Joplin - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

Yes I've been working as a software developer for many years.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

As an open source project, we are significantly resource-constraint, so the challenge was to find a technology that allows us to build the app once and release it to the two major mobile platforms - iOS and Android.

Creating a separate application for each platform wouldn't be realistic since it would be difficult to keep maintaining and developing them over time.

We also wanted to share the code with the desktop app. So with all these consideration we chose React Native, which indeed allow us to build and deploy the app to both iOS and Android.

Then the next challenge I suppose was to learn React Native which at that time was a very new technology, and wasn't the most reliable framework and was changing fast.

_{Laurent Cozic}

The interviewee, Mr. Laurent Cozic is a software developer and the Founder of the Joplin company. Laurent loves
developing open-source software and has a keen interest in security and
data privacy questions.

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

I love Organic Maps. It's a great open source project which allows me to
have offline maps on my phone, so it works wherever you are, with or
without a connection.
Keepass2Android and Aegis are also two great open
source apps that I like and that are even superior to commercial
applications.

How long have you been working on this app?

For 6 years.

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

The fact that it is open source is an important aspect for many of our users, because it means there is no vendor locking on the data, and that data can be easily exported and accessed in various ways.

We also focus on security and data privacy, in particular with the synchronisation end-to-end encryption feature, and by being transparent about any connection that the application makes. We also work with security researchers to keep the app more secure.

Finally, Joplin can be customised in several different ways - via plugins, which can add new functionalities, themes to customise the app appearance. We also expose a data API, which allows third-party applications to access Joplin data.

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.

The focus on security, the fact that it is open source, and the customisability are important aspects that differentiate us.

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

We are very keen to make improvements to the mobile app, both in terms of UX, design and new features. We're also looking at creating a "Plugin Store" to make it easier to browse and install plugins.

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.)?

In open source we cannot do much without the community's support, so any help to improve the app, any donation, but also any constructive feedback is very much welcome!