mSteem - Android and iOS app for Steem
I am the co-founder of Meritum App. In short I will explain what this project is about and what was intended to do.
The Meritum Story
For some time me and my business partner were fed up with click-bait and bloated news, in which you you had to read 50 sentences just to get to the point of the article, which described whole thing in just 1 - 2 sentences. We wanted to create the app, where user get created and tailored articles adjusted only to him and his needs.
In the app, independent authors could create their own channels and post articles within it's frames. Then, if user liked the topic of channel, he could subscribe to it and with every post get push notification on his phone.
For example, I like to read about Space industry, you know, Elon Musk, SpaceX and generally about stars. I discovered that in the Meritum app there is channel called "Everything you want to know about Space Industry". I subscribe to it and now, everytime author posts something I get push notification immediately. Also, user has his special feed ("observed"), where he sees all the posts.
All the authors are verified by us, so we do not allow any click-bait and low-quality content within the app.
Our main idea was that those authors should be rewarded with money for their work. You could subscribe to their channel for free, but if you liked the content and wanted to support author, you could subscribe for, let's say $5 a month. If author had 1000 subscribers he could just live with earnings from his channel.
So...
That's general idea. We didn't managed to get enough authors to make the app run smoothly. But then @noisy introduced us into Steem and it appeared to us that this platform is basically doing what we wanted to do in a first place :
Provide high quality content and reward authors for their work
We were surprised that most of the features we were thinking about are already implemented here.
Should we?
That's why we want to use our apps (Android and iOS version) to integrate with Steem API. But first, we need to know, if there is any need for that? We have seen that there is already one Android app. Would you like to try a new one?
Do you like name mSteem or maybe you have any other idea?
So far the app has implemented :
- Push Notifications
- Categories
- User Observed Feed
- User Discover Feed
- Profile (you can adjust text size there, turn on/off notifications)
- You can give like to the post (will adjust this mechanism to Steem)
- Channel screen (equivalent of user channel)
- Reading screen
Both apps already exists, we just need to integrate everything with Steemit API. This is how app looks like right now :
If you know Polish you can see app here (yes, we tested the idea on our own local market first, that's why it is not in English yet) :
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meritum
Let me know what you think!
Can't wait to see which app wins in the race for steemit mobile apps.
Hello,
Is it OpenSource?
How it handles authentication (key material)?
this. If its not open and peer-review Im not donwloading.
It's not OpenSource yet. As I have stated in the article, we already have Android and iOS interface created, but still need to integrate with Steem API.
My intention with this post was to understand what else should we do to release fully functional app for Steem. So posts like yours are very helpful. Thanks!
Most important is to handle keys properly: they should never leave user's device. Powodzenia.
Hi @mdfk, making your project opensource will also give you the oportunity to get exposure and help from Steemians through the utopian.io platform. Good luck!
The app looks great and would enrich the steemit experience.
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STOPMajority of posts like this are all talk and no action. Check out my open source project and let me know if you'd be interested in working together https://steemit.com/steemdev/@edgar-trem/mixion-is-open-source-android-developers-unite
I understand and just want to get feedback before getting to work. The app actually exists and is live, can be found here : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meritum . I wasn't posting link to it because it is in Polish so most of users wouldn't understand it anyway.
However, as you can see we have 90% of things done, just need to adjust backend and some UI things in the apps to Steem.
To be honest, I think staying with Meritum name would be better. At first promoting completly new brand can be more difficult among Steem user, because not every one will understand that this app is based on Steem blockchain, but in the long run, it will be much easier to distinguish this name from:
and dozens different projects. Busy.org chose this path, and now Busy is very well recognized Brand on Steemit.
Awesome Post, Keep it up!
Hello @mdfk, do you need a back end developer to integrate the Steem api with your mobile app. I have relevant experience with Steemjs, steemdb, Steemdata, steemSQL, SteemQL etc. Please reply to discuss more.
@aneilpatel : However, I have a question. Is there any need for having separate instance of backend server to integrate with Steemit API or can I connect directly to Steemit API from client?
Hi @aneilpatel, thank you for your proposal, but we already have backend developer in our team. However, if we will have any issues with implementation I will let you know.
Cheers!
Good luck guys :)
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