In Conversation with Joaquim Vergès: Chapter 1, Installment 1
Developing Stories
By: Mannu Sangha Saund
Joaquim Vergès is the well-known Android engineer who created the popular third-party Twitter app, Falcon Pro. This is his story — from where he grew up to how he got to where he is today.
It was one of those unusually hot days in San Francisco. The sunlight was glistening onto the sparkling concrete beneath my pacing feet. I hurried past the crowd of people and made my way through the temporary, narrow walkway that replaced the closed sidewalk. Loud drilling sounds overpowered the music in my headphones. I quickly rounded the corner onto Harrison Street and pulled out my semi-cracked Nexus 6 to text Joaquim. “I’m on Harrison and 5th now,” I sent. There he was — t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops — simple, humble, and smiling, as always.
We said our hellos and began chit-chatting our way into the Epicenter Cafe. It was just past 3:30pm on a Sunday. The cafe was quiet and peaceful. A few muffled voices spoke to one another between long sips of coffee. I ordered an orange juice and he ordered a cappuccino. We sat down and he patiently waited as I pulled out my laptop, connected to Wi-Fi, and set up the recording device. I hit “record” and over the sound of soft strumming and calming piano keys, I began my conversation with one of the most talented Android engineers.
On Growing Up, School,
and Computers
Joaquim grew up in Montreuil, a small Suburb just east of Paris. Summers were hot, winters were cold and grey, and pastimes were almost non-existent — other than playing Final Fantasy and Blizzard video games after school. It wasn’t the nicest place to live. His bike kept getting stolen, his house was broken into multiple times, and his sister felt unsafe walking on the street at night.
“There were cités everywhere (big closed social buildings), where even the cops didn’t go. I knew bad stuff was going on in there. I wanted to get away from that. It really motivated me and pushed me to get out. But, it’s still part of my life and I’m grateful for it.” — Vergès
He attended a semi-private secondary school in the nearby suburb, Vincennes, where he achieved above-average grades with minimal effort. School was a breeze until he found himself in the classroom of a tough, second-year Mathematics teacher.
“He’s the teacher I respected most. He made me like mathematics.” — Vergès
Mathematics became one of his favorite subjects, along with Physics, which he chose as a major. He liked that Physics taught him how to solve real-world problems and hated the boring nature of Grammar and History.
Ultimately, his love for video games drove him towards computers.
“In order to use computers well, you start hacking. Once you start hacking, you quickly get into programming and engineering. I knew I liked computers and wanted to work with them. They’re incredible tools that change the world. It was a huge evolution from my first computer to when I went to engineering school.” — Vergès
He was eight when his parents purchased their first computer — a Macintosh with a floppy disk. It had a few games he liked, but he was barely allowed to touch it.
Engineering School
and Programming
Joaquim explored a few engineering schools before deciding on ESIEE. It was the best ranked school for the least price, offering a five-year engineering program (Master’s equivalent). He spent the first two years partying in Paris with his friends. They all tempted each other into skipping classes and enjoying themselves. Consequently, they failed second year and had to repeat it.
“It was a wake-up call. My parents weren’t very wealthy. It was unfair that they paid extra tuition because I was slacking. I started studying harder and I was the only one who passed. My friends got kicked out.” — Vergès
Without his friends, he focused his attention solely on studying. Subjects shifted from theoretical to practical, which increased his interest and engagement. Second year began with core concepts and led into high-level concepts:
- Computer architecture
- Digital Logic
- Low-level instructions (assembly)
- High-level language concepts (C)
“Nowadays I only use high-level concepts at work, but it’s always good to know how it works under the hood.” — Vergès
Third year exposed Joaquim to more complex programming. C/C++ was used for low-level operations, such as controlling hardware and interacting with systems. He applied these concepts to implement a simulation of an SMS system that could send and receive messages. Java was used to demonstrate higher-level programming concepts, which he applied to develop his final project — an adventure game where the player travels from room to room, finding weapons and fighting monsters.
“I absolutely loved that class and had a lot of fun with the project. Programming was my favorite subject. It felt like I was actually creating something. I began coding pretty late though. I’m not one of those super coders who started at 12. I wish I was. I would’ve been much better by now.” — Vergès
He did exceptionally well, earning a six-month Erasmus exchange, studying at Delft University in Holland for fourth-year.
During the fifth and final year, he decided to enroll in a double diploma for Engineering and Business, specializing in Marketing. After graduating in 2010, he had the option of pursuing Digital Marketing but chose Engineering to pursue his underlying passion for building and creating new technology.
