[HN Gopher] I made a mobile app for my significant other and she...
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I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it
Author : vuciv1
Score : 63 points
Date : 2021-04-10 21:09 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (jerseyfonseca.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (jerseyfonseca.com)
| tanbog2 wrote:
| Did you ever stop to consider that maybe you were "solving"
| something that wasn't a problem.
|
| Maybe the process of talking about what you are going to watch
| together is a valuable and fun part of your relationship in of
| itself.
| Lightbody wrote:
| Just some friendly feedback that your comment would be a lot
| more effective if you struck "did you ever stop to consider
| that". That opening remark comes off unnecessarily aggressive /
| accusatory and detracts from an otherwise interesting
| perspective.
| elanning wrote:
| That was a fun read. Especially the funny bit at the end. Did you
| consider making this a progressive web app?
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Thanks, I appreciate it :)
|
| I am definitely planning on making it a web app as well. I'm
| also trying to make it such that no sign-ups are required.
|
| It shouldn't be too bad since I already have all the
| functionality written, it will just take a bit of tjme
| tobr wrote:
| Why does an app like this need to have a sign-up process with
| email, username and password? It's enough for me to not try the
| app because of the mental overhead and risks involved, but it
| also seems like a bunch of additional development for no (or
| maybe negative) benefit.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Totally understandable. The sign up process is just to store
| your likes so that you don't need to swipe again on the same
| movies.
|
| Its also so that you can lookup and add your friends.
|
| I understand the frustration, though. I'm working on a version
| with webhooks where you can just join a lobby and start
| swiping.
| tobr wrote:
| > The sign up process is just to store your likes so that you
| don't need to swipe again on the same movies.
|
| > Its also so that you can lookup and add your friends.
|
| Right, but what about that requires me to type in three magic
| strings into three (wait, actually probably six?) input
| fields? Just associate the data on the server with some UUID
| that you store on my device. Inviting others could work by
| just sharing a link.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| I have a bit more to learn :)
| jeffgreco wrote:
| FWIW tools like Firebase Auth make the development piece fairly
| negligible (and also have the concept of anonymous users).
| vuciv1 wrote:
| I haven't used firebase at all. I'll definitely look into it
| aspaviento wrote:
| The matching could be faster if you list the movies in the same
| order (maybe change the order every X minutes)
| wccrawford wrote:
| The complaints about having to have enough screenshots and
| information seems really ... dumb? The website has a bunch of
| screenshots and info, and users will not download the app without
| it. Google and Apple are doing you a favor by requiring that you
| provide enough information.
|
| I think Apple's $100/yr is crazy, but I don't think Google's $25
| is bad. If you plan to make any money at all on it, that's
| nothing.
|
| Scrolling through the site, it feels like the site is constantly
| hiding information from me, and then spoon-feeding me bits that I
| don't care about. The text doesn't even show up until it's
| halfway up my screen, and then it's just a scroll or 2 from
| disappearing. Scroll too fast and it's really hard to read. Maybe
| you should animate the information leaving, instead of appearing.
| You definitely should provide more information in a readable
| form.
| askafriend wrote:
| $100 a year is nothing for a developer toolkit. In fact, it's a
| great deal if you really think about all the infrastructure
| that you get for free.
|
| Let's take a look at what MSDN costs for a pro-level
| subscription (not even enterprise): "At the Professional
| subscription level, you pay a not-insignificant sum: $539 per
| year for an annual cloud subscription or $1,199 for the first
| year of a perpetual license subscription, with renewals costing
| $799 per year."
| golf1052 wrote:
| You're comparing two different things, the Apple and Android
| fees are to get access to publish apps to the store.
|
| The developer toolkit which is used to build and test the
| apps (Android Studio or XCode) are free. The Microsoft
| comparison would be the $20 to publish in the Microsoft Store
| and Visual Studio Community which is free to build and test
| apps.
|
| "MSDN" is a bundle of additional developer tools that you
| would use for a business (licensed Visual Studio, Azure
| DevOps, training, and support).
