Finally! We have reached the final stage of public beta testing. After countless months of developing it feels great to be so close to releasing the app on the App Store.
Our last beta test group reached our maximum capacity - 120 users! We are so grateful for all of our beta testers, they are the reason BOLT is as good as it is today.
Beta testing is a tough phase. You receive crash reports at 2am and get tons of feedback every day. Figuring out how to fix the problem is always rough, but once you figure it you do feel some pride. Plus the next time you see the bug you'll immediately know the cause.
The last two beta tests focused on implementing features and brining the app to a stable state. Public beta test 3 focuses on making the app a bit smoother and ensuring that 110% of the app works. We are also starting to focus on the budget and efficiency factors for this beta.
As a startup the compromise between efficiency and cost (storage and server costs) is something, well, not fun. Figuring out how to structure code to spend the least amount of money while also keeping the app snappy is something that takes a lot of trial and error and research. As someone building something to this scale for the first time, I honestly don't have much experience in it. So I just go through the combinations and eventually find the right one, which thankfully I believe we have.
A big takeaway from the last beta test is to make sure you store versions of your code or any project really. Don't ever assume you can just control-z or press redo or just figure out how to go back. Trust me. Recreating something you spent hours building before is NOT fun at all, so make sure you save every step of your project somewhere.
Overall, the last few weeks have been a journey of a lifetime. Lot's of bugs, lot's of failures, but many more triumphs.
July 2023, Darsh
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