Hey all,
Little backstory, my name's Christian Selig, I'm freshly 26 (today's my birthday actually!), and I build the Apollo for Reddit app.
In the summer of 2014 during my Computer Science degree I was lucky enough to intern at Apple as engineer on the Enterprise App Development team in Cupertino (long way from Eastern Canada), where I learned an absolute ton from some crazy smart people.
After returning I set out to build a Reddit app that felt like if Apple themselves was to design a Reddit app, something that really felt at home on iOS and used a lot of the skills I learned to create something super fast and lean, while also being powerful and just a lot of fun to use. After 2 years of development and betas working closely with a few thousand Redditors to help shape it into the perfect client, I released it in October 2017.
The reception was really amazing, and it's now almost at 1.5 million downloads. It's been my full-time job for about 4 years now.
Today, 100% of the proceeds from the app will go to the SPCA Animal Shelter in Nova Scotia. Apollo is free to download and has a Pro/Ultra version you can unlock, so if you get those today the proceeds will completely go to the animal shelter and helping the cats and dogs and bunnies and turtles.
In addition I'll donate an extra $0.10 for every comment this thread gets by tomorrow. no spam tho plz
Why right now? These warm months are dubbed "kitten season" because it's far and away the time when most cats have kittens. Shelters are overwhelmed with abandoned/orphaned kittens and their resources and food becomes very very tight. The shelter we're donating to is where I adopted my two amazing cats from, and they're truly an amazing bunch who cares so much, so I really want to help them in this time that's really stressful for them.
Last year we did the same thing and raised $5,000 for them and they were absolutely floored. I really want to try to do $10,000 this year!
AMA! I will attempt to answer every question.
EDIT: A bunch have asked what the app exactly is in more detail haha, so here's the gist:
Apollo's an app for browsing Reddit on your iOS device, similar to the official Reddit app. I worked at Apple for a little while and was using Alien Blue, and really wanted to build a Reddit app that felt like if Apple themselves decided to build a Reddit app, something that felt perfectly at home on iOS. No knock on the official app (it's well done by talented people), but it doesn't follow a lot of the iOS design guidelines and feels a little Android-y to me at times. It's kinda like a car, you might be perfectly happy with yours and wonder what's the point of another car, but you might drive in another car and just find it more fun and comfortable to use. On top of this Apollo has some really slick custom gestures, a Jump Bar for quickly bouncing between subreddits, color-coded comments for easy navigation, a really powerful media viewer and it was voted the best Reddit app for iOS by The Sweet Setup.
Oh and I'm still answering questions.
EDIT2: It's getting late so I think I'm going to head to bed but I'll answer more in the morning!
Avid Apollo user. Picked up the lifetime sub as soon as I could and no regrets! Gorgeous app, bugs happen and get squashed as fast as possible, fun icon collabs with artists, and a dev that's prompt/interactive with his community and seems to be an all around good guy! Even answers my DM's O_O.
Two questions but feel free to answer one. Being a solo dev has its challenges for Apollo, but have you dabbled in any other projects in potential spare time? And what are some of the apps you can't live without/love? Any platform :)
Thanks for the AMA, the donations, and of courseāApollo.
Thank you so much, I genuinely try. :P
I'll answer both this ain't amateur hour.
What advice do you have for people who want to get into iOS design? Even as a programmer, Iāve been daunted by learning a new language and a complex API and a complex IDE. Where did you start, and what do you think is the best way to approach iOS development?
Also, fantastic app! Are you donating tip jar proceeds today as well?
Yeah, every penny of every dollar, I ain't making a cent today.
It's really not that bad to be honest, when you list it all like that it does sound like it, but I can assure you it isn't. :P Especially if you have other language experience, Xcode and Objective-C were my first IDE/language so if my dumb ass can do it I'm sure you'll be fine. :P
For instance the APIs are super well documented, not only by Apple but by just a myriad of tutorials as well as an active StackOverflow as well as the r/iOSProgramming subreddit. Xcode's a little daunting, but compared to most IDEs I don't find it too bad, you can honestly ignore alomst everything except the editor and the run/compile button, and slowly add more things in as you get comfortable to make it more streamlined. Swift as a language is pretty darn easy too, and very well documented, it removes a lot of the cruft Objective-C had (no knock on Objective-C, still love it), though optionals can be a bit to wrap your head around.
I learned just by reading an old Objective-C book in high school haha, re-reading it until it made more sense. Honestly my best advice though would just be to start building something, even super small, as soon as you can, found getting my hands dirty to help me learn 100x faster than just reading on its own.
Love Apollo, great job there.
Wondering about āunreasonable feature requestsā, what are the most annoying and craziest feature request you get?
Is there some requests that get asked a lot, but that is something youād never implement because it doesnāt fit the app?
To be honest I can't think of many. I must just be super lucky, maybe it's because most people post through the r/apolloapp subreddit and realize that it's public and if their idea is really stupid/offensive people will downvote it. Or maybe the really really dumb ones are downvoted and I don't see them too often. :P
Some silly requests are based around "I just moved from the official app, I love your app now but wish you did this thing the exact same way the official app does" and it's like, that's totally fair, that's how they expect it to be done, but most of the time it just takes a little settling in to be maybe like "Oh actually I like this better nvm".
Some things like custom vote icons per subreddit give me pause, because⦠some aren't done well to be blunt, and it feels scary to inject the kinda weird looking ones into the app because I've worked really hard to make it look clean.
I was going to start this comment by saying āI hate Apolloā. Not because I donāt like the app, but because of the expectation the app makes me have for other apps. I now want swipe to hide for Facebook and Twitter and nobody seems to be doing that. Especially not as beautiful as Apollo does.
Then I thought about purposely not buying Ultra today, because if I do, you donāt keep any of the money yourself which is only going to strain your resources to keep this amazing - erm, I mean horrible, bad - app going.
Lastly, I thought about not commenting, because it would make you donate even more.
Well, screw you and your amazing app. Wishing you a happy birthday and may you be donating a fortune to SPCA. Youāre a wonderful person and an inspiration to all.
Hate to ask, but: any chance youāre adding other social services? :D I need more Apollo in my life.
P.S: muhaha, just bought Ultra! Thatāll teach you to be nice to cats! (My kitty just gave me an evil look, so I change my mind: I love cats! Please donāt scratch me)
/ramblingmodeoff
Hahahaha, you had me in the first half. I've felt the same way about a lot of apps and wanted to create a similar experience.
It's totally okay, if you really feel that strongly go for a year and donate another time, but even if it's not monetary satisfaction I'm getting today personally there's a lot of satisfaction in knowing animals will be doing well.
Thank you so much though, I'd love to do more social apps, but things like Twitter are super well covered by Tweetbot and Twitterific though. You're the best.
