Developing an App on iOS

conorryanofla

Hi all,

If you're like me, you tend to waste a lot of time on social media applications, scrolling down the Facebook wall countlessly, checking Twitter and so on. You know you're wasting your time but you don't do anything about it.

I have an idea for a phone app that helps you make the most of your time instead of wasting it on the phone. It should be customisable so that it would only apply when you are not at work, sleeping etc. The app would be like a bit of inspiration to go get up of your arse and do something productive.

It should be integrated with the features of the phone to see if it (you) are moving or not. If you are moving, great. If not, and on social media for a considerable amount of time you'd get a notification detailing a different reason why you should get up and make the most of your time. Vice versa it could give an applicable notification as to why you should get up that bit earlier on a Saturday morning.

I've never made an app before, nor have I done a lot of thinking about the concept, however I'd appreciate any opinions/suggestions as regards to it, and a rough cost I'd be looking at.

Thanks

Buttercake

There are many ways you can build an iPhone app, mostly down to time and costs.

You can learn and do it yourself, find a student, hire a developer, hire a company here or offshore.

If you think it's going to be the next big thing, approach your enterprise board - book a meeting with them

See below for more info...

Trojan wrote: »

You might find the boards.ie Development forum useful:

Threads of interest:

Post a (well-specced out) project advertisement

"I have an idea for an app..." discussion

"Looking to get an app developed" discussion

Also worth looking at Innovation Vouchers which can be used to fund development of a working prototype.



HTH.

JMR

I know the saying is that nowadays there is an app for just about everything but really...?
An app that prompts the user to stop wasting their time using apps!

The Corinthian

conorryanofla wrote: »

I've never made an app before, nor have I done a lot of thinking about the concept, however I'd appreciate any opinions/suggestions as regards to it, and a rough cost I'd be looking at.

Well, that's what you should be doing first. Research the concept, revenue streams, if there's even a market for it, what the functionality of it will be - how can you even guesstimate the cost unless you know what you're building? It's like asking how much will a property cost? A bungalow? A castle?

You're going to be spending a lot of time in front of Google or Excel to do this. Bouncing your ideas off people you trust and, ideally, have a clue. If you do that, things such as cost will become far more self evident.

Axwell

Mod Edit:

This would be better served in the relevant forum - this is app dev related not business and entrepreneurship. Moving thread.

jester77

Well, those are very generic requirements.

If you want someone to develop it then I would say you could use 10K as a very conservative baseline and work your way up from there depending on the features you want implemented.

Graham

How would an iOS app monitor the usage of other iOS apps?

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

How would an iOS app monitor the usage of other iOS apps?

I wouldn't know how. Perhaps it could just monitor the time spent on the phone in general.

conorryanofla

JMR wrote: »

I know the saying is that nowadays there is an app for just about everything but really...?
An app that prompts the user to stop wasting their time using apps!

An app that stops users wasting their time on pointless apps.

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

I wouldn't know how. Perhaps it could just monitor the time spent on the phone in general.

I can't think how that would be possible on iOS, Apps are generally confined to their own sandbox.

beauf

Maybe the os it self tracks how much time is spent in each app. Windows phone does.

Having a lock to the Internet, or certain sites is an app you can get for the PC. There must be some for mobiles.

It's the same problem as all these app have to connect to the web, and to specific sites to work.

http://www.google.ie/search?q=iphone+time+wasting+block+apps&gws_rd=cr&ei=3qkfVbXMLYO4aeOFgZgB

Graham

beauf wrote: »

http://www.google.ie/search?q=iphone+time+wasting+block+apps&gws_rd=cr&ei=3qkfVbXMLYO4aeOFgZgB

Thanks beauf, that pretty much confirms what I thought about this type of app not being able to reach outside of its own sandbox.

The top result will only run on a jailbroken iOS device.

The 2nd result requires the installation of a profile on the iOS device which appears to route all web traffic via the Curbi VPN, as such the blocking is done outside of the mobile device.

