3 min read
Zac AckerFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Indianapolis, IN, June 10, 2026
Acker Cloud today opened the public beta of Collect, a private, local-first iOS app for cataloging the things you actually care about. Comics, vinyl, cards, watches, sneakers, whatever you keep, Collect gives it a home that lives on your device and syncs only where you tell it to.
Streaming taught a generation that access is not ownership. Collect is built on the opposite bet: the things worth keeping deserve a record that is yours, clean, and permanent.
"Most collection apps want your data on their servers and your attention in their feed," said Zac Acker, founder of Thrive Culture Media and the developer behind Collect. "Collect does neither. Your catalog lives on your phone, syncs through your own iCloud, and locks behind your face or a passphrase. It is your collection, on your terms."
What Collect does
- Catalog anything. A tile-based dashboard with category and tag breakdowns, multi-image items, and up to three reference links per entry.
- Organize the way you think. Favorites, wishlist, archive, and a soft-delete trash, plus separate personal and business vaults.
- Find fast. Debounced search, filterable and sortable lists, and tag and category drill-down across every view.
- Move your data freely. CSV and JSON import with duplicate detection, and CSV and JSON export with formula-injection protection. No lock-in.
- See the shape of your collection. Cached stats and insights at a glance.
- Share on purpose. Export any item as a clean share card image or as JSON.
Built private by default
Collect is local-first. Your catalog is stored on device with Core Data and syncs through your personal iCloud using CloudKit, never a Thrive server. The whole app can be locked behind Face ID, Touch ID, or a keyphrase, with brute-force protection, an auth challenge before any lock change, and content hidden in the app switcher.
Availability
Collect is in open beta now for iPhone at acker.cloud/collect. This is an early build, feature-complete on the core catalog and actively iterating on polish ahead of a 1.0 release. Feedback from beta collectors will shape what ships next.
About Thrive Culture Media
Thrive Culture Media builds tools and writes about the culture worth keeping: music, tech, sport, and the discipline of owning your own archive. Collect is its first shipping app.
Media inquiries: acker.cloud/contact