Google requires a dozen or so beta testers before you are allowed to launch an app on the Play store publicly. Given that this community lives on Lemmy, and it’s full of Android users, I was hoping I could recruit a few people.

My app, “Blorp”, is already listed on the official Lemmy website for iOS, but Android has been delayed due to this requirement.

Would greatly appreciate your help, and if it turns out you like my app, I’m happy to make changes based on your feedback.

For closed testing, Google requires you join a linked Google Group before downing the app.

Step 1: Join the testing group

🔗 https://groups.google.com/g/blorp-android-app-testers

Step 2: Download the app

📱 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.blorpblorp.app

Thanks in advance!

Edit: there’s also a Lemmy community if you want to stay up to date or ask questions !blorp@lemmy.ml

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zipEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Yeah, you do you, but I would not put my time or energy into the big tech app stores, especially not with something where the community understands the need for open source self-hostable software.

      • moseschrute@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
        1·
        1 day ago

        I fully agree with your distaste for big tech. That’s why I’m here and not Reddit. However, if I launch an app on mainstream stores, I might get a couple hundred users relatively easily. If I push to the more niche stores/distribution methods, I might get a couple or maybe a dozen users. It’s not that I don’t want to distribute on the niche stores, but I need to prioritize what will get real users. But my goal is to find a distribution method that makes everyone happy. For example, I have plans to distribute the web version of my app via Docker, but I know I’ll have a hard time getting people to pull a docker image. So I’ve deprioritized that for now. Same goes for PWA. I know I want to improve the PWA installation experience, but I know less people install a PWA on their home screen than app via App Store and Play Store.

        That being said, the more people I have asking for a specific distribution method, the more likely I am to prioritize that. Unfortunately, every distribution method I add increase the friction for me to push new releases. I really want to be able to iterate quickly until Blorp matures, then as I find updates aren’t as frequent I will build out to more distribution methods.

        All of this could change, especially if I found more people willing to contribute to the source code.