Currency converter ² - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, I have. I've been developing apps for various platforms since 2005. I jumped to an Android bandwagon as soon as it has reached version 0.9 - so pretty soon, in 2009. I already had a few years of experience with Java SE and J2EE, so the transition was smooth. Over time I've also developed mobile apps for Windows mobile and iOS. Also, I've almost 8 years of experience in ABAP, which is a programming language used on SAP systems.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

This app has 23 different sources of exchange rates. The most difficult part was to track them down on each bank's website and make a parser for them. For some reason some banks use really hard to process files for exchange rates. In the European Union thanks to a law they have to make it really easy like an file or a json file, but such as Bank of Thailand or Vietnamese one those were quite something to figure out. Also for crypto currencies it's kinda hard to estimate which ones will be favorite in next few months, so that list can get old pretty easily.

_{Rudo Halmi}

Rudo is an always-doing-something type of developer, communicative and friendly towards others, and a team player who doesn't like to play solo. He is currently working on Android and iOS apps and raising a son with my lovely wife. In the past, he has worked as an ABAP developer for the SAP IS-U module (~8 years), but also had his share of fun with J2EE, databases, PHP, and so on. He also participated in or has created few apps for Windows Phone 8.

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

Well, even though I'm a mobile developer, I don't really use mobile apps that much. I'm spending most of my time in Gmail, Twitter, and Slack. Those are my "communication" apps, they keep me up to date with the world :) I spend quite a large chunks of my time in Revolut investing and staring at the stock charts... Otherwise, to be productive I need my PC and to entertain myself I have my consoles.

How long have you been working on this app?

The First version was released on December 27th in 2016. So it's not the youngest app :) Of course back then I pushed a lot of updates almost bi-weekly, so it was changing quite often. In the last year the updates are more sporadic, cause I tend to take care of the Geometry Solver app - there is plenty of work still ahead of me.

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

I was buying different things online and I wanted to know how much I will actually spend on let's say different eBay web pages. So for me it was important to see different currencies at once and this way determine where it would be the cheapest to buy.

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.

Most of the other currency converters had only 1:1 conversion, e.g. from USD to EUR. I wanted to see more of them, so I decided the list would be the best solution. As the user types the number in his home currency, the whole list is updated and he can immediately see the results. Also only in my currency converter you can combine up to 3 different exchange rate sources from 23 total. So you can have your local bank with the most accurate rates set as a primary source, then crypto coins as a secondary source and some exotic bank as a tertiary.

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

I'm still searching for any relevant exchange rates source that would be based in Africa. If some of the readers have such, I'd be delighted to implement it to my app.

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.)?

Download the app for free and let me know what you think, what can I do better. If you share the app's link with a short sentence why you like the app on your social media and send me the link as a proof, you'll get a promo code for the full paid version of the app.