SF App for mobile devices

We have been looking at ways to do an SF app for mobile devices. It would be branded as SF , not Suicide forum for privacy. There is one in development now that is nearing completion for the platform we use, xenforo. The licence fee for that was $25-50 / month paid yearly in advance (based on many things - our size and not wanting adverts would take to the $50 range - but to be very honest we do not want to be tied to monthly license issues which we cannot control costs for. I did speak with the developers- it is essentially our alerts menu and profile status update. They would do a fully SF skinned , no adverts as it is for $800 lifetime license.

Anytime you got a reply on your threads or threads/forums you watched, got a private message, somebody quoted you , etc you would get a notification on your app.

To do more, like include chat it would obviously require more development time. Maybe not as much as might seem though since the mobile chat is fairly simple and could be used within a shell on the app possibly ( not my opinion- is all beyond my programming/development skill level I am going purely off what being said by those i am talking to).

If we have any skilled developers or app writers that could take time to message me and give me a better idea of what questions i need to be asking or that would like a chance to work on making an app (volunteer or potentially paid but would need to check references and would be treated like any other business we hire if paid) .

What features are needed to make an SF app useful?

Would you use a discreet app to keep up to date on SF?

Are there other things which you think should be a priority in site features over a mobile App?

Hi Ben,

Why not increase the monthly target fund where a proportion is put towards the lifetime membership licence fee? I'm happy to start by donating $100 dollars as a starting point. So all YOU need now is $700 dollars. Like they say action speaks Louder than words. Watch...

Just donated $101 dollars where I would appreciate if you can use $100 dollars for the APP. If you do not get the monthly funds covered then please use it for the monthly fees.

Thank you @Unknown_111 I will set it aside for that. Basically anything above monthly dues we use towards the other improvements and the app is the largest of those. I am hoping to have a some set aside for the app by march when development should be finishing. I have to pay a deposit up front to get on the list and will use that toward the 50% deposit I pay.

Thank you so much for your support.

edit- - did not see your other post - I am keeping the money separately for the app and for the monthly fees. If we do not get enough tagged donations (anybody is welcome to donate and ask there money be used for a specific purpose like the app as you have done- and any amount is welcome) or extra left over from monthly then we can consider a fundraiser specifically for the app, but I prefer to keep the counter set to the Monthly amounts we need for "keeping the lights on" so to speak so there is not confusion about how much it costs to run site or where money donated gets spent. As of now though - Yes, we have $100 towards the app and require only $700 more for the basic app licences. Thank you so much. I will update this thread with any other donations that come in on the app to keep a total available.

If people just wants notifications there is Chrome push notification which facebook and others use, users dont have to keep the site open for it ..notifications get pushed from server to browser.

With app.. need to see the app is not just a web wrapper app, also apps most probably will need to be updated from time to time to fix bugs, take advantage of latest features in OS and be compatible with some odd new mobile devices.

The app would come with updates - not sure what a web wrapper app is?

Oh I see.. web wrapper app is like web browser with no extra functionality but to browse specific site..

Features I can think of :

• Reading view : Like Edge browser and extensions have ..where users can choose background color and font size for easy reading.
• TTS (text to speech) especially for longer posts.
• An icon or any other way to identify users who wants someone to talk to them.
• Direct messages (1 to 1 chat) notifications
• A section where similar posts or blogs (link and little description) are shown

Thank you for the feedback we are still looking into what is possible/available/affordable but it is good to get an idea of what people would want from an app.

Brilliant ideas but this sort of extra functionality requires most funds for the development of enhancing the APP. Just would like to include these for future development.