Help support the future of PrayerMate

Frequently Anticipated Questions

• Who will be developing the syncing feature for Android?

  An experienced software developer who I know very well called Dave Bignell has a window of opportunity over the next few months where he would be available to work on adding sync to PrayerMate for Android. He's already got prior knowledge of the codebase and how it all works having previously implemented a number of its features, so he's an ideal candidate for the job.

• What's happened to syncing for iOS?

  I've been testing syncing for iOS with a number of beta users, and it is very close now. It's much better not to have syncing at all than to have something that's buggy and unreliable - and every time a new issue is discovered I have to wait until I can get some more time to work on it to fix it. My full-time employer has very generously given me an entire week of unpaid leave at the end of October so that I can get it properly wrapped up (the cost of which I will be bearing myself).

• Who will be developing the web client?

  I have links with a software outsourcing company based in Eastern Europe that is run by Christians, and who have come extremely highly recommended to me by people who've worked with them many times in the past. We've already been in discussions about the possibility of building this web client - an easy way to let you manage all of your PrayerMate data in a web browser when you have a big screen and a full size keyboard.

• Why do you need so much money?

  Developing quality software that works reliably and intuitively takes a substantial amount of time from highly skilled workers, which in turn requires money so that they can afford to live. By using an Eastern European outsourcing company we're already getting much lower rates than could be offered by a company in the UK or USA.

• I heard you were going to start charging for PrayerMate. Will I have to pay twice?

  It's true that I was considering adding an optional paid upgrade to access certain advanced features within PrayerMate. However, early indications suggested that approach was not going to allow me to raise sufficient funding, so I'm trying this specific appeal as an alternative, allowing me to keep the app free to download and use.

• What happens if you don't raise it all in time?

  God-willing these projects shall be happening one way or the other, and if this crowd-funding approach doesn't succeed then I shall trust God to provide another way to bring in the money. Therefore I won't be taking a Kickstarter-style approach of "all or nothing" - any money at all raised through this campaign will help make these projects a reality, even if it's not the full amount.

• Why aren't you using something like Kickstarter?

  For all the noise that Kickstarter makes, my previous experience is that even now surprisingly few people have heard of it, and that it just introduces one extra third party that people have to decide to trust and register an account for. It also takes a reasonable cut of any funds raised, and doesn't allow UK givers to Gift Aid their donations.

• Will you be giving some kind of reward to supporters?

  God-willing you'll have the reward of getting to use the new features that get built, as well as the feel-good factor of knowing you made it happen (not to mention your reward in heaven!) You'll also get early access to beta test the new web client before everybody else gets their hands on it.

• When will it be ready by?

  Predicting how long a software project will take is notoriously difficult. The main development of syncing for Android will need to be done by Christmas, because that's the developer's window of opportunity that's available to us. But there may be a couple of months of testing and tweaking required to get it working really smoothly. The web client is somewhat dependent upon that working well, but should only take a month or so after that.

• I don't care about these features - why should I support this campaign?

  It's quite possible that none of the three needs this campaign is raising money for get you particularly excited. However, cloud based syncing and a desktop/web client are far and away the most requested features by users around the world - I get multiple requests per week for them. Even people who only have one device can see the benefit of having their data automatically backed up in the cloud without them having to think about it - and let's face it, nobody really likes typing on a mobile keyboard. But let me give you three reasons why you should support this campaign even if you're not excited by these particular features:

  Firstly, you'd be serving your brothers and sisters who are excited by them - of whom there are many.

  Secondly, I can't really focus on any other projects that do excite you until these are out of the way - I have to give priority to the features that will satisfy the most users. What's more, an enormous number of other great features will be made possible by the existence of a central cloud-based hub which can send new content to your devices.

  Thirdly, if any further work is to be done on PrayerMate at all, then it's really high time my decrepit laptop got replaced - otherwise so much times gets wasted sitting around whilst code compiles or letters that you typed 15 seconds ago wait to appear on the screen.