Apps Daily Form C: Fill & Download for Free

I work at Snapchat so I might be qualified to answer this.To better understand how long it will take you to build an app like Snapchat, you need to know what skills you will need.Basic programming. Firstly, you will need to have a good grasp of programming. Pick any language you like and go over the basics. This will take you at least a couple of months.Software Design. Writing functional software is easy while writing functional AND maintainable software is difficult. Knowing the common design patterns is a must. This will take you another couple of months.Mobile Development. Since you plan to build an app, you need to know the core of mobile development. This includes application life cycle, how different components behave and so on. This can take you anywhere from 6 months up to a year. Don’t forget, you will need to pick up the right programming language (Java for Android development and Objective-C/Swift for iOS).Software Tools. There are a lot of tools and applications you will need along the way. Version Control (Git) to manage the changes, IDE for the development, build tools, testing tools, debugging tools and so on. That is at least another month.Multithreading. An important area that is often overlooked by beginners. An app like Snapchat is required to perform several tasks simultaneously (fetch updates from the server, update UI, and so on). To get a good grasp of multithreading, you will need to spend some time. At least a couple of months.Networking. Sending and receiving messages is in the core of Snapchat. If you want to build a communication app, you will need to cover the basics of communication protocols and understand how one user can send and receive messages from another user. From a couple of months and up to a year.Server-side programming. As a user, all you get to directly interact with is the app on your phone, which on its own is only a small part of the whole ecosystem, There are hundreds of servers behind the scenes that constantly communicate with the client (the app) to ensure your content is up to date. It is important for you to have a knowledge of what it takes to build a responsive server. Another half a year to a year.Scaling. It is not an easy task to ensure that 150 million daily users can send and receive messages without failures. Each server receives hundreds of thousands of requests every second and it is important to ensure that they are all handled successfully. To do so, one needs to design a good architecture. This is the most sophisticated skill and will take you years to learn.Now if we assume that you have at least a moderate level of understanding of everything I have mentioned above, it is safe to guess that it will take you at least 3–6 months of full-time work to actually code an app with the basic functionality of Snapchat.P.S. There are a lot of advanced areas that I did not mention:Snapchat uses encryption for their Snaps.Machine learning is used heavily throughout the app.A great deal of work has been put to secure the servers.Some camera features involve AR.and so on..

To learn something new, the key points are:Build a strong foundation (teacher, books, friends - whichever is available)Practice daily.Set a goal (what you want to use this new skill for).Without a goal, it's easy to lose interest when things are starting to get tough.* * *Here is my Android story:It was the summer of 2010 and I had just bought my first Android phone, the HTC Hero:I was on vacation on the island of Gotland. I figured it was a good time to start learning Android development so I went to the biggest bookstore there. They had four computer books in total. Needless to say, none of them were about Android...When I got back to Stockholm I picked up this book:and I started playing around. At the time I had been programming for 20 years, mostly C and later web development. I knew the principles of object oriented programming but I hadn't done much in Java before.I find it easier to learn the foundation from a book and then google the rest.* * *Being a train driver myself, I quickly realized that I could make a killer app for railroad staff. In the previous years I had already built an information system for the railroad, so I had a database, I just needed a GUI.My vision was that the drivers and guards would not have to search or browse, the information would just be presented to them automatically in realtime. All they would have to do would be to look at the display. I like to develop things that are easy to use, and it couldn't get much easier than that...I told the management of the Swedish Railways what I could do, how much time it would take and what it would cost. They ordered the app from my company and bought Samsung Galaxy phones and it was a success.Here is a Swedish newspaper article: (English translation follows below)http://computersweden.idg.se/2.2683/1.533588/lokforare-skapade-smart-tag-app"Thomas Tydal is the engineer who bought a smart phone and realized how much it could help him at work. Now his app is helping the trains to keep to their schedule while they are moving slower.For those who are driving the trains through our country, it has always been a hassle to keep track of the schedule and always telephoning to the operations center to get updates. Thomas Tydal is an engineer with SJ (Swedish Railways) and he bought a smart phone a few years ago. At that time he realized its potential as a tool for drivers.- In addition to my job at SJ, I run my own company as a software developer and I immediately realized how much easier the driver's situation would be had they access to realtime information, Thomas Tydal says.Thomas Tydal outlined an app and presented it to SJ who liked the idea. Today, every driver and guard have a work phone with his app pre-installed.The app contains updated information on traffic jams and signal faults, but most of all it helps the driver to keep to the schedule, by moving slower.- Previously, drivers has had to - based on experience - take a guess on how fast to drive to arrive on time. Many chose the maximum speed to make sure they would not run late. The app computes the optimum speed according to the current position and the time table.One of the benefits is that the app saves electricity since it makes it easier for the drivers to use the regenerative brake. Its brake force is less than the ordinary pneumatic brakes, but the app tells the drivers when to start applying the regenerative brake so its brake force will be sufficient.- It saves a lot of electricity when the drivers can choose a lower cruising speed and primarily use the regenerative brake. Testruns show that the average consumption is decreased by 10%.The information of where the trains currently are, is picked up by the signalling system. The optimum speed is updated every second and therefore takes the adhesion and train performance into account.Besides making the daily job easier, the app also literally takes a load off the drivers.- Drivers are required to bring the necessary documentation, traditionally in the form of paper weighing up to 20 pounds, which was updated daily with printouts. Nowadays, it's all in the app, being updated automatically.The first version was released in January 2011 and it turned out to be very popular.- Using the app is not mandatory, but everyone does it since it makes their job much easier."

As a teacher in university, giving presentation is my daily work, and powerpoint remote controller is the kit I can never leave.I changed it from physical clicker to remote control app in my iphone, and then from app A to app B, then to app C. And the app C is what I'm using now, called Power Remote Pro.As a powerpoint remote control daily user with my iphone, the app has to be stable enough so I do not need to concern about that every day. And the Power Remote Pro match my request. It provides two channel to connect, LAN or Internet. So I do not need to adjust the network situation to make sure that my phone and Mac are under the same network. More importantly, with two channel, it releases the worry of losing one of them.(As we know, the signal in conference with huge amount of audience is not that stable.) Because if one of them does lose, the other one will backup me.And the second point I appreciate is easy to use. Once I open the app from my cellphone, it will search and detect the host automatically, and I do not need to care about any technical issues. The interface is so simple and elegant that I get no confuse to use it.Also, it provides notes and previews in real-time so I can easily refer to that during my lessons. By the way, it's also available for Ipad, but for me, I prefer using it with iphone.If you're in need of a kit like me, I recommend you to get one. Guess you'll like it as I do.(Here's the link in App Store if you need it: Power Remote Pro: Clicker for PPT Control on the App Store)