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Due to our neighborhood’s generosity, we’re happy to announce that we’ve employed a full-time cell developer to work on the Lichess cell functions accessible on iOS and Android, ranging from 1 November 2022.
The variety of customers who entry Lichess by way of the cell app has solely elevated 12 months on 12 months for a number of years, and we anticipate this quantity to proceed rising.
The unique Lichess cell app was written as a pastime mission, and maintained on a voluntary foundation — however with the expansion of Lichess over the previous couple of years it requires extra time and dedication than the volunteer neighborhood (superb as it’s) can present alone.
Equally, for a number of years, bettering the cell app has been one of the vital widespread items of suggestions we obtain in emails, the boards, on reddit and different social media. Because of the generosity of our donors, we’re ready to start making {that a} actuality.
Plus, whereas not everybody might personal a PC or laptop computer, on a world stage they normally will personal some type of smartphone as an alternative. In consequence, a light-weight cell app which is technologically accessible might be key to Lichess’s charitable goals to advertise and encourage the play and research of chess, and the usage of free open supply software program, globally.
With the cell app turning into so essential to Lichess and its customers, it was a no brainer (as soon as assets had been accessible) to rent a everlasting worker to concentrate on it, and we hope that is the primary of many. With out additional ado, meet veloce, and a few extra element within the plans for the cell app beneath.
To start with, are you able to inform us a few of your plans for the cell app?
The cell app might be utterly rebuilt from the bottom. We’ll use Flutter, an UI toolkit that may enable us to realize a a lot better high quality than with the present software.
The principle focus would be the person expertise, I’d like the brand new app to be extra intuitive and straightforward to make use of.
[ed. the current mobile app, lichobile, will be maintained but receive no new features while the new mobile app is being built.]
That sounds superior – what do you assume your milestones for the cell app might be, and the place will customers be capable of observe your progress?
The primary characteristic that I’ll implement are puzzles. They’re match on cell and the present app doesn’t have the most recent model of puzzles. It additionally misses puzzle streak, puzzle storm and puzzle racer. Including this can carry plenty of worth instantly to the brand new app.
The principle place the place issues will occur is on Github. You probably have a technical background you possibly can observe the progress there. We may even purpose to speak in regards to the progress.
It’s too quickly to have a roadmap, however we will definitely have one sooner or later and provides an replace. It’s arduous to estimate a launch date, however I hope to have a primary launch of the brand new app out within the first half of 2023.
Are you able to share a little bit of your technical background with the neighborhood? How did you get into cell app growing? Any attention-grabbing earlier shoppers?
I didn’t research pc science. I taught myself easy methods to construct web sites after I was working for the top of analysis on the Aeronautics college ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse.
Then I labored slightly as a PHP developer, however I spotted there have been higher languages. So I switched to Scala and Typescript.
I bought into cell app growth at my work in Paris after I was given a mission for a financial institution to deal with their factoring providers. Since then I’ve labored primarily as a non-mobile dev. Anyway, it’s after that exact mission that I made a decision to start out growing the primary Lichess cell software, again in 2014!
You’ve had an account on Lichess since 2010 – that’s a very long time! Do you have got a very favorite Lichess reminiscence, or expertise?
I’ve witnessed Lichess steadily develop and enhance since that point and I’m nonetheless amazed by the development. If I’ve to call one reminiscence, that may be the primary time Magnus Carlsen joined the platform to play a match. What an achievement!
Crucial query. 1. e4 or 1. d4?
1. e4 in fact!
That’s lucky – 1. d4 would have made you a pariah throughout the group. Exterior of chess and coding, what different actions do you get pleasure from?
I get pleasure from touring by bike quite a bit. My longest journey was 7500 km in Norway, Denmark and Germany, it was superb! Extra not too long ago I bought into crusing, and I attempted land crusing too, it is a actually enjoyable exercise! I get pleasure from singing too, in a contemporary choir.
Thanks for the chat!
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