Back from the Zombie State

It's been over three years since our last release (and more than 10 years since the first release) of our little train and bus departure app Time for Coffee. Our Today Widget was loved by the community, a quick swipe to see your next departure. Then iOS 18 removed support for Today Widgets entirely, and many wrote us to bring it back. Unfortunately, we never found the time to fix it. Life got busy, the codebase stopped compiling, and adding the new WidgetKit widgets looked like a daunting task. So the app sat there, doing its intended thing, just not with a is to glance at widget.

No more. Thanks to AI and Claude Code, what seemed like weeks of work turned into something manageable over some weekend. The app started compiling again after just a few minutes of AI-assisted debugging. Converting to the new WidgetKit format? A breeze. We also modernized several deprecated APIs and SDKs along the way.

Home Screen Widgets are here

The new widgets come in small, medium, and large sizes with four display modes (longpress on the widget to choose the mode):

  • Nearest Favorite: Departures from the closest favorite station
  • Nearest Station: Departures from the closest station
  • Nearby Stations: A list of nearby stations with their next departures
  • Specific Station: A fixed favorite station of your choice

Tapping a widget opens that station in the app.

Lock Screen Widgets

Three lock screen widget styles are available:

  • Circular: A gauge showing minutes until the next departure
  • Rectangular: Station name with upcoming departures
  • Inline: Single departure text for the lock screen header

A note on widget updates: Widgets sometimes don't refresh on time, iOS controls when widgets update, and we can't control it. For time-critical departures, just open the app for the for sure latest information.

Bug Fixes

  • Search bar visibility issues resolved
  • Improved dark mode throughout the app
  • Other small fixes.

Getting it

It's not available in the App Store yet, we're still in testing phase. But you can get it via TestFlight invite already today. Feedback always welcome.