Porting an iOS App to Android Case Study

The Client

The client is one of the largest technology companies in Western Canada.

For their new business venture, they needed an interactive online social network for various operating systems and devices.

The Challenge

The client had previously created a social media application for iOS that allowed users to communicate via chat. Users could also send images and audio clips to each other while chatting.

The client wanted to update their application to make it compatible on multiple platforms. As well, they wished to renew their application so that users could video chat with each other by using front-facing cameras on mobile devices.

Key Challenges

– The application needed to maintain modularity, manageability, scalability and provision for third-party components.

– The application was to be distributed as a single application with additional features for compatible devices.

– The application required a streaming protocol that is widely supported on multiple phone hardware, particularly iPhone and Android devices.

The Process

  1. Study existing system and prepare plan.
  2. Development and integration.
  3. Deployment in staging environment.
  4. Acceptance and sign-off at each phase indicating completion.

How Optimus Helped

The Optimus team began the project by reviewing the requirements with the client.

Following this detailed discussion with the client, our team adopted an agile methodology for the project so we could conduct the project in smaller sprints with regular intervals for review. This helped to ensure that the client’s technical team had a complete overview of the application throughout the course of this project.

Our team worked closely with the client’s architects throughout development in part due to the fact that the application’s functions directly impacted the core server’s framework.

With the assistance of OptimusMobility’s team, the client was able to develop an application that worked on a range of devices and browsers:

  • Native on iOS for iPhone 3G/3GS/4G.
  • Native on Android devices.
  • Mobile web for all non-iPhone and non-Android mobile devices.
  • Web on most desktop browsers.