Made my first app and would love to get a feedback.
Hi everyone,
I have recently developed a simple anti-social mobile app to share photos with strangers from all around the world. Would really love to get a feedback on it.
iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/randos-photos-from-strangers/id1329213583
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.randos
I love the design and icon - it's very clean!
Here's my suggestion about Apps in general - when you make an app, make sure you are willing to kill it and walk away because 9/10 times you will have to, and that's okay.
Bottom line, most of the apps in the App Store are not extremely popular. I've had one (built on Dropbox) where a couple thousand users would use it on occasion. It was fun to build, it was fun to promote, but two years into it, it just wasn't enough to maintain it anymore.
You have to kill this thing or it will keep sucking energy out, little by little, energy that you can spend elsewhere.
If you must, built and app that doesn't require maintenance and can function without you.
Why did you remove ads on your latest update on iOS? Is there a particular reason?
Yes. One of the reasons is that it was a fixed bottom banner and it was ruining ui of the app and annoying users. Users said they would prefer ads built into the feed instead. Another reason, based on testing, retention rate was much higher with no fixed banner ads.
I don't like ads.
When I am trying to use the camera it lags a lot when I press the take a pic icon. When I go to the other page the list of pics was loaded fast and with a high performance when scrolling down. But using the camera lags a lot when I get the image and when I take a pic for some reason it doesn't take instantly it just loads and it takes a long time to take a single pic.
Also if your app is gonna be a send a random stranger a pic, you should add a filter editor and stickers in a future update.
Thanks for your feedback. The camera lags due to the bugs in the camera library that I am using for the project. It's #1 thing on priority list to improve.
Since you mentioned filters and stickers, I was wondering if you would you use a chat feature (if the app had one) to send messages to strangers who sent your those pictures?
Yes I would. That was on my OG post but didn't include because I don't see how your app could work with a chat feature.
Like if you are sending pics to strangers why would you want to talk to them. Or maybe you could do it like sending pen pal letter, where you can respond to them like email and not chats.
Is this React Native, then? That's a shame about the camera lag; how are you going to get around that?
+1 -- this is a great idea, easy to explain and quick to try out. I love everything about it, including (to my surprise) the implementation. I thought this would be sub-par due to the React Native implementation + the camera, but it's actually...fine?
Great stuff!
Congrats on the app! Btw not a huge fan of the circular frame thing, would love to see full preview instead of just a circle.
Very elegant idea of have photo in a circle only. It make a normal photo some feel of art. I like it!
One advice:
The photos is round, but the card containing it is like a square white box, which make the whole UI feels not so matching.
I really like the idea. It's addictive. Finally there is photo sharing app for people who hate people around them. Android app is a little laggy on my low end device. I think it's too early to monetize the app.
Interested to see how this app would evolve. Do you have a twitter or blog I can follow for updates?
Yes. https://twitter.com/Randosapp
How / what tools did you use to build & test your app for IOS?
I have used React Native (with many RN libraries) to build both ios and Android apps.
Can you please explain, what is the point of your app? Why somebody needs it? Thanks!
It's a cool way to share a moment with random strangers from another part of a globe. You send a photo to an absolutely random stranger, and in return you receive another photo from a different stranger. It motivates people to find amazing places to take unique photos, and at the same time allows people to see the world through someone else's photos.
Thanks. Well, this service is definitely not for me. Sorry but I don't see any point to send my photos to strangers :( and get something from people I don't know.
Good luck.
Thanks!
I understand. Some people are really into it, and some people think it's useless. :)