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Filmlog 2026.9 is available today for iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. I have been building this app alone since 2013, and this is the largest release it has had. Here is what is in it, and why.

A catalogue that works offline. Around 315,000 films and 464,000 people now ship inside the app. Search works with the network switched off, in your own language. I built it this way because a film diary is used in exactly the places where the signal gives out: on a plane, on a train, in a cinema basement. Search also looks past titles and names — you can find films by where the story is set, what they are about, or the book they were adapted from. And roughly 110,000 cast and crew who have no entry in the usual film database now have pages of their own. For a silent-era cinematographer, that page is often the only one anywhere. (Their filmographies are loaded when you are online; the offline part is the catalogue and its search.)

Challenges. A film list with a finish line and a progress bar: a hundred films this year, a director's complete work, the recommendations of a friend. Sharing one packs the entire list into the link itself, so nothing is stored on any server and there is no record of the share. What travels is the list, never your progress — whoever accepts it starts their own copy at zero.

Soundtracks. Where a film's score was released on Apple Music, it sits on the film's own page, next to the record of having watched it, and it plays when you mark a film as watched. Film music carries more of a film than most people expect; leaving it out always felt like a gap. You need an Apple Music subscription for full albums, and not every film has one.

The evening, not just the film. Ratings and notes now belong to a single viewing rather than to the film, so a rewatch twenty years later is its own entry with its own thoughts. You can record who you watched with, and the cinema you sat in — which turns a cinema into a place with a page and a history instead of a line of text.

Statistics, rebuilt. Tiles with their own timespans, a patterns heatmap, a breakdown from five perspectives, and eight widgets for the home screen.

iPad. A new two-pane layout, with keyboard shortcuts for navigation and list actions.

Apple TV. The watchlist on the screen you are about to watch on, so the film you meant to see is not on a phone in someone's pocket.

Still to come: the Mac. A native Mac app, written in SwiftUI, and with it a Claude Desktop extension that answers questions about your own viewing history — on your own machine. Both are finished and waiting in App Store review, with no date from Apple. They ship the moment that clears.

The full tour of everything in this release is here: https://filmlog.cc/en/app/walkthrough

Filmlog is free. Filmlog Plus unlocks the personal layer — ratings, notes, statistics, widgets, cinemas, soundtracks, unlimited challenges and having the same library on more than one device. The catalogue and the export stay free, permanently, because leaving should always be possible.

Features in 3.0.2:
• Improved: search results accuracy and relevance for persons
• New: subscriptions offer free trials
• New: added indicator for followed people
• New: added sharing option for apps: Micro.blog, Threads, Ivory and Bluesky

Check out my latest work for yourself and let me know on Mastodon or send me an email.

Try out Filmlog for free

Features in 3.0.1:
• Filmlog Plus: added custom icons from Walter Wunderlich – Thank you, I‘m a fan!
• Filmlog Plus: choose your entry point for the app start

Check out my latest work for yourself and let me know on Mastodon or send me an email.

Try out Filmlog for free

I am very happy. I made it out the door with the update. Working part-time as an indie developer sometimes feels like working in a dark cave and sometimes only coming out with your work after many months. This is such a precious moment now!

After more than ten years, Filmlog had naturally developed some corners. I felt I was falling behind with the features and Filmlog no longer matched my knowledge and skills: I wanted to get away from my custom navigation elements, I was missing unique selling points or interesting features that make Filmlog unique and compelling.

But check out my latest work for yourself and let me know on Mastodon or send me an email.

New features, fixes and improvements:
• follow people to see their upcoming movies in releases
• all new native and standard iOS navigation
• links opened from filmlog.cc appear in your inbox
• filmographies are now split into filmography and appearances
• updated app-icons

Try out Filmlog for free

Time flies and already 10 years have passed since the first version of Filmlog. What an anniversary! I'm a bit proud to have reached the first big milestone with my goal to develop Filmlog in the long run. Since I still design and develop Filmlog completely on my own, the product is very much tied to my personal life and changes over the last 10 years. You can read a personal review of Filmlog's development here.


So I'm especially happy that after 15 updates and lots of ups and downs I can announce the next big update for Filmlog today. Later this year the beta test will start and you will be the first to know about it here on the blog (RSS) or on Mastodon.

To sweeten the wait there is an anniversary sale of Filmlog Plus in the next 14 days! You save almost 50% on the current price of 6,99 €. - Small disclaimer: with the next big release Filmlog Plus will have to become more expensive. So it's still worth it after the 14 day anniversary sale.

Now all that remains is to thank all those who encouraged me in the idea, used the app, sent wishes and improvements, gave encouragement or simply shared films with others via Filmlog. Here's to the next 10 years and many more happy Filmlog users.

Try out Filmlog for free

In version 2.1 Filmlog is now available as an universal app. Therefore supports iPads natively and the application layout is optimized as well. It is now possible to share movies on Twitter and many small improvements and fixes were made.

Do you love using Filmlog on iPhone or on iPad more? Let me know on Mastodon or send me an email.

Bugfixes and improvements:
• New feature: support for iPad
• Updated for iOS 15
• New feature: sharing movies on Twitter

Try out Filmlog for free

The mere quantity of available apps and the resulting competition—sometimes to be taken more seriously, sometimes not so much—is accompanying the many hours of work in front of the Mac. Meanwhile you question yourself and your product. Keeping up the hope, that you will sometime reach many people with the excitement you put into your application.

Today I'm very happy to announce, that Filmlog is featured in exactly 99 countries around the world as "Apps We Love Right Now"!

It is a great honor to be chosen within the million of apps. Thank you, dear AppStore Editorial Team for the visibility of my hard work, as well as the recognition of the quality of my, now for seven years developed and maintained, application.

Give Filmlog a try!

Filmlog is moving to a freemium business model: Free download, try it at no charge and then unlock Filmlog Plus features via InApp purchase.

!! Important !!
If you already paid for Filmlog you can unlock all Plus features for free. Just follow the instructions after app start.

It is a great pleasure to introduce you to Filmlog 2.0. I worked hard on so many improvements for usability topics, functionality and design. There are some new features as well:

1. Do want to recommend a movie? Simply share the movie link from the movie detail page and send it with whatever app you prefer. This link opens the movie directly in the Filmlog app. If the Filmlog app is not installed, a movie detail page will be opened in the browser.

2. For the joyful use of Instagram Stories, you can now share movies there as well. A nice way to share your movie experience with friends and followers, hopefully soon about cinema visits as well.

Bug fixes and improvements:
• updated for iOS 14
• new feature: Updated Design
• new feature: Fast universal search
• new feature: Sharing via Universal Links and Instagram Stories

Give Filmlog a try!