About goSolat
A personal problem. A real solution.
During the 2021 lockdown, I struggled to focus during prayer and kept losing count of my rakaat. I found out I wasn't alone. Praying at home was long, quiet, and easy to get distracted.
That led me to experiment with machine learning to count rakaat automatically: Apple Watch motion sensors, image-based ML, movement data. It was tedious. But the question underneath it was simple:
Why isn't there an app that helps Muslims track their prayers more easily?
The ML wasn't the product. It just revealed the real problem. And the problem wasn't counting. It was consistency.
The Problem
We talk a lot about financial debt. Society reminds us constantly. But missed prayers, the ones we owe, rarely get the same attention. They accumulate quietly, and most people don't have a clear way to face it.
The apps that existed were either too complex, required accounts, or weren't designed for qada specifically. Nobody had built something focused, private, and low-friction for this one problem.
How It Evolved
2021
Started as an ML experiment during lockdown. Motion sensors, image models, rakaat counting. I also began exploring SwiftUI and early app designs. The tech was a dead end. The problem it revealed wasn't.
2023
Started building the web version. Didn't launch it. I kept waiting for the "right moment". Or got distracted. Or maybe I was just hesitant to put it out.
2025
Finally launched the web app using GatsbyJS. Shared it on Threads. Around 5,000 people visited within a day. That was enough. The problem was real.
2026
Shipped the iOS app. 100,000 downloads in 9 days. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and Brunei, driven entirely by word of mouth.
Privacy as a Product Decision
No data leaves your device. No login required. No tracking. This wasn't a feature, it was a constraint that shaped every decision. People noticed. It showed up in reviews, in feedback, in the way they talked about the app to others. The tradeoff is real: no cross-platform sync between iOS and web, limited visibility into user behaviour. But for something this personal, trust matters more than convenience.
What's Shipped
These are the things people actually use:
- Qada tracking: a proper counter and manager for missed prayers
- Ibadah tracking: Quran, Sadaqah, and other acts in one place
- Rakaat counter using device sensors, no tapping needed
- Sleep manager: helps surface patterns behind missed prayers
- Menstrual mode: adjusts tracking during menstruation
- Custom notifications: fully personalised reminders
- Lock screen widget: zikir and prayer access without opening the app
- Reflection and trends: progress without streak pressure
This is still a work in progress. I'm just trying to build something people will actually use, and keep using.
100k+
downloads in 9 days
~200
App Store ratings
0
data collected