We're building a new app - We Need You!

[#1]

Hi all!

For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Alex - Product Owner for mobile apps at giffgaff (and sleep deprived new dad) and I’ve got some exciting news to share (not related to being a new dad although that’s pretty exciting too). I’m also here to ask for a couple of favours…

First the news… Here at giffgaff we’ve got some ambitious plans for our mobile apps and much as we love the current my giffgaff app, the technology it’s built on is showing its age and it’s much harder to work with than we’d like. That means it takes us way longer to make changes to it, and bring out new features than you lovely lot deserve.

So… we’ve taken the decision to build a brand new shiny version of the my giffgaff app. We’re doing it using bang up-to-date technology that means we can keep bringing you the latest and greatest features, quickly and easily as soon as you ask for them (OK maybe not that quick, but we’re aiming high).

So what do we need from you?

Firstly, just a little bit of patience - Rome wasn’t built in a day, and the new app won’t be with us overnight either. While we’re working on the new one, we don’t have much capacity left over to keep the existing my giffgaff app updated to reflect some of the amazing changes on the website. You might notice some new features appearing on the website that don’t show up in the app. We’ll do our best to keep things in line and not too confusing but it’s a bit of a balancing act.

Secondly, and more importantly, WE NEED YOU! We’re going to release the new app with the smallest possible number of features so you can get your hands on it, then we want to build and release features in the order that you want them most. We also want to know what features you’d like to see in the new app that maybe we haven’t thought of. That means we need to start talking more.

If you want to see a very high level view of the roadmap take a look here… https://trello.com/b/AWp906AP/my-giffgaff-app The featureset and the order we work on them aren’t set in stone. We’re taking input from loads of sources to work out what stuff delivers the most value and deliver that as quick as possible. We wanted to give you an early look at what’s coming, and make your voices heard on what order we deliver it. Also feel free to tell us what you love/hate about the app today (you might have mentioned once or twice that it’s annoying to keep logging in, but we don’t mind if you want to tell us off about that some more - we deserve it).

Also, keep an eye out for a new group on the community for discussing new features, checking out the UX (user experience) designs and giving us feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Once that's up and running we'll move the discussion there and you will also be able to join as a Beta tester and be one of the first to get access to the new app.

Looking forward to working on it with you all.

Alex.

P.S. If you want to see what the giffgaff apps team looks like hard at work, here’s a pic of us at this morning’s stand-up. Yes I know we’re not all standing up. I blame the Scrum Master. For those of you that know Ian M and Sasi, Ian is normally sat on the other side of the whiteboard, and Sasi is round the corner to the left. Both are working on other projects at the moment but I’m sure will drop by and say “Hi!” if you tag them in this thread. Oh, and I’m the chap on the left with his hair on the wrong end of his head.

[#2]

not a big user of the app but good luck with it

[#3]

Hello I can’t say much about it as on iPhone even with app fully updated I can’t get past login , 

finger sensor works but you get to page it’s not logged in ,

manual login can’t stay logged in long enough to reply to anyone so because of that I never have used it 

[#4]

Sounds odd, should be able to get that sorted for you. What do you mean by "can't get past login"? What's happening when you manually log in?

[#5]

Sounds great @alex_app as the current app does feel clunky.

Talking of the old app there's a few people complaining that it doesn't show the additional 1GB of data which they get on the £10-£18 goodybags. Is this an easy fix?

[#6]

nice shorts

[#7]

Hi @endorphin. We're looking into the easiest way to fix this at the moment. I had this particular issue in mind I mentioned the differences that will start to show between the existing app and the website. We're deciding whether to add an extra GB to the existing app data meter, or whether to update the app to include the base data and a separate meter for the additional 1GB just like the website. The latter is obviously more work. If you see people asking about this around the place, feel free to link them here.

[#8]

Hi, @alex_app

This is excellent, I would definitely willing to join the trial for the app. As a basic I would say buying good topping up, checking credit and payback would be the most basic element for testing.

Thanks

[#9]

Hopefully it will be much better than what's currently used.
At this stage it's difficult to comment on anything other than I was trying to zoom in on the 'To Do' board behind to see what was on it but sadly I can't get that clear a view, although I did see the words 'coffee' 'milk' and 'Jaffa cakes' in there somewhere, I'm sure of it!

Keep up the cracking work and look forward to seeing developments in the coming weeks/months

I'd say that keeping things the same as when you are using PC is key, it brings uniformity to the user experience. The basic core reasons of why people would access giffgaff should be the main structure and focus i.e. log in, top up, help, forums - so ease of use/accessibility around these functions.... however I am stating the obvious to the experts probably have fun !!

[#10]

@alex_app this is great news.

I am in agreement with @cps15966 you should keep everything the same on the new app as its like when u use the website via pc or latop.