Back in the day I published my iOS app, kind of a social platform but in a weird way. It was an anonymous chat with a single person - me. Peer to multi-peer, I would name it this way. The person just had to pick up a name and that's it. They can write in the chat, and I receive their messages and can reply to each of them personally.
I had to fight with the Apple app review team before they approved the app and it was finally published on App Store. They simply didn't understand what is a value and how it works. I used to explain them. We played ping-pong for a month, and I even started to feel doubts about this app too. But I didn't let it go.
When it landed on the App Store, I thought no one will write there, I thought they will take the side of the Apple Review team. But after a day I had 1000 users. In a month there were 20k users. And an even bigger amount of messages. The retention rate was 40% which is enormous for a social network app and even for such a small project. Which Apple considered useless.
We were a two-men group. I was a developer, my friend was a designer of this app. We didn't understand what to do with this amount of people. We were doing this just for fun and to prove that we can do it. We wanted to prove this to Apple too. We didn't expect this success. We validated that this niche is open. It's needed. A person needs another person.
We closed the app after 6 months. We didn't have enough hands to handle the conversations. We didn't want to automate this stuff. The actual conversation, the conversation with a real person was a key feature of this app. So simple. So powerful. So free. But so expensive. Time is the most precious thing in our lives.
I had to fight with the Apple app review team before they approved the app and it was finally published on App Store. They simply didn't understand what is a value and how it works. I used to explain them. We played ping-pong for a month, and I even started to feel doubts about this app too. But I didn't let it go.
When it landed on the App Store, I thought no one will write there, I thought they will take the side of the Apple Review team. But after a day I had 1000 users. In a month there were 20k users. And an even bigger amount of messages. The retention rate was 40% which is enormous for a social network app and even for such a small project. Which Apple considered useless.
We were a two-men group. I was a developer, my friend was a designer of this app. We didn't understand what to do with this amount of people. We were doing this just for fun and to prove that we can do it. We wanted to prove this to Apple too. We didn't expect this success. We validated that this niche is open. It's needed. A person needs another person.
We closed the app after 6 months. We didn't have enough hands to handle the conversations. We didn't want to automate this stuff. The actual conversation, the conversation with a real person was a key feature of this app. So simple. So powerful. So free. But so expensive. Time is the most precious thing in our lives.
1. If you want to influence people's lives you gotta share a disclaimer upfront.
There were so many questions and so many problems. People needed help. They didn't have the courage to ask for it someone real, they wanted to talk to a stranger. No-face to no-face. But I'm not a professional. I just wanted to be a nice guy, a supportive shoulder. I just wanted to be a good developer. I was scared about them and about all these responsibilities. I had to create a disclaimer that I'm not a professional therapist. I'm just a chat application.
2. Boys are getting mature way slower than girls.
Half of the dialogs amount I had was about the girl loving a boy, but this boy is a dickhead who wants to play Fortnite all day and all night. They just simply don't match their desires. They live in different psychological age dimensions. They will never meet each other.
3. People are alone.
The person needs another person. They want to be heard.
4. Sometimes everything that matters is just to have a talk with someone, even if they are a stranger.
About anything. Happy moments, sad moments, envy, anger.
5. You can't be a Bruce Almighty, you have to set a limit.
You can't handle 20k conversations simultaneously. No matter how hard you try or how hard you want this. Relax. Take a chill pill.
6. People just want to share their dirty secrets and that's it.
They spoke about cheating, hating, family fights, stupid desires, and disagreement with the laws of life.
7. You are never safe from toxic people.
Every 5th conversation was just "Fuck you. I hate you. You are a loser cause you created this app.".
8. People hate waiting.
That was the reason we closed the app. They wanted the answer right at the same minute. You either have to comply with the customer needs, SLA, or whatever, or just state your boundaries.
9. People take most things for granted.
They don't respect you and your aspiration. Your time. Your will to help. They think "Ok, you provided me this app/service, so now I own you!".
10. The biggest achievement is realizing you helped at least one person.
Yeah, that's why I did this at all. That's why I do pretty much everything in my life.