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Because of our neighborhood’s generosity, we’re happy to announce that we’ve employed a full-time cellular developer to work on the Lichess cellular purposes accessible 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 yr on yr for a number of years, and we count on this quantity to proceed rising.
The authentic Lichess cellular app was written as a pastime mission, and maintained on a voluntary foundation — however with the expansion of Lichess over the previous few years it requires extra time and dedication than the volunteer neighborhood (wonderful as it’s) can present alone.
Similarly, for a number of years, bettering the cellular app has been one of the vital frequent items of suggestions we obtain in emails, the boards, on reddit and different social media. Thanks 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 stage they often will personal some sort of smartphone as a substitute. As a end result, a light-weight cellular app which is technologically accessible will probably be key to Lichess’s charitable targets to advertise and encourage the play and examine of chess, and the usage of free open supply software program, globally.
With the cellular app changing into so essential to Lichess and its customers, it was a no brainer (as soon as sources had been accessible) to rent a everlasting worker to give attention to it, and we hope that is the primary of many. Without additional ado, meet veloce, and a few extra element within the plans for the cellular app beneath.
First of all, are you able to inform us a few of your plans for the cellular app?
The cellular app will probably be fully rebuilt from the bottom. We’ll use Flutter, an UI toolkit that may enable us to realize a a lot better high quality than with the present utility.
The foremost focus would be the consumer expertise, I’d like the brand new app to be extra intuitive and simple 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 assume your milestones for the cellular app will probably be, and the place will customers have the ability to comply with your progress?
The first characteristic that I’ll implement are puzzles. They’re a superb match on cellular and the present app doesn’t have the most recent model of puzzles. It additionally misses puzzle streak, puzzle storm and puzzle racer. Adding it will convey lots of worth instantly to the brand new app.
The foremost place the place issues will occur is on Github. If you’ve got a technical background you’ll be able to comply with the progress there. We may even goal 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.
Can you share a little bit of your technical background with the neighborhood? How did you get into cellular app creating? Any attention-grabbing earlier shoppers?
I didn’t examine laptop science. I taught myself construct web sites after I was working for the pinnacle of analysis on the Aeronautics faculty ISAE-SUPAERO in Toulouse.
Then I labored slightly as a PHP developer, however I noticed there have been higher languages. So I switched to Scala and Typescript.
I bought into cellular app improvement at my work in Paris after I was given a mission for a financial institution to deal with their factoring companies. Since then I’ve labored primarily as a non-mobile dev. Anyway, it’s after that specific mission that I made a decision to begin creating 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 got 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 might be the primary time Magnus Carlsen joined the platform to play a event. What an achievement!
Critical query. 1. e4 or 1. d4?
1. e4 in fact!
That’s lucky – 1. d4 would have made you a pariah inside the workforce. Outside 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! More not too long ago I bought into crusing, and I attempted land crusing too, this can be a actually enjoyable exercise! I get pleasure from singing too, in a contemporary choir.
Thanks for the chat!
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