In Conversation with Joaquim Vergès: Chapter 1, Installment 2
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. The first installment took us on a journey through his childhood, leading into life after graduation. We explored his interest in programming and Android, and learned about his initial apps. In this installment, we delve deeper into his journey and talk about his continued success — from Falcon Pro to Silicon Valley and Twitter. If you missed the first installment, read it here:
We carried on, pausing to take sips of our drinks, and chatting away about his accomplishments and struggles. He was laid-back, friendly, and easy to talk to. Hearing his story was not only interesting, but also inspiring. I couldn’t wait to get home and share his story with the world. I continued asking questions, and he continued to guide me through his story.
The Inception of Flyne
The discontinuation of Google Reader left Joaquim in need of a new newsreader. At the time, Twitter was becoming his primary news source, but the content was scattered and difficult to find. He wanted to consolidate and display Twitter’s news content in a simple app, so he rewrote Minimal Reader Pro from scratch and created Flyne, an offline newsreader based on Twitter.
“It’s great for traveling because you can load the articles over WiFi and read them while you’re offline.” — Vergès
He released Flyne’s last update in October of 2014, and plans to return to working on it. While Flyne’s popularity didn’t soar much like Falcon’s, the app has a loyal community of users, and Joaquim is committed to improving their experience.
How Falcon Pro Was Born
All the while, Falcon was emerging in the background. Joaquim first began using Twitter while promoting Minimal Reader Pro. Of course, with his fascination of Android’s widget capabilities, it wasn’t long before he decided to build a Twitter widget. Continuing his “Minimal” brand, he called it Minimal Twidget. This simple, scrollable widget allowed users to have the full Twitter app on their home screen. The first prototype was published on a forum, where it caught the attention of a young designer. Wanting a new name and logo, Joaquim decided to work with him. Together, they began brainstorming bird names, searching which ones were available. Falcon was one of them! Joaquim thought the image — a dark, mean bird that’s super fast and a little dangerous — represented the widget perfectly. He quickly finalized a logo and published Falcon’s Beta on the same forum. The response was all too familiar. People loved it so much, they wanted a full app!
“My point was, if it’s an app then it’s not unique anymore. The uniqueness was that it was a widget.” — Vergès
He finally decided to give in, and to his surprise, he loved the app more than the widget. Because apps offer increased functionality, he was able to do more.
The evolution from widget to app called for a rebrand. Joaquim had a new concept in mind. He collaborated with his friend, a graphic designer in Paris, to redesign the logo into the fierce falcon you see today:
He called it Falcon Pro. It was unique and far more powerful. A simple Google search revealed a diversity of falcons, but no Falcon Pros — it removed the ambiguity.
“I started with a simple idea but people push so hard that you can’t resist. When people ask for it, it’s worth it. I worked so hard because people were getting excited, and that gets me excited. For a week, I worked non-stop and released it on the Play Store. That’s how Falcon Pro was born.” — Vergès
Twitter imposed a restriction, limiting the number of users the app could support to 100K. Joaquim was well aware of the limitation, but never anticipated reaching it. He didn’t think the app was as unique as the widget because similar apps were available. He thought the price would be another barrier for Falcon Pro’s success.
“But somehow… I guess it’s a mix of things. I think my UI was innovative. I had a double sliding page, which was fairly uncommon. It was before the hamburger menus. And, I think I did well with marketing. The logo translated the message I wanted. You feel a little badass using it because it’s a falcon, not a little blue bird. That resonated with the audience.” — Vergès
All the Beta users purchased the app, causing an immediate surge in downloads. It caught people’s attention, and since Falcon Pro was a Twitter app, they began Tweeting about it. This led to a natural viral effect.
“I wasn’t planning on that. I just wanted to build something that worked for me.” — Vergès
Approximately four months later, he reached the 100K limit — partially due to some missing security measures. Various hacked versions of the app were consuming one, or more, tokens each. He continued to learn, added more security, and started over. Users were prompted to logout and login again. This worked for a few months, until he hit the limit again. The press was catching on and beginning to write about Falcon Pro. The result? Even more users wanted to download it, and Joaquim had to act fast. He tried to temporarily prevent users from purchasing the app by raising the price to 100€. Although this gave him some time to resolve the issue, it also became a free headline for blogs and media outlets. The popularity and demand of Falcon Pro continued to rise and Joaquim continued to work around the problems. Eventually, he removed it from the Play Store and published a free version on his website. It’s still there today, but you must complete a trick to use it.
