Swim Coach – Swimming Training - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I have been coding for quite some time before I started developing Swim Coach. My first contact with it was about 20 years ago. At that time, I was mainly interested in game programming. Later, my interest changed to artificial intelligence. And since 8 years coding is also a big part of my main profession as one of the founders of sublimd, a healthtec company.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

The biggest challenge was keeping the app up to date with the latest technology and meeting the ever-changing Play Store and App Store requirements.

_{Reto Kaul}

Swim Coach was first released in 2017 and over time has been translated into 8 languages. Today, Swim Coach is one of the most popular apps for swimming and triathlon training, with over 200,000 downloads.

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

I really like Duolingo - a language learning app - for for its friendly owl and the simplicity of the user interface. Lately, I've also been using Ghostfolio - a portfolio tracker app - on a regular basis. Again, I like the clear design of the app, but also the great portfolio analyses.

How long have you been working on this app?

I started developing Swim Coach in the fall of 2017. At first, I had developed the app only for my own use. I never thought that so many other swimmers and triathletes would use it later.

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

I've loved swimming for a long time, but always found it challenging to motivate myself for longer swim workouts after work. Often I would set out to swim a certain distance, but then stop the workout early because I had had enough and was getting bored. At some point I realized that the motivation is much higher when the swim workouts are structured and varied. But since planning is time-consuming, I wanted to develop an app for it. Later, other considerations came into play: How can I get the maximum training effect out of each swimming session?

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.

What sets Swim Coach apart from other apps is the level of personalization in workout planning. There are a lot of apps that provide training plans, but often these standard plans didn't fit my needs:

For example, the plan calls for a 2500m workout, but I only have time for a short workout. Or the workout is scheduled for a 50m pool, but I only have access to a 33m pool.

With Swim Coach, a lot of parameters can be customized: Training focus, distance, equipment, length of the pool and many more. The app then provides a personalized workout for these exact needs.

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

We have just finished the French version with the help of two dedicated Swim Coach users. In addition to Garmin smartwatches and the Apple Watch, more smartwatches will be eventually supported and the functionality of the smartwatch apps will be expanded.

In addition, more good exercises will be continuously integrated into the app, so that the workouts become even more exciting and effective.

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 have ideas how to make the app better, please tell us about it via Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Of course, we do not mind if you recommend the app to your friends or leave a nice review in the Play / App Store if you are satisfied :-)