Wouldn't the title make more sense as "AUA" instead of "AMA"?
We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
41–50 of 451 posts
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#42When will you make it easy for Substack authors to sell ads?
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#43Maybe harkening back to the old-school days of HN, but I'd be keen to hear about the tech stack you decided to use in building the app, what your considerations are for multi-platform, and advice for start-ups getting ready to launch their own apps.
I tagged in one of our lead engineers to talk about the tech stack, but can chime in re: considerations for multi-platform.
We are sprinting as fast as we can to get an Android app out the door. We're also planning on investing more in the reader experience on web. Some time ago, we launched a web reader (reader.substack.com) in beta and have some exciting ideas in the works to evolve that surface.
Beyond Android, when it smaller platforms like iPad / Desktop apps, it's mostly a matter of looking at the data and listening to users. With a small team, we have to be judicious with prioritization, and as we increase the surface area for readers it's important that the experience for writers remains clear (right now their readers can already read on email, web, and mobile).
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#44What’s the general breakdown of use between UIKit and SwiftUI?
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#45Just a thing on the sign up in the app: let me use apples private email thingy, or even better: add a “sign up with apple” button and drop the confirmation link via email. Entering my email, and then having to switch apps to press on the confirmation link and then switching back is just annoying.
I definitely hear this, but there is some tension here for us. One of the big values of Substack for writers is that it is the place where you can build your most valuable audience, which means: 1. When folks opt in, you can reach them whenever you want, unmediated by an algorithm 2. They can pay to subscribe, and you keep 90% of the economics and 3. You own your email list. You can leave Substack and take them with…
Consider that if one does a "sign up" from the webpage on a Mac using Safari, you get the option to use an Apple generated hidden email address.
Adding that to the phone app would only be exposing it on the phone app - not hiding it from functionality for anyone who wanted to do it.
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#46Will there ever be bundles? Or some kind of bulk discount? Pay-per-article?
I'm a paid subscriber to a number of Substack writers, and I'd like to subscribe to more, but it can rapidly run into the hundreds of dollars per month - so I really have to pick and choose.
I can imagine bundles aren't really your model, and maybe aren't in your authors interest either. But I'd love to get like an Economics bundle and a New Zealand journalism bundle (shout-out to Bernard Hickey here, doing great work with his The Kaka Substack).
Or even a pay-per-article model - some of the free newsletters I'm on publish paywalled things I'm interested in, but I don't want to subscribe to the full deal. But I'd pre-load my account with $50 and pay a couple of dollars for a single article.
In a similar vein, LWN used to have a thing where people could pay to make the article free. There are sometimes paywalled articles I'd love to share around, but I don't want to deprive the author of revenue. If I could pay for a link that can be shared X number of times, or could chip-in to a "if enough people pay this article becomes free" fund, I would.
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#47Hi Chris, Hamish, Jairaj, and Sachin! I'm a huge fan of your platform, and love that its empowered some of my favorite journalists and other others to write freely while continuing to be able to provide for themselves. One question I have is as a small time blogger, I currently use Medium as my platform. The reason I do so is because it has an audience baked in, so I'm easily(-ish) able to attract new readers to my b…
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Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#48>This is Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi, the founders of Substack, with Sachin Monga, the head of product.
Are there any female top brass at Substack?
Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#49Firstly - love love love Substack. It's so simple but it's so rapidly become a place where I do so much reading. I have a few questions (mostly not about the app though, I'll have to wait for Android support to try that). 1. How did you guys manage to attract writers? I know you have been signing fronting agreements. Superficially, Substack is a (fairly basic?) blogging platform + email + payment processing system. T…
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Re: We’re the founders of Substack, we just launched an iOS app. AUA
#50No post body was provided.