The Usual · Stillcraft

What's inside

Everything The Usual does.

A page for every café

The name and address, the front, the stamps (sockets, quiet, laptop OK, open late…) and a line of its story. The front is drawn from memory in the packet's colours, or it's your photo, as it is or redrawn as an ink sketch.

A sugar packet on the board

Every café gets a packet in one of five prints and ten colourways, pinned to a cork board under string lights with a paper tag: “yours · 27”, “8 visits”, “from Anya”, “2019–2026”.

A coffee ring for every cup

“I'm in a café” writes down a cup. Its ring goes on the page in the colour of the drink, and cups of the usual pile up where your cup always lands. Beside a ring, a pencil line: who was there, what happened.

The usual?

Write it down, or just order the same thing twice and it writes itself. From the tenth visit the café is stamped “yours”, and walking in, one tap answers “Yes, the usual”.

An hour by the window

Put the phone face down and look out. Time counts only while it lies face down, and goes onto the cup.

Packets for friends

Send a café as a sugar packet with a sticky note: “get the filter, sit on the windowsill”. It travels as plain text through any messenger; a friend with The Usual shares it back in, and it lands on their board as a dashed “want to go” packet.

When a café closes

Its page stays, with every ring, and the window on it goes dark: chairs up on the table, a sign on the door and your last line. The packet gets a black ribbon.

The map

Your cafés as little sugar packets on an OpenStreetMap plan printed in sepia, a city at a time. Put a café there with “I'm here” or by moving the map under the pin; a packet sent to a friend carries its place too.

The year in cups

A long till receipt: cups, cafés, the new ones, hours by the window, the most faithful place, the drink and the company of the year, the closed ones, and your own price index of the drink you order most.

Screens

Captured in The Usual.

The Usual: The Usual — **The Usual**Rain on the café window.

The Usual: The board — **The board**A sugar packet for every café.

The Usual: A café's page — **A café's page**Stamped yours since May.

The Usual: By the window — **By the window**The phone face down.

The Usual: For a friend — **For a friend**A packet and a sticky note.

The Usual: Closed — **Closed**The window has gone dark.

The Usual: The year in cups — **The year in cups**And the price of a raf.

The Usual: Want to go — **Want to go**A friend's tip.

The Usual: The map — **The map**Sepia OpenStreetMap, by city.

How a café becomes yours

	On the board	On the page
A friend's tip	A dashed packet: “from Anya”	Their sticky note: what to order, where to sit
First visit	A new packet is pinned up	The front, the address, the first ring
Coming back	The tag counts the visits	Rings pile up at your spot; the same order twice becomes the usual
Tenth visit	“yours · 10”	The stamp, and “The usual?” as you walk in
It closes	A black ribbon and the years	The window goes dark; every ring and your last line stay

Get it

Get The Usual.

Install

Version: v1.0.0
File: TheUsual.apk
Requires: Android 9.0 (API 28) or newer. No Google services needed.
Permissions: Internet only for OpenStreetMap map tiles and one Nominatim address lookup when the map picker opens. Location only when you tap “I'm here”. No camera permission: the phone's own camera app takes the photos.
License: MIT

Download the APK on your phone.
Open it and allow installs from this source when Android asks.
Next time you sit down with a cup, tap “I'm in a café”.

Download APK All releases

Build from source

JDK 17+ (Android Studio's bundled JBR works) and the Android SDK. Kotlin, Jetpack Compose, Room, DataStore; the rainy window, the sugar packets, the cork board and string lights, the notebook and the coffee rings are drawn in code.

git clone https://github.com/bigdevwhale/theusual.git
cd theusual
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest assembleDebug   # app.theusual.dev, installs next to a release
./gradlew assembleDebug -Pdemo              # app.theusual.demo, a lived-in diary
./gradlew testDebugUnitTest -Prender --tests '*RenderArtScreens*' && python tools/shots.py   # screenshots

Good to know

Questions people ask.

Does it need the internet?

Only for the map: its tiles come from OpenStreetMap, and opening the map picker asks Nominatim once for the address. The diary itself works offline and stays on the phone: no account, no ads, no analytics.

Does it know where I am?

Only when you tap “I'm here” to put a café on the map. Nothing runs in the background, and you can always place a café by moving the map under the pin instead.

How does a friend get my packet?

It goes as plain text through any messenger, so anyone can read it. A friend with The Usual shares the text back into the app, and the café lands on their board as a dashed “want to go” packet, with your note and its place on the map.