28 февраля 2014

Интервью с разработчиком. Эндрю Бентон, создатель VOIP-клиента Bolt

Илья Субботин

Уважаемые читатели, представляем вашему вниманию вторую статью из серии «Интервью с разработчиком». В этот раз статья будет посвящена любопытному VOIP-клиенту Bolt. Так как вся переписка с разработчиком приложения велась на английском языке, то в статье будет не только русский перевод, но и оригинальный текст. Над статьей работали: Павел aka TimeS и Илья aka Elir.

Dear readers, let us introduce into your consideration the second article of the «Developer Q&A» series. This time an in-depth review of Bolt, a definitely noteworthy VOIP app is provided. The article contains both Russian and original English versions of the interview with Bolt’s CEO, and was scripted by Ilya aka Elir and Pavel aka TimeS.

Уважаемые читатели! Если вы ищете перевод интервью на русском языке, пожалуйста, перейдите на первую страницу — https://android.mobile-review.com/?p=24535

App Outline…

A relatively new app on Google Play, Bolt aims at a place between its famous counterparts – Viber, Skype, etc. But in case with Bolt, the concept of making calls received some further development. The main idea of the app is to relieve the users from the need to perform VOIP and regular calls using different solutions. These two protocols were implemented in a single app alongside with pretty decent dialer.

Bolt’s positioning in a way resembles that of iOS-specific iMessage – calls between the users of the app are free and use VOIP, but if the receiver is not a Bolt user, the call will be automatically switched to the carrier’s network and charged according to the plan in hand.

Our own review of Bolt can be found here — [RUS] https://android.mobile-review.com/market/24027/

Interview

To begin with, thank you big time for the chance to have this dialog. It’s a great thing to see the app and the market trends from the developer’s perspective. If you don’t mind, introduce yourself and your team.

The Bolt team consists of me, Andrew Benton, Founder and CEO, and Artur Pokusin, our Lead Designer. I worked as an engineer at Twilio for a few years before starting Bolt, while Artur was building Preserve.io which is a link-sharing tool.

Bolt came up recently as a nifty way to make VOIP calls along with regular ones. Something probably caused and boosted the development of Bolt. What was the concept behind the application?

We were frustrated with all of the other apps that let you make calls for free, but forced you to use another app for regular calls. We wanted to build a calling app that worked great for all calls, not just a free calling app.

Before Bolt, were you an active user of other VOIP-calling solutions? Based on your user-experience, what did they lack to make you create an app of your own?

Yes, we have used many other VOIP solutions, but we weren’t “active” users. Most other apps want to charge their own credits for outbound calls, or show you ads, or distract you with stickers. These things are not particularly useful, so we set out to build a version of the standard VOIP app that wouldn’t get in your way.

Reversing the previous question, did you happen to borrow some ideas from the competitors’ products? Do you follow their development or do you tend to create and improve your app on your own, not taking “the rivals” into account?

We do not follow competitors closely, and prefer to stay focused on our own development. It is better to not get distracted.

The web-media tends to call Bolt «the iMessage for calls». Can this be a fair comparison?

We certainly don’t mind the comparison. I think iMessage offers a very simple experience for people to take advantage of a free messaging product without changing their routine. And we aspire to do the same for voice calls. We think there should be one app for all calls, and that more calls should be free as more users get the app.

As it is widely known, iMessage is a single-platform service and Apple seems to be perfectly comfortable with this set of things. Do you plan to push Bolt to other platforms or will it remain an Android-exclusive?

We certainly plan to put Bolt on other platforms when the time is right.

OS related, what were the reasons for choosing Android? How do you perceive iOS and Windows Phone (OS-wise)?

Android is the biggest mobile platform worldwide, so in order to reach the greatest number of users it makes sense to start there. Windows Phone and iOS are great platforms but they are smaller, so we will move to those platforms when the time is right. We also needed to tightly integrate into the native telephony capabilities on whatever platform we chose, and Android offers that.