That was about two years ago, when Joaquim was getting ready to head over to Silicon Valley.
On Silicon Valley & Improving Falcon Pro
After Joaquim removed Falcon Pro from the Play Store, it was the climax of press coverage. People were noticing him, even in Silicon Valley. He received a phone call from a Silicon Valley company and agreed to interview with them. However, he wasn’t able to get an offer.
“I didn’t know what American interviews were like so I failed… really hard! But, at least it taught me what to expect.” — Vergès
Soon, he received another call from Silicon Valley. He was prepared this time — he made it! But, Silicon Valley wasn’t always his plan. He had other app ideas he wanted to pursue, and he was planning on starting his own company with some friends in Paris.
“But, when California calls, you go! Especially if it’s Silicon Valley. I loved the idea of living in California. I always wanted to be by the sea, in a sunny place, and Paris was the opposite of that. So, it was perfect!” — Vergès
Being in Silicon Valley, working alongside amazing talent, making deeper connections with the developer community, and being surrounded by a wealth of knowledge, helped Joaquim grow both personally and as a developer. That’s when he decided to release a new version of Falcon Pro.
“I rewrote everything from scratch, and used everything I learned in the Valley, which is huge! Plus there’s so much new stuff that helps improve apps, so I rewrote it all and released it as Falcon Pro 3.” — Vergès
Taking nearly a month to complete, it was released on the Play Store in January, 2015. Talon and Fenix — two Twitter apps, similar to Falcon — were already on the Play Store. He intentionally priced Falcon slightly higher to ensure the app didn’t explode again. It’s currently on the Play Store and it’s full of material design.
“It’s all fresh code because the code in the previous version was unmaintainable. It was one of my first apps after all. Rewriting it was really good.” — Vergès
On Twitter
After discussing his journey thus far, we finally arrived at the moment I’d been waiting for — the present! I wanted to hear his thoughts on Twitter and opened up the dialogue by asking a simple question: “You’re finally at Twitter. How does it feel to be there, and what does Twitter mean to you?”
His eyes instantly lit up, and hints of a smile began forming on his face. He leaned forward from his chair and started to speak, “Honestly…” he said, “it feels amazing…” His smile widened as he continued to pause between his words. It was as though he struggled to find the words to express his emotions. But his voice and body language made it crystal clear. I could hear the passion and happiness flowing through his voice as he continued to speak:
“I really love Twitter. I think it’s so powerful. It holds great sentimental value for me. It’s stuff like… the emotions! The emotions I get when a famous person Tweets me, or replies to me. That’s so valuable and that’s why I always admired the product.” — Vergès
Despite his love for the product, he used to feel that the company was ignoring him. He felt like the little guy.
“I was invisible for them, but I understand now. There’s just so much going on. It’s a big company. Now that I see it from the inside, I think it’s amazing. It’s a lot of people like me, who love the product, knocked on Twitter’s door, and got in. Now they get to build the product that they love and use.” — Vergès
He thinks that might be the reason why Twitter hasn’t changed much — because the developers build the product for themselves — but that’s changing now. The discussion is broadening and Twitter’s trying to reach everyone. Joaquim thinks it’s great being a part of that, not only because the product is evolving, but also because he’s finally seeing the official app as a developer.
Working on Twitter caused a shift in perspective for Joaquim, from user to developer. He began seeing all the details and found himself using it more for testing. He thinks the shift can be both good and bad — good because he uses the app 10 times more, testing every detail and making sure his code actually works; bad because he doesn’t see it as user anymore, so he has to take a step back sometimes. There’s one thing that hasn’t changed though:
“The content on the app is still really awesome. Even while testing a feature, I sometimes come across a funny Tweet and start cracking up. That’s the same feeling I’ve always had. It’s all about those emotions!” — Vergès
Although he can’t share specifics of his work at Twitter, he disclosed that he’s improving the user interface, bringing in some elements from Falcon, and focusing on power users. He’s also determined to address some of the problems raised by loyal Android users, such as adhering to material design principles.
Words of Wisdom
“What excites me most about writing code is the ability to show people what it does. If I can’t show people, and they can’t get excited, then I don’t get excited. Optimizing something or making something that spits out JSON doesn’t give me that feeling. I can’t say, “Hey, look at my JSON, it’s so beautiful and animated!” So naturally, I was drawn to UI and chose to focus on it. That’s how I got better. Every time you take on a project, you learn and you get better. So the next time you do it, you do it even better.” — Vergès
Joaquim began his career with web development, learned mobile development, released a successful app, and is continuing to master Android, particularly UI. Here’s some advice from Joaquim.
