Mobile has trained all of us to expect to get what we want, when we want. The impact of this new way of thinking can even be seen in the way we interact with mobile apps. With every extra second your app takes to load, your conversion rates drops by 7%. Making keeping your app running fast a must. For example, when Amazon  decreased their loading time by 100-millisecond, their revenue increase by 1%! And with so many options available in the Stores today, users patience is shrinking. You’ll read here and there that the ideal loading time for an app is 2 seconds. That’s a good average indeed. We will see in this blog post how to stay close or below this threshold. We’ve asked one of our lead developers, Sergio, for some advice on how to optimize the speed of your GoodBarber app. Here are his 3 best practice tips:  

This month a new menu has been published in your back office. It centralizes all your Back Office Settings pages and gives you one-click access to the following pages: Team, it allows you to add members to your team and manage their access rights Preferences: you can choose your app language and default email Cookies, to inform your users of the cookies use of your PWA 404 error, you can customize your 404 page  External connections, to connect your app to external services ( Facebook, Twitter etc.) Data Privacy, to be in compliance with your users privacy  App texts, to customize the generic texts used in your app Backups, where you can back up your app My files, to store files to use in your plugins HEAD tag, allows you to add HTML tags to your PWA HEAD tag

Last year, Google warned developers of a technical change in sending and receiving push notifications. GoodBarber took this change into account by updating the Android engine of your apps. Fire Cloud Messaging, the system used to send and receive push notifications will therefore be the only system in effect from April 11, 2019. You probably missed the announcement by Google and it’s perfectly normal. It’s GoodBarber's job to make sure that your Android app adapts to Google's regular updates (and Apple's iOS app). You can find below a summary of the developments and updates made during March, 2019

The GoodBarber regulars are already familiar with the Live+ add-on since it's been a part of our catalogue for a long time and has attracted many a user.  For those of you who don't know, Live+ is an advanced audio player, allowing you to broadcast an M3U feed, display the title, the artist name, and the album illustration.    The user can share the title of what they're listening to on social networks, as well as buy it. They can view the last 5 items they listened to in the application.

Do you use our Couponing add-on ? So you're going to be particularly interested in what's new this month. If you are not yet a user, they should definitely convince you! These new features concern the back office and will radically simplify the way you manage and analyze your discount coupons: - new sorting options: On the Business > Couponing > My Coupons page, until today you could sort your coupons based on their validity and expiration dates. From now on you can also sort them by: Their number of uses (Most used) Shops - a new management page: You can find the Business > Couponing > My Redeemed Coupons page which allows you to view the list of coupons used, by whom, in which shop, and on what date.

Did you know that a 3 seconds delay causes you to lose half of your users? A figure to reflect upon, especially when every other second you lose another 7% of your users. During the crucial time it takes your app to open you could lose the attention of your users. Even though your GoodBarber app or PWA is build to launch quickly, you shouldn't overlook the importance of this General Design section : the Splashscreen. It allows you to display an image, message or logo while your app is launching therefore catching the eye of your users and improving your chances to keep them interested until your content is displayed. As you can see it is essential to take the time to perfect your Splash screen, its content as much as its design. If the content falls onto your creativity, we are putting our best features forward to help you with the design. Nowadays with so many different devices on the market, it is difficult to imagine and picture how your Splash screen will adapt to various screen sizes. We are now proposing different options to preview your splashscreen.

  We really take it to heart to constantly improve the back office as it is such a central instrument. We not only want to offer the best app building platform, but also give you the tools to manage your app and your audience. The new dashboard offers you an overview of your app. In a glimpse you can access all the major informations regarding your app. Responding to your subscription and enabled add-ons, it was created to only display relevant informations.   You will access this new dashboard as soon as :      - If you have a PWA subscription                 ● “My app” block on your checklist is completed                 ● PWA is published       - If you have an Android native subscription                 ● “My app” block on your checklist is completed                 ● Your app is published on Google Play      - If you have an iOS Premium subscription                 ● “My app” block on your checklist is completed                 ● Your app is published on Google Play                 ● Your app is published on the App Store

This year we started strongly with the release of a new back office version: GoodBarber 4.7   GoodBarber 4.7 main goal is CMS (Content Management System) improvement. In the version 4.7 , CMS was designed for a smooth, efficient content management, no matter the content volume of the app. We’ve also implemented a new way to preview your app. With the idea in mind to keep a visually clean interface, only the smartphone format is available from the back office. If you want to preview your app in all the available formats  (mobile, tablet or desktop) click on the preview link (top right). You’re already enjoying all the benefits of GoodBarber 4.7 but if you are interested in learning more about this new version, don’t hesitate to read this article. You can find a summary of the developments and updates made during January, 2019 below

GoodBarber 4.7 will be published on January 29th for all users to take advantage of upgrades available with this new version. For a few months now, a group of users have been able to already use GoodBarber 4.7. We decided to launch the new version through different stages, which allowed us to offer you today a version of GoodBarber even more eye catching and efficient. The main objective with GoodBarber 4.7 is the improvement of the CMS (Customer Management System). GoodBarber was the first app builder to offer to create content directly from an app BackOffice. If it seems obvious today, those who have an interest in App building understand how advanced this functionality was. Thanks to the CMS, content creators were able to reach an audience simply with an App. With GoodBarber 4.7, it is now even easier to manage Apps with high volume content.

