Two months ago, I decided to develop my first app that will constantly ring and vibrate the phone when an important message is received. At that time, I knew nothing about app development. After two months of designing and developing, I finally published my app, i.e., TextCall, in Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textcall.app). I use this app every day with my girlfriend. Our important text messages can stand out in dozens of other notifications and we cannot be happier.
So, I just summarize my experience in development and design, and hope it can be useful for the people who want to build their first apps.
Note: this is not a detailed technical guidance, but some general experience.
1. What’s the one problem that you app is going to solve
Before starting developing, you need ask yourself one question: “what is the one problem that I am going to solve with my app”.
My idea came from my bad experience with smartphone. My phone often receives dozens of notifications every day. I often miss important text messages sent from my boss or girlfriend. Therefore, I decided to develop an app that enables user to send messages thru the app, like whatsapp. But the biggest difference is that these messages will constantly ring and vibrate the phone. The messages will stand out from other notifications and the users will not miss important messages any more.
2. Decide what platform your app is going to support
Android and IOS are two major mobile platforms. I chose Android as the platform to support. It was just because that I had an Android phone. It would be easier for me to debug the app using my own phone.
3. Get basic knowledge of the platform you are going to use
Android official website (http://developer.android.com/index.html) is a good place to start with. I suggest that you just quickly go through all the chapters without dig into details. It can let you know all the options and components that you have. After starting developing the app, you can then go back to the chapters that your app need and read all the details.
4. Find similar project with source code available
It is hard to put everything together in the app as a beginner. The best option is to find the source code of a similar app. You can use that app as the framework of your app and then modify the functions to fit your needs. Note that If you use GPL code, you also need to make you app open source.
Since my TextCall app is a text message app, I found a tutorial for a basic text message app (http://www.appsrox.com/android/tutorials/instachat/). It helps me to learn and develop my app much more quickly.
5. Find solutions online when you have problems in developing
When developing the app, you will always have a lot of problems. Google your problem online and spend some time looking at responses to similar problem. You will understand the reason of the problem and find the solutions.
6. Test your app on different devices before publishing the app.
Android Studio provides emulators that can simulate different devices. You should also test your app on your device and ask your friends to help you to test. But it still cannot guarantee that there are no bugs. You should use some other test platform to test your app on other real devices.
What I used to test TextCall was appthwack (https://appthwack.com). I chose the most popular 20 phones to test my app on. The system returned full report and snapshot on these real devices, which I found my app crashed on some of them and finally fixed these bugs.
7. Publish your app
After experiencing all the frustrations in the development, you will finally make it. Upload your APK in Google Play Console, and click on the “Publish” button. It will take several hours (2~3 for my app) for Play Store to get your app ready. Just go out for a movie or grab a coffee at Starbucks. You will see your app when you come back.
8. Re-think: why should first group of users use your app
After several days of publishing the app, the number of downloads was still single digit. It’s always the hardest task to attract the first group of users.
I then asked myself: “If you are a user, will you download TextCall app now?” Sadly, the answer is no. The reason is that a user must have some friends using the app before the user can take full advantage of the app.
My decision was to add a feature that can immediately benefit a single user. I then came up with the idea to constantly ring the phone when an SMS messages from any contact is received on the phone of a user. This function immediately gives benefit to the user even if he/she does not have friends in the app.
Here is the link of my first app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textcall.app
Here is the Youtube link (in case the play store video has problem):
If you have interesting development experience, please also share with us.
So, I just summarize my experience in development and design, and hope it can be useful for the people who want to build their first apps.
Note: this is not a detailed technical guidance, but some general experience.
1. What’s the one problem that you app is going to solve
Before starting developing, you need ask yourself one question: “what is the one problem that I am going to solve with my app”.
My idea came from my bad experience with smartphone. My phone often receives dozens of notifications every day. I often miss important text messages sent from my boss or girlfriend. Therefore, I decided to develop an app that enables user to send messages thru the app, like whatsapp. But the biggest difference is that these messages will constantly ring and vibrate the phone. The messages will stand out from other notifications and the users will not miss important messages any more.
2. Decide what platform your app is going to support
Android and IOS are two major mobile platforms. I chose Android as the platform to support. It was just because that I had an Android phone. It would be easier for me to debug the app using my own phone.
3. Get basic knowledge of the platform you are going to use
Android official website (http://developer.android.com/index.html) is a good place to start with. I suggest that you just quickly go through all the chapters without dig into details. It can let you know all the options and components that you have. After starting developing the app, you can then go back to the chapters that your app need and read all the details.
4. Find similar project with source code available
It is hard to put everything together in the app as a beginner. The best option is to find the source code of a similar app. You can use that app as the framework of your app and then modify the functions to fit your needs. Note that If you use GPL code, you also need to make you app open source.
Since my TextCall app is a text message app, I found a tutorial for a basic text message app (http://www.appsrox.com/android/tutorials/instachat/). It helps me to learn and develop my app much more quickly.
5. Find solutions online when you have problems in developing
When developing the app, you will always have a lot of problems. Google your problem online and spend some time looking at responses to similar problem. You will understand the reason of the problem and find the solutions.
6. Test your app on different devices before publishing the app.
Android Studio provides emulators that can simulate different devices. You should also test your app on your device and ask your friends to help you to test. But it still cannot guarantee that there are no bugs. You should use some other test platform to test your app on other real devices.
What I used to test TextCall was appthwack (https://appthwack.com). I chose the most popular 20 phones to test my app on. The system returned full report and snapshot on these real devices, which I found my app crashed on some of them and finally fixed these bugs.
7. Publish your app
After experiencing all the frustrations in the development, you will finally make it. Upload your APK in Google Play Console, and click on the “Publish” button. It will take several hours (2~3 for my app) for Play Store to get your app ready. Just go out for a movie or grab a coffee at Starbucks. You will see your app when you come back.
8. Re-think: why should first group of users use your app
After several days of publishing the app, the number of downloads was still single digit. It’s always the hardest task to attract the first group of users.
I then asked myself: “If you are a user, will you download TextCall app now?” Sadly, the answer is no. The reason is that a user must have some friends using the app before the user can take full advantage of the app.
My decision was to add a feature that can immediately benefit a single user. I then came up with the idea to constantly ring the phone when an SMS messages from any contact is received on the phone of a user. This function immediately gives benefit to the user even if he/she does not have friends in the app.
Here is the link of my first app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.textcall.app
Here is the Youtube link (in case the play store video has problem):
If you have interesting development experience, please also share with us.
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