AssemblyMate: Now on Android

A few months ago, I released my latest Windows Phone app, AssemblyMate.It’s a simple app designed for use by Jehovah’s Witnesses to take notes at assemblies and conventions.I have received a lot of positive feedback from users of the app, and I’ve enjoyed using it myself.But being available only on Windows Phone presented some limitations.

First, the relatively small form factor of the phone makes note-taking a little tedious.It’s not terrible, but not ideal either.In the post where I mentioned the initial release of AssemblyMate, I mentioned that I was looking forward to Windows 8 as an opportunity to run the app on a larger tablet device.While those devices are coming soon, they are not yet available.

Second, despite the high level of satisfaction expressed by those who have adopted Windows Phone, the fact remains that the group remains small compared to other mobile OSes.Again, I expect this to change in the future as the Windows 8/Windows Phone 8 software and devices created by Microsoft and their partners gain traction and popularity among consumers and businesses.But such widespread adoption is likely six months to a year away, in the best case scenario.

The solution to both of those problems was to port the application to another mobile OS, either Android or iOS.Both platforms run on tablet devices and both have large user bases to which I could market my apps.In the end, I settled on Android as the next platform for AssemblyMate.It was a grueling, months-long process.First, I had to familiarize myself the process and tools involved with writing and publishing Android apps.Then I had to learn how to code in Java.Due to my familiarity with C#, it wasn’t totally foreign, but the difficulty of performing some tasks made it a struggle at times.

The good news is that the process finally came to an end today.This morning I published AssemblyMate on Google Play.Download and enjoy!

**UPDATE: **As of July 15, the app is now also available in the Amazon app store (download here), and will soon be available in the Barnes & Noble Nook app store.

P.S. Since it is my first Android app, and I don’t have a physical device on which to test it, I intended to release the app as a beta version, free to early adopters, and then begin charging for the app after I weed out bugs and any device-specific issues.However, the Google policies would not let me switch from free to paid at a later date, so I had to set the $0.99 price from the start.If anyone wants to get a free copy and help with beta testing, email me and I will hook you up.