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Due to our neighborhood’s generosity, we’re happy to announce that we’ve employed a full-time cellular developer to work on the Lichess cellular functions out there on iOS and Android, ranging from 1 November 2022.
The variety of customers who entry Lichess by way of the cellular app has solely elevated 12 months on 12 months for a number of years, and we count on this quantity to proceed rising.
The unique Lichess cellular app was written as a pastime challenge, and maintained on a voluntary foundation — however with the expansion of Lichess over the previous couple of years it requires extra time and dedication than the volunteer neighborhood (wonderful as it’s) can present alone.
Equally, for a number of years, bettering the cellular app has been one of the crucial widespread items of suggestions we obtain in emails, the boards, on reddit and different social media. Due to the generosity of our donors, we’re ready to start making {that a} actuality.
Plus, whereas not everybody could personal a PC or laptop computer, on a world degree they normally will personal some form of smartphone as a substitute. Consequently, a lightweight cellular app which is technologically accessible shall be key to Lichess’s charitable aims to advertise and encourage the play and examine of chess, and using free open supply software program, globally.
With the cellular app changing into so necessary to Lichess and its customers, it was a no brainer (as soon as sources had been out there) to rent a everlasting worker to give attention to it, and we hope that is the primary of many. With out additional ado, meet veloce, and a few extra element within the plans for the cellular app beneath.
To begin with, are you able to inform us a few of your plans for the cellular app?
The cellular app shall be fully rebuilt from the bottom. We’ll use Flutter, an UI toolkit that may permit us to realize a significantly better high quality than with the present utility.
The primary focus would be the person expertise, I’d like the brand new app to be extra intuitive and straightforward to make use of.
[ed. the current mobile app, lichobile, will be maintained but receive no new features while the new mobile app is being built.]
That sounds superior – what do you suppose your milestones for the cellular app shall be, and the place will customers be capable of observe your progress?
The primary function that I’ll implement are puzzles. They’re match on cellular and the present app doesn’t have the newest model of puzzles. It additionally misses puzzle streak, puzzle storm and puzzle racer. Including this may carry a whole lot of worth instantly to the brand new app.
The primary place the place issues will occur is on Github. When you have a technical background you’ll be able to observe the progress there. We will even intention to speak concerning the progress.
It’s too quickly to have a roadmap, however we will definitely have one sooner or later and provides an replace. It’s laborious to estimate a launch date, however I hope to have a primary launch of the brand new app out within the first half of 2023.
Are you able to share a little bit of your technical background with the neighborhood? How did you get into cellular app growing? Any attention-grabbing earlier purchasers?
I didn’t examine laptop science. I taught myself methods to construct web sites once I was working for the top of analysis on the Aeronautics faculty ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse.
Then I labored a little bit as a PHP developer, however I spotted there have been higher languages. So I switched to Scala and Typescript.
I obtained into cellular app growth at my work in Paris once I was given a challenge for a financial institution to deal with their factoring providers. Since then I’ve labored primarily as a non-mobile dev. Anyway, it’s after that individual challenge that I made a decision to begin growing the primary Lichess cellular utility, again in 2014!
You’ve had an account on Lichess since 2010 – that’s a very long time! Do you’ve gotten a very favorite Lichess reminiscence, or expertise?
I’ve witnessed Lichess steadily develop and enhance since that point and I’m nonetheless amazed by the development. If I’ve to call one reminiscence, that may be the primary time Magnus Carlsen joined the platform to play a match. What an achievement!
Vital query. 1. e4 or 1. d4?
1. e4 after all!
That’s lucky – 1. d4 would have made you a pariah inside the crew. Outdoors of chess and coding, what different actions do you get pleasure from?
I get pleasure from touring by bike lots. My longest journey was 7500 km in Norway, Denmark and Germany, it was wonderful! Extra lately I obtained into crusing, and I attempted land crusing too, it is a actually enjoyable exercise! I get pleasure from singing too, in a contemporary choir.
Thanks for the chat!
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