I have begun work on what will be the most significant update to the RunPee app ever. When version 7 is out, most people in the world will have access to the RunPee app in their native language.
This is going to be a chunk of work; therefore, it will roll out in stages.
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Movies
The first order of business is to create new database tables to handle new data for movies and Peetimes. Users will have the option to choose their country/location and their language independently. This is necessary for a few reasons. Firstly, if a user selects Spanish as their language, that doesn’t tell me what country they’re in, and I need to know that so I can choose the correct movie list for them because movies are released at different times in different countries. This will also allow someone to select Canada as their country, but Mandarin as their language, which might be important for a Chinese person living in Canada.
Fortunately, TheMovieDB.org (TMDB) offers a free and useful API that will be a huge help. It should allow me to add the translated movie names for a movie and get their release date in each country.
Peetimes
This is where AI will become essential. I know this is a sensitive topic for some people, and I get your reasons. Well, some of them, some of it is just ignorance on how AI/LLMs work, but that’s another story. I want to be transparent about it. If using AI is a problem for you, then I invite you to uninstall the RunPee app.
There’s simply no way to translate the Peetime data without AI. Even if I had human volunteers, and I don’t, the time it takes to get the translations, and the manual work I would have to do to manage all of this would be a deal breaker.
But with AI, I can translate the Peetimes into any language I want. I don’t have a language list yet, but it will probably be in the 50+ languages. Maybe even Klingon, because why not? 🙂
The App UI
Adding movies and Peetimes in other languages is great, but it doesn’t help if the entire RunPee UI is in English. Everything in the app has to be translated, like:
What people are saying
about the RunPee app.
Brilliant idea with great information
I’ve been using RunPee for a few years now and it’s basically a requirement of going to the movies for me. The best part of course are the “pee times” that give you cues, synopses and times for when you can pee without missing the most important parts of the movie. There is also information about the credits- length, extras and if there are any extra scenes at the wayyy end. Super helpful to just know that it is or isn’t worth staying. There is a timer function that will buzz your phone when it’s a good time to pee. I also appreciate that the app is very conscientious about it being an app you use in a theater- dark background, all silent alarms etc. I will always enjoy the experience of the theater even if I could watch things at home- but I’ve even used it at home to check for things like after credit scenes or other information too.
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- All of the app intro stuff users see on the first install.
- Buttons
- Labels
- Text inputs
- Time units
- Help/instructions
It’s a lot. Fortunately, years ago I had to translated an app for someone else and I learned what an absolute mess it is. So, being a developer, I thought of a better way to do it and created something I call Logos. I actually started integrating Logos into the RunPee app over a year ago, so some of that work is done. But this was all before the AI translation revolution. Now I need to update the Logos Admin to use AI for the translations instead of doing it manually.
Cost
All of these updates are coming to the world at zero cost. I’m not changing my current model of relying 100% on donations.
However, I will update the RunPee app so that I can track how much money is donated by each country. I need to do that so that each country can help support the addition of Peetimes for local movies. I haven’t made any final decisions yet, but as a starter, once a country donates $1,000, I will begin the process of finding people in that country who want to become Peeps. (Peeps are the RunPee members who are trained to find Peetimes in movies.) For instance, once South Korea, as a country, donates $1,000, I’ll start adding Peetimes for movies made in South Korea. And so on for other countries.
Movie Wish List
Did you know that the RunPee app is over 17 years old now, in 2025? One of the great things about that is I have received so much feedback from users over the years that I’ve been able to turn that feedback into an app that is nearly perfect. As perfect as I’m technically and financially able to make. But there is one single problem that has plagued RunPee from the start that I’ve never been able to address: which movies to add to the database. Not a week goes by that someone doesn’t email me and ask, “Why isn’t Some Movie I’ve Never Heard Of in the database?” The answer is almost always: a) I’ve never heard of it because it’s a limited release that will never show in theaters around me in Asheville, NC, or b) I’ve heard of it, but I don’t think it will be popular enough for me to pay someone $50 to get the Peetimes for it. The general rule is that we add the Peetimes for all wide-release movies, which means if it’s showing at my local AMC then there’s a 95% chance that I’ll add Peetimes for it. But that leaves a lot of movies unPeetimed. This year, for literally the first time ever, I did some research on the movies that are getting early buzz before Oscar season. This will cost me some money, but my goal is to get Steven, a Peep in NYC, to get the Peetimes for the majority of the movies that are contenders to be nominated for best picture. I’m doing this because I care about the RunPee users. It will likely cost more money than I’ll make from it, but you guys take care of me. I’ll do my best to take care of you. 🙂
But what’s been missing all these years is a way to let all RunPee users recommend movies, before they are released, to get Peetimes. Of course, I don’t need votes for the next Marvel movie, but there are a lot of edge cases where it could be a huge help. That means I’ll be able to make better choices about the movies we choose to add, and skip. For instance, there was recently an animated movie about the life of Christ that came out and I sent my sister to see it. It cost me $50, but faith-based movies have been popular with RunPee users in the past. But this time, crickets. Only 136 people used the RunPee app for that movie. By comparison, a popular movie will have 136 views in an hour over the opening weekend. So that was something I could have skipped.
This new voting system will let RunPee users around the world give me feedback about upcoming movies so that I’ll know what to focus on.
RunPee Global Admin
I expect that it will take at least a year for RunPee to catch on in other countries. At least to the point that they can start supporting the app enough for me to hire locals to find Peetimes for regional movies. That gives me time to work on the RunPee Global Admin, so that people in other countries can actually add the data. This will be a restricted app for private use only that our International Peeps will have access to.
Speaking of which, if you live outside of the US and you would like to get an early jump on training to become a Peep then first, please read a little about what you’re signing up for, and if you’re still interested email [email protected] and we’ll get you started.
Timeline
I can hear you thinking, When will these features be ready? LOL, that’s the bane of software development: estimating delivery times. It’s sort of like setting a goal to lose x-pounds in y-time. Someone may want to lose twenty-five pounds in two months, just in time for their cousin’s wedding, but then there was that holiday, and your friend’s cookout, and, etc. Two months later and seven pounds lighter, the diet continues. I want the basic translations to be available in the RunPee app before Wicked For Good releases, starting November 17th. It could happen, but probably not. But it’s a good deadline to set and get me focused. But as Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines and the whooshing noise they make as they go past.”
Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂
Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.