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14 Comments

Does my journaling tool have to be a mobile app?

Hey everybody,

Recently I wrote a post here where I explained this idea I had for a simple journaling app.

The idea is to make a simple yet effective journaling app where you reflect on something you:

  • "glowed" at ✨
  • and one thing you can grow at 🌱

The question...

I was originally planning to just release this on a domain like glowandgrow.io where a user can log in and fill out the journal for the day.

Should I stick to this plan or should it be for mobile devices?


Thanks for your help.

  1. 3

    Probably stick to a website only. Mobile apps will take up a majority chunk of your development schedule.

    1. 1

      Sounds good. I’ll keep that in mind.

  2. 2

    I have a contrarian view on this.

    You should definitely go for an app! It makes your offering to serious users a lot more compelling. And doesn't take away the role that your website has to play in the open.

    However, instead of developing a ground-up native in Swift/Objective C, go for a well-designed super-optimized web-app with strongly cached assets using a serviceworker. And use an airtight webview to render the screens of your app using your web-app.

    My tool Red Goose can help with this, combined with Fastlane for deployments. Happy to loop you in our early beta group if you're interested.🤙🏻

    1. 1

      Interesting. This idea is still up in the air but I’ll consider making an app. However, just for development time, I might stick with a website/PWA in the beginning.

      Thanks!

  3. 2

    who is your target audience and do you think they would have a preference?

    1. 1

      I’m still working out the target audience, but it would be people who don’t want to write a lot to journals. (Lazy, but need an effective way to journal).

      They want it to be quick and simple

  4. 2

    I think having it on a website would be easier since then people wouldn't need to download an app.

    1. 3

      True. I was also considering making it a PWA so if users wanted, they could add it to their home screen and use it without internet.

      1. 1

        PWA is the key.
        Think about YouTube PWA just launched

  5. 1

    I made a web-only journal years ago and my number one support question was "is there going to be an app?"

    I'm currently running a journal/mental health app with no web version and not a single person has asked for a web version yet.

    So that might tell you something :)

    Either way, how you find and excite users will probably make much more of a difference than web vs mobile. And ~if~ when you're successful, you'll probably wanna build the other anyway, regardless of which you start with.

    1. 1

      Makes sense. Thanks for your advice!

  6. 1

    I would do a web app that is responsive on mobile. Later you can go full-on PWA if you want app-like features.

    1. 1

      Thanks for the tips.

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