A small studio with a big focus: building native mobile apps that people actually want to use.
Halt and Catch Fire started with a simple belief: mobile apps should be built properly. Not stitched together with cross-platform frameworks that sacrifice performance for convenience, but crafted natively for each platform.
Based in Hamilton, Ontario, we're a development studio that builds native Android and iOS applications. We create our own products -- apps we believe in and use ourselves -- and we also work with clients who need a dedicated team to bring their mobile ideas to market.
Our first product, Iron Overload, was born from personal experience with hereditary hemochromatosis. When we couldn't find an app that did the job well, we built one. That's the mentality we bring to every project: if it should exist and it doesn't, we'll make it.
These principles guide every decision we make, from architecture to the App Store.
We build for Android and iOS using each platform's native tools and languages. Swift and Kotlin. No React Native, no Flutter, no compromises. Your users can feel the difference.
Our apps don't collect data they don't need. Iron Overload collects zero user data. We believe respecting user privacy isn't a feature -- it's a baseline.
We'd rather delay a launch than ship something half-baked. Quality over speed, always. Every screen, every interaction, every edge case gets the attention it deserves.
We don't build apps for the sake of building apps. Every project starts with a problem worth solving. If we can't articulate who it helps and how, we don't build it.
Whether it's our own product or yours, the process is the same.
We dig into the problem space, understand the users, and define exactly what needs to be built. No ambiguity, no scope creep later.
Native development on both platforms in parallel. Regular builds, real device testing, and constant iteration until every detail is right.
We handle App Store and Google Play submission, then stick around for updates, bug fixes, and new features as your app grows.
We're always interested in hearing about new ideas. If you need a native mobile app built, let's talk.
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