Mobile devices are becoming the norm for accessing websites like Swingular and we have recognized this. We feel that most of our users will soon be accessing the site from mobile devices more than any other medium. Why wouldn't they, mobile devices are already connected to the internet, they are convenient, and they can be used almost anywhere. We are in the final stages of launching our own custom mobile website and we wanted to give everyone an update.
Building a mobile version of Swingular has proven to be challenging. One of our goals in building a mobile version was to make it compatible with as many devices as possible. This is what has kept us from getting a product out so quickly.
As a matter of fact, we had actually finished building our first mobile site at the beginning of this year. The project was immediately scrapped and we decided to go back to the drawing boards. The problem was that it was slow and clunky on most devices and unless you had a newer, high tech phone, it was painful to use.
What we learned in the process was that you can't do everything a normal site can do but you can do the most important things that most people need.
One of the biggest design challenges was figuring out how to make the site function with all the different types of mobile operating systems such as Android and Apple's iOS.
We came to the conclusion that it would be best to build a mobile site from the ground up, make it initially compatible with almost every mobile device available through a web browser and then build specific native apps for each operating system. Native apps are necessary because the web version cannot do things such as upload photos or videos. However, building a complete native mobile site for each platform would take too long and be very costly so we only build apps that provide additional functionality.
One of the benefits of building a mobile version from the ground up is that we will be able to implement mobile-only features. We won't go into detail but expect to see some cool things.
The new mobile version of Swingular is getting closer to being ready by the day. When it's ready, we will launch a beta version for testing that everyone can use and once the bugs are worked out, we will make it official. You'll be able to choose between using the mobile version or the full site as well.
Here is what you can look forward to in the initial mobile version:
Native apps for iOS and Android:
Features that will be added after the initial release:
These are not all of the features that we have coming as some of them will be a surprise and announced at the time of release. Just know that they will be features designed specifically for the mobile version and will make using the mobile site a pleasure.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestion, please let us know.
Thanks,
Rob
Building a mobile version of Swingular has proven to be challenging. One of our goals in building a mobile version was to make it compatible with as many devices as possible. This is what has kept us from getting a product out so quickly.
As a matter of fact, we had actually finished building our first mobile site at the beginning of this year. The project was immediately scrapped and we decided to go back to the drawing boards. The problem was that it was slow and clunky on most devices and unless you had a newer, high tech phone, it was painful to use.
What we learned in the process was that you can't do everything a normal site can do but you can do the most important things that most people need.
One of the biggest design challenges was figuring out how to make the site function with all the different types of mobile operating systems such as Android and Apple's iOS.
We came to the conclusion that it would be best to build a mobile site from the ground up, make it initially compatible with almost every mobile device available through a web browser and then build specific native apps for each operating system. Native apps are necessary because the web version cannot do things such as upload photos or videos. However, building a complete native mobile site for each platform would take too long and be very costly so we only build apps that provide additional functionality.
One of the benefits of building a mobile version from the ground up is that we will be able to implement mobile-only features. We won't go into detail but expect to see some cool things.
The new mobile version of Swingular is getting closer to being ready by the day. When it's ready, we will launch a beta version for testing that everyone can use and once the bugs are worked out, we will make it official. You'll be able to choose between using the mobile version or the full site as well.
Here is what you can look forward to in the initial mobile version:
- Mail functionality. Send & receive mail.
- Search.
- Complete profiles.
- Photo albums.
- Text Chat to regular chat room
- Instant messaging.
Native apps for iOS and Android:
- Upload photos and video.
Features that will be added after the initial release:
- Forums.
- Groups.
- Instant Booty Calls
These are not all of the features that we have coming as some of them will be a surprise and announced at the time of release. Just know that they will be features designed specifically for the mobile version and will make using the mobile site a pleasure.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestion, please let us know.
Thanks,
Rob
This will be very cool. As it is now, I can do everything on my phone but looking at profiles can be tough. Looking forward to this.
Woulda love to be able to video chat thru mobile. And cha t. Can do mostAnything else thru phone but it, did take some learning. Also, would like to see a way to get a notice like a email when new post is posted in groups or forum that you are involved with or have commented on.
DDRIVER03 wrote:
Woulda love to be able to video chat thru mobile. And cha t. Can do mostAnything else thru phone but it, did take some learning. Also, would like to see a way to get a notice like a email when new post is posted in groups or forum that you are involved with or have commented on.
Unfortunately, at the moment, there isn't a cost-efficient way to build an app that will allow us to integrate video with the chat. Most of the video capabilities of phones are proprietary or would take a lot of money to develop to work. This could change in the future and once it does, we will be sure to find a way to implement it.
As for notifications, we will be building native apps for each platform that you can install that will notify you when you receive new messages, group and forum posts and any other type of notification you wish to subscribe to. Then, when that activity occurs on Swingular, you will get a notification on your phone and you can click it to be taken directly to the activity on the mobile version of the site.
We just announced the launch of our native Android Media Uploader app.
Click here to view the announcement.
Click here to view the announcement.
Thank you for being patient with us. We hope to have an amazing product when we are finished.