How was interning at Apple ? (I know they have a certain design philosophy that you use very well in Apollo btw)
Did working at Apple help you structure your time better when working on updates ?
E: fixed work to intern.
It was really awesome, it's so amazing being surrounded by so many super smart people, like the attitude is very infectious. That's almost why I think it's a little bizarre they don't let Apple employees work on apps in their spare time, because you're just super motivated to do cool stuff.
And yeah I'd say so, working on a team helps a lot in general because you're accountable to people right beside you rather than just yourself.
Excellent! WWDC really invigorated me with the whole ceremonial splitting off to iPadOS. Have a bunch of requests for smaller things like better crossposting support as well as all the iOS 13 changes and stuff that's taking up a bit more time than I'd like right now though, but once I have those sorted it should be 100% iPad time.
Hey Christian!
What resources do you use to keep up with iOS development trends? Are you following a lot of newsletters? Swift Talk from the objcio guys? Something else?
Thanks! Going to go get Ultra now :)
Probably not as many as I should haha. I follow Dave Verwer's iOS Dev Weekly, I really like John Sundell's blog, and I watch a bunch of the WWDC videos. Following some really smart iOS devs on Twitter helps a lot too because they often give some awesome insights.
It's definitely not the gold rush era where you could build a fart app over the weekend, release it Monday and be ready for early retirement by Friday. The App Store right now is dominated by large companies like Facebook, Instagram, Google, Snapchat, etc. with billions of dollars so I find it's a lot harder for people to understand paying for stuff anymore haha, because I think they almost subconsciously assume every app is by one of the big companies (which I don't blame them for, it mostly is). So it's harder for indies to thrive when there's such an expectation of free.
But if you're honest and open with your users and provide something they like I definitely think there's still very much a way to carve out a nice niche. :)
I really like going for little walks, find it clears my head and helps me see problems differently. It's like a mini version of "go to sleep and when you wake up the solution will probably be obvious".
Hahahaha, I can interpret this in a few ways I think given that Apollo's beta period felt like 50 years. But I'd also love to imagine the Apollo astronauts even have any idea what my app is, as unlikely as that is :P
Oh man. Anything haha, I find it very easy to get addicted to games so while I'm sure I'd love it I don't spend any time on the online games that can take up a lot of time, but I love campaign style games with a story that I can sit down and pick up randomly.
My two favorite games from the last little while were definitely Horizon Zero Dawn and Hollow Knight. Blew me away. Also really liked Life is Strange.
Why are you such a good dude?
Edit: I love animals and told my wife weāre just gonna donate whatever assets we have to animal shelters before we croak
Given Appleās new cross-platform development framework, do you see Apollo being available in Mac?
I'd love to do it down the road. Apple seemed very clear that you want a good iPad app foundation before embarking on that journey so I want to cross that bridge first though.
Thank you so much. :D I have two, a black one named Ruby and an orange one named Hugo. Hugo's older by about 2 years. They're 2 and 4. :) https://i.imgur.com/FXrZIZU.jpg
Love your app. Do you use any trackers in it? This post has just caught my eye: https://reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/cfpec6/the_developer_of_the_reddit_apollo_app_is_doing/
Just commented there, geez that's an aggressive tone. But in short those are caching domains he mentions so I don't have to hit Imgur's expensive API a billon times, and Firebase's really clear about what they collect, and nothing seems out of place to me, everything's anonymized, they don't track IP addresses, and Apollo doesn't collect anything individually. Furthermore the official Reddit app also uses Crashlytics, it's a pretty standard piece of crash reporting software. I commented for some clarification, if there's something weird going on I'll happily rip it out of Apollo.
Oo, good question. We got Tweetbot, Instagram, YouTube, Sketch Mirror, Wunderlist, PCalc, Deliveries, Amazon, Spotify, Reeder, 1Password and Alto's Odyssey.
Can we get a āblock userā option directly from pressing the three dots next to a users name, or from their profile? Having to memorize the name/spelling while navigating to Settings is annoying sometimes.
If only people in the world were half as decent as you.. I also have a soft spot for animals, tip coming your way!
Question: what do you think youād be doing now if Apollo didnāt happen?
Thank you so much. I'd love to say people would just have to see some cute animals and they'd be helpless not to want to help them, but there's also some gross people out there who abuse them so who knows.
That's a really good question and I kinda feel like an idiot because I've never pondered that for some reason. Hmm. Maybe back at Apple, it was really awesome there.
How did you approach building Apollo? Did you start with design, functionality, or kinda do both along side one another? What language is Apollo primarily written in?
Also, what advice would you have for a hopeful app creator? I just started learning Swift and Xcode last month and have been having a blast so far.
Design definitely. Some design you can only figure out by building it out and figuring out it's a terrible idea haha, but far and away the biggest time sink for me is always figuring out how to design something in a way I like it. Most of that is making the flow nice, not visuals. But I did have a bunch of functionality I knew I wanted to have, so that played into the design too obviously.
It's 99% Swift.
My advice would be to jump in and get your hands dirty, building things is the most fun and effective way to learn in my experience. And build something you yourself would like, it really helps a lot with motivation and wanting to finish it.
Christian ! I love the app! I'm completly stunned that such an amazing app has only a single Dev. There are apps out there that have teams of devs and don't make such a polished product.
As it's the 50th anniversary of the appollo missions, will we be getting a special appollo space program app icon? Maybe something that looks like a nasa mission logo, could be cool.
Keep up the good work, I look forward to the highly anticipated 1.5 features ;)
Timing wise I don't think I'll be able to get one out for today/very soon unfortunately, but I do have plans for one!And And thank you so much for the kind words :)
Any plans on making an android version at any point? I still haven't found a reddit app that I've really been happy with.
Sorry didn't mean to not answer this. I'd love to one day if the time/opportunity presents itself, but currently I just have no time to work on an entire new version of Apollo, the iOS version already takes up 110% of my time as is. :/
Love to the Android folks though, I picked up an Essential phone on Craigslist for $80 somehow and it's seriously awesome.
How did you get into programming, and into iOS development?
As an iOS developer with a small(ish) app... what tips do you have? Anything cool you learned from Apple?
Thanks! I love using Apollo :)
In 12th grade I was bored in some class I can't remember and I thought iOS development seemed really cool so I bought a book on Objective-C and just read it in class over the course of about a month and then started building some things. :)
Learned a ton from Apple, but more than anything seeing the inner working and all the smart worker bees buzzing around was just super super motivating
Is it just you working on the app? How many hours would you say you put into it by the time that app got 100,000 downloads?
It is! My two cats walk across my keyboard sometimes but I hardly would count that as help, if anything's it makes it a little harder.
That's a good question. If I had to estimate I'd say by that point I had probably done 50 hours a week for 2 years so probably about 4 to 5,000 hours or so?
