On October 21, 2026 I released version 2.0 of Water Tracker, now called Water Tracker: Hydrate & Drink. The first version went live in February 2024 and did one small thing: log the water you drink. Version 2.0 still does that one thing, but it does it everywhere you might want to do it: on the iPhone, on the Apple Watch, from a widget, from Siri. It is a complete redesign, and it also closes a chapter I opened by accident.
Two apps for one habit
For a while I had two hydration apps on the store: Water Tracker on the iPhone and Water Tracker Intake, a separate app for the Apple Watch. At the time that split looked sensible. In practice it meant two places to log a glass, two histories and two apps to maintain. The habit is one habit. Someone who drinks a glass of water does not care which device they record it on; they care that the number for today is right.
So version 2.0 is one app for iPhone and Apple Watch, kept in sync, and the watch-only app is being retired. It sounds like the opposite of what I argued in many small bets, but it is the same rule applied honestly: one app per job. Hydration was one job split across two apps, and now it is not.
What changed in 2.0
- A new design, in light and dark mode, built around a drop that fills up as you drink.
- One-tap logging of a glass, a bottle or any custom amount, with a one-tap undo for the glass you did not actually finish.
- A daily goal based on your weight and activity, shown in glasses, milliliters or ounces, whichever you think in.
- Reminders that go quiet as soon as today's goal is reached. A reminder that keeps nagging after you are done is the fastest way to get notifications switched off.
- Weekly and monthly charts with your average and your streak.
- Seven languages: English, Romanian, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Logging without opening the app
The best hydration log is the one that takes the least effort, so most of the work in 2.0 went into the places around the app rather than the app itself:
- Home Screen widgets with a + button, so a glass is logged straight from the widget.
- Lock Screen and StandBy widgets, for a glance at today's progress.
- On the Apple Watch, a full app: turn the Digital Crown to pick an amount. It works on its own, without the iPhone nearby, and syncs when it can.
- Complications for the watch face.
- Siri and Shortcuts ("log water in Water Tracker"), plus Action Button support.
- Every drink saved to Apple Health as Dietary Water, next to the rest of your health data.
Keeping the history
A redesign is the moment an app is most likely to lose the trust of the people who already use it. Water Tracker 2.0 keeps the history from version 1. Somebody who has logged water since 2024 opens the update and finds their days still there, in the new design. I consider that a requirement of a major update, not a feature of it, and it is one of the first things I check when I help a client modernize an existing app.
Still free, still private
No account, no ads, no tracking, and no subscription. Your data stays on your devices. Not every app needs a business model built into it; I pick pricing per app, as I wrote in subscription vs one-time pricing, and a water log is a small, everyday tool that should stay out of the way. Like most of what I ship, it runs without a backend.
Version 2.0 is less about new features than about putting one small habit in every place you might reach for it, and having a single app do that properly instead of two doing it halfway. Water Tracker is on the App Store, and there is more on watertracker.istack.ro.