Why Revere isn't coming to Android
Will Revere ever come to Android? The answer is no. At least there are no plans right now. This was a carefully considered choice and I wanted to take a moment to explain it.
For the last decade, my day job has been designing and building mobile apps and games. Through those experiences I learned what it takes to build an app across multiple platforms and the time and money required.
The design seems like the most work, and that’s already been done on Apple, making adding Android seem easy. This is true, it would be quicker to create Revere for Android than it was creating Revere for iOS. But the design is a small part. Here are some of the tasks that would now double.
Creating screens for the app stores.
Managing app stores.
Testing and test devices required.
Keeping up with annual platform changes.
Accounting and finance management.
And many more.
This is a significant amount of work and accepting it blindly is dangerous.
Important context here is that I’m building Revere as a ‘forever app’ that will last my lifetime. Growing the team or workload too large too soon would put this at risk. The Revere project must remain small to survive. I talk about this more in Building a Forever App.
While the workload is important, it’s the team size that’s the heaviest to carry. Software engineers specialize in either Android or iOS, rarely both. Therefore building for both platforms requires doubling the team which project management time, people management, and cost. Android would bring some increased revenue but it wouldn’t outweigh the costs to build and maintain the app at Revere’s current size.
It hurts to tell Android users there are no plans to bring Revere to them — I’d love to have more people using the app — but at this stage, the project is too small and the extra weight too large, that it could put the whole thing at risk. The universe works in strange ways though, and Revere could grow bigger and faster than I expect, making a bigger team possible and opening the door to consider Android again. For now though, Revere won’t be hanging out with any little green robots.