What is it like to work for Apple. Are they caring towards the employes. Do they care about users privacy and security?
Oh man, yeah I'd say not only do they, but they kind of have like an in-grained culture around it. Like if tomorrow for some reason they decided not to be that way as a policy, it would not go over well because it's just kinda part of how they operate. I know a lot of people who work there who would just flat out refuse to do something they morally disagreed with, or quit. Apple's an enormous company so it's hard to do everything right, but I genuinely do think they care.
I was wondering what I was going to do today. Guess I'll be spending some money on Reddit! Christian, what is your favorite thing about Reddit and what is something you hope to change/prevent?
You're the best kinda person. :) Best part about Reddit is definitely the community, it's easy to get stuck on a few bad apples/communities, but as a whole it's an incredible group capable of some incredible things with incredible memes. I would it never loses the kinda indie feel it has, I love that it still kinda feels like a fledging site in the best possible way.
Could you explain what your app is? I live under a rock, but it sounds interesting
No prob! It's basically just an alternative the official Reddit app with some different design choices.
I'd say it's kinda like a car, you might be happy with your car and wonder why ever have a different one, but then one day you might try out your friend's car and say "Whoa, I actually kinda like this more, this is fun! The seating position feels nicer, I really like the feel of the steering wheel, the sound system has a bit more punch, and the driving experience is a bit more spirited".
I really wanted to add a bunch of "nice to have" features that just really make the whole experience more pleasant. :D
Specifically there's some really nice gestures that make navigating a breeze, it's really fast, the design hopefully feels super comfortable and at home on iOS, color-coded comments for easy navigation, a really powerful and awesome media viewer for your memes and GIFs, etc.
Haha, that's a good question. I like to travel a little, went to Iceland recently but wasn't too lavish I guess. Oh I bought one of those electric skateboard thingies recently too, it's a lot of fun but I'm kinda clumsy so it's also terrifying.
Christian! Thank you so much for doing this AMA and making an amazing app! I have two questions for you:
1) What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start their own app, beyond the usual ājust stick to it and learnā? Little things along the way you wish you knew/were an impact to the development process?
2) I help organize a group of coders via www.inspireidaho.com, would you ever consider doing a Q&A session over Skype/FaceTime with us? We are sponsored by the University of Idaho, have some direct support from Apple as well as have over 15 groups across the state would would be very interested to pick your brain about the development process!
Hi Christian, Love Apollo I have pro and ultra . I was wondering if you could give us an update on The test flight beta since you said it was going to be out soon and nothing yet. Also what is the latest status of the big iPad update? Thank you for the app and happy birthday man
Yeah no problem!
Are you currently working on an iOS 13 build and getting some bugs out of the way, or are you going to wait until the full release?
Fixing bugs this far out from the release is kinda tricky because it's like hitting a moving target. Having done it in the past and then the bug you just fixed was actually an Apple bug they fixed in the next beta⦠not too fun
Great app and a great thing youāre doing! How do you feel about SwiftUI and how long would you wait before thinking about using it within Apollo?
I think it's super cool and love it. I think it'll be a year before it's battle-tested enough for my liking, and then maybe I'll start playing around with it then. It's hard because it requires iOS 13 so I'd have to drop support for everything before that in order to use it :/
Firstly, a very Happy Birthday to you š I just bought the pro version, ācos you are a cool dude. Who designed the Apollo.app icon? Itās good. Keep up the good work, and may you always prosper.
Thank you so much. That was me haha, ran out of money to pay a designer so whipped something up myself, very flattered you like it. :P
Hey Christian, happy birthday! Mine was yesterday so it is a good time of the year!
Anyway, I am currently getting a degree in computer science as well. What suggestions do you have for someone in this degree to set themselves apart from everyone else? Obviously you did it because you interned at Apple which is a feat in itself. Iād love to know your recommendations.
Happy belated. :D
Oh that's an easy one, do some side projects. I found at least with my degree it was super easy to graduate with the degree and some theoretical knowledge of programming but nothing concrete to show for it. Build some cool things you can show off to potential interviewers, they love that stuff. :)
Hi Christian!
My other half used to work for Apple, and left to go back into school for coding and computing qualifications. Unfortunately heās been hit by the struggle bus and is starting to romanticise his time back there.
Any words of encouragement or advice?
p.s thank you for Apollo. Itās the only app Iām happy to continually pay money for. I hope my tiny input helps make a difference!
As in your other half is having difficulties with school and missing working at Apple? That's a tough one, I was not great at school either and graduated with not a lot of room to spare. :P I might not be the best one to offer advice, but I guess it depends on why they're there. If they're back at school because they have a passion for learning and want to get as much out of it as they can, I'd say just remember whey they're there, it's temporary, and they'll come out the other side improved and better rounded. If they're there for other reasons, well just grit your teeth and get through with it, it'll be over soon. :P
Thanks for the kind words. :) It definitely does.
Currently browsing on Apollo; itās a fantastic App! Time to help some animals!
Edit: finally got on the Ultra for life train https://i.imgur.com/GPZf8vk.jpg
Hi Christian! Thanks for doing this AMA.
When Apollo first came out, I had asked if there was a way to revamp the messaging system from within the app, do be more like the comments in that you could see what youāre replying to or to be more like a chat room style... any chance of that still happening?
How has Apollo changed your life? Anything, good or bad!
Also, you made a product that was able to replace Alien Blue in my life, and that is quite a feat. I exclusively use Apollo and itās so smooth and polished. Thanks for all your hard work, and keep being amazing.
ALSO, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Went and bought lifetime ultra just now because Iām a sucker for kitties. <3
The beta for that's hopefully going out Monday, I just basically completely finished that the other day, so you're in luck. :D
Apollo's gave me the freedom to work from home and just feel a lot freer in life, meet some really cool people, and learn a ton. I honestly can't list all the amazing things it's done for me, I feel so fortunate. The only negative is that I don't have coworkers so it can be kinda lonely at times, missing hanging out with colleagues.
That's very high praise too, thank you so much. <3
If you put a modicum of effort into it you should be fine :P Your comment is more than fine for instance
Just wanted to say thanks first of all.
My SO does not understand Reddit. I use Android she has an Iphone so many times if I send a link it brings her to safari browser Reddit, then Reddit spams her to download their app.
I truly think the way you have designed this will help her a ton. She really enjoys Pinterest but is jaded after their total overhaul. Are their any settings within the app that she should turn on/off to help her navigate and familiarize herself with how Apollo for Reddit works?
Haha yeah it's a bit to contend with at first for sure. Hopefully I don't think there's anything that makes it too difficult to pick up, unless she has an aptitude for triggering gestures accidentally, I should add an option to disable those. There's also an option in the share sheet once you download Apollo to add an "Open in Apollo" option so that might help her some too with being able to funnel the links into Apollo at least.
