Yowlr - Pet Camera

Yowlr is a simple soundboard with camera built to capture a pet’s reaction in the moment. It began as a fast, minimalist experiment for a friend’s new puppy and became my first 0–1 app built and launched on my own.

Mobile Product Design · Interaction Design · Brand Systems · 0-1 Build · App Store Launch

A Useful Detour

Yowlr started as a detour while I was getting ready to build Giftodactyl, my wishlist app. A friend had a new puppy and needed relief from the constant chewing, some way to interrupt the behavior long enough to redirect.

Before building anything, we tested the concept by playing audio files directly from our phones to see if the interruption actually worked in real life. I mocked up a quick soundboard solution immediately, then did the responsible thing and researched whether it was even worth building.

There were already options in the space, but many seemed structured around managing audio assets instead of shaping a clear, focused interaction.

The decision to pause the first app and keep going with this was easy. I'd found a simpler product to execute and a better vehicle for learning how to build and launch apps entirely on my own.

Quick mockup of the app when it was still using ads and before it had its name and extra sound groups.

Simple First, Cute Second

My guiding rule was simple first, cute second. The goal wasn’t to create a giant library of sounds with endless labels. The point is to steal a pet’s attention instantly, without making the user hunt around or think too hard.

That rule informed the structure and the details. Features had to earn their place by making the core interaction faster or clearer.

AI generated Demo video created for use in the app stores using the Veo model via the Firefly interface. Edited with Premiere and composited with AfterEffects.

Reading Between the Reviews

Ads seemed like the default path. A deeper look at how they operate in mobile apps made it clear they would dilute the experience for very little return.

While reading reviews of competing apps, a pattern kept showing up. People loved using sounds with their pets. They hated the ads. And they loved how cute their pets looked when the sounds worked.

That clarified the opportunity. The core differentiator became a custom camera that can play sounds while you shoot, so you can capture the reaction without losing a beat. The app isn’t just “play a sound,” it’s also “capture a moment.”

Monetization evolved alongside that decision. I moved from ads to a one-time purchase with sound packs, and eventually to a single subscription. The lesson learned here was that pricing complexity can bleed into the rest of the system.

The simplest model aligned best with the product. It keeps the experience clean, avoids incentives for ad clutter, and supports expansion without turning the app into a storefront.

Emotion as Interface

Instead of structuring the UI around sound filenames like Bark 1 or Bark 2, I built it around emotional intent. People don’t think in asset names. They think “get their attention” or “$#@!%& stop that!!!”

Each icon button represents an emotional category and plays a randomized sound from the library. The primary soundboard uses a 2×2 grid that’s easy to hit without precision and usable without looking at the screen. The layout progresses from negative to positive, reinforcing the emotional model visually.

As the product evolved, I added training tools like a clicker and whistle. They map more to repetition and count, instead of emotion, so I gave them fun poses to communicate their value.

Snippets from the user guide; inspired by the diagram-first vibe of IKEA instruction manuals, but with color! This illustration is also the inspiration for the demo video.

Building a Visual System

Cuteness is a functional part of the product. When the app is simple and the interface is this minimal, the visuals really define the character of the product and shape the experience.

I developed the angry dog first, then extended the same underlying structure across the other emotional faces. The system uses consistent symmetry and baseline alignment so expressions can shift without being jarring. That structure extends to the cat, the whistle, and the clicker, keeping the set cohesive.

Emoji were a strategic reference point. They already encode globally understood emotional cues, so I leaned into that shared visual language to keep the iconography intuitive across cultures and simplify localization.

A snapshot of my Illustrator artboards laying out the emotion icons for the sound categories. The outlined version helps show the rigging I used to make them all symmetrical and consistent.

To maintain consistency, I also designed all the system icons and built an icon font for use inside the app.

Additional graphics including a less flat iOS logo, error cat from the user guide graphics, and the sad error dog graphic

Multilingual from the Start

Yowlr is translated into nine languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.

I'm not willing to rely on the stores' auto-translation features, so I worked through all the product language deliberately, using AI as a drafting partner and validating phrasing with native speakers when possible. The goal was both accuracy and preserving tone so the product feels consistent across languages.

The home screen soundboard in English, Spanish, German, and Korean, demonstrating how the emotional intent and visual system remain consistent across languages.

Learning to Build for Real

I explored multiple ways to build Yowlr and ultimately chose FlutterFlow. It provides the scaffolding for a standard app structure while still allowing custom functionality where it matters. It lets me ship to multiple platforms from a single Flutter codebase, and I retain full ownership of the code, which is non-negotiable.

I also built Yowlr without a traditional backend. It works offline, with no accounts, tracking, or data collection layers. That philosophy became a constraint that simplified the architecture and kept the product focused. The app does what it says it does.

I built it entirely solo. That meant designing the system, implementing interaction logic, managing audio sessions, handling camera lifecycle and preview behavior, integrating subscriptions, and navigating the app stores. I used AI to unblock specific technical gaps, but the architecture, sequencing, and technical decisions were mine. The tool accelerated execution. It didn’t define the product.

I’ve spent years building complex, variable-driven systems and prototypes, so working inside a visual builder felt like a natural extension of that experience. The difference here is that this isn’t a prototype that will be handed off to engineering. It has to perform in production.

The camera was the hardest technical piece. Getting the preview to render correctly across devices and layering in interactions so it feels smooth and dependable took sustained iteration.

And shipping isn’t just building the app. It’s navigating distribution systems with hidden dependencies and unclear steps, especially on a first release.

The camera interface switched to video mode, actively recording a pup.

Conclusion

Yowlr is currently in closed testing on Google Play (first-time app release process), and the app has been stable for testers. No crashes so far. The main issues have been individual Play account setup problems, not the product itself.

Target availability is early March 2026.

Yowlr looks simple because it is simple on purpose. The work was deciding what not to build, keeping the interface anchored in emotion instead of assets, building a cohesive visual system that could scale, and making a clear monetization choice that didn’t poison the experience.

It’s also my first fully independent, 0–1 app built end-to-end. Design, product decisions, brand system, illustration, localization, engineering, and store launch. Yowlr wasn’t the original plan, but it ended up being the right one. It let me build something real, prove my workflow, and learn the parts of launching that you can’t learn any other way.