Beacon BudgetBBeacon Budget
Mar 24

Steam-Based PC Client

With the release of OBS on steam this week, it really felt like a good reminder of the the non-game related applications I and others use already through steam - and those we'd maybe like to. Clearly there is a lot on the development plate with 2 platforms already, but maybe once those versions become feature-full and stable, a lite pc app (like ynab, i guess, now that i think about it) could be released through steam (ugh, like ynab i guess) to push updates automatically, as well as assist with the recurring and non-recurring transactions. It's built-in userbase (including myself) always welcome and appreciate and USE non-game applications on the platform, for example when my latest graphics card's utility and manual were primarily distributed through the platform, it really attached a lot of positive value as i trust their site and payment security, appreciate the automatic and frequent updates, and they provide space for the community and development team to solve problems together! [relevant steamworks article: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing/subscriptio…] I think the benefits of a pc app in general are pretty obvious, but when our budget platform in question takes its design cues from some of the greatest budgeting assistance of all time (rip simple), and is just as powerful a tool as the aforementioned - with even more features being developed (and ideas being thrown around in the community) in addition to all of the above experience and effort, it makes me yearn for that in my desktop experience (unlike ynab [no shade honestly, it just never helped me get on track unlike simple/DAS])! Something to keep in mind for long-term? To help buttress the idea of PC being the 3rd platform: I know OS X users (being one of those too) can simply use iOS apps natively in newer versions of OS X now, so that's definitely a fortunate counterpart, because although the community and feedback features are more lacking, their automatic updates and payment security, as we know from iOS, are top in class.
PendingPending
Mar 27, 2022

Thanks for the idea!! Honestly, as soon as PC OSes are more battle tested with Flutter I'd be up to officially supporting Linux/Windows/macOS. Right now, the app and dependencies I use aren't supported on PCs. A huge example is subscription support since that's handled exclusively via both mobile os app stores. Once I get web working, that wouldn't be a problem anymore since I'd most likely integrate with something like Stripe to handle subscriptions outside of mobile. I thought I'd share on what the hold up would be for this feature request! Fortunately, it's not a no, but a "not yet."