I'd love to one day if I had more time, but learning all the Android development stuff and then rebuilding it effectively from scratch for Android would take a massive amount of time I don't have time for right now, haha
Hey! Happy birthday Christian! Huge fan. I'm an Enterprise developer as well working with Netsuite, SAP, and Salesforce out of San Diego and I've spent the last few years of any free time I've had working on a news + reddit aggregator (www.newzible.com) with a focus on a better UI for desktops and filtering out the low quality content. It's no where near the level of polish and usability of Apollo (especially on mobile) but it's what I've been able to figure out thus far with few resources.
Questions:.
What is it like working with Reddit initially getting approved and did they see you as a threat or an opportunity? Do you pay a portion to them for usage of the platform?
How did you grow and scale the app and the expenses? Technical question, Reddit videos are weird to work with as the audio and video are separate how did you overcome this? Are there any helpful APIs you used?
How did you meet other people to help you in your venture? What are you plans with regards to the future for this?
Yes I know all these questions are all over the board :)
Wow, it looks super slick. Very fast too, nicely done!
Reddit's honestly been great, they don't seem threatened (nor should they, their app dwarfs mine in downloads haha), and they've even been very receptive to questions. The initial approval process wasn't anything more than filling out a form and waiting to hear back to be honest, which even that didn't take too long. Though that was years back now so I'm not sure about current processes. No payment split currently as they haven't requested anything like that, but if they deem that necessary or would like to discuss it I'm more than open to it!
Scaling wasn't too bad, basically all iOS development stuff is done on the user's device so scaling was kind of⦠automatic? Distribution is through the App Store obviously too which I don't have to worry about. I have some server side stuff but it's paid so that I don't have to lose sleep about it.
Reddit videos are weird. iOS handles HLS natively so it's not too much to get playing, but beyond that is a little tricky. I haven't done enough with it to be able to offer much advice unfortunately haha.
Haven't met a ton of other people in a professional sense, but made some cool friends along the way. Not sure how that might change haha.
Hey Christian! Big fan of Apollo, I recommend it every chance I get. Planning on upgrading to Ultra as soon as I get some extra funds.
What are your 5 favorite albums of all time?
Oh man, I'm not musical enough to answer that well, haha. Like I love music but I'm more of a one-off song listener rather than an album guy. But some of the few albums I listen do repeatedly in their entirety are probably from Muse, Metric, and Eminem.
What an amazing backstory. I was set to ask what inspired you to built this app, but I guess I got my question answered lol. Anyways, My other question is, if you were to add a new feature to iOS, what would it be?. Rephrasing, What would be the perfect iOS feature, both for developers and for users?
Haha yeah, nothing too original, just scratching my own itch kinda thing. :P
Oh man that's an easy one, ability to set third party apps as the default action. So many people ask how they can make Reddit links open automatically in Apollo. I have a utility in the share sheet that helps, but the fact that there's no way to do it automatically is a bummer.
I honestly have no clue. I have cats right now because I'm kinda young and live in an apartment and my life's a little all over the place so I'm not sure I could provide the environment a dog requires, they're a lot of work! Cats are a little less maintenance, they probably have their lives together better than I do.
But my building is dog friendly so whenever I see one of my neighbors' dogs I freak out because I love them. Hope to get one some day. :D
I'd rather not get into a specific figure because people like know my account IRL and I'm kind of a private person but it's definitely comfortable, I'm not worried about needing a second job or feeling stupid for turning down an offer from another company. People are awesome and generous in supporting my work so I'm very fortunate, and I love doing the job so I can't really complain whatsoever. :)
How much of our personal data will be harvested with this app? Will it know my butthole pictures and share them with a focus group?
I'm a reasonable guy, it's limited to 4 of those a day, just don't go overboard.
In all honestly, none? Apollo tracks (through Firebase) some anonymized info that helps me make better/more informed development decision (crash statistics, what percentage of users use light mode vs dark mode, etc.), but nothing weird. There's more info in the privacy policy which I tried to make pretty easy to read: https://apolloapp.io/privacy
Happy Birthday! This is a good thing you're doing. And obligatory question: What inspired the name Apollo?
It basically went
I need an app name > Reddit is space themed > my app helps you browse something that is space themed > spaceships help you browse/explore space > spaceship name needed > Apollo is an awesome spaceship name
Haha, Hugo the orange one loves those "Da Bird" things, like the feather on a string on a pole. Ruby the black one doesn't care too much about those, her favorite toy far and away is a cheap wooden dowel from Canadian Tire that I run along the floor/couch and she tries to murder
Yeah unfortunately at the moment, I'm just one guy and porting it to different platforms is a ton of work that I don't have time for currently :(
Is your app your fulltime job or was it a side project? Do you make enough off it to sustain yourself?
Full time, the interest in it was pretty high right from the get-go so I hunkered down and spent a few years on it haha. And yeah absolutely, people are very kind and generous thankfully so I'm fortunate that I can work on it full time. :)
Hey Christian! Long time fan and Apollo user here. First of all, thank you so much for everything and I wish you a happy birthday.
Will Apollo be around for our kids and grandkids to enjoy? :)
Thank you! :D And I'd love that, working on Apollo is a dream, I legitimately love my job and hope I never have to stop. After 4 years I legitimately don't feel any less invigorated.
Hi Christian!
Finally bought Apollo Pro after using free for a few months now. Iām happy to support you and donate to a good cause. Thanks for making this amazing Reddit client that I use entirely too much! My screen time app in settings is very disappointed in me (Exhibit Aš³). Anyway, my question is do you have any plan or ambition for a completely original app or project outside of Apollo/Reddit?
Thanks again and happy birthday!! Youāre awesome!! š„³
Hahaha that's amazing. And maybe some day but not currently, Apollo's so fulfilling to build at the moment that I'm in no rush to explore other things haha. Thank you! :)
Just wanted to say thank you! I migrated from Alien blue and I couldnāt be happier with the App. The premium features are worth the upgrade.
How do you feel about single handedly foiling a large amount of Rick Rolls?
I use the normal Reddit App but Iām a massive fan of Apple and knee deep in their ecosystem. Downloading now purely based on how active you were on this AMA and just your genuinely awesome attitude. Do you think Iāll love it? :)
(I never participate in these, but your answers are freaking awesome and Iām a cat dad myself! Thanks for being a good person. Itās refreshing:)
Edit: Well, Iām disabled and literally penniless, but if I could Iād do the lifetime purchase. Love the layout and gestures. Unfortunately I need my notifications enabled :( BUT, if I ever am able, Iāll spend that money in a heartbeat! Hope my love is at least second place :)
Hahaha, a little bad to be honest. :P
I really hope you'll love it, and in the event you don't I'd love to hear your feedback. Thanks for being an awesome cat dad too. :)
And I completely understand, it means a lot you just downloaded it and commented, no pressure for more whatsoever. Thanks for being awesome. :)
I just graduated with a computer science degree and I've never really made anything cool on my own. How do you push yourself to make a great product like Apollo on your own?
