Auto Respond

I pushed some new releases of Auto Respond over the past week or so.

One of them was a fix for the incompatibility between Auto Respond and Google Hangouts when SMS is enabled in Hangouts. The SMS message was never getting to Auto Respond when Hangouts was enabled. Once I figured out how to get the message to Auto Respond properly, the messages were displaying in the wrong order (reply was displayed before the original received message) so I had to figure that out as well.

The other update was to change the look of the “Preset Messages” screen. I noticed that the way that that list of messages works is completely different than the way that the list of schedules works. The messages have a press to set, and a long-press to get to the options. The schedules had buttons for all of it. So I changed the messages screen to resemble the schedules screen.

I also updated the screenshots in the store listing. A lot of the previous shots were from my phone, which is rooted and ROMed, so there were things in the screenshot that are not possible to have on a stock ROM of any sort. I used an emulator in the SDK to take new screenshots that were from a stock system.

Business

Also, as you may have noticed, I changed the look of the blog a lot. During November I had the purple theme for epilepsy, prior to that I had a generic theme that I had modified slightly. I have changed the layout to reflect my latest logo, which is displayed at the top.

I am still doing a lot of work in the background, so unfortunately I haven’t had a lot of time to work on existing products. I am working with a friend of mine to get some really cool stuff done, and I can’t wait to be able to share some specifics with all of you; Unfortunately, it will probably be at least a few more months before I can really get into details. I am hoping to have a launch date around summer time, but that will depend on how much free time my friend and I have to work on all of this as well as how quickly some of the other necessary paperwork can be processed.

What would help immensely is some financial help. There is a link on the bottom right of the page to make a donation via paypal. If you have Auto Respond Free it would help if you would purchase the Pro version. Not only will it help my financial burden, but you will get some really nice extra features as well. All of this money (donations and purchases) will go to supporting development and paying for some other costs that I am incurring right now for the project that I am working on. Also, word of mouth is the best advertising for anything. Please tell your friends about my apps, as I’m sure that a lot of people will like them, and leave some positive feedback in the Play Store listing. More positive feedback = more visibility and more downloads.

Happy Holidays!

I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season, and I will continue to post updates as often as I can.

TL;DR: a few Auto Respond updates, lots of behind the scenes work, need some funds for future projects.

I know it’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, so here’s some updates.

Auto Respond

I released an update a few weeks back to Auto Respond Pro which allows you to respond to numbers which are not in your contact list. I still haven’t built this into AR Free, but it will be there.

I’m working on theming AR purple for epilepsy awareness month in November. For those of you who were around last year, you will probably remember that I changed the icon to purple last year, and donated all November proceeds to the Epilepsy Foundation. I am planning on doing the same this year, but I also want to theme the ENTIRE app in purple. It’s a lot of work so I don’t know if it’ll be done in time, but I’m doing my best. I’m also working on changing the icon programmatically, so that I don’t have to put out an update to change the launcher icon. If you have any experience with theming apps, feel free to reach out to me. I can use all the help I can get.

Today Auto Respond Pro got its 100th download! I know that doesn’t sound like a lot compared to other apps, but it’s something that I’m proud of anyway. The free version has over 2,000 downloads, so there’s a little perspective of free vs. paid.

Super Secret Project

Some of you may recall that I’m working on a secret project, and have been for a while. A lot is happening with that too. I can’t provide any specifics yet, but here’s some generic updates.

It officially has a name now, which is not in use by any other tech companies or software companies that I came across. I’ve got some friends working on design work (an icon, logo, etc.) based on the current name. I did some database work, which is going to make the app REALLY flexible and easily updated without having to update the whole app. I’ve got the basic UI designed and we have a list of features that we want to include in the initial release, as well as a list of LOTS of ideas for future additions.

I’ve got someone working on a website for me, which will likely be a huge focus of this project. The website will be where people go for a lot of setup and some more functionality, but the app will be an essential part of making it all come together successfully. I’m supposed to have a meeting before the end of the week to discuss what exactly needs to be done with the website, and hopefully see some initial progress and design work.

This project has been my main focus over the past few months. I’m learning a lot in this process, and I’ve got a LOT of things planned for it. I can’t wait to get the name legally set in stone, and get a base product setup so that it doesn’t have to be kept so secretive. (I’m holding back all details because I don’t want someone stealing my idea or my name.)

I’ve got a plan for monetizing the project, so that part is taken care of as well. I think the idea is unique enough, functional enough, and desirable enough that I can bring in some good clients once the idea is presented. The app and website will be 100% free for users, and money will be made from other clients. I’m sure that not knowing the premise behind the app this all sounds very vague, but there is a plan and it includes no cost to the end user.

General Updates

I have decided to officially re-brand as “Fifteen 15 Studios” instead of “1515 Studios”. My design guys are working on some new designs for that as well. (If you would like to try your hand at designing a logo for me, it would be much appreciated. I want to get a bunch of designs to choose from.) I’m going to do some DBA paperwork to officially turn Fifteen 15 Studios into a company. I’ve got some legal documents written up (a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement) for anyone who joins in on the current project, but I need an official company name to associate with those documents.

The new name will be official once I decide on a logo design that I like, and obviously will be legally official once the DBA paperwork is completed. I have most of the logistics of the switch worked out already, and just need to put some of the technical aspects into place.

All-in-all, despite my lack of blog updates, there is a lot going on behind the scenes with me, my apps, and my soon to be company. I’m excited for things to come, and I hope that all of you are as well.