There exists a vast variety of messengers based on the same principle as Bolt has: the account is phone-number-based simplifying the registration process and searching for friends on the service. As an example of such kind of app we may consider WhatsApp, which is widely popular in Russia. But all these apps concentrate on texting. Bolt stands apart from the mainstream, if you will, accentuating the calls part. Which way do you consider to have more chances to thrive and why?

We believe you must have both. People expect to be able to call and text from their phone numbers. Calling is important because it is different from the rest of the messenger products at the moment, which is why we started there. But eventually you must have both.

As it has been already mentioned, Bolt comprises functionality of a VOIP-app with a full-fledged dialer. So, what is it – a VOIP-app with a neat dialer or an alternative dialer with an option of making VOIP-calls free of charge?

Currently it is an alternative dialer with an option of making VoIP calls, but it won’t stay that way forever.

As for the dialer, the main thing missing (in my opinion) is the smart- dial-like search. Do you plan on adding this functionality soon or do you concentrate on VOIP-part of Bolt at first place? It would be most interesting to have a little heads up on your future plans considering Bolt.

This is a much-requested feature, so we are certainly looking into it. We have a few VoIP issues to attend to first though.

To what extent is Bolt popular at your local market? Do you believe the situation is different in other countries, like those of CIS?

The app has only been released for 10 days, so it is still too early to tell. It is definitely growing in popularity in other countries besides the United States, including Russia and India.

How do you see the app’s roadmap for the 2014?

We have an aggressive plan to execute on, but unfortunately I can’t give specifics. We’ll need to do a lot of hiring though, and I’m looking forward to it.

As for the user targeting, do you plan to attract the experienced users of competitors’ VOIP-solutions or the ones having no experience and little (or no) idea about the apps of the kind?

We are focused on building the best product we can, and expect that it will appeal both to current users of other VOIP solutions as well as newcomers who would like to explore without needing to know too much about the technology.

My user-experience is quite standard and typical: for texting my friends at first place I use Hangouts, the most common app either for Android and Gmail users which makes it a nice solution both for personal and business communication. The web-interface of the latter enables me to continue the dialog after switching from the phone to PC (and vice versa) quickly without losing the message log history. I also use WhatsApp for free SMS-messaging as do many of my friends and acquaintances and I’m a longtime Skype user. I’m able to chat with anyone on my contact list via text, voice or share files with them, at the same time being able make an international “skype-to-fixed” call and connect for free with my favorite online-shop tech-support. My question is if Bolt is in any way superior to the listed in-uses, why do I need to install one more messenger?

This is a good question. Bolt is certainly not for everybody, at least right now, since there are many ways to text or call for free if that’s all you need.

We are attempting to solve a different problem from the one it may seem we are trying to solve at first. We are trying to get you to switch your phone number away from your carrier. Our current product doesn’t let you do that, but we are building for a future where you only need WiFi or mobile data from your carrier and you switch entirely to something else for voice and messaging.

Browsing through Google Play user responses, I noticed your active reaction to the submitted remarks and comments. Are they often and to what extent do you consider them in further development?

We love hearing from real users, and try to respond to everyone so that we get a good sense of what people need and want. When you have problems, the best way to find out how to solve them is to listen to people. We have already implemented a few suggestions that we got straight from Play store reviews.

The app seems to have no paid upgrades. Are there any plans to add some of these? How do you plan to get your revenue?

We will have a paid upgrade, but it will probably not be what you’re expecting.

There’s much of a possibility you have some more good ideas. Are you planning to start other app-projects?

We are definitely working on other apps. Stay tuned.

If you don’t mind, some questions not related to the topic.

What is you current phone model? Would you like to try another one? Are you anticipating a release of any device?

I use a Nexus 5 bought from Google and I love it. I have no reason to switch right now.

To your mind, what are the most popular phone brands in your country? What devices are most common with your fellow country people?

Samsung phones are hugely popular in the United States, as well as the iPhone. The Nexus phones from Google have a strong base in the tech community but not much outside.

Bolt is now an alternative for Android OS default dialer. Do you personally use any third-party launchers, lock screens, dialers or keyboards? Or, may be, are you using a custom ROM on your device(s)?