2018 is already over and as you know, we have not been idle during this year. It is time today to fully embark on our 2019 projects, and you can be sure, you will not be disappointed by what we are preparing ;) This article is the first of the year on our blog is the opportunity for us to wish you a wonderful New Year, full of success for you and your beautiful app!

All the best for 2019 Pace e Salute (* Peace and Health)

You may not know it, but recently Google has changed its pricing policy for its Map services. Previously completely free, the use of Google Maps is now subject to billing, and it may impact you if you reach a certain rate of use on your PWA.   Explanations.

As you know, at GoodBarber, we like to give you choices. Once again this month, our teams were working on a specific option, which has been talked about for a few months following Google’s pricing changes. Now you can choose the map provider that will be used to display all the maps of your PWA: Google Maps or Mapbox. There are not a lot of map providers in the market and new uses are giving location data more and more value. If those services were previously free, pricing is now applied in most cases. With this in mind, it was essential for us to give you the opportunity to choose the provider that best suits you between these two market institutions. You can find a summary of the developments and updates made during November, 2018 below:

You have questions about using GoodBarber and more generally about creating native mobile apps and Progressive Web Apps? This article lists the most frequently asked questions by our users.

A lot of you give us regular feedback on your usage of GoodBarber and possible fixes and improvements that you think we could make. We are really appreciative of these suggestions, as they are a significant help to us in continuously making GoodBarber a more powerful app builder that meets your needs.  This month we worked on different fixes and improvements that you've asked for—one in particular that should really please Map section users—from now on, the distance between the user and the map points is displayed even if the list of points isn't ordered by location.  You can find a summary of the developments and updates made during October, 2018 below:

September is already over, so it's time to take a look at what our developer teams did this month.  Below you'll find a summary of the developments and updates made in September, 2018:

A lot of people find the idea of changing the domain on their GoodBarber project appealing as it allows them to build a stronger image without the presence of another brand. GoodBarber doesn't sell domain names, you'll have to purchase one from an external provider if you want to take advantage of this option, and you'll then be able to configure it from your provider's platform and install it in your GoodBarber backend as you'll be using our servers.  Setting up a new domain name can look a bit daunting for first-timers, but it's no big deal. Take a look at some basic info you need to know and some of the most common issues users struggle with to avoid common pitfalls. 

Over 13 million people in 144 countries participated in World Cleanup Day this September 15th. Initiated by Natacha, our iOS developer, the GoodBarber team got together to be a part of this worldwide event. We chose to clean up the roadside area of one of the main highways in Ajaccio, where our headquarters are located. 

This morning, the technicians at OVH (our internet access provider) were working on the data center switches where the GoodBarber and WMaker servers are located. An incorrect configuration was installed on these machines, triggering a bug. The result was that our internet access was immediately cut off. 

Apple devices are constantly evolving and pushing the limits of extraordinary user experience. The end of 2017 marked a turning point in Apple smartphone design with the release of the iPhone X, because apart from incredible resolution, this new iPhone boasts an ultra-immersive screen, covering almost the entire surface of the smartphone. 

It's back to school at GoodBarber! As you know, we never stop working on improvements to allow you to go further with your apps, and August was no different.  Below you'll find a summary of developments and updates made throughout August 2018:

A few years ago, there was no doubt that native apps were the best way to get content out there on mobile. A native app is made to work exclusively on your phone, in the most integrated way possible. However, since about two years ago, Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) have been disrupting the norms that native established. Certain big-time apps like Facebook or AirBnB have changed their minds on their choice of technology for offering the best user experience on mobile. 

You're well aware of all the advantages and potential Progressive Web Apps have to offer. If you've already created your PWA or you're planning to do so, this article is for you. GoodBarber allows you to access statistics concerning traffic generated by your PWA that will allow you to better understand your users' behavior and to adapt accordingly.  Two types of stats are available to you: internal statistics, accessible in your back office once your PWA is published, and external statistics.  Let's take a deeper look.

More and more of you are shifting over to Progressive Web Apps and we couldn't be happier about it. Your feedback has allowed us to identify which aspects of PWAs to work on in order to provide you with a tool that meets your needs as much as possible.  This month, we worked on two points concerning PWAs that came directly from your suggestions.