Banta - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Between us, none of us had any coding experience what so ever, but our Dad who is a Co-Founder had developed an app 3 years prior, so he'd been through the process before, which certainly helped us shape our actions around what to do, and what not to do.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The most challenging aspect of developing this app would have to be push notifications...We seemed to have a lot of issues around IOS11, we had to rebuild the entire push notifications, as when we initially launched, users were only receiving 70-80% which is unfavourable to a messaging app.

_{Dylan & Mitchell Orval}

Just two Aussie brothers who started out pranking their Dad on Facebook and now have 1.3M followers on the Angry Dad Page. Avid group messaging users and lovers of Social Media we saw what the others weren’t delivering and have delivered that with Banta.

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

Clearly we're all avid users of the big apps such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat (we've all slowly started falling off the snap chat bandwagon). They should have sold to Facebook when they had the chance ?. But there's no question as to why we love those apps...they are run by a monopoly who executes everything extremely well, they are highly addictive and continue to innovate and release new features daily. I don't see Facebook or Instagram going anywhere soon. In terms of up and coming apps, I find the app "Rack International" has huge potential upside to grow. It's already highly addictive and a smooth UE. Keep an eye on that.

How long have you been working on this app?

This app has been basically a 2 year process from the day the app came to mind. In terms of coding and development, that's been just over a year.

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

Current group messaging apps appear stale and boring both in the look and feel as well as the functionality. Banta makes Group Messaging more fun, with inbuilt gamification features amongst other things. People want and deserve choice...with the domination of Facebook through Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram through Banta we deliver that choice. We want to get to 1 million users by this time next year!

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.

I have no doubt our app has put the fun back into group messaging. Banta is the only purpose built group messaging app which allows you to track and monitor group chat members' activity. Create polls, plan events, let the Randomiser determine who is doing what. Not only that, ultimately what do you love doing amongst friends? Competing! With a rotating Admin, that is what you're doing, seeing who can have the best Banta over the course of the week, and the winner...becomes Admin. They then have the power to set nicknames, change people's photos as well as ban users from typing for periods of time, it is pure banta. Designed with the family in mind as much as the millennial, the fun aspects of Banta make it ideal to become the Group Messaging App if choice for families. Ie: Using the Randomiser to decide who is doing the dishes and cleaning up all week! See the reactions from the kids when the Randomiser chooses them. ?

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

We have so much in the pipeline already, the newest version we will be focusing on the way the app caches and making the whole experience faster and more flowing for everyone onboard, as well as a few little changes that we've seen would work better in the app itself. In terms of "new features" keep your eyes peeled for the gaming component of the app, we have plenty of ideas around new features to be added, not just a randomiser.

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 you guys took the time out to read this article and download the app, firstly we just want to say thank you! Secondly, if you have any questions feel free to hit us up on social media! We are the brothers that created AngryDad. So you'd know we're pretty fun and easy going people, we appreciate all feedback, good or bad! So get your friends and family on board, and let the banta begin!