Case study · Astrology Zone

We rebuilt Astrology Zone with its subscriptions intact

Susan Miller’s horoscope app, rebuilt by us in 2020 and run by us ever since on iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android, with its backend and CMS.

App Store Google Play

Client: Susan Miller Omni Media
Industry: Astrology publishing
Timeline: 2020 – present
Services: Mobile apps, Backend & APIs, In-app subscriptions, CMS, DevOps
Platforms: iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, Android

The opportunity

Astrology Zone is Susan Miller’s horoscope app. Free readers get daily horoscopes for every sign and Susan’s detailed monthly forecasts. Premium subscribers get longer daily forecasts with a look at the week ahead every Sunday, her essays, compatibility reports, Key Dates and no ads.

In March 2020 the app came to us from its previous developer. Susan needed a modern app without losing the readers already paying for Premium, and a team that would keep it current as Apple and Google change the rules.

What we built, and why it mattered

A rebuild that kept paying readers

Readers already paying for Premium had to keep their subscriptions through a new developer and a new app.

We rebuilt Astrology Zone in React Native in 2020, with a new design and new code, and shipped it as an update to the existing App Store and Google Play apps. We kept the original store product IDs, so subscriptions carried straight over.

Why it mattered: Susan kept her subscribers, her store listings and their history, and got a codebase that could keep growing.

Astrology Zone App Store screenshot, cropped: choosing a zodiac sign — Pick a sign to read its horoscopes.

Built around a daily habit

Horoscopes are read every day, so the app has to fit into each reader’s day.

The daily-horoscope notification arrives at the time each reader picks. Read To Me reads forecasts aloud and highlights each word as it goes, in the voice and at the speed the reader chooses. In 2021 we added a SwiftUI Apple Watch app and an iPhone home-screen widget with each reader’s daily horoscope.

Why it mattered: Susan’s forecasts reach readers where they are: on their phone, on their wrist, on their home screen, or read aloud.

Astrology Zone App Store screenshot, cropped: the daily horoscope for Virgo, with tabs for yesterday, today and tomorrow — Daily horoscopes for yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Premium that keeps working

Subscriptions are the business, and Apple and Google keep changing how purchases work.

We moved iOS purchases to StoreKit 2, verified on our server through Apple’s App Store Server API and server notifications, and kept Android on Google Play’s current billing library. Older app versions keep working on their original receipts.

Why it mattered: Subscribers keep their Premium access through every billing change, whichever version of the app they run.

Astrology Zone App Store screenshot, cropped: Life, Love & More, with Susan’s essays — Susan’s essays on love, health and more.

Current on every platform, every year

Store deadlines don’t wait: new Android versions, new billing libraries and new requirements arrive every year.

Every year we bring the app and its backend up to what Apple and Google require, without changing the API the apps depend on, and ship builds to both stores through Fastlane.

Why it mattered: The app stays on both stores and on current technology, with no surprises for readers or for Susan’s team.

How we built it

One codebase, native where Apple needs it

React Native serves iPhone, iPad and Android. The Apple Watch app and the widget are SwiftUI, sharing one Swift client for fetching horoscopes.

Purchases verified on our server

The backend accepts StoreKit 2 transactions, legacy App Store receipts and Google Play purchases, and turns them into one subscription status for every version of the app.

A content pipeline that runs itself

The backend splits Susan’s emailed horoscopes by sign, raises an alert if a day’s content is missing, and sends each reader’s notification at their chosen time. Editors work in a Vue.js CMS, which can also tell Premium readers when the new monthly forecast is out.

Releases on autopilot

Fastlane uploads builds with App Store Connect API keys and automatic build numbers, and sends Android builds to Google Play’s internal track for testing.

Technology

React Native
TypeScript
SwiftUI
Node.js
Express
PostgreSQL
Heroku
Vue.js
StoreKit 2
Google Play Billing
Firebase
Fastlane

How we work together

We’ve run Astrology Zone since March 2020: the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Android apps, the backend, the CMS, and every release to both stores.

One team owns it end to end, from Susan’s daily content pipeline to Apple’s and Google’s deadlines, so nothing falls between vendors.

Next case study: Moonlight Phases: We built a moon guide that works anywhere, with no server

All work

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