Adaptive Wallpaper Changer - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Absolutely, I have been programming in various languages for over 30 years now. However, this is the first time I have coded an app for mobile devices. In fact, the app you see here is the result of a lengthy learning process and literally learning on the job!

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Having developed using many languages and for multiple different platforms, including apps for Windows and backend services for Linux servers. I have to say that I found developing a mobile app to be particularly challenging, and much more than expected. How Android operates was particularly hard to get to grips with at first but then after a while, everything started to gel together. The fact that Kotlin was used over Java also helped the development process significantly. However, this wasn't the only challenge. In fact, for this app alone, besides learning Android, I had to brush up on my Photoshop skills (to create eye-catching icons and screenshots) and learn video editing techniques using Davinci Resolve (to make the kick-ass video trailer), among many, many other learning moments. So you could probably call me a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none ?

_{Chris Coker}

I am the founder of Studio Beyond which is based in the UK. The first app having just been released on 3rd December 2021 with hopefully many more to come. With many apps on the store being so similar, we aim to be as innovative as possible and only release apps with unique ideas and appeal.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

My most used app at the moment has got to be Google Keep. Ideas can pop up in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times, so being able to quickly write down what springs to mind can be a life saver. I won't even mention the kind of places I found myself stuck in coming up with ideas for Adaptive Wallpaper Changer!

How long have you been working on this app?

This is a tough one if the learning process is included, but I'd say just under a year for the coding and half a year to learn and produce everything else.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

Well, my passion is to create apps that I would like to use myself. In fact all my ideas have come from apps that I would have liked to have seen on the store. But I really don't want to just re-invent the wheel or release clones of apps when there are 1000s of existing ones that do the job just as well. So, when I come up with ideas for apps, if I feel that I'm adding nothing new, or haven't invented enough features to separate it from the rest, the app will go on the backburner and i'll get back to the drawing board to think of something else. Adaptive Wallpaper Changer was no different, it had to stand out from the crowd before I was ready to go ahead with it. I wanted it to do something special, and hopefully in the end I managed to pull it off. The goal was for the user to be able to bring a bit of life to their devices by being able to change their background depending on what they are doing or what is happening. So for example, if the user wanted to automatically switch wallpapers when it is raining, or maybe a celebration wallpaper when it's their birthday, they can.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

Like I was mentioning above, before I would even consider making the app, I wanted to make sure it stood out from the others. Most other wallpaper changers will just switch from one to the next, usually based on a time interval. So I wanted to add a bit of variety to this and give the user many more options. AWC allows you to choose themes that will change the wallpaper based on your preferences. For example, when it's sunny, raining, or even when it's snowing or there are thunderstorms. Or maybe special events such as birthdays, Xmas, valentines day, or if it's day or night, the room is light or dark, warm or cold and many more. I wanted to make it as customizable as possible so the user could find a theme they liked or make their own. Plus, when I set out, there were no apps that could switch to live wallpapers. They could change to static images only. I'm not sure if this is still the case now, but AWC is able to do both live and static.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

An idea I am toying with for the next release will be to include a few free wallpapers for each theme. So if the user doesn't have many they can use or doesn't have the time to search for their own, they can use the ones already included.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

If users have any questions then absolutely, I am more than happy to answer them. Contact details can be found on the app page. As for sharing the app, it is every app developers dream for people to enjoy using it and share it with others, so thank you in advance, and I hope you like the app.