Show HN: Tag Along (my first iPhone app 37 days later)

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tag-along/id470010236

by tsalfie • 15 years ago

30 23 15 years ago

itunes.apple.com

tsalfie5• 15 years ago

I built this in 37 days with no prior iOS experience (though I did have experience with ruby/rails). I think it could be useful but I'd love some feedback.

itsnotvalid2• 15 years ago

I think most of us would love to give feedback, but at first glance it seems requires all the "friends" to use the same paid app is not something easy to tag along.

Besides, I am using Android now ;-) so...

Just a side note, for solutions that needs social networking to work, it would be extremely hard to charge people up front. You gonna have to give it away for free (first) to earn some viral effects to kick in.

tsalfie5• 15 years ago

This is a good point and I see the turn off of "pay for this and hope your friends will too." This is the sort of feedback I was looking for - would someone buy this then ask their friends to do the same or is that too much to ask?

tansey• 15 years ago

I would consider some sort of free version of this app, so people can join without risk. Maybe make a version that limits you to 3 friends for free, or unlimited friends for $1.99?

tsalfie5• 15 years ago

Yeah, combined with the above comment, I think this is a good idea. This was actually my initial thought (but with 2 friends) early on, but I wanted to experiment with the idea of only having a paid version because I believe paid apps get more usage (I might be crazy here).

benvolioT2• 15 years ago

I agree. Sounds like a great app, but to be useful, I have to pay for it and so do each of my friends (unless you add the email / SMS feature suggested above).

I suggest a fremium pricing model. Perhaps all features are free exept one killer feature, which is an optional in-app purchase. For example - push notifications when one of your friends suggests an activity.

tcoville• 15 years ago

Instead requiring all of your friends install the app why not have people add friends by email/cell number. Then on the backend determine if they have an account if they have an account send it through the app otherwise they can just send an email/sms.

ams61102• 15 years ago

more to build, and for people who may never buy.

jfarmer• 15 years ago

Don't charge. In products with network effects, you want as little friction as possible.

This is why about.me demolished flavors.me, even though flavors.me came first.

Since your product is built around doing things with other people, there's a natural advertising angle, viz., suggesting things for people to do.

jamesgagan3• 15 years ago

I'm interested in knowing what you found to be the best resources for building your first iOS app. Did you use anything like PhoneGap or just Xcode? I have been looking at making an iOS app and while there are lots of examples of how do specific things, I haven't found any good overviews of how to properly architect an iOS app or what if any framework to use.

tsalfie5• 15 years ago

I built the backend server with Rails (I knew this already), but the rest was native iOS, so all Xcode. As far as how to architect it, I'm not sure I'd be much help. I basically jotted down what the app would look like and just started with individual features. I did have some help and advice from two iOS devs when it came to questions like, "I want it to do X, what is that called in the iOS world?", so I was better able to search for answers.

Basically, I'd just start with a feature of your app and try to build it. Most likely, someone smarter than both of us has done it and written about it (or at least something similar enough). Once you start writing code, you'll quickly get a feel for how things work and have a better sense of what the overall app should look like. Not sure if that helps any but good luck.

john2x• 15 years ago

I'm going through Beggining iPhone 4 Development from Apress right now and it's a great resource.

bjplink• 15 years ago

I built my first app from scratch almost entirely using Learn iPhone Programming (http://learningiphoneprogramming.com) by Alasdair Allan. Highly recommended.

jamesgagan3• 15 years ago

i'll check it out.

jashmenn• 15 years ago

Hey jamesgagan, I feel your pain. I found the same thing when I started iOS development a few years ago: plenty of tutorials on how to restyle a specific widget, but not many resources on how a real-world application should be structured as a whole.

I've got a few iOS apps under my belt and I feel like I could have something to offer in this area. Feel like Skyping for a half hour or so? I'd love to help talk through your architecture. My email is in my profile.

jamesgagan3• 15 years ago

thanks for the offer - i may take you up on it at some point!

dzlobin• 15 years ago

I think the Stanford coure was a great reference.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/cs193p-student-final-proj...

seltzered_• 15 years ago

honest question: how will you differentiate yourself / market your app better than a group texting app?

tsalfie5• 15 years ago

I think the big advantage here is reducing the noise and the effort. If I'm going mountain biking this afternoon it only takes me about 10 seconds to let all my mountain biking buddies know that. I don't have to figure out which group I'm sending the invitation to and explain what I'm going to do and where.

I believe simple, targeted apps can be useful.

Show HN: Tag Along (my first iPhone app 37 days later)

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