Early Career
Joaquim’s career began as a web developer at an agency, making and maintaining websites for the counsels of nearby suburbs. He learned quickly at the fast-paced agency, where new projects kept coming in. It gave him an opportunity to hone his PHP skills and jump into some Java. It wasn’t long before the agency presented him with an opportunity:
“I had two opportunities. I could either become a technical architect, overlooking projects, or a manager, dealing with clients. I didn’t like either. I just wanted to code… you know, the fun stuff!” — Vergès
This was around the time when Android was gaining momentum and all Joaquim wanted was to dive in. However, his interest and requests went unheard because the agency’s focus wasn’t in the mobile space. The few Android projects they received were given to interns. It was clearly time to move on.
His newfound desire to learn Android led him to build two simple apps. The first, Shake It, was a game; the second, Minimal Reader, was an RSS newsreader. This formed the portfolio for his next job at iD.apps, a mobile-first agency.
“When I presented my simple apps, they were really impressed. At that time, most people had zero Android experience. I already published Minimal Reader. They really liked that, and that’s what got me hired.” — Vergès
Being at a mobile-first agency, allowed Joaquim to work with Android on a full-time basis. He stayed there for two years, completing various short-term projects, which exposed him to the ins and outs of Android.
“That’s where I got my first professional dent into Android.” — Vergès
Why Android?
While in Holland for an exchange program, Joaquim decided to buy his first smartphone. Watching YouTube reviews of the iPhone 3GS, and the thought of owning one, excited him. However, its high cost left him searching for an alternative. More affordable options included the HTC Dream and Samsung i7500 — two flagship Android-powered devices. He chose the i7500 based on his previous positive experience with a Samsung device.
“I quickly realized that Android wasn’t smooth and Android apps were uncommon. My first inkling was to go online and see what I could do about it. I found XDA Developers. They’re great at optimizing devices. Thanks to them, I got the latest Android versions on my phone for free.” — Vergès
That was his first experience with Android and his first interaction with the Android community, which he’s a prominent part of today. But at that time, he was trying to figure out how to get involved in the Android community. He thought about the contributions he could make. He wasn’t a kernel developer but he knew he could build apps. That’s exactly what he did.
Initial Apps
Shake It
Joaquim’s very first app was a simple game. One screen had a big START button and a picture of Shakira looking back. The other screen had a counter that incremented as you shook the phone. The more you “Shake It,” within 30 seconds, the more points you get!
“It was super simple, super dumb, and I almost broke my phone several times by shaking it too hard!” — Vergès
At the time, smartphones came with a handful of sensors, which offered unchartered territory in mobile development. This ignited his fascination around accelerometers. He needed a simple idea that would teach him how to use the accelerometer and help him understand Java concepts better. He decided to build something that would expose him to enough of the core features in Android without overwhelming him.
Despite it being his first time developing on Android, he found it wasn’t difficult to grasp. There were plenty of resources online, ranging from tutorials, snippets of code, to the open-sourced Android SDK itself. It gave him the confidence to continue learning and coding.
This app taught him the fundamentals of Android: creating activities, navigating between them, laying out views, interacting with sensors, and much more.
“I immediately fell in love with the fact that I could code something and run it on my phone, play with it, and show it to my friends. I quickly got addicted. It’s how everything started for me.” — Vergès
Minimal Reader
Joaquim initially built this app for himself. He wanted a scrollable widget to display his Google Reader feed. The available news readers on the market were too complex. They didn’t offer what he wanted, they lacked a visually appealing user-interface, and none of them were widgets! Since he wanted to experiment with Android’s widget capabilities, which weren’t offered on iOS, he built the Minimal Reader widget. It was an RSS reader that plugged into Google Reader to display titles of articles, which, when tapped, opened the article in a browser. He published its beta on the XDA Developers forum.
“My code was probably horrible and I made a lot of mistakes, but it’s about trial and error. I kept trying and trying until I had something that sort of worked. Then, I just published it.” — Vergès
The response was overwhelmingly positive. People liked it so much, they began requesting features and making suggestions. With continued feedback, Joaquim was able to improve the widget. It steadily evolved with the people, becoming the full app, Minimal Reader Pro. In 2013, Google discontinued Google Reader, leaving him in need of a good news reader again. He solved the problem with one of his recent apps, Flyne, which we’ll discuss in the next installment.
To be continued…
This was just the beginning of Joaquim’s story. The second installment of this chapter, “In Conversation with Joaquim Vergès,” highlights the inception of his current apps, Falcon and Flyne, as well as his thoughts on Silicon Valley and Twitter. He also offers some words of wisdom and resources. Check it out here:
