The big rewrite

Where are my updates?

The last few months have been quiet for KeepTrack  without a significant update to the app, but that does not mean development has stopped, quite the opposite. I have taken this time to write the app completely from scratch and I would like to explain the motivation for this action, the timeline and what you might expect to see in the next major version.

A rewrite? Why??

The decision to re-write an app is one of the most dramatic one a developer might take, it poses huge risks: the support of existing users as well as the stability and availability of the new version so it was not taken lightly. In the last years KeepTrack has seen huge refactoring periods (like moving from Java to Kotlin) however this time the change is much bigger and the app is being re-written using the new Flutter toolkit.

Flutter allows developers to write apps that are faster to build and maintain with a much nicer and fluent UI. It is also cross-platform, which means it will be able to run on both Android and iOS. But that is not all! in the near future it will also be able to run on  a web browser as well as naively on most operating systems.  

Every project such as this makes me re-think the app in general as it is a good point in which to assess what is working well and what needs to be improved in the app. Concepts such as multi value parameters, graph handling, tagging and more are being reconsidered and refined.

So the benefits are:

• Cross platform. You will be able to run and access your data from your Android, iOS and Web browser.
• Improved UI and user experience powered by Flutter.
• Faster development cycles as Flutter is easier to program.
• Refined app structure and usability.

When should we expect all this?

The plan is to launch a new app with a somewhat reduced set of features in the first half of this year, basically in the next 2-3 months. This version will be available for iOS only as it will be missing features that are available in the Android version and so I will not be able to replace the existing Android version.

The full version which will be available for both Android and iOS will arrive towards the end of the year and will be a significant update for the existing Android users. A web version will follow that version.