Giving you a list of things we wish we did starting out that made a major impact on our user experience and the number of people downloading and staying on our app.

1. #thefirst1000
Forgotten Features

2. #thefirst1000 1
Sign In with Google and Facebook- Users don't want to actually write credentials in to create an account. In the
cases where you need them to, do it gradually.
Have them give their email or FB/Gmail; that creates their account. You bagged the user. Then have the
incrementally go through adding more info to complete their profile.
Sign In with Social
Our Story: We started out not wanting to track our users every move like Google and Facebook but It turns out only a select
number of users care. From the ones who created an account manually, so many of them wont be able to remember the actual
password they used so make sure you have a forgot your password in there. Internet experts also say sign in with Google and
Facebook can increase your app downloads to user conversion around 40%.

3. #thefirst1000 2
Notification System- First timers often underestimate what a robust notification system can do for an app. If
what you're building involves people needing to constantly come back to the application, you need to be
constantly pinging them and sending them email reminders or else you might be forgotten.
Notification System
Our Story: For the first four months there were no notifications at all so users would just have to be curious if anyone
responded to actually interact with other users. There still are badges on the app when you recieve interactions from other
users on the site. This also doesn't factor in the missed interactions that could have come from notifying people when something
close to them was shared, when things they had previously searched for were shared, and a host of other things that would
bring new users back into the app.

4. #thefirst1000 3
Admin Panel- You want something built in so that as an admin you can regularly communicate with your
audience. It may be for specific campaigns, annouce new features or updates, but you want something you can
use to make your follwowing take action that isn't tied to a third party.
Admin Panel
Our Story: We have done a host of campaigns with organizations in the community. From prom dress drives to collecting Items
for a transitional housing shelter. Although we put together a lot with nearly no notice, I will always see it as an
underperformance because many people missed the deadline and other users had no clue these events were even happening
because our only way of communicating with our audience at the time was through Instagram.

5. #thefirst1000 4
Requirements- Users are LAZY and they don't care about making sure other users have the best experience on
your app. They care about themselves, you'll need to add requirements to the interactions that matter most to
your experience to ensure every user performs them correctly.
Requirements
Our Story: Users regularly posted to the platform with no content at all. No pic, no text, no nothing. Our feed started to get
filled with empty posts or swipes at a time without images. It got so bad, I was embarrassed to do video recordings of the
screen because it all looked like dummy data being generated into the app.

6. #thefirst1000 5
User Education- People may really be drawn into your idea but they won't know how to use It. You really need
to find an engaging way to steer them through what will help them get the best out if what you built.
User Education
Our Story: This is actually a positive story but it is still something users founders need to think through, when people first began
posting requests, they would put their face on it and we really thought that was weird and insanely intimate. We actually
deleted the first post. We later saw that it was something people wanted to do and It made the requests a bit more personal so
we decided to let it stick and see how it performed.

7. #thefirst1000 6
Crowd Control- You really want to be swift and pro-active about misuse and abuse on your platform. You may
need things that automatically stop posts with offensive content.
Crowd Control
Our Story: We actually had a user post in their bio that they "love eating p****." Through our team account, we had to go in and
let them know that this was not what the app was for and delete their bio. We still don't have a system that makes it easy to
modify accounts and posts without manually going into the backend of the site and nothing proventive to keep it from
happening again or in mass.

8. #thefirst1000 7
Hot Reloading- You'll want to make sure alot of your features load as soon as it happens. People have come to
expect lots of instant gratification for many of the interactions they perform in an app.
Hot Reloading
Our Story: There's too many Instances for me to just site one but many people will assume your features aren't working If you
dont give them an obvious success message or interaction that shows, Look! Something has changed. These subtle pings can
make the difference between, "Okay, cool! We're getting somewhere" and "Damn, this shit is hella buggy."

9. #thefirst1000 8
Loading Time- You'll want to be specific about loading times. You may not think about it but things like the size
in which images are stored and sequence that you call them in can impact how people experience your site.
Loading Time
Our Story: Some images in messages can take over 10 secs to load. Our feed used to queue up everything and load all at once
before It showed the Images so users would often see nothing for the first 5 secs on the site. For context, google the speed at
which people expect certain features on your site to load. You don't notice the difference, but less than a second of variation
can be the difference between a good app and someone always thinking of your app as slow.

10. #thefirst1000 9
You Start With 0 Users- You often design your product with how it will look with hundreds of users in mind.
The funny thing is, you have to start with zero. You'll want to make sure users still get a good experience.
You Start with 0 Users
Our Story: When we first launched, we had three posts going across. This reduced the surface area of each post so much that It
took us months to get enough content for users to even have to scroll. By going to two across and Increasing the height of the
posts, we quadrupled the time spent in app while also boosting the number of interactions with the content.

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In App Rating Requests- The number of ratings impacts where your app falls in search. The more ratings you
have the better unless people are sharing a lot of negaitve feedback.
In-App Rating Requests
Our Story: Your friends aren't going to rate your app. They just don't like you that much. We started out with around 4. 2 of
those ratings were from the people who made it and another came from our business Apple account. The only people who
actually care enough to go in rate it will be the people who had a terrible experience. If you haven't racked up a bunch of 5-star
ratings, those 1-star ratings are going to sink your score tremendously.

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App Store Screenshots- The more dynamic your screenshot, the more people you pull to your page which
means the more downloads you end up getting. Don't overlook this step.
App Store Screenshots
Our Story: I actually had a friend and fellow entrepreneur show me his screenshots and ask If he should change his to make it
better. I told him I was unsure if It was what would have the most impact for his app at that moment. I realized that I just gave
advice without having actually tested It myself, something I try not to do now after I switched up mine and saw an increase in
page open across both stores. My apologies to him btw. Rookie mistake.

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App Description- Don't be a fool and use the space with room for 2K words and only write 3 sentences. App
stores are a battle to be seen. Although it isnt as competitve as social media, you still need to beat the algorithm.
App Description
Our Story: I had a bunch of time while my partner was uploading to the app store to design the layout of the page and this is
one of the few things I actually got right. People are likely looking for your app Idea already. You just need to help them find It.
What I found helpful was finding a key phrase people might search for and playing toward that phrase. Googling what works
best here will go a long with earning you traffic without It adding to your marketing budget.

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FreeSpot

15. #LetsGetFree