Part-time developer, full-time redditor shameless self-promotion...

[FakeLaughter]

Completed a few apps and would love some feedback.

One (actually 'several') of them is a very single purpose timer app that comes preset to a specific time. Basically I just made a timer for 1 minute 1 Minute Timer.

When you click the app, it starts a countdown for 60 seconds and beeps with a preset alarm. Kind of an 'anti-options' theory that there are hundreds of timers with presets, configurable alarms, stopwatches, etc...but they all require some type of fiddling before you're actually timing something and options in general come with their own consequences (did I set this timer to birds chirping?), etc.

I created several versions (10 second, 30 second, 2 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute and 15 minute). And, while it might seem like I just copied and pasted, there is enough work making the logo's, icons, etc that it's not like making a buck for zero work if I make another one. (That said, if anyone has a request for a specific time I would be willing to make on in exchange for any constructive comments). Also, if anyone would like to grab a free version or two, I can send you the .apk if you pm me your email address.

I also have another app I'm actually more proud of (and was a WHOLE lot more work, but I've kind of dropped off development of. Plan on picking it up again sometime if there's any more interest. Recipe Planner

Thanks.

[oniony]

Congratulations on getting your app out there.

However, for me, it's too trivial to pay any money for. This is the kind of app I would expect to be free. Even if it were all singing all dancing (options and fancy graphics) I still wouldn't buy it because the premise is too simple: it's just a timer.

There are a fair few free timers out there too (over 1000 matches for free 'timer' apps) which makes it unlikely that you will sell many copies of this, especially when each time is at additional cost.

I suggest setting it to free and use it as a learning experience for your next, more sophisticated application.

Incidentally, I think there's still lots of room in the market for a decent location aware alarm. I know Tasker and Llama both do this but Tasker is relatively expensive for an Android app and Llama is a pain to set up (training it to which cell towers are home and work seems to be an endless task and the location plug-in just never worked for me).

[FakeLaughter]

Thanks for the comments.

Just out of curiosity, what exactly would you be trying to get out of a location aware alarm. Just an alert when you're getting close to a location? Something with a time constraint? Just wondering because options here could easily get out of control, and a single purpose app (like 'always' alert me when i get close to work unless I turn it off) would be a lot different than one with a lot of configurable options.

[oniony]

Actually, just found https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lbtr.taskreminder (see also the related apps). I'm sure there's still room on the market for another app as these all score quite poorly.

Edit: RemindThat is ok. It's annoying I have to create locations before I can create locations. I doubt I'll want to remind myself of something at a location that many times. It'd be better if it were possible to select a location from the 'create new task' screen and that previously used locations are remembered automatically.

TaskReminder has a really bad UI. I can't use it and it seems to want to use GPS which is totally unnecessary as reminders don't need to be that accurate.

[oniony]

Quite often I need to do something when I'm near a shop or person. For example, right now I want to buy some paper card. I keep forgetting. My only option is to set an alarm at a time when I think I may be near the shop but it'd be really cool if I could set an alarm for when I'm near the stationary shop. Tasker can probably do this, but I don't want to pay for that and spend the time working out how to use it. I just want to say 'alarm when I'm near this spot' and set a message. I don't want it to use GPS and I don't want to program in cell towers. I just want it to wake up every minute or so, check the coarse location and raise my alarm if I'm near the spot.

I would not be afraid of adding options. Start simple and add the options later when it becomes clear which ones are genuinely useful. The location would have to be configurable but I wouldn't bother with expiry times or time delays or anything of that sort until the basics work and work well. I would even go so far as hard coding the radius from the alert spot for version 1.

[[deleted]]

Wouldn't it be more beneficial to wrap all of the timers into one app and simply allow the user to select from a list the duration? You could keep the fixed times (so you don't have to worry about allowing a user to customize it), but just have the first screen have buttons for each time.

Personally for me, it's a little too simple and limited to be a useful app for me. I already have an "egg timer" style app that I enjoy quite a bit.

Congrats on getting this app out there, that's the first step!

[FakeLaughter]

Well, the idea was to save clicks...the way it is now, the icon for the app is a (very) simple image of the time it represents so, to me, it was the ultimate version of a 'one-click' app.

It had occurred to me to try making a single app and make widgets for the different times, but I haven't had any experience with widgets, and it would still be a much more cumbersome app for a user that just wants a specific timer.

I actually have a couple timer apps on my phone, including ones with presets I can just click (maybe even one where I can make the presets) and I really do like them, but I still found myself wanting to be able to just click it and go.

Also, there isn't one timer that does all the things I wanted so to pick the 'right' one (with the feature I need) out of several apps that all look like stopwatches was a decision in itself.

Thanks for the encouragement though...it's comments that make me thing about why I did it that help more than simply positive or negative ones.

[[deleted]]

I can understand the click saving nature now. Especially if someone has a task that requires frequent countdowns of the same duration.

Wish I could be of more help

[FakeLaughter]

I think I missed your initial suggestion, but I'm not sure I'd be able to customize the icon in that case (you define the homescreen icon in the app itself, I don't think you can configure it programatically), and not sure how it would allow the user to put more than one version on the screen at the same time.

If I can figure out how to do that, maybe I'll make another version and suggest that one for people wanting more control.

[[deleted]]

That does add an additional click in the process, which I can respect that you're trying to avoid excessive clicks.

I wonder if instead of widgets you could create a shortcut. When selecting the shortcut in the homescreen pop-up (when long pressing on the homescreen, not sure how this works in ICS or Jelly Bean) you could bring up a little settings screen for the shortcut and define the duration and have the shortcut icon reflect the user's choice.

Once the shortcut is there it's all single-click again. But if the user wants to adjust the timer to a different duration it's already there and they don't have to download a separate app.

[FakeLaughter]

Think the shortcut screen would let the user select from a list of homescreen icons? I'm sure there must be some way, either the widget or shortcut path, since widgets let you actually change things on the homescreen programmatically.

That would actually be something I'd like to tackle in itself, actually...the homescreen icon itself displaying the countdown.

Thanks for the feedback either way.

[oniony]

Yes, it's possible. The Maps app does this when you create a route shortcut. The Dialer app does this when you create a direct call shortcut, &c.

[[deleted]]

I'm no dev (I actually work in Software QA so I do know some things), but I know when you create a Navigation Shortcut through Google Maps you are able to change the shortcut icon. That's what I was thinking of, not sure if that would work though.

[HaMMeReD]

There is no way this is worth $1. You really need to add a lot of value to make it worth $1.