Social App for Quote Sharing

Know how we helped our Canada-based client develop an MVP for a Quote Sharing application with the purpose of getting him the first round of funding.

Overview

Industry

Technology

Platform

Mobile App and Backend

Duration

1 Month

Solution

MVP Development

The trend of social media platforms is undeniable as almost every capable human on the planet is on some kind of social media platform. From big social media platforms like Instagram or LinkedIn to lately introduced platforms like Thread, every social media platform is growing incredibly.

This gave our Canada-based client, a solo entrepreneur, an idea to build a social media application. Unlike regular social media apps where you can post multimedia content, the client wanted the application for quote sharing only.

When we took on the project, our primary goal was to develop a functional and minimum-viable product (MVP) that has the core features and a minimal design.

By choosing Flutter to be our flexible development platform and tech stacks like Firebase and Yii2, we developed a simple-designed, functional, and responsive MVP for the quote-sharing app with the required features.

Business Challenges

The core challenge of the project was to develop the needed minimum viable product for the quote-sharing application und the’s limited budget. Since the client wanted to test the market and gain investment, the expenses on the development project were limited.

Apart from that, unclear requirements and choosing the tech stack for the custom app development were other hurdles in the way as well.

Unclear Features

We were asked to develop a first-version product for the quote-sharing app that would allow the users to create, like, and share quotes on the platform with other users. The best reference we got for the social app was Twitter (now X).

However, the client was unclear about the specific features he needed from the app. This posed a challenge for us to understand more about the features of such apps and software.

Choosing ‘perfect’ Tech Stack

Another ‘big task’ that we had to complete in the project was to choose a good tech stack for the custom app development. Both we and the client agreed on developing a cross-platform mobile application that would work well with Android as well as iOS.

But choosing a good tech stack for the development wasn’t the easiest thing, keeping the client’s limited budget in mind.

Budget Constraint

The client was a solo entrepreneur from Canada who wanted to taste the market and gain investment from the investors with his idea. In such a situation, the client usually has a tight budget limit which was also applied in this case.

The reason why entrepreneurs do not put too much money into such development projects is that they want to play the market safe and look for the best value for money. So even if they are unable to gain investment for their ideas from the investors, they would not lose a big sum of money.

This challenged us to carry out a successful custom mobile app development project within the client’s budget, which we actually did.

Thin Time to Market

Since the client was focusing on getting first-round funding for his project, the time to market the software developed was less than expected. This challenged us to develop an MVP that can go through quick marketing as well.

We took all the aforementioned challenges as opportunities to test our abilities and were able to go beyond our limits and create a fully functional, efficient, and feature-rich quote-sharing MVP for the client.

The Solution

Approach

To carry out a successful MVP development, Rollout Technologies followed a client-centric approach that included close collaborations and regular meetings with the clients with the purpose of understanding the project’s requirements and vision in a better way.

By analyzing the client’s idea for a mobile application, we were able to point out specific issues, required features, and references for the final app, giving us a tighter hold over the task.

We prepared a well-strategized blueprint for the complete custom app development and followed an agile development methodology by breaking down the processes into smaller steps and opening the scope for improvements. This allowed us to maintain better focus on different phases of the development process, ensuring better results.

Since it was an MVP program, we did not give excessive priority to the product’s design and looks. The goal was to produce a functional product with a simple design and user-friendly layout that had enough features for testing the market.

Architecture

Cross-platform Mobile App

To create a social media application, we considered cross-platform mobile development to be the best. It not only allows you to build an app for both iOS and Android using a single codebase but also cuts the overall cost of the development process, which in this case, was our priority. We selected Flutter to be our cross-platform mobile app development framework as it offered a nice-looking UI along with a native-like experience for the product, which not only helped us to cut the development cost under control but gave us a faster time to market as well.

Firebase for Authentication

To ensure a well-functioning and secure mobile application, having a solid authentication becomes a must. In our case, we suggested our client use Firebase as the authentication platform for their quote-sharing app. It offered a whole suite of authentication and user onboarding architecture for the product, ensuring its security within the limited budget we had. It also saved a great amount of time in the overall development process.

Scalable Backend

Keeping the product behavior in mind, we choose Yii2 as our backend framework and PostgreSQL as the database for the application. By developing a simple yet accessible admin panel, we allowed the client to monitor dashboard visibility and platform activities, opening the scope for future iterations based on user behavior. We also implement the secure role based REST API to access secure data from the mobile app.

Features

User Onboarding

The MVP has the basic sign-in/sign-up/forgot password steps for hassle-free user onboarding.

Personal Branding

Our developed MVP allowed the users to create their own posts and build a personal brand on the platform.

Category Selection

The MVP allowed the users to select certain categories for quotes they wanted to read on the platform. Based on that, the system would recommend quotes from the categories selected, enhancing personalization.

Platform Interaction

Like any other social media app, this MVP also allowed the users to interact with other users by liking, commenting, or requoting (similar to retweet) their quotes. Users also have the option to follow other users and stay notified about their activities.

The Result

Happy Client!

With close collaborations with the client and focused teamwork, we carried out a successful MVP app development for the client that has the core functionalities and a decent design. By completing such a complex development project under the client’s limited budget, we were able to gain the client’s trust and mutual respect.

This creative development project boosted the client’s confidence in his ideas. Even though he was unable to gain investment for the further development of the product, he was satisfied with our side of the results.

The team at Rollout Technologies wishes him the best of luck for his future endeavors.