Learn/Adding a feature
Adding a feature to an app that already works, one piece at a time.
The pieces you bolt on once the app exists. Most of these are a day's work in a builder and a fortnight by hand, and the hard part is rarely the feature itself: it is what it drags in behind it, an account system, a server, somebody else's rules.
Start hereHow do you add a feature to an app that already works?What each feature actually drags in behind it, before you commit to one.38 guides, grouped by what you are trying to find out.
How do people get into the app?
The first feature almost every app needs, and the one that drags in the most behind it. An app with accounts needs a server, and a server needs somewhere to put the data, so this is usually where a local-first app stops being local.
How do people talk to each other?
Anything where one person's action shows up on someone else's phone. These all need shared storage and most of them need moderation eventually, which is the part nobody plans for.
How do people get their own content in?
Uploads look like one feature and are really three: picking the thing, getting it to a server, and showing it back. The middle one is where the cost is.
How do people find things, and take them away?
Everything that turns a pile of records into something a person can use. Search is the one people underestimate: it is easy to add and hard to make good.
What can the phone itself do for the feature?
The things a website cannot do, which is usually the reason the app exists at all. Each one asks the user for a permission, and each permission is a place people say no.
What gets added once it is live?
Money, and the small machinery that only matters after real people are using it. Payments sit here rather than earlier because what the stores allow depends on what you are selling.