Wisedocks

FartDump.com Is Coming To Android

Every time I show someone my FartDump website, I hear the same thing. "You should make that an app." The thing is apps are a bit above my paygrade. Building websites with vanilla code is fun, just about everything that goes into creating an app is not. I love playing the games on my phone, and have already made the website work pretty good as a PWA(Progressive Web App), which is essentially the same thing as an app. But, in order to use it you have to click install as soon as you visit the website. Most people will not do this since it's sort of sketchy to install a website before you even know anything about it.

For that reason and also for the expanded reach I could get by being on the app store, I decided to bite the bullet and attempt to get FartDump onto the Google Playstore. After a few days of Googling myself, I have managed to get the files needed to get started. I chose to use Google's CLI called Bubblewrap to create the files needed to turn my PWA into and app wrapper. It was easy to use once it was up and running, plus any chance to use terminal is a fun day.

The app is currently in closed alpha status and this is far as I can go as a new developer. In order to advance to open testing or to actually get the app into the Playstore, production access is needed. To get that, I first need to get 12 users to install and keep the closed alpha version on their device for 14 consecutive days. That is going to be the hardest part for me and most indy developers because let's be honest, we don't have any friends and family is probably tired of hearing about our boring hobby.

So I did ask a few family members and there are a few people playing around with the app, but I need more! If you would be interested in playing around with the app, you can find the details on the FartDump microblog.

Will The App Be Available On IOS?

Right now, No. Apple charges $99/year and it is a pain in the butt to get approved. It's not something I want to deal with right now. There are a few amazon affiliate links sprinkled around FartDump and a donate button at the bottom of the page. The site simply doesn't pay for itself now, much less the $99/year I would need to add to the budget.

The Future

I have another motive for wanting to get production access to the Google Play Console. There are a few web apps that I have built for personal use that people may find useful and fun to use. The one used the most on my phone is the personal note taking app and shopping list app. At one time the shopping list app was going to be built into Wisedocks until I decided to do away with user registrations and just settled on Wisedocks being my personal blog. But the app still got built and I have been using it for a few years now and love it.

I'm really considering building it out fully on its own server and selling it on the Playstore for like a few bucks. You can sign in with your email account and set your name then invite family members to your shopping cart. My girlfriend and I will split up and tackle the shopping list and after swiping an item off of your list the changes are sent and reflected for everyone viewing the list.

If you are home sick and your spouse is at the store, no need to text them, just open the shopping list app and add something you forgot. So, yeah, I have a plan.