Be part of the community:
“Being part of the Android community gives you first hand information from it’s members. This makes you a great developer because you always know the latest standards. You also learn about the hype around doing things in a particular way.” — Vergès
Joaquim finds that Android developers who are connected to the community, attend events like Droidcon, or read and keep up to date, tend to be more knowledgable than the ones who don’t. It’s because they’re more aware of the resources available to them.
“When you follow the Android community, it’s a constant stream of new approaches to problems, new libraries, and new paradigms. I personally mix that with the UX community to get the latest from both worlds. It’s so important! You wanna be a great Android developer? You have to be in that community! You gotta know what’s going on. You don’t have to be active, but you have to listen.” — Vergès
He believes that keeping in touch with the community can be a source of inspiration too. As you interact with them, you learn more about the platform’s capabilities. This helps you develop ideas, and you think, “Oh, you can do that? What if I combine it with this?” That’s how you get inspired.
Build something you’ll use:
Joaquim’s a strong believer of building something you need, something you’ll use. And, it doesn’t just apply to Android or programmers, it applies to everything.
“If you build your own house, you’ll do it better than if you build it for someone else. It’s simple logic. I see many Android developers who don’t use Android. That’s just wrong. It’s the same concept as building what you use, right? And, use what you build — everyday, all the time — otherwise you won’t see the problems.” — Vergès
Release as soon as possible:
“As soon as you have something working, get it in the hands of as many people as possible. You’ll be surprised how people use what you created, and that shapes your product in a really sane way. So release as soon as possible, get feedback, and let people push you to improve it!” — Vergès
One thing Joaquim loves about technology is it’s potential to touch so many people with just a computer and the Internet. It’s also one of the biggest reasons he got into software.
“The worst thing you can do is be afraid of exposing yourself to the world. Of course you need to be proud of what you’re delivering, but it’ll never be perfect. If you know your code is working, and it has a few bugs, it’s still worth getting it into the hands of others to see what happens.” — Vergès
He experienced this while co-creating Hacked with his friend, Fabien Devos. Hacked is a coding puzzle game, where players write real, functional code to hack fictional systems to save the world. Shortly after its release, they received a positive response. Users were really excited and heavily engaged with the app, but Joaquim and Fabien quickly realized that their users weren’t part of the target audience. They were building for experienced developers, but they gained momentum amongst beginners and people who wanted to learn programming. This completely changed the game. It meant they’d have to change the entire goal of the app. That’s why Joaquim values feedback so much. It allowed them to test their vision at an early stage.
For aspiring developers:
“It takes time. It takes patience. You have to be resilient because you’re gonna fail and people are going to say, ‘that’s a horrible app,’ but that’s how you get better. And, you gotta be ready for years of trial and error but it’s going to pay off, so keep doing it!” — Vergès
Joaquim learned everything he knows about Android on the Internet. There weren’t a lot of online courses when he started learning, but there’s plenty available now. He didn’t start with a great app, but each consecutive app continued to improve, until finally, he had something decent. He truly believes you can learn anything with the Internet. There’s YouTube videos that take you by the hand and show you how to build an app.
“If you have the dumbest idea, or even if you want to build something that already exists, just for practice, do it! Once you get there, it’s not that difficult. There’s so many tools, libraries, and building blocks that you can plug in. You can quickly build something with just a computer, Internet, and time.” — Vergès
On work-life balance:
“It’s hard. It’s hard because I love what I do. That’s the problem. It doesn’t feel like work. So whenever I’m free, I do it all the time. It’s hard to balance things because when you do what you love, you tend to lose track of time.” — Vergès
Luckily for him, his wife helps keep him grounded. She brings him out of his bubble and helps him realize there’s a world outside of apps and tech. That’s how he balances it.
“I think it’s important to hang out with non-tech people, otherwise you get stuck in an infinite tech life. And here, it’s getting harder and harder because all my friends are techies. But another thing my wife made me realize is, we talk about work, or tech, even outside of work — but it’s because we love it, because it’s not work for us. It’s our passion!” — Vergès
Joaquim’s Top 5
Recommended Resources
- Stack Overflow
- Effective Java by Joshua Bloch
- Android Weekly
- Android Arsenal