| jeroenhd wrote:
| Depends on what you want to develop; if you need the Windows
| driver kit then yes, those subscriptions are expensive (but
| likely worth it).
|
| If you want the equivalent of app development on Windows
| (meaning little to no access to kernel sources and such, just
| a native UI), you can use the free version of Visual Studio
| without the MSDN license [1]. The license allows commercial
| development even with the free community version.
|
| You still need to pay +/- $20 to MS to publish apps to the MS
| Store, but because Windows isn't a walled garden and barely
| any Windows users are using the store anyway, you probably
| don't need to bother. If you do pay, it's not a subscription
| either; the costs are only made during registration. Just
| like with Google, this keeps down (but does not prevent) the
| creation of spam accounts.
|
| For most app developers, the infrastructure you get in return
| isn't worth the $100 / year, because most apps don't get that
| many downloads at all. Hosting APK or IPA files can be done
| for one or two dollars per month for the first few hundred or
| even thousand users, and by extending the store ecosystem,
| you're also adding value to the platform itself.
|
| For iOS you can argue that the manual testing of the
| application needs to be paid somehow, but the manual testing
| Apple performs don't benefit you as a developer in any way;
| they serve benefit the end user that downloads your apps, so
| those costs should be recouped from the user (as part of the
| iPhone sales price and the mandatory 15-30% cut Apple and
| Google will take).
|
| If there was a way to build and publish applications without
| the subscriptions, the fee might be reasonable if Apple can
| defend the $99 / year. With the walled garden they've set up,
| there's no competitors, and therefore there will never be an
| alternative developer toolkit like those you can see for the
| Android ecosystem.
|
| [1]: https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/
| harikb wrote:
| It would be comparable only if Microsoft said that an MSDN
| Pro-level subscription is required to release apps for
| Windows. Last time I used MSDN, we used to get free access to
| tons of Microsoft Apps, that are otherwise paid.
| abotsis wrote:
| We used a similar app for baby names- it's a great idea for all
| sorts of consensus. I actually think there's a large opportunity
| to apply this in all sorts of ways: baby names and movies are
| both great ideas, but anytime multiple people want to create
| intersecting sets. Another one we thought of was pictures: 5
| people take 2-3 pictures of the same group photo, you have 10-15
| pictures that Becky wants to post, with everyone wanting to pick
| the one where they "look best", how do you decide which one to
| use?
| CharlesW wrote:
| > _Eat my butt, Apple. Eat my butt, Google. Just let me publish
| my frickin app, you already emptied my pockets._
|
| Said the guy whole stole the data that he couldn't have made the
| app without.
| read_if_gay_ wrote:
| He wrote a web scraper. It's publicly available data.
| mavhc wrote:
| https://www.imdb.com/interfaces/
|
| https://developers.themoviedb.org/3/getting-started/daily-
| fi...
|
| No need to web scrape
| CharlesW wrote:
| That's not how it works.
|
| https://help.imdb.com/article/imdb/general-
| information/can-i...
|
| > _Limited_ non-commercial use _of IMDb data is allowed..._
|
| > _The data must be taken_ only from the datasets made
| available _(see IMDb Contributor Datasets. You may not use
| data mining, robots,_ screen scraping _, or similar online
| data gathering and extraction tools on our website._
|
| > _The data can only be used for personal and non-commercial
| use and_ must not be altered /republished/resold/repurposed
| to create any kind of online/offline database of movie
| information _(except for individual personal use)._
|
| > _You must_ acknowledge the source _of the data..._
| vuciv1 wrote:
| I scraped it from a source that allows scraping :)
| ajfjrbfbf wrote:
| Next step is making it open source.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Not quite yet. I am still trying to make my first dollar on the
| internet
| codecutter wrote:
| Why settle for a dollar? If you are willing to make the
| source code FLOSS, I will donate $10 to you. :)
| 29083011397778 wrote:
| Which would be hilarious, because the phrase
|
| > "I've never made any money from commercial applications
| I've written. Made some cash off FLOSS though :)"
|
| is way cooler than making a couple bucks off the app store
| and later open-sourcing it, IMO.
