espresso app

so there’s this new app called expresso chat — it was most voted app on product hunt yesterday. the app organises your life by topics and groups of people interested in the same topic at the same time. let’s say you have 3 smoking friends at work and you create a “smoking” group so you can crap on your lungs together.

when you look at the screenshots you see vibrant and bright colors, a unusual clean interface and minimalistic functionality. it looks great and they say it gets the job done.

take a look:

it really looks clean and simple.

so i installed it. when you first launch the app it turns into a flashlight for about 12 seconds (newer iphones may have less flashlight) and then it displays the logo for another 2–3 seconds. i think it compiles or something. every time.

please insert an imageview with your logo in the launch screen file. thanks.

after you recover from blindness, it shows a tutorial with xxl emojis. each slide description is a light grey color on a white background. or i’m still blind, don’t know yet.
the next button is a google material design style button. maybe they have it all around. let’s see. so you tap on “set up your espresso”. look guys, i understand that the name is nice and all but don’t overuse it. oh yeah, the icon is a location pin combined with a chat bubble.

you get to the usual phone number screen. it’s so clean that you don’t know how to interact with it. you tap on the US flag (you know that you can get the user’s location by ip, right? and select the country automatically. it’s just ux) and a list of countries appear with this weird annimation. not presented, just weird. it has a lot of glitches with the cursor and shit.
you finally select your country and after typing two characters they let you spam their twillio /api. i finally got my number right and i go in the next scene where when i press the backspace button, i can select any box where my code should be and i can enter a number. again, i can spam their twillio/api. but i won’t do that. the resend button is always active also. spamming away! please do something with the background and the text color. it kills me.

after the code confirmation, it asks me out of nowhere about push notification. it’s not polite. please insert another view controller to tell me in advance that you’re going to ask me about official ios stuff.

all right. setup done. next screen:

it has an arrow that i did not notice and i can swipe it down to see stuff in the back. a tutorial would have been great. with arrows and shit.

in the back there is a dark grey?! screen with an “i” button. i tap it and expect to have a popup on my screen. it pushes a controller from the left. did not expect that. there is a list with about, faq, and feedback. 
i tap about and BAM it presents an animated controller from the bottom. with a back button. as a rule: if you present a controller, have an X or “close”. not a back button(arrow, whatever. not something pointing to the left).

there is “term of use”. yes, only one term. and a privacy policy. and also, we’re in 2016 guys.
also :), when you tap feedback it goes in the email app, not a compose controller. really. who’s your ios developer? i’d like to have a word with him/her/it.

moving on, you have zero spaces and your initials in a circle. you tap that and it gets your profile, i think. pushed, from the right. and a back button, pointing to the left.

so, the entire interface is so minimal, not only did they try to reinvent the wheel, but they are like 200 years ahead. you would think that it’s a gesture based interface. you’d be wrong. so you have your full name, number and an email placeholder. also a circle with a simple camera in it. you tap the email address, it pops the keyboard and away the email field goes. guys, the iphone se is here. use a scroll view. you can also tap the phone number and the cursor appears, but you can’t do anything with it.
and they have their own camera interface. of course they do.

and i take a photo and start laughing. this appears:

what? where? to whom? no! you see, the photo is swuare and i took a round picture. it asks me to select the image and it gives me a send option. nice.

and i “send” it. it goes to the nsa and as my profile picture.
all done, my profile is complete.

let’s create a space. after entering the space name i have a color palette. no text. just colors. i feel so smart using this.

also, a few glitches because i think all their view controllers are clear color.

so now i have a space. i have to invite people. i tap the circle and BAM: github animation. i think the ceo likes custom animations. users don’t. users like present and push. or at least are used to them.

this is a bit confusing. it tells me that all users in a space have access to all topics. hm. and i have to remember that. the user. i can’t think of any situation i can mess up with this app. 
aaaand they have a big shiny back button with an X that even tells me to go back. overkill. where is the left arrow? i like the arrow :(.

even though you have no people in the space, you have an active edit button. 
you tap to ad a contact and i already have a contact: the number with one character from earlier. 
just use RHAddressBook. it get’s the job done. also, the + buttons don’t work properly. it’s something blocking the UI also.

moving on. i created a topic (ui being blocked by something. try to handle requests asynchronously). i go in a topic and take a pic and “select and send” it. 
after you “select and send” a picture you have a full screen confirmation like you’re some retarded person or you completed ironman.

i can rename/mute/delete a topic, i can highlight messages and type stuff. pretty basic, a little slow. but it looks nice. if i want to go back i have a downward facing arrow. i love arrows.

so as a conclusion. you create spaces, add people and create topics with those people. all the people in the space. and it’s pretty slow for an espresso. maybe a latte machiato grande mocha with cheese.

anyway, it’s a group chat with naming on each group. it makes sense. but it makes more sense if i just see all the topics, no spaces, and have a plus button, select contacts and a name for the group chat. that makes more sense.

it has a point. i get it, but it’s a little complicated to understand the concept. you can create super fast group chats, pardon me, topics on facebook messenger or whatsapp or whatever. a mature chat platform. and again, why build another chat?! it made sense to you me and 5 other people. but it does not have the performance to be espresso. at least not yet. their unique selling proposition is: we have group chat with names and colors on each group. and highlighted messages. i think you should pivot.

anyway, the app looks amazing, it could work better but the ui is not intuitive enough. also, the concept is strange.

but please check it out and download it from here.

Bogdan Sturza