Haha, be selfish. :P No seriously, find something you want yourself, and build it, it makes it so much easier to stick through with it if you yourself really want it. :P
Hello Christian selig, i'm Arthur from Brazil, i have 17 years old, you can help about carreer? I like so much technology and i want to do computer science on college, i want to be like you, work on a big company like apple or have my own company, i want just tips of you, and I would like us to be friends to talk about technology, congratulations for you app!!
Hey man! Hope all is well. It's honestly nothing too hard, you definitely seem to have the passion for it and I'd say that's the biggest part of it. Just find something you think would be cool to build, and build it. It doesn't have to be something super complex, but companies just love candidates who have built things they can show off, I think you'll do really well that way. If you don't know how to get started building things, that's not very hard either, there's tons of beginner tutorials out there on the basics, really anything will do. Start building something small like a "hello world" app, maybe then a to do list app, and just keep building your way up. :)
Different, not sure about better. Depends on what you value, I'm a fan of the apps on iOS more than the apps on Android, but Android gives you a lot more freedom to change things and tinker, which you may value more.
Well I mean that's an employee, yeah. I went through employee training, had an employee badge, had employee benefits. :P As for why I say it honestly people tend to find it interesting.
Thanks for the kind words, that means a lot coming from an Alien Blue person, miss that app.
Less of a question...
Absolutely love the app. Especially seeing the purple for the username of the OP of this. Well done! Happy birthday as well!
To give a question... What do you think will be the next big step for Apollo? (yes I did make a pun)
Plus an Apollo app AMA on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing? Did you plan something???
Hahahaha. The next big one will definitely be the iPad app. :) I honestly didn't plan that, beautiful coincidence.
At the top of the Posts tab is a drop down menu arrow thingy, you can tap on that and type in a subreddit. If he's looking to like explore and find new subreddits he's never seen before unfortunately Apollo's a little lacking there, I'd go to like r/all or r/popular (hit the arrow in the top left to go to the list) and check out what subs posts are being submitted from
hey happy birthday dude !!
might aswell throw a question at you, where do you see reddit in 10 years?
That's a really interesting question. Like websites aren't normally a thing that last 10+ years but it seems like that's changed. Honestly I hope not a ton has changed (at least on a fundamental level), I like where they're at now.
I hope that they open up the Chat API in less than 10 years.
How would you recommend getting into iOS app development without a Mac? Ive worked with a lot of languages, but right now I code a lot of python and Iām currently doing research in software defined radios (so c++ as well) but Iāve always wanted to try building iOS apps. Iāve used android studio for android development before, which I really didnāt like, but I was wondering what you would recommend on how to get into iOS app development for someone who is running Linux on a windows pc (canāt afford a MacBook atm).
I don't know if it's possible, is it? There might be some online services that could do remote work for you, but honestly I'd go find a cheap used Mac mini on Craigslist or whatever, can probably find one for like $100 and should work fine, you could plug it into any monitor/mouse/keyboard etc.
What is your favourite book in the universe? What was the last book you read and when did you finish it? Are you reading something now? If so, what is it?
Favorite book, that's a good question. I can't choose just one off the top of my head and it'd probably change if you asked me tomorrow, but Ender's Game (even if the author's a twit) and Hitchhiker's Guide were both amazing.
What specific functionalities make this an IOS exclusive app? Are there future plans to crossover to Android (please say no lol) ?
iOS and Android just have fundamentally different designs. Apple's written a small bible on their design philosophies, and Android/Google have a similar thing for their "Material Design". I think an app built for each platform should cater to the platform probably and adhere to the design that users expect, and that was really my goal for Apollo.
Don't have the time currently to commit to Android unfortunately
I sadly I cannot download the app BUT I can certainly leave a comment! Thank you for being so kind to animals! What is your favorite memory involving an animal?
You're amazing. Probably when I was like 6, my grandmother had this dog named Missie and it was trying to get at something under a small log, so I picked up the log and she was able to get whatever she was looking for, and she looked so thankful and was so nice to me after that, I think that's when I really first realized how amazing animals are.
Hey Christian! Wishing you a happy birthday! šššš
My Question: How did you come with or what influenced you to make Apollo so community driven as it is?
Apollo has been amazing and the fact that you reply to people and answers their questions and give all of us those detailed release notes and discuss topics with us to come up with a conclusion is amazing. I have never seen any other developer do that as well as you do.
Apollo has been inspiring me to keep on coding and making my own app. Apollo is a dream to use. Keep up the great work you have been doing, we see all your efforts and are greatly thankful. I have both Ultra and Pro. Amazing job!
Haha, it's one of those things where I think I'd be stupid if I didn't, so honestly it seems kinda obvious to me. Like you're building an app based on a community platform, use the dang platform to your advantage. It was very easy to see early on how much it was shaping Apollo for the better, and it just makes development a lot more fun.
Thank you so much for the kind words, it really means a lot to hear them, genuinely.
That's a really good question, Alien Blue's like basically dead isn't it? I'd have to go out and look, I haven't really kept tabs on the other apps currently, but I always hear great things about Narwhal. Slide too.
I hear a lot of students out in Eastern Canada (Waterloo specifically) talk about the āCali or Bustā mentality of getting an internship in Silicon Valley/with big tech companies. What was your experience like at Apple and do you think it prepped you for the future?
Like if they don't get into a SV job they're screwed? That's probably a little strong but it definitely helps, one of those things on a resume that definitely opens a lot of doors. Waterloo is like the Canadian capital of engineering students haha, it's always funny too when people call that east and my "east" is a 24 hour drive east of there. :P
My experience at Apple was really awesome yeah, I think it prepared me about as much as 4 months could have yeah. Great people, made some great friends. :)
Hey, Iām currently doing software in school, and want to go on to do computer science, I have been doing a lot of courses, on coding and computer science in general, sometimes I get overwhelmed with how much there is to learn, and find it hard to figure out what I should learn and in what order, as there is so much to do, how did/do you deal with this? Btw send more cat pics plz, they will go well in my cat pic collection
Hahaha, just take solace in the fact there IS an absolute ton of things to learn, but you absolutely don't have to learn 99% of it. :P I've programmed for a few years and I'm sure those courses would overwhelm you, carve out a niche of programming you enjoy and focus on that. :) I'll try to get to more cat pics too!
Whatās different between the official Reddit app and Apollo?
P.S. Thank you for doing an AMA, and donating all of the process to the SPCA was an extremely great and kind thing to do.
