Why we build iOS first (and what would make us ship Android)

People ask when the Android versions are coming, and the honest answer is: when a product earns it. Here is the reasoning, because it is a decision we revisit for every app rather than a rule.

A small team ships one platform well

Every feature, every fix and every store page costs roughly twice as much on two platforms, and a small team pays that cost in speed. We would rather ship a weekly update to one platform than a monthly update to two. Focus is the only advantage a small studio reliably has.

Where a subscription product is proven

For the kind of apps we build, iOS is where paid subscriptions convert and renew most reliably, which makes it the right place to find out whether a product works at all. Proving retention and renewal on one platform first means the Android version, when it comes, is a port of something that already works rather than a second experiment.

Design-led products and native tools

Our apps depend on audio, background playback, the lock screen and the feel of native controls. Building natively on one platform lets us get those right. Cross-platform frameworks are a reasonable choice for many apps; for ours, the details we care about most are the ones they make hardest.

When Android comes

• The app has proven week-two retention and renewal on iOS.
• A specific market with real demand is asking for it, in installs we can see and messages we receive.
• The product's core, such as the story engine or the loyalty backend, is already platform-independent, which ours are.

GERG is the likeliest first, because a coffee shop's regulars use whatever phone they have. A brand app serves the brand's customers, and that is a different calculation from a consumer app we own.

Per app, not a policy

We do not have a company position on platforms. We have a question we ask for each product, and the answer so far has been iOS first. It will not always be.