The idea of Slapse started in 2017/2018 while I was on a bicycle adventure around the world (or Eastern Europe so far). I wanted to create a video, where I take a Selfie every day and then align the faces to always be at the same position in order to see how I changed over the years. I also wanted it to serve as a kind of photo diary to remember the places, stories and people I met on the way.
First I did some research to find apps that are intuitive and can do what I expected.
While one the road it was most important for me that it's easy to use with just a phone and I don't lose my pictures if my phone gets damaged or lost.
I couldn't find any app that had everything I wanted, so I started programming a simple app for myself.
Since I'm a programmer in computer vision by profession, I started with automatic face detection and picture alignment. The idea was to let the algorithm do the time consuming work, which otherwise I would have to do by hand for each picture.
After finishing a simple prototype I showed it to some people and most of them liked it. Some even wanted to use it for themselves. That's when I decided to publish it on Google Play Store, as a beta app for other people to use it as well and provide me with feedback.
I programmed a couple of other Android apps before Slapse but never published one to the Google Play Store or shared them with many other users to get feedback.
There was a lot to learn and it took quite some time to get everything right. I underestimated how much little things go into the development of an app and how to make sure all users are happy. Usually companies have a whole team or even multiple teams to do all the different parts of publishing and updating an app. I had to do everything by myself from scratch. From design over product management, development, marketing, legal and tax requirements and customer support. It was a great learning for sure.
For a long time not much happened because I couldn't find the time to develop it further beside my main job. A few months ago I quit my job and I wanted to get Slapse to a point where it's actually usable and a great tool for creating Selfie time-lapse videos. I spend a lot of time figuring out the nitty-gritty problems. I got constant feedback from the beta users and could fix a few bugs, create a couple more new ones and fix them as well :)
Monetization & Future development
Now Slapse reached the state where I'm happy with it and I'm going to release it out of the beta phase. The future development depends mostly on how many people are going to use the app and support it with in app purchases or donations.
So far the development of the app cost more money than it generated and I'm not counting my time. Obviously I can't develop for free forever and need to generate some income in order to afford spending my time on adding more features.
Currently the three way Slapse generates money are:
In-app purchases of the Pro Version
In-app advertisement (Free version)
At the time of writing the total revenue is less than 20€ :D
The more users are going to use Slapse, the more revenue can be generated through these methods which in return will enable me to spend more time on improving the app for you.
This is where I need your help to spread the word.
You can do the following to help:
Follow Slapse on social media (Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn)
Download promo content & share it on social media (Tag @SlapseApp or use #slapse #slapseapp).
Share your own Slapse video on social media (Tag @SlapseApp or use #slapse #slapseapp).
Share the iPhone waiting list with your Apple friends
Buy the pro version
Rate Slapse with 5 stars on Google Play Store
I hope you enjoy using Slapse and it is of great help for your purpose.
I'm looking forward to seeing some creative videos coming on social media.
Thank you to everyone who is using Slapse and all the beta users who gave constant feedback.
Thomas
Thank's for sharing your story.
Keep on the great work.