Plum Village: Zen Guided Meditation & Mindfulness - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

My friend Raj and I started to work on the Plum Village app five years ago, without any prior app development experience. But Raj was already an advanced PHP developer at the time, so it didn’t take him much to learn to work in React Native.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

I would say maintenance has been the most challenging aspect! It’s so easy to envision an app as a “finished” product that once you develop, it will simply “exist” in the app stores and we as developers would not need to do much anymore. What a dream that is :) In our experience, the reality is that every single day we need to tweak this and that in order to keep everything running smoothly on all platform and as many devices as possible.

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

My favorites at the moment are iNaturalist, eBird, and Shazam. They all have in common the idea that technology can be a wonderful tool to help us get out of our default state of ignorance: finding out the name of a tune you hear on the radio, identifying a bird based on her song, or a type of tree you’re walking past just by taking a photo.

How long have you been working on this app?

We have been developing it for five years.

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

The main goal of the Plum Village App is to support people with their mindfulness practice. Not only on the cushion but throughout the day too.

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 Plum Village App is unique both in terms of the amazing practices and teachings offered by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, and in terms of being a completely free app, exclusively supported by donations from people who feel inspired to contribute.

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

We are working on a massive upgrade with localized versions of the app, adding some user journeys with new material, and implementing more features that help people to connect with other like-minded practitioners and communities.

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’d love to get the word out more, so dear friends feel free to share with your friends: what do you like most about the Plum Village App?