Curbi does appear to be the closest to the OPs requirements though in which case a similar app for anti-timewasting would require an app, a back-end and a VPN infrastructure. That's not something you're going to easily put together via freelance marketplaces. Unless the OP is fairly technical across a broad spectrum of specialities you are going to be talking about a fairly substantial budget. I'd estimate well into 5 figures.

beauf

I think they are a little pointless as ultimately you can turn this stuff off, if you really want to.

But maybe that doesn't matter. It just has to sell.

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

Thanks beauf, that pretty much confirms what I thought about this type of app not being able to reach outside of its own sandbox.

The top result will only run on a jailbroken iOS device.

The 2nd result requires the installation of a profile on the iOS device which appears to route all web traffic via the Curbi VPN, as such the blocking is done outside of the mobile device.

Curbi does appear to be the closest to the OPs requirements though in which case a similar app for anti-timewasting would require an app, a back-end and a VPN infrastructure. That's not something you're going to easily put together via freelance marketplaces. Unless the OP is fairly technical across a broad spectrum of specialities you are going to be talking about a fairly substantial budget. I'd estimate well into 5 figures.

Perhaps I could forget the idea of monitoring how much time is spent, and instead just send general notifications at peak times. The user could input the time ranges where they spend the most of their time on their phone, and then around that time, the person would receive notifications. The way I originally hoped sounds very complicated and costly!

Graham

beauf wrote: »

I think they are a little pointless as ultimately you can turn this stuff off, if you really want to.

But maybe that doesn't matter. It just has to sell.

There's definitely a market for this kind of app, I'm just not convinced it's enough of a market to justify the spend required or generate the revenue required.

If a backend/VPN infrastructure is required (as I suspect) then you're not just talking about up-front development costs either. You have the ongoing costs of managing and maintaining that infrastructure and I suspect a not-insignificant cost of bandwidth required to carry all of the http traffic across a VPN.

That's not something you could cover the cost of with a small up-front app purchase price so you'd be looking at a subscription model. Naturally that would add to the development costs and makes the whole thing a much harder sell to potential app buyers.

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

There's definitely a market for this kind of app, I'm just not convinced it's enough of a market to justify the spend required or generate the revenue required.

If a backend/VPN infrastructure is required (as I suspect) then you're not just talking about up-front development costs either. You have the ongoing costs of managing and maintaining that infrastructure and I suspect a not-insignificant cost of bandwidth required to carry all of the http traffic across a VPN.

That's not something you could cover the cost of with a small up-front app purchase price so you'd be looking at a subscription model. Naturally that would add to the development costs and makes the whole thing a much harder sell to potential app buyers.

I believe with a successful promotional video and concept behind it, an app like this should be able to raise the required costs through a crowdfunding campaign ($10,000-$20,000 I would imagine).

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

Perhaps I could forget the idea of monitoring how much time is spent, and instead just send general notifications at peak times. The user could input the time ranges where they spend the most of their time on their phone, and then around that time, the person would receive notifications. The way I originally hoped sounds very complicated and costly!

Yeuch, so if you're not using your phone you get a message essentially prompting you to pick the phone up and start interacting with it??

You can get an idea of the limitations of this kind of app from this similar idea:

https://inthemoment.io/

It looks like this app uses location data and accelerometer data to guesstimate the iPhone usage. This reinforces the fact that apps generally cannot reach outside of their own sandbox to see what else the device is doing/running and how long the device has been doing/running it for.

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

I believe with a successful promotional video and concept behind it, an app like this should be able to raise the required costs through a crowdfunding campaign ($10,000-$20,000 I would imagine).

I have to ask, what is that belief based upon?

How did you imagine the costs?

How were you planning to reward the crowd-funding backers?

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

Yeuch, so if you're not using your phone you get a message essentially prompting you to pick the phone up and start interacting with it??

The chances are you will be using the phone, due to you providing the info that the specified time is the time where you generally are using the phone.

And it wouldn't be a reason to go on the phone, it'd be a reason to stay off it. Even if you weren't on the phone at the time, it'd reinforce the fact you are not on your phone, which will probably make the person feel better about themselves as they aren't wasting their time on their device. It would just reinforce what they already are doing.

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

I have to ask, what is that belief based upon?

How did you imagine the costs?

How were you planning to reward the crowd-funding backers?

