Jepster | Bike computer – Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

I studied Industrial Engineering and Management with an IT specialization. I learned the
basics during several courses. I started learning Android development with an online tutorial
just before I started working on the Jepster app.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

Creating the app in such a way that I would always record the ride data. Especially, when
the app is not visible on the screen e.g. when making a picture, screen off, or just making a
a phone call the app should still record in a reliable way.

Tom Wassink (born 1984) lives in the Netherlands with his two kids (born in 2014 and 2017) and his wife. He really likes sports and especially cycling (road and mountain biking). Tom has a master’s in Industrial Engineering (IT specialization) and started his career as an IT auditor at Ernst & Young in 2009. Since 2012 Tom has held several positions at Royal Avebe and currently, he is the manager of the Functional Application Support team of the ICT department.

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Ziggo Go (part of Vodafone) app I really like because it gives you the opportunity to watch live sports events everywhere. Furthermore, I like Strava, Spotify, Google Maps, and News apps.

How long have you been working on this app?

I started in 2012 and it took me 3-5 years before I launched an initial version in the Google Play Store. Since then, I still spend time to add new functions and keep it up to date. As I have a full-time job and two young kids, I have to do developments in the spare time left.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

The minimum requirements were to be able to reliable record a ride with GPS data, ability
to connect to ANT+ sensors (e.g. heart rate monitor, speed/cadence sensors, and a power
meter), and to show a GPX route on a map together with data fields. Next to that battery
consumption needed to be acceptable.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

I’m most proud of the recently added climb function and the ability to easily change data
fields shown. Next to that it is very reliable. It crashed sometimes after I did an update, but
I never lost a part of my ride.
The uniqueness of the app is the combination of the looks, features and that it is for free
and without advertisements.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

As the number of users of the app has grown with more than 600% over the last 9 months I
got a lot of questions and feature requests. So first I have to finish the manual to make
some things clearer.

One of the major new features which I would like to develop is Live Strava Segments, but
as Strava recently changed their interface I have to think about the opportunities left. Other
features are online tracking for supporters/safety feature, turn by turn navigation (might
be a “premium” function as libraries are not for free, at least the ones I like), support of
additional ANT+ profiles, more data fields, different font sizes and multiple user interfaces
for the layout.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Provide feedback (in a positive way ;-)) on what they like and do not like about the app.
Also features requests can be send to me to keep me inspired for new functionalities (although I already have a long list of requests…). And of course share their experiences with others!