Surfshark VPN – Secure VPN for privacy & security - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes, our lead developer had quite a bit of experience in developing Android applications. We also took in some fresh talent to contribute to the new product.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Optimizing the services that a mobile app runs is the most challenging thing to this day. Working within the Android ecosystem, you have to be aware of so many things that can cause bad user experiences: battery saving, battery drain, services dying, etc. That tends to be a problem with apps that run long operations in the background - so, you know, like a VPN app!

_{Surfshark VPN}

The interviewee, Gabrielle, is the communication Manager at Surfshark. Surfshark is a privacy protection toolset developed to provide its users with an ability to enhance their online security seamlessly.

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

We often look up to Telegram. As it's open-source, everything is custom-made and works without a hitch, even if it has a lot of code. Probably one of the smoothest apps we have used. Another app worthy of mention is Revolut - pure love for the UX part of the app. It never feels sluggish.

How long have you been working on this app?

Our application has been in development for about 3-4 years.

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

The most important thing is privacy. No matter how much we want to improve the app and monitor what issues the user experiences, we value privacy. That said, striking a balance between knowing what we can improve and giving the users freedom is a challenging task to deal with.

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 think the effort we put into trying to give the users the best UX possible will be what pays off. We invest so much time into analyzing users' feedback, their reviews, and some basic stats that we have, all to up those ratings and improve the UX. We have seen a drastic increase in performance and user reviews in the past years, and that's a trend that we want to keep going. This is where we shine as we are making a product that is definitely meant for the users.

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

One of the most frequent requests we were getting lately is a widget. We spent a lot of time on other stuff, so we only got to working on it recently. It's great to finally give the users the thing they were asking for! Other than that, we are currently focusing mostly on increasing the app's performance and feel - features are not that big for us at the moment. However, we have some ideas on how to bring more customizability to the user and how to make it clearer how our app benefits them.

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.)?

We want feedback! Give us feedback! We read a lot of user comments, especially constructive criticism. If you enjoy our application and use it daily/weekly/monthly, let us know what you're missing! New features? Don't like the UI? We are always dedicating time to improving our app, but it wouldn't mean anything without user feedback. :)