Based that it is a straight forward idea, I wouldn't bother investing too much so that it could monitor other apps. I'd go down the straight forward route, where the user customises at what time they are on their phone the majority of the time. Around those times, the user would get a couple of notifications.

The costs were imagined due to no complicated things going on in the background - a straight forward library of applicable quotes, a feature to determine what time the person receives some of these quotes, and a feature to help the person get a notification on the mobile.

I haven't thought over this yet, however I believe it would go like:

1$ = thank you email.
5$ = early access + email.
10$ = early access + letter from all involved.
25$ = t-shirt, early access + letter.

beauf

There are apps already to remind you about how productive your time is.

I don't think you've done much if any research into this. You're kinda head butting a crowded space for these kinda of apps.

I think you should do more research and pick something with a similar return for less effort. I admire your drive though.

I wonder would a timetable app achieve what you want. Be simpler and a easier introduction.

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

Based that it is a straight forward idea, I wouldn't bother investing too much so that it could monitor other apps. I'd go down the straight forward route, where the user customises at what time they are on their phone the majority of the time. Around those times, the user would get a couple of notifications.

The costs were imagined due to no complicated things going on in the background - a straight forward library of applicable quotes, a feature to determine what time the person receives some of these quotes, and a feature to help the person get a notification on the mobile.

I haven't thought over this yet, however I believe it would go like:

1$ = thank you email.
5$ = early access + email.
10$ = early access + letter from all involved.
25$ = t-shirt, early access + letter.

How were you planning to grant early access to an app on the app store?

I admire your tenacity but I think you'd be much better directing it somewhere else.

conorryanofla

beauf wrote: »

There are apps already to remind you about how productive your time is.

I don't think you've done much if any research into this. You're kinda head butting a crowded space for these kinda of apps.

I think you should do more research and pick something with a similar return for less effort. I admire your drive though.

I wonder would a timetable app achieve what you want. Be simpler and a easier introduction.

My motivation for this project is to help people, including myself be more productive. If this were moderately successful, in the years to come it would most definitely stand to my name. I'm 16 and along with other projects I am involved in it'll help me stand out in the future. I am not caught up in the fact whether it will make a profit or not, I don't plan on integrating advertisements unless there is a need to do so.

You're right, I haven't done much research. However, the apps that are out there don't appear to be successful, because if they were, I would know about them/have them. I believe I could integrate more things on a broader spectrum into the app, for example it could also be goal oriented. A user could input what time they were to go to the gym, prior to that time the app could suggest relevant songs for the user to play while in workout, depending on the workout they were doing.

Other apps may have successful concepts with little downloads, but I think whether an app like this would come down to the marketing. I'm connected with numerous Instagram celebrities in the fitness sector, that would love to endorse an app like this, but they haven't been approached regarding a proposal in this sector.

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

How were you planning to grant early access to an app on the app store?

I admire your tenacity but I think you'd be much better directing it somewhere else.

They did it with the popular messaging application BBM. I was one of the selected users, I had to go to their website to download the application as I was the one with early access. The release came about 1-2 weeks after, and it was downloadable on the app store.

Eugene Norman

conorryanofla wrote: »

My motivation for this project is to help people, including myself be more productive. If this were moderately successful, in the years to come it would most definitely stand to my name. I'm 16 and along with other projects I am involved in it'll help me stand out in the future. I am not caught up in the fact whether it will make a profit or not, I don't plan on integrating advertisements unless there is a need to do so.

You're right, I haven't done much research. However, the apps that are out there don't appear to be successful, because if they were, I would know about them/have them. I believe I could integrate more things on a broader spectrum into the app, for example it could also be goal oriented. A user could input what time they were to go to the gym, prior to that time the app could suggest relevant songs for the user to play while in workout, depending on the workout they were doing.

Other apps may have successful concepts with little downloads, but I think whether an app like this would come down to the marketing. I'm connected with numerous Instagram celebrities in the fitness sector, that would love to endorse an app like this, but they haven't been approached regarding a proposal in this sector.

I don't know if you want to be a dev or not. If you do just learn to code and code up the simplified version of the app you described. If not then I don't think that you will raise the funding, maybe try find a geeky friend and work out a way to pay him.

