Good morning 👋
I’m just happy that this Sunday is not a repeat of the last 🥳
I went to bed on Monday thinking the update is done and all is left is to push it out in the morning (from bad experience, I made it a rule to not push out an update in the evening because I want to be sure I’m present to react immediately if there are any issues once an update goes live). I was proven wrong when final checks were carried out in the morning. Repeat Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.
Wednesday in particular felt like I was going through one boss fight to the next with no breaks in between as it was now July 1 and I was technically past my self-imposed deadline. I was making changes to areas of code that I shouldn’t really be touching at this point. But it was either that or throw in the towel. I kept going and eventually conquered the final boss (or so I naively thought) by around 3 pm. Update went live later in the evening. Shortly after I find out Dark Sky has delayed their Android exit by another month 😂
Of course, the evening didn’t end there. Almost immediately after the update was live, a review came in about the app crashing. I couldn’t reproduce. But after getting more info, it became clear there was a serious issue in regards to performance, especially after a few others reported similar (one said the app was flagged by their anti-virus app!). Basically, earlier in the day, to help isolate an issue with widget reliability, I put in several checks throughout the codebase that were being called repeatedly. These checks were causing the app to load with a delay, stutter and possibly crash. Not always though which is how this slipped, precisely why I shouldn’t have been making these changes in the first place, not without at least a day of more widespread tests via the private and/or public beta. Anyway, a couple of hours later, approaching midnight, a hot-fix update was pushed out and I went to bed relieved but anxious about update approval times.
The weird thing is despite this issue’s presence, sales were telling another story altogether. They were exceeding my wildest expectations. It didn’t make sense. It sort of added to the anxiety because I was worried new subscribers will soon run into this and request an immediate refund. This didn’t happen. Sales have continued to be really strong. Yes, I’m glad to confirm that Android users are willing to pay $10 a year for their weather 😎 And, there will now possibly be a third wave of Dark Sky users making the move because there will presumably be another round of press at the end of this month, presenting me with more time and opportunity for additional improvements before these users have to make a decision on the app (my version of Dark Sky’s visual timeline widget is the highest priority, alongside improvements to the radar). Perhaps more importantly, it also gives me a chance to reach out to everyone who failed to highlight Appy Weather in the press rounds this month.
Sales aside, feedback so far on the update has been overwhelmingly positive. The overall sentiment suggests the app is now being perceived as a v2 app. The good news is I’ve enough ideas already for several new versions of the app. And I’m more motivated than ever, especially after seeing so many Pro subscribers join the community. When I have users paying ten dollars a year for Appy Weather, I feel an even greater responsibility to deliver. Win-win.
Till next Sunday! Have a great one.
Best,
Bardi
Hi, a 10$ per year is really expensive for a weather app, i don't know if you can add a more flexible options like to choose the right provider without paying for the pro version, anyway if you confirm that AccuWeather source will be included in the pro when you add it i will subscribe.