I'd say it's kinda like a car, you might be happy with your car and wonder why ever have a different one, but then one day you might try out your friend's car and say "Whoa, I actually kinda like this more, this is fun! The seating position feels nicer, I really like the feel of the steering wheel, the sound system has a bit more punch, and the driving experience is a bit more spirited".
I really wanted to add a bunch of "nice to have" features that just really make the whole experience more pleasant. :D
Thank you so much. :)
I love cats. We always took some in when I was a kid and I keep that good karma going. I have no proper questions to ask but I like this initiative. So let's do one belated question: did you ever have the fortune of having a cat that could live its life mostly outdoors? It's a privilege to have that option, no doubt. Ours have, except one who refused to step outside despite a cat flap for anything other than necessities.
Thank you.
Thanks for being amazing with cats. :) I never had cats growing up (parents allergic) but I got my two when I was able to, I live in a city so it'd be really dangerous to let them out and about unfortunately, so I just try to make em really happy indoors. :)
Hey Chris, ive been an astronaut on Apollo for a while now and it seems these updates just keep on coming, never disappointing us & youāre extremely engaging with us & on behalf of the other astronauts i thank you for that. But my question is when you arenāt busy improving Apollo & making us happy with bug fixes and what not what do you do? Not everyone has a job they love and seeing that you do, what else comes close to a huge role in your life?!
Oh hmm. My life isn't super interesting haha, I like to kick back and relax a lot, lately I've enjoyed longboarding and some travel, oh and woodworking, but sitting back with some Netflix is always very enjoyable. :)
First of all: happy birthday, and thanks a lot for the amazing app. Itās actually made me use reddit more than I did before because it simply works so well and smooth!
Question: What would you recommend for a PHP and JavaScript developer looking to get into Swift and making apps?
Get into Swift and make apps. :P
Honestly, you're a programmer already so you could probably grasp the basics in the afternoon of a weekend. Grab some beginner tutorials, download Xcode and read a tutorial on like, how to build a to do list app. I honestly bet you'd find it a lot easier than you expect! Then just keep building progressively more ambitious things. You got this. :D
Christian!!! You're the best. You've responded to everything I've asked (or harassed, sorry) you about on Twitter and I just want you to know how great it is to have your favorite app have such a down-to-earth developer. I always know a problem is going to get fixed and communicated, and that is something sorely lacking in the modern app ecosystem-- so thank you for that!
My question: what has been your #1 resource for learning iOS app development/Swift? As someone interested in breaking into the field (largely in thanks to Apollo!), there's a lot out there-- so was there a website/program that was like a bible to your career development?
Much love! <3
Hahaha, thanks, happy to respond, people have great ideas. :D
Honestly my best resource has just been trying things out, like if I want to learn a new API, I try to get the gist of the docs or briefly read a tutorial, then just try to use it and if I get snagged on something that's when I start looking up help, I find I learn a lot faster by doing than reading. Mostly following general tutorials like "how to build a to do list app" then gradually increasing in difficulty was definitely the best way I found to learn.
I'm a big fan of the app - I ended up switching from Apple to Android last year for other reasons, otherwise I'd be sending this from Apollo now.
I know you've said your vision for Apollo was influenced heavily by your work at Apple and wanting to make it feel like a native iOS app, which I think you did a great job of. If you were to hypothetically make a Reddit app that wasn't specific to iOS, what do you think you would do differently?
I think it's all about adopting the conventions/accepted norms of the platform, so if it was Android I'd immerse myself in Material Design for a few months for instance and see how they do things differently
Hey, how do you spend your day mostly ? i am 25, graduated from computer engineering with no job as of this moment. it's also been a while since i don't code. what would you recommend me to work on so i could get a good job and good future ? also how do we stop procastinating and focus on working ? i appreciate any kind of critic you would say
Mostly spend it at my desk or couch with my laptop haha, nothing too glamorous. I'd honestly just recommend something fun that you'd personally enjoy building/using, I think it makes a big difference in showing it off to people and plain ol wanting to finish it if it's something you're excited about. :)
Holy crap. You are a hero I didnāt know I had.
I have two things on my iPhone home screen, the calendar to know what day it is, and your app!
https://i.imgur.com/cCU59ng.jpg
I am downloading ultra now.. The only reason I didnāt have it because the free version is really good. I donāt know what ultra will bring, but Iām happy to support your fantastic work.
100 duck sized horses or 1 horse sized duck?
Wow, that's a legitimate honor. Nice taste with Focus at the bottom there too. :)
Thank you so much.
I'd take the 100 duck sized horses. Hopefully I don't have to fight them or anything because that sounds really cute to play with.
Well spam won't count anyway because I'm sure the mods would hate me and it's not really in the spirit of it, but you've generated $0.20 since I replied
I have! I have an Essential Phone and a Nexus 5, really love them both dearly, especially the Essential phone. I prefer the app ecosystem on iOS more and some of the design just feels more pleasant to me (rubber-banding when scrolling, the home-swipe gestures on Android feel a little weird), but honestly if iOS disappeared and I had to use Android I'd be fine, it's nice.
I think the whole "war" thing (not saying you specifically obviously) is silly and people should calm down and respect preferences. :P Some people get wayyyy too bent out of shape.
I'm a rising senior ECE (Electrical & Computer Engineering), and I'm more of a hardware person, but do you think that if I were to get into one industry (e.g. software development) it would be hard to switch? Maybe not the right place to ask, but since you clearly have experience with software development I'd love to hear your opinion :)
And yay for the cats!
Naw, I think you could make the jump from being a full time sea turtle to being a programmer fairly easy, it's all just about putting the hours in. If you're willing to do that you're golden. :)
Why did you call the app Apollo?
Also, here to say that when I had an issue with the Apollo app, you replied to me personally and I was really impressed. Thank you for caring about the user. Apollo app rocks!
Mucho love!
It basically went
I need an app name > Reddit is space themed > my app helps you browse something that is space themed > spaceships help you browse/explore space > spaceship name needed > Apollo is an awesome spaceship name
Thanks so much, I really do try to listen to people, I think it's made the app a lot stronger. <3
I really want to learn how to code but I donāt know whatās the best place to get started/ where or what website/ program to use. What do you recommend for an aspiring programmer?
Honestly, playing around and building is the best way possible. Find an area of programming you're interested in, websites, apps, robotics, etc., read some tutorials that focus on the basics for beginners, and build some basic things with the help of some tutorials. Honestly programming's a lot easier than a lot of people make it out to be. :)
Do you have an example in particular? I'd say Apple is expensive, but in my experience they're not overpriced in the areas they compete in. For example Samsung's high end phones are just as expensive, iMacs are expensive but have a beautiful 5K screen attached, etc.
I almost never comment on reddit. But if my comment is gonna help a cat, you better bet your ass I'm commenting.
