Lobsters is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing links to articles, tutorials, and projects related to technology and programming. Readers can learn about a wide range of topics, from software development and system administration to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. With user submissions, comments, and voting, Lobsters provides a platform for collaborative learning and knowledge sharing among technology enthusiasts.

Lobsters

AI-assisted coding ("vibecoding") now enables developers to replace paid subscription apps with custom weekend projects. The author built three personal tools—a dictation app (Jabber), a screen recorder (Reel), and a Hugo blog editor (Hugora)—to replace $29/month in subscriptions, despite having no prior macOS or Swift experience. While these projects aren't production-ready, they demonstrate how AI has made app development accessible enough to create personalized alternatives to commercial software. This shift suggests standalone apps are becoming commoditized features rather than sustainable products.

Your App Subscription Is Now My Weekend Project · Roberto Selbach

<blockquote>
I’m an engineer, but I have never written a single macOS application. I’ve never even read Swift code in my life, and yet, I now can get an app up and running in a couple of hours. This is crazy.
</blockquote>
I think in the near future the programming languages in the job requirements become irrelevant. The JD will sound like “Looking for the experienced AI Engineer.” =)

This aligns perfectly with my prediction for the potentially distopian future we’re headed in to, where the concept of persistent “apps” or cloud based services wont exist. There will just be the ability to interact with some AI, you’ll tell it what you want to achieve, it will “build” you the interface you need based on your current abilities, needs etc. You’ll do whatever you needed to do and the app will be disposed. Disposable apps. Data will probably live in some data lake, tagged under your identity or, the better option, it resides on some personal device you carry that you allow the AI to interface with when needed.

This kind of proves that ultimately all programs are just a collection of a limited number of patterns. Just like music mostly conforms to a few relatively strict rules. You still have enough freedom to have an infinite number of possibilities and the rules and patterns guide you to something useful. For personal projects, I think this is absolutely amazing.
I still would not completely write off monetized solutions. Firstly I’d expect most people using coding assistants to be sort of technical or sciency. Although it would be interesting to see how many people subscribe to the apps and would not consider making them themselves. And secondly there are companies. Software needs to be maintained. In my experience even big tech companies don’t want to overly invest in this as it detracts from the business. Still, I’m very curious how this second group will evolve over the coming months and years. Exciting times ahead.