The document summarizes the development history of Chris Banes' social media apps: - Blue Notify was his first Android app in 2010 for Facebook notifications, which led to F-Plus with additional Facebook features. F-Plus was later renamed to Flow after receiving a cease and desist from Facebook. - Flow gained popularity with over 100,000 downloads in 2011. It was acquired by Handmark and renamed to FriendCaster, which now has over 1.6 million downloads. - Key lessons included being committed to ongoing development, being responsive to user feedback, addressing bugs quickly, and accepting that piracy will occur.

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From Hobby to App
‘Success’
Chris Banes
Blue Notify à F-Plus à Flow à FriendCaster

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Me
n Graduated from Aston University in 2010
n Sandwich year at IBM
n Completed first major Android project (brightbuyr)
n Joined IBM in Aug 2010 as a Graduate
n Left IBM in July 2011
n Website: http://www.senab.co.uk/
n Twitter: @chrisbanes

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(Small) History Lesson

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Blue Notify
n Started development in June 2010
n First release in July 2010, costing £0.59
n One function: Facebook Notification checking
n Used Official Facebook SDK (just released)
n Decompiled to find Intents
n Limited interoperability with Official Facebook App
n Would just open Facebook app at it’s home screen

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F-Plus
n Wrote own Post Screen using API
n Lead to the creation of News Feed
n Photo Uploading
n Photo Tagging
n Notification Popup (iPhone like)
n Changed name to F-Plus
n Roughly 20,000 downloads at this point
n Released Free Ad-Supported version in Dec 2010
n In Jan 2011, received Cease and Desist from Facebook for
Trademark Infringement
n Had to change name again…

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Flow
n Jan 2011 - Roughly 100,000 downloads
n More features added:
n Ability for Page Admins to post as Page
n Checkins
n Tag Users in Posts
n Developed ‘Push Notifications’ using Gmail app
n Had to decompile Gmail app to work out ContentProvider
n In March 2011, mentioned in Lifehacker article
n Daily downloads increased 10x overnight

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FriendCaster
n In June 2011, Flow acquired by Handmark
n 550,000 downloads at this point
n Started contracting for Handmark as the app’s developer
n Access to more resources
n App renamed to FriendCaster
n Developed FriendCaster for Tablets
n Currently separate code base
n Now moving to combined Phone and Tab code base
n Has had over 1,600,000 downloads so far
n Future plans
n Lots!

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FriendCaster Tab
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqOaYyGQ98E

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Looking Back

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Lesson’s Learnt
n Be committed
n Try to develop an app which you will actually use. Starting lots of
projects, then leaving them doesn’t look good.
n Be contactable
n You want people to ‘buy into’ your app
n Encourage users to send ideas/bugs
n (Try to) Respond to all feedback
n Be timely
n If there’s a bug in your app, make sure you get a fix out asap
n Creates a reputation of being a good developer amongst users

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Lesson’s Learnt
n Be aware of localization
n Try to translate your app into as
many languages as possible
n Weekly Active Users

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Lesson’s Learnt
n ‘Thick Skin’
n Try not to get too disheartened by low ratings in the Market. You can’t
please everyone!
n Tax!
n Remember you need to sort out your Tax (get an Accountant).
n Open Source
n Depending on license, make sure you publish any changes you make.
n Try to target early Android devices
n FriendCaster currently targets 1.6+
n Piracy
n Accept that it’s going to happen

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Handy Projects / Apps
n ACRA
n App Crash Reporter
n http://code.google.com/p/acra/
n OrmLite
n Lightweight ORM library
n http://www.ormlite.com/
n Flurry
n Analytics
n http://www.flurry.com
n Crowdin.net
n Crowd sourced translation engine
n Appmonger
n Google Checkout Sales App
n http://rectangularsoftware.com/appmonger/

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Thanks!