Your kitties are adorable! Thank you for adopting, bringing attention to kitten season, and donating to help more cats! Spaying/neutering pets (and TNR'ing our feral friends) is one of the best ways people can help prevent shelters and rescues from being flooded with homeless kittens.
Absolutely! Preventing an unnecessary influx of kittens is much preferred to having to deal with them when the time comes!
Never heard of it; What would you say the main benefits are over the official app? The disadvantages?
Great thing youāre doing here!
Advantages I would say would be a faster, smoother browsing experience with an improved media viewer and some really nice swipe gestures. Disadvantages would be that I'm a one man team so I can't always add in new features that Reddit adds as quick as Reddit themselves can
We recently lost our beautiful girl Thumper, and our last remaining kitty (we had 5 at one point) is feeling pretty lonely and sulky.
Iāll have to visit the Dartmouth SPCA soon and pick up a cat or two...
Really sorry to hear that, we lost our family dog a few years back and it was genuinely terrible. I'm sure the SPCA has no shortage though if you want to commemorate their memory.
dont you think that its a bit too āblockyā to fully represent apple? i mean, jobs was crazy about the rounded corners and shit, and i feel like the app is a bit āsharp edgeā. it looks and feels great tho otherwise
If you got some screenshots of what you're talking about I'd love to see. :P It almost uses entirely stock Apple components so there shouldn't be much room to stray haha
Your an amazing person! Iāve never known someone so devoted to their job and so devoted to helping those in need. I will purchase a tip today in hopes that Iāll be able to help an animal in need.
Thank you so much, it's really nothing crazy for me to do though, pets are awesome and I think if most people were put in a position where they could do some good for them they would :D
Hi, thanks for the AMA! What is your opinion on Flutter and React Native for mobile development? Have you tried them? Are you willing to?
They look super cool. They still feel a little weird to me, like I can normally pick out when an app is built in RN versus true natively, but it's such a cool platform and the stuff like Hot Reload makes me so jealous as an iOS developer, haha
Thank you so much for doing this! Kitten season is so tough and every little bit makes such a difference for these tiny felines! Do you think you want to adopt more cats in the near future? Also I really really want to know their names cause your furbabies are beautiful!
I'd love to but 3 would be a little crazy for my apartment haha. Thank you so much too, Hugo and Ruby. :D
You're a true inspiration. One of the real ones out there actually making shit happen. Keep doing you. Don't ever get bought out. You are truly a good person and I appreciate everything you do.
My only question is Hows it going? Like literally just right now in general. Hope all is well :)
Why not give the Android users an iPhone-y app? When I decided to get on Reddit my coworker suggested Apollo, but alas I'm stuck with another 3rd party app.
I'd love to if it was that simple, but the reality is it would probably be another few thousand hours to port it over to a brand new platform, and that's not something I have the time to do at the moment. :(
Hi Christian, thanks for building the app! It's great š Hope you have a great birthday.
How did you decide to apply to Apple? Were you already an Apple diehard, or were you considering other paths/companies?
Was a big fan of Apple yeah and already pretty into iOS programming so applied out of the blue and got really lucky haha
Not long haha, a few years and very much dabbling, I'm in an apartment so my tools are pretty primitive, but I like building small things like dining tables that are nice to have around the house and not too difficult to make. :)
Dunno if you're still answering these, but if so I'm really really really really curious to know what you worked on at Apple?
It was mostly internal stuff so nothing you'd know of, think internal tools to help stuff run smoother within Apple. Not sure if it ever got used though to be honest, haha.
What advice would you give to a computer scientists (last year of uni) who wants to achieve big like you?
I really find building things like side projects is the key to getting places, showing things off that you've created and can physically be like "I made this!" really gets people excited.
It basically went
I need an app name > Reddit is space themed > my app helps you browse something that is space themed > spaceships help you browse/explore space > spaceship name needed > Apollo is an awesome spaceship name
Thank you thank you!! I love Apollo and use it every day. Upgraded to Pro as soon as it came out and now Iām going to upgrade to Ultra!
Question: what is your favorite TV show?
Thank you so much! That's such a hard question, there's so many good TV shows, probably Daredevil right now.
My absolute favorite app, hereās my 7 day proof https://i.imgur.com/lefxKqR.jpg
Anyway, you should figure out a way to help me gift my wife an in app purchase!
Thank you so much! Apple recently allowed apps to add that functionality, so I'm trying to figure out a way to do it. :D
Been using Apollo for a while now. Just got Apollo Ultra lifetime. We got our cat at the local SPCA.
Did you post this elsewhere? That's a gorgeous cat that I can't imagine I'd forget, thanks for being an awesome cat adopter. :D
Just wanted to say I love Apollo! Iāve tried every Reddit app out there, but yours is the only one that works the way a Reddit app should.
Whatās your favorite song to sing in the car?
All the money I guess? Apollo doesn't really have expenses, I guess there's server expenses that Ultra helps to cover but ehh don't worry about those today it's all good.
So youāre saying that if I post some pussy pics youāre gonna donate money to the SPCA? https://imgur.com/a/yHE1VX6/
Risky click but very worth it. Are they both yours? They're super cute and also look a little devilish in the best possible way :P
Did you share your beans recipe with me before? I recall calling it Nova Scotia Beans. Have anything others to share?
Hahaha, I did! I wish, the beans recipe is really my go to and the only original one I have. :P I just Google everything elseā¦
Pineapple belongs on pizza.
It's the shelter I got my cats from and they're very local so I know they're an awesome bunch.
hey happy birthday dude !!
Edit: might aswell throw a question at you, where do you see reddit in 10 years?
Hmm, hopefully holding the same values and not changing a great deal, I love how indie they still feel, they're doing great stuff.
I bought the Pro version of Apollo when I used an Iphone, great app. Any thought about an Android version?
I'd love to if I had the time, but as it stands I already wish there was more time in the day for the iOS version :(
Thank you for being such a good humanitarian for our unwanted pets! Have you donated to SPCA in the past or other causes?
Oh yeah! We did $5000 last year as a community and I try to donate regularly otherwise. :)
What if im on pro already, how do i still donate? Thanks for being awesome! I have 15 cats and i love them all!
There's a Tip Jar at the bottom of the Settings tab. And thank you for being so amazing!!!
That's a really good question, haha, I'm oddly excited for the PS4/Xbox One controller support and building that into Apollo for some reason :P
Have you considered adding in MOD Mail support? As a Moderator that mods from mobile a lot it would be a welcome addition.
American short hair I guess would be the term, right? They're adopted from the shelter so I highly doubt they're a fancy pure breed or anything haha
It's pretty much the only color that isn't already used by Reddit themselves for like OP/moderator/admin/friend, etc. :P
Can you release a link to the shelter for some people to donate even more directly?
