A tour before the store

Bloom and Shruti were both close to Google Play. I held both releases to build the same thing first: a way in for someone who isn’t me.

The feature I never needed

I know these apps by heart because I built every corner of them. A new user doesn’t. A keyboard with a new layout is useless until you can type on it, and a raga app with two Build modes behind one menu is a mystery until someone shows you the menu. The features worked. The first five minutes didn’t.

What each app got

Bloom: Learn. A hands-on tour of the gestures, where each step passes only when you actually do the gesture, with a ghost trace showing the motion. Then eight short lessons by key group, using real words made only from letters you’ve already learned, with hints that fade as you improve. The closed test waited for it.

Shruti: a guided tour. A skippable overview of every feature, plus guided flows that cross features, like setting up Bhupali in D with a tuning on the frets. The coach sits beside whatever it’s pointing at, and the next step waits until you’ve heard the sound. It’s a working prototype now, being polished, and the release waits for it.

Why hold a release for it

Quality isn’t only whether a feature works. It’s whether someone can find it, understand it and enjoy it without me in the room. For apps I’m putting in front of strangers, a tour isn’t a nice-to-have, so it went in before the store.