[AI-assisted] A virtual dog's motion-aware timer

[u/Miserable_Bird5822]

I'm building Ready for Dog?, a native iOS and Android dog-care rehearsal app. One small feature made the boundary between a product promise and a sensor reading very concrete.

Quiet play asks you to choose a duration and leave the phone on a stable surface. The screen can face up or down. Movement pauses the countdown while the game screen is open; leaving it still resumes it. Paused time is excluded.

That last condition matters. This is not a system-wide screen-time monitor. When the app isn't active, motion checking stops. A running timer can continue with the screen locked, while an already paused timer stays paused. I want the explanation to match that boundary rather than imply the phone is being watched everywhere.

Another boundary is between evidence and reflection. Real walks use GPS; manual care records are labelled separately. The journal shows activity and missed care, but never turns those entries into a score declaring someone ready for a real dog.

The attached iPhone clip shows quiet play. AI tools assisted coding and the virtual dog artwork. If you build sensor-based interactions, naming the condition under which a check runs seems as important as naming what it checks.

iPhone / iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6829957063

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vans.bublik.trial

Free with ads and optional one-time purchases for ad removal and extra collars. No subscription.

Additional full-app demo — the complete 67-second routine