| newbie578 wrote:
| Seems like a fun app, simple and useful.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Thank you, I appreciate it!
| cbozeman wrote:
| > Last weekend, my partner had her friends stay with us over the
| weekend. We needed to find a movie to watch. This was my chance!
| I was so excited!
|
| > "Let's use WeWatch!"
|
| > "No, it would take too long. Let's just watch Space Jam."
|
| The guy did a not-insignificant amount of work on an app and
| his... "partner"... didn't even entertain the idea of using it;
| if not for mere exposure to their friends, at least for an actual
| "good" suggestion.
|
| Guy, you might wanna re-evaluate your "partnership".
|
| But hey, at least now I'm inspired to download it and try it out.
| gambiting wrote:
| I definitely read that last bit as tongue in cheek. Also
| doesn't "No, it would take too long" imply that their partner
| has used it in the past? Maybe the process really does take too
| long, because you have to scroll through a 100 movies before
| you find one you both like. And in that case it sounds like the
| partner was decided what they wanted to watch - Space Jam. In
| that case I'd just go "ok, sure, if you really want to watch
| movie X then let's watch it". Obviously we're just sitting here
| digesting someone's life on the internet. It's stupid anyway.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Yeah, they would have had to download it, sign up, and add
| us.
|
| She already knew what she wanted to watch, and we were all up
| for it, so it was just a scenario where it genuinely wasn't
| useful.
|
| Definitely tongue in cheek!
| vuciv1 wrote:
| I appreciate your concern.
|
| I used her as a punchline because I thought the title and story
| was funny.
|
| She consistently helped me with testing, gave me feedback, and
| let me talk her ear off about it for over a month.
|
| She's wonderful, don't worry :)
| LikeAnElephant wrote:
| I'm constantly badgering my non-technical partner to try random
| tech shit & apps that she doesn't want and didn't ask for. She
| tells me no sometimes, and usually for good reason.
|
| Please tell me internet person with zero insight into my
| personal life: should I end my longterm relationship just like
| you're advising the author to?
| rzzzt wrote:
| Would it take too long or not? I feel that is the deciding
| factor.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| Sounds like an app opportunity right there.
| nindalf wrote:
| Seems like you need /r/relationship_advice. Anything a
| romantic partner does is a Red Flag. The only fix is to
| immediately hit facebook, delete the gym and fire your
| lawyer.
| NiceWayToDoIT wrote:
| In my mind this is an example of solving a problem that does not
| exist. Why just not simply say "we watching 2 movies a week, once
| you choose and I'll choose next, and so on..."?
|
| p.s. Credits and kudos for learning new things !
| pyjug wrote:
| I made a "feeding tracker" app because my wife wanted to wean our
| infant off breast milk. There are mobile apps that do this, but
| the problem was that we didn't want to wake up our child due to
| the phone screen at night. So, I hooked up an IoT button to
| Lambda + Dynamo, created a UI and everything -- my wife only
| needed to press the button. Turns out my wife was generally too
| sleepy and forgot to press the button. Also turns out that she
| liked to breast feed anyway, so the app went totally unused. User
| requirements are hard!
| franl wrote:
| V2 if necessary, how about a weight sensor under her feeding
| chair cushion? No button press necessary!
| vuciv1 wrote:
| That's adorable, I always thought it was cute when tech people
| made things for their partners.
|
| I'm hoping to make something for our anniversary that she'll
| actually enjoy :)
| mr_sturd wrote:
| Seems like a cool app; will definitely give it a go.
|
| Does/will the the app filtering by streaming service take region
| in to account?
| nvahalik wrote:
| Seems like this could have just been a mobile web page?
| dvt wrote:
| > Eat my butt, Apple. Eat my butt, Google. Just let me publish my
| frickin app, you already emptied my pockets.
