I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it • Hacker News Board

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#11

Post by dvt » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

> 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

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#12

Post by fake-name » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:01 PM UTC

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.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#13

Post by great_reversal » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

> 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".

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#14

Post by mihaaly » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

Interesting, I made an app for anyone, but only my significant other used it. :)

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#15

Post by codecutter » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:02 PM UTC

vuciv1 wrote: post #5

ajfjrbfbf wrote: post #2

Next step is making it open source.

Not quite yet. I am still trying to make my first dollar on the internet

Why settle for a dollar? If you are willing to make the source code FLOSS, I will donate $10 to you. :)

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#16

Post by vuciv1 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #7

cbozeman wrote: post #6

> 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 actua…

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 wan…

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!

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#17

Post by mihaaly » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:04 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #11

> 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…

agreed! publishing is the hardest part.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#18

Post by vuciv1 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

pyjug wrote: post #8

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. Al…

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 :)

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#19

Post by askafriend » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:07 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #11

> 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…

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.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#20

Post by rzzzt » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 10:10 PM UTC

LikeAnElephant wrote: post #10

cbozeman wrote: post #6

> 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 actua…

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?

Would it take too long or not? I feel that is the deciding factor.