Introducing Runner App By Hover
The app that helps you maintain platform quality and individual peace of mind if your technology runs on or includes USSD/SIM toolkit.
Written by Oluwatobi Akinpelu
Runner app helps you maintain platform quality and individual peace of mind if your technology runs on or includes USSD/SIM toolkit. It’s previously known as Tester app.
According to Wiza Jalakasi (BD and Strategy here at Hover), mobile operators (especially in Africa — where the market is primarily prepaid) typically use USSD for their internal applications such as balance checks, top-ups, data bundles, and promotions. More recently, banks and utility companies have started taking advantage of the protocol to build mobile banking and utility management applications all across the continent.
Introduction
USSD is no longer used by only telcos and banks; startups and indie devs are now integrating features, building products, and experimenting on USSD. It’s become a mainstream transport layer for financial services in Africa and South Asia, used by hundreds of millions of people daily. Just like any other technology that needs to scale, it requires 24/7 monitoring and continual QA and reliability testing.
Unlike internet based platforms for which developers can easily write code to test servers and get realtime feedback and notification on system uptime, it’s more difficult to accomplish the same on USSD. It usually requires manual testing of each unique combination of root code, menu, variable input, error message, confirmation message etc. Tens of thousands permutations may exist.
USSD maintenance challenges
Imagine you have to test, maintain, and constantly monitor the *737# GTBank USSD application in Nigeria. This means you’d need to pick up your mobile device, dial the USSD code, navigate through each menu’s sub-menus, enter every unique variable possible (and when you make entry errors, which you will 😑, you then need to start over), and validate error and confirmation responses. Then, repeat that process for all other main menu items.
This is an absolute developer, QA, or product manager’s nightmare. You do not want to get yourself in this scenario. So what do you do? You run to Hover. I said Run! Run!! Run!!! :)
The solution: Runner App by Hover
Hover is constantly building tools that help developers build for the inclusive internet, especially tools that weren’t once possible. We have built “Runner App” to help you manage, run, and test your USSD app and platform in a way that’s agile, effective, and automated.
How and what does Runner do?
Runner allows you to:
- Preset variables through a super easy developer experience.
- Automate all or specific USSD sessions by a single tap of a button.
- Provide visual health status for all of your USSD actions.
- Re-use your variables for your next round of QA.
- Send all information to your Hover web dashboard where you can download report/results or connect via web-hook and much more.
What previously took a team of 3 developers 48 hours to do, can now be done by 1 developer in 30 minutes. Isn’t that cool?
Is it on the App stores? How to download?
For security reasons, this app is not available on any app store. To download, you will need to sign up and/or sign in to your Hover account where you will find the Runner app automatically built for you alone. Use the QR code or download through the link.
Only your login credentials can be used to open your Runner app. You cannot use your password for another account’s APK and someone else cannot use your credentials for their APK. Basically, it has military-grade security.
Ship faster. Manage better.
It takes just 3 steps to get started.
- Download Runner app by Hover.
- Create your USSD actions on your web dashboard
- Refresh your app’s action list.
That’s it. You now have a full suite to manage your USSD menus at your finger tips. We’d appreciate your feedback, and claps too 👏.