Far to many people -- including some people in the industry -- think the idea is the main thing. In fact the implementation is the main thing, including UI, UX and most importantly the code. Testing matters too.

One more thing you are basically in the simplified idea describing an alarm system, which already exists. In fact I use the ios alarm to tell me to go to bed not just wake up. I could use it to tell me to stop looking at the phone at a time. Whether I am or not.

Your original idea which might not be possible is better. Only alert the user if he is using the phone. Don't alert the user to excercise if he is moving.

There may be api to do this it's been a while since I worked on iOS -- but you would drain battery because you have to be always on in the background.

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

They did it with the popular messaging application BBM. I was one of the selected users, I had to go to their website to download the application as I was the one with early access. The release came about 1-2 weeks after, and it was downloadable on the app store.

BBM is a free app, that makes a significant difference.

Are you planning to make your app free or make your backers buy the app again?

Atomic Pineapple

If you're young and you don't care about making a profit and you're planning on developing it yourself then I'm not sure what you're actually asking in this thread?

There are apps that do what you've described in varying different ways and you say they aren't successful, if that's true then you should focus on why they aren't successful and bring something to the table that turns that around and differentiates your app from the rest.

At the minute you just seem to have a high level thought, you need to dig deeper, research relentlessly and come up with a well thought out idea rather than just identifying a problem and saying you want to fix it.

Then start looking at the technical requirements needed to implement your fully planned idea.

conorryanofla

beauf wrote: »

I think you should do more research and pick something with a similar return for less effort. I admire your drive though.

Actually regarding advertising, it would be possible as long as we have a general location of the user.

We could take a few of the persons interests upon download, and then integrate advertisements into the app in line with their interests. It would need to be productive things, so it would ensure they are productive. We wouldn't work with advertisers who entice you to buy their products like clothing etc, instead an event in which you can actually benefit from.

For example, there is a 5k road race happening in an area close to where the user is situated, there would be a page on the app where the user can view events happening, and could even receive a notification from the most promising one. It's the same with different events, like beginner painting classes, piano lessons etc etc I'm sure you get the idea. For charity events they could list for free, but for private events we could charge the advertiser a small fee.

Does anyone think I am explaining too much and I'm at risk of somebody stealing the idea?

conorryanofla

Atomic Pineapple wrote: »

If you're young and you don't care about making a profit and you're planning on developing it yourself then I'm not sure what you're actually asking in this thread?

I'm not planning on developing it myself.. In this thread I was looking for a bit of information regarding the background of apps. Information that I kindly received above.

I'm not obsessed with making a profit, however in my last message above, I believe it is possible to make one with that concept.

I'm going to research a bit more

Graham

conorryanofla wrote: »

For example, there is a 5k road race happening in an area close to where the user is situated, there would be a page on the app where the user can view events happening, and could even receive a notification from the most promising one. It's the same with different events, like beginner painting classes, piano lessons etc etc I'm sure you get the idea. For charity events they could list for free, but for private events we could charge the advertiser a small fee.

So this app to discourage iPhone use is going to send adverts to the phone? Kinda pick up your phone so we can tell you how to pick up your phone less?

To me, that would be like taking an enormous chocolate cake and icing 'eat less cake' on the top of it.

conorryanofla wrote: »

Does anyone think I am explaining too much and I'm at risk of somebody stealing the idea?

I can say with hand on heart, I think you're safe.

conorryanofla

Graham wrote: »

So this app to discourage iPhone use is going to send adverts to the phone? Kinda pick up your phone so we can tell you how to pick up your phone less?

To me, that would be like taking an enormous chocolate cake and icing 'eat less cake' on the top of it.



I can say with hand on heart, I think you're safe.

I think you are getting the idea wrong. It's not like the phone would be spammed with an advert, maybe 1 advert notification per week on lets say a Sunday night when people are getting ready for the next week.

On a Sunday night, you receive a notification on your phone, that there is a 10k race in your city next Friday. You click into the ad, sign up and that's that. You get a message saying congratulations etc, and directly afterwards another notification that will help you getting into a productive mindset for the week ahead.

Throughout the week it would stick to it's concept. Optimising peoples time.