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I have had three great app ideas burning a hole in my psyche for some years now, and at last--thanks to GPT--I feel like there's a chance they could burst out of my imagination and into the real world.
Quick Bit Of History
Around eight, or nine years ago, I read about something that exists in the physical world and thought to myself, 'Hmm, that would work as an app.' So, being the impulsive act-now-think-later kinda guy I am, I enrolled in a Udemy course and started to learn JAVA and the language for Android (I think back then it was lolipop, but I can't remember); however, I soon learned that copying code for apps I don't care about was not a great way to learn coding. So with my app idea still burning in my mind, I bought another course, and another, and another....
Fast-forward a year or two and I have smatterings of JAVA, Python, JS, React, blah, blah, blah. But the problem is I still didn't feel I could code. I felt the same way as I do when I'm semi-literate at a new language. Sure, I can understand vocab, I know what certain phrases mean and I can understand how to conjugate verbs, as well as translate sentences, but when it comes to making independent sentences of my own, it's not so easy. This was particular frustrating because by that time I'd had a couple more app ideas and even one for a mobile game, but it felt like I was a million miles away from being competent enough to code them...
So, I gave up.
Then came GPT, a game changer! I told it about my app ideas and asked it to help me to bring them to fruition, "No problem! I got you!'
That didn't go so well. After downloading a bunch of dependencies, libraries and all that good stuff, I suffered a metaphorical fall at the first hurdle. Even with GPT's help, I realised that I needed enough knowledge to work out (among other things) why its damn code kept bugging out, because GPT sure is hell couldn't tell me!
Give up again.
Present Day
While walking my dog the other day, I got out my phone and turned on my voice-to-text app, and started dictating what App Number Two would look like, how it would work, and what it would need to sync with. When I got back home I fed my transcript into GPT, told it that I wanted this to be a mobile app and let it know about my scant coding experience.
Of course, the ever-cheerful GPT informed me of how great it thought my idea was (LOL) and spat out a bunch of code. Hmm. I told it that the code looked complicated and that perhaps I should get back onto a more serene coding horse, one that was unlikely to buck and throw me off. So I outlined my original App Number One idea and after a couple of clarification questions, GPT spat out a bunch of readable code.
Okay, this could work.
Execution
So off we go, I fired up Android Studio for the first time in X-years and got to work. It turns out that I know more than I think I know when it comes to coding, which was rather a pleasant surprise. Although, upon reflection, I've decided that the ease at which I've been building this app comes from a combination of: Accumulated knowledge, App Number One being a simple idea, Kotlin (the Android language) being way more logically intuitive than JAVA or JS, and the biggie, GPT 5 being so much better than its predecessors.
My workflow thus far has been me telling GPT what I want, it giving me some code, me reporting the errors, GPT fixing, and moving on. I've made some amendments to the code and written a couple of functions myself, and am learning/relearning about code hierarchy.
MVP
I had all the usual motivating factors behind me wanting a minimum viable product, but one of the biggest ones was the fact that this is an app (along with App Number Two) that I've always wanted to exist. Originally when I discovered this thing, I wanted there to be an app for it that someone else had made. I used a plethora of search terms to try and find it. I wanted this app so badly that I was even prepared to pay for it! Which is a big deal for me, I don't pay for many apps, in fact the only one I do at the moment, Evernote, I've just cancelled my subscription. So yeah, I needed that app. It was only when I couldn't find it that I thought maybe I should do this.
Anyway, I now have an app that is good enough for me to use and test, but I want it to be better, look slicker, and have my own custom textures and such. Not to forget, a home screen and a menu page.
Stage One
This stage involves finishing some of the basic functionality, and building a home screen and menu, which I'm doing right now.
Stage Two
Work on phone functions and OS interactions, permissions, etc. I have a feeling this stage might send me a bit mad.
Stage Three
Get some beta testers (with Android phones).
Stage Four
I guess this part depends on the feedback from the testers. If it comes back as something akin to, "Yeah, it's okay, I probably wouldn't use it," or, "I don't really get the point of this app," then I'll just keep the app for me and move on to App Number Two. If the feedback is good, then I'll start work on duplicating the code into whatever language Apple use, and I also want this to be a desktop app, so will work on that.
Stage Five
Release on relevant app stores and move onto the selling part.
To be continued...
That's it, I think it should be good, as I said, even if it's not I'll use the thing myself, and it kind of ties into what I'm doing with my writing at the moment, so it's not wasted time. Hopefully I'll keep this thread going through the whole process, and for the other two apps (and maybe the game) if it goes well. Let's see! Even if it doesn't, I'll still code App Number Two because like I said above, it is something I need. App Number Three is probably more of a SAAS-type solution, so we'll see if I ever get there.
