other project needs in "after-hours". Meaning very late nights and long weekends. I'm going to do my absolute best to be responsive to breaking issues, feature requests, bug reports, and whatever else comes with the territory. But you'll want to set your expectations with the knowledge that this is not my life right now and it's not paying my bills. But I promise I'm going to keep up as best I can. I hope you all enjoy Haven and the freedom that comes with a platform that's so unbelievably against using your data, farming your data or exploiting its users.
See y'all next time.
-Redrixx