|
| I feel this. A few years ago, I made a joke app[1] which got a
| bit famous on campus back when I was in school, and the process
| of getting it on the Play store was literally harder than writing
| the darn thing. Nowadays, it even got removed from the Play store
| for some reason. I couldn't imagine running an app for a living
| where you have to deal with absentee/abusive parents like Google
| and Apple just to put bread on the table.
|
| Cool app and congrats on the users! 400 ain't nothin' to scoff at
| :)
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0nn8d6katk
| mihaaly wrote:
| agreed! publishing is the hardest part.
| askafriend wrote:
| As a user, I'm very happy the stores impose stringent rules.
|
| "And there are all these stupid requirements. I need at least X
| screenshots, and they have to be this exact resolution blah
| blah blah. On top of that, it took so long to get approved. My
| ADHD brain really suffered waiting for the gratification."
|
| I would hate to browse a store where the products didn't have
| at least X screenshots with at least X resolution, etc etc. The
| process for getting into the store shouldn't be easy and the
| quality bar should be high. I pay Apple to uphold this bar by
| any means necessary.
| flohofwoe wrote:
| Why would you care about applications that you wouldn't use
| or even know that they exist though? Do you also care about
| web pages you don't know about? The store just wouldn't put
| such "non-conforming" apps at the top of search results.
| bredren wrote:
| The hurdles are high but if you've been doing mobile releases
| for a while, they aren't that bad. There are more asset
| requirements now but I think dealing with iTunes Connect back
| in the day and all of its friction was harder.
| wccrawford wrote:
| They really aren't that high. I had to create a listing for
| my test apps at work one day and I was able to create
| everything I needed in like 30 minutes, tops. And that was
| without actually knowing what I'd need ahead of time.
| avereveard wrote:
| How do I unlock that mythical high quality app experience?
| 99% of the stuff is crap adware and copypasted apps, letting
| some indie in it is not going to significantly move the
| average.
| serf wrote:
| > As a user, I'm very happy the stores impose stringent
| rules.
|
| Presumably you're speaking from the Apple side of things,
| because the Play Store is a fragmented wasteland of low-
| effort/sometimes-malicious shovelware that barely functions.
|
| To me that means that the hoops Google makes one jump through
| for app publishing are accomplishing next to nothing with
| regards to app quality.
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Thanks :) I appreciate it.
|
| I also meant this to be a learning experience/just for my
| friends, so I totally feel that frustration!
| fake-name wrote:
| I feel like we need a add-on to the old quote 'Some people, when
| confronted with a problem, think "I know, I'll use regular
| expressions." Now they have two problems.'
|
| 'Some people, when confronted with a interpersonal relationship
| problem, think "I know, I'll use software". Now they have two
| problems.'
|
| This is cute, but it's trying to solve a people problem with
| software.
| speedcoder wrote:
| My therapist told me once: "people are not programs."
| arkitaip wrote:
| Her name didn't happen to be Eliza, huh?
| great_reversal wrote:
| > Last weekend, my partner had her friends stay with us over the
| weekend. We needed to find a movie to watch. This was my chance!
| I was so excited!
|
| > "Let's use WeWatch!"
|
| > "No, it would take too long. Let's just watch Space Jam."
|
| I watch a lot of movies and honestly the swipe-approach would
| take way too long. My preferred way is to just scroll through a
| long list of movies (alphabetically) and pick one I want to
| watch. Or some of the movies in the list will remind me of a
| different movie I want to watch. Just movie titles, no images or
| anything else.
|
| One thing you realize is that a lot of movies start with "The".
| tenryuu wrote:
| An uncommon solution I've seen for this is to instead place
| 'the" after the rest of the title
|
| "Mummy, The", "Thing, The"
| shric wrote:
| Kodi ignores "The" for sorting purposes but still displays it
| on the titles
| clairity wrote:
| that's not uncommon. that's literally how you're supposed to
| alphabetize, by ignoring the introductory article (referring
| to 'a', 'an', & 'the', not a piece of writing).
| mihaaly wrote:
| Interesting, I made an app for anyone, but only my significant
| other used it. :)
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