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Ask HN: What do you think of my app?

18 points by jungl ↗ HN
https://web.jungl.com there is a web and android app at the moment. It's a tool for sharing and discovering new mobile apps. The difference is that we only show new apps from our friends or people who have a lot of apps in common with us. Let me know what you think! Thanks in advance from a long time lurker!

18 comments

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semperfaux
My question would be what this really does that isn't already happening. App discovery is definitely an open problem, but if what you're doing is facilitating sharing apps with people who know you (already easy directly between individuals) or seeing what people at large like (already done via the top charts), I'm not sure what the point is.

Also, and I know from sites like Flickr that I'm not exactly making a bulletproof point, I really dislike the whole "leave off a letter" approach to naming a product. Telling someone "jungle dot com, but without the e" moves you from a two syllable TLD to one that requires an extra five and perhaps a follow up just to make sure they're searching for the right thing.

jungl
With this app we really want to work on social connections and the connections with people from apps we have in common. If we ever do a 'Top' chart, you will only see the top of your community and not the top from the entire Jungl crowd.

For example, at the moment we have 300 account created, each accounts have listed their favorite apps. I'm personally connected to 15 users with the most apps in common with me. My 'Top' chart would be different than yours as long as our favorite apps selections are different.

We are working to make a very personalized and living catalog of the latest cool apps.

I see your point with the naming choice.

Mithaldu
Instead of "apps from people you hassled with social network bullshit" i'd rather see "apps from people who have a similar set of apps you do".
jungl
I like that. Thanks!
mtmail
An iOS app like that would run into trouble

"Applications that include filtering, bookmarking, searching or sharing recommendations are not considered significantly different from the App Store, therefore they cannot be approved by Apple."

"Appidemia has managed to acquire more than 200,000 users"

http://techcrunch.com/2013/12/11/appidemia-shutting-down-aft...

jungl
At the moment the web version is handling iOS. We are working on the iOS app. We'll see in two weeks how it goes...
michaeltbuss
A really popular iOS developer just had one of his app updates rejected because it linked to other iOS apps: https://twitter.com/marcoarment/status/554119074893275137

He was only linking to 5 or so apps, and it was hidden away in a Settings menu.

I really wouldn't invest too much in having this work for iOS.

jungl
I know this is a risk, but we have done our best not to make it a store. We'll know soon if that works.
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hluska
You have received a few very good pieces of critical advice in this Ask HN. I encourage you to heed their points, but I will not reiterate them. Instead, I just want to say that I like your website - your design is great and the content is also quite good.

Good job and good luck with your app.

jungl
Thanks for the great feedback, I appreciate it! Still work in progress, we'll make it better.
jlhonora
You should add some padding to the apps' icons, just like you did for the user's profile image.
jungl
Thanks. I add that to things to do on the next UI session :)
jungl
Thanks for all the feedback and trying out the app. Sorry for the delay of response, I'm in France and had to take a train. 3G here is not what it used to be since 4G took off...