Absolutely, here's the direct link, the donate button is in the top right: http://www.novascotiaspca.ca/
No, haha, I'm trying to answer as many questions as I can which means my full fledged desktop with keyboard and mouse set up is a bit faster. :P
Just wanting to scratch an itch, none of the Reddit apps did it for me 100% so I wanted to try and see what I could come up with.
Build side projects, interviewers love when you have things to show off that you've built yourself.
Oh dang. Hmm. Right now the prettiest for me is that XDR Display but I doubt I'll ever own it haha. Probably the new iPad Pros then.
Waiting for iPad version to purchase Ultra. Can you run a special reduced price for Ultra like you did when you first launched the option?
No plans currently unfortunately. :( The lifetime pricing is hard because it's⦠well lifetime. If anything I could see it going up eventually so consider it on sale now. :P
Really nice, had a nice breakfast with the gf before starting the thread and now sipping on an iced coffee and talking to cool people. :D
Just the fact that your cause goes to the kitties is enough for me to get behind it. Sign me up
Hahaha, when I get a bigger apartment maybe, not even sure if my current landlord would allow that. :P
I haven't got a question, you have many to go through I'm sure. Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday!
Just the fact that your cause goes to the kitties is enough for me to get behind it. Sign me up
I hate cats. Cats are cunts that destroy the native environment. Why would you help sustain something that is so evil?
How do they destroy the native environment exactly? Like getting out and eating birds and whatnot? That's totally fair criticism, my cats are indoor cats per the recommendation of our vet, they typically live a lot longer that way and local wildlife doesn't suffer.
As a conservation grad I'm all about helping animals and the environment. Why the SPCA though? They only have a C+ rating as a non profit and only around 10 cents on the dollar actually goes to the animals.
https://paddockpost.com/2016/02/17/where-does-1-to-the-aspca-go/
From this budget break down. They look very top heavy. The higher ups are makeing a ton while the animals see very little. In my experience grass roots efforts usaly have more bang for their buck. Is there something I'm missing?
That's the ASPCA, no? I'm Canadian, ours is a different organization, our local one to my knowledge is independently run and does great things. They're also close to my heart since I've adopted my pets from there.
Why are you so awesome? Apollo is awesome, Iāve picked up all the extras. You are not earning nearly enough from this app, Iām sure.
Oh don't worry about me, people are more than generous, I have a great life! I guess I just love what I do and hope that comes across, I'm very fortunate to be able to do this and being dumb about it would be⦠dumb
Apple Music or Spotify and why? Can be from a music selection perspective, design, whatever!
From one Canadian to another, thank you for all your hard work on Apollo!
Spotify for me personally, 99% of my music listening is done on my Mac and I'm not a big fan of iTunes, but since they're trimming it down with Catalina that might change. :D
No prob :D
Ha, I don't quite think that's the reality I live in, Apollo's a free app that you can contribute to if you want so my helipad isn't quite finished yet, and I live pretty low-key so I don't think anyone's jealous of anything, I made a time-wasting app I mean come on
Why does your app route data through Google Firebase & Crashlytics, even when crash reporting & analytics are disabled?
It shouldn't, could you be more specific on what data it's putting into Firebase? Happy to check it out.
Out of the total number of developers what percentage of the devs identify as African-American?
Are you asking what percentage of iOS developers are African American? I'm not sure how you would measure that.
Has it really already been a year since I bought Apollo? Again, thanks for the amazing app!!
What new features are in the works that have not been talked about on here or /r/apolloapp?
Oo good question, um, I don't think I've talked about iOS 13 changes in great depth, but I'll keep more details on that a secret for now. :P
This might be late to get answered, but with all the app icons available is it possible for the app to change its icon at certain intervals (e.g. every day it picks a random one until it cycles through them all then repeat)? I enjoy the majority of them & think it would be a fun little feature.
Thank you for being such an awesome/caring person & I hope we hit $10k today!
Edit: Missed a nice feature of the white cat - heart-shaped spot!
I don't think that's possible for two reasons. The first, you can only make the icon change when the app is active, so you'd have to open it to trigger that, and also because Apple says apps can't change icons automatically, users have to explicitly tap the icon change.
Also I LOVE that heart, that's so cute. Your cats are so photogenic.
I checked the app out. I honestly never thought that reddit app needed much work and itās kinda crazy you can make money off of a complex reskin of reddit with a few tweaks to make things a little faster. Apollo does seem faster with video which is a big issue with me on iOS. Iām surprised reddit canāt legally shut you down due to this app taking away from reddits app downloads. Are you afraid of reddit issuing a Cease and Desist or is this under fair use or some kind of loophole??
Oh it's fully licensed by Reddit, Reddit has a full API and is great with encouraging and allowing third party apps. People have different preferences for browsing experiences and I don't think it hurts in any way to give people options. Same with Twitter for instance, there's multiple fully allowed third party apps.
Huh, that's honestly not been my experience, but I'm admittedly not as deep in the trenches as you. I guess people see cats as independent and interpret it the wrong way, but in our community whenever a cat gets abused or anything the community always comes together and does amazing things.
Firstly, your Apollo app is one of my favorite Reddit clients! Very sleek and fast and I immediately switched from the original one.
My question is: What are your plans from now on? Besides maintaining Apollo do you have any major projects in mind?
Have a nice day and thank you for your generosity! :-)
Thank you so much. Plan honestly right now is just to continue with Apollo as long as people will let me haha.
Don't really have any insightful comment, but happy birthday! Apollo Pro is one of the few things I've ever spent money on in the app store! I'll consider upgrading to Ultra sometime, though probably not today.
Do you remember the first thing you ever purchased from the app store?
Since I was a teenager I have always been interested in programming, but never had the guts to try to become educated in it. Where would you suggest is a good starting point for someone in Nova Scotia? Also what was the first thing that made you really want to become a developer?
Programming is not hard, people like to make it seem like it is for some reason. It just takes practice, like anything. Honestly there's so many great tutorials and online resources out there that in Nova Scotia we're just as well off as someone living down the street from MIT. Well basically. Find an area you're interested in learning (app development, robotics, etc.), find some basic tutorials and get building. :)
I wanted to become a developer because the idea of being able to build something and actually have people use it and enjoy it sounded crazy cool haha.
OMG, I liked the Reddit app but itās text sizes were never big enough for me. I had to take breaks between reading posts because the largest supported font is too tiny. (Iām visually impaired) .Apollo works with my system set text size?! Hell yes!!!! Thank you!!!!
I didnāt know you worked at Apple. Iām 17, and interested in software engineering, any tips on how to be successful? What paths did you take to get to where you are now?
Also, I just started Apollo Ultra two days ago, wish I had waited till today.
I think passion goes a really long way, build things you enjoy doing and stick to stuff. :) That's basically all I did, haha, nothing too special.