Please feel free to ask any questions about what it's like using GPT as a coding partner, or any other questions that pop into your head.
Quick Bit Of History
Around eight, or nine years ago, I read about something that exists in the physical world and thought to myself, 'Hmm, that would work as an app.' So, being the impulsive act-now-think-later kinda guy I am, I enrolled in a Udemy course and started to learn JAVA and the language for Android (I think back then it was lolipop, but I can't remember); however, I soon learned that copying code for apps I don't care about was not a great way to learn coding. So with my app idea still burning in my mind, I bought another course, and another, and another....
Fast-forward a year or two and I have smatterings of JAVA, Python, JS, React, blah, blah, blah. But the problem is I still didn't feel I could code. I felt the same way as I do when I'm semi-literate at a new language. Sure, I can understand vocab, I know what certain phrases mean and I can understand how to conjugate verbs, as well as translate sentences, but when it comes to making independent sentences of my own, it's not so easy. This was particular frustrating because by that time I'd had a couple more app ideas and even one for a mobile game, but it felt like I was a million miles away from being competent enough to code them...
So, I gave up.
Then came GPT, a game changer! I told it about my app ideas and asked it to help me to bring them to fruition, "No problem! I got you!'
That didn't go so well. After downloading a bunch of dependencies, libraries and all that good stuff, I suffered a metaphorical fall at the first hurdle. Even with GPT's help, I realised that I needed enough knowledge to work out (among other things) why its damn code kept bugging out, because GPT sure is hell couldn't tell me!
Give up again.
Present Day
While walking my dog the other day, I got out my phone and turned on my voice-to-text app, and started dictating what App Number Two would look like, how it would work, and what it would need to sync with. When I got back home I fed my transcript into GPT, told it that I wanted this to be a mobile app and let it know about my scant coding experience.
Of course, the ever-cheerful GPT informed me of how great it thought my idea was (LOL) and spat out a bunch of code. Hmm. I told it that the code looked complicated and that perhaps I should get back onto a more serene coding horse, one that was unlikely to buck and throw me off. So I outlined my original App Number One idea and after a couple of clarification questions, GPT spat out a bunch of readable code.
Okay, this could work.
Execution
So off we go, I fired up Android Studio for the first time in X-years and got to work. It turns out that I know more than I think I know when it comes to coding, which was rather a pleasant surprise. Although, upon reflection, I've decided that the ease at which I've been building this app comes from a combination of: Accumulated knowledge, App Number One being a simple idea, Kotlin (the Android language) being way more logically intuitive than JAVA or JS, and the biggie, GPT 5 being so much better than its predecessors.
My workflow thus far has been me telling GPT what I want, it giving me some code, me reporting the errors, GPT fixing, and moving on. I've made some amendments to the code and written a couple of functions myself, and am learning/relearning about code hierarchy.
MVP
I had all the usual motivating factors behind me wanting a minimum viable product, but one of the biggest ones was the fact that this is an app (along with App Number Two) that I've always wanted to exist. Originally when I discovered this thing, I wanted there to be an app for it that someone else had made. I used a plethora of search terms to try and find it. I wanted this app so badly that I was even prepared to pay for it! Which is a big deal for me, I don't pay for many apps, in fact the only one I do at the moment, Evernote, I've just cancelled my subscription. So yeah, I needed that app. It was only when I couldn't find it that I thought maybe I should do this.
Anyway, I now have an app that is good enough for me to use and test, but I want it to be better, look slicker, and have my own custom textures and such. Not to forget, a home screen and a menu page.
Stage One
This stage involves finishing some of the basic functionality, and building a home screen and menu, which I'm doing right now.
Stage Two
Work on phone functions and OS interactions, permissions, etc. I have a feeling this stage might send me a bit mad.
Stage Three
Get some beta testers (with Android phones).
Stage Four
I guess this part depends on the feedback from the testers. If it comes back as something akin to, "Yeah, it's okay, I probably wouldn't use it," or, "I don't really get the point of this app," then I'll just keep the app for me and move on to App Number Two. If the feedback is good, then I'll start work on duplicating the code into whatever language Apple use, and I also want this to be a desktop app, so will work on that.
Stage Five
Release on relevant app stores and move onto the selling part.
To be continued...
That's it, I think it should be good, as I said, even if it's not I'll use the thing myself, and it kind of ties into what I'm doing with my writing at the moment, so it's not wasted time. Hopefully I'll keep this thread going through the whole process, and for the other two apps (and maybe the game) if it goes well. Let's see! Even if it doesn't, I'll still code App Number Two because like I said above, it is something I need. App Number Three is probably more of a SAAS-type solution, so we'll see if I ever get there.
Please feel free to ask any questions about what it's like using GPT as a coding partner, or any other questions that pop into your head.
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