Hello! Messenger is a free, cross-platform mobile chat app which lets iPhone and Blackberry users chat in pairs or groups while avoiding SMS charges. Hello! had a great product already on the market, but were looking to expand their userbase by releasing an Android version of the app with cross-platform functionality. That’s where GT came in…

Developing for Android

When tasked with porting Hello! to Android, our developers looked at three possible options in detail:

• Write new code for the app from scratch.
• Use Beem, a Jabber client as a foundation for building Hello! Messenger.
• Use Yaxim, another open-source Jabber client as a foundation.

After examining the pros and cons of each of these routes, we decided to go with using Yaxim as the foundation of Hello! Messenger. Yaxim offered a clean code structure, and its functions aligned with the goals we had in mind for the app. By using Yaxim’s core code, we had a head start on development, saving the client development time and costs. Additionally, because Yaxim is available under the GPL, we were able to also release the Android client under the GPL as well.

Wifi Troubleshooting

Programming for Android presents unique challenges. Certain settings in Hello! had to be adapted to fit Tigase 4, the Jabber server which Hello! was already using in its iPhone and Blackberry instantiations.

Another issue arose with regards to the app’s wifi connectivity. Hello! is designed to be able to save data (including drafted messages) and change settings if a user has no wifi access or moves out of a wifi hotspot, and porting those features over to Android proved tricky – we used a simple Faraday cage to help with troubleshooting.

While substantial, these issues were welcome challenges for us. Mobile app development is obviously a hugely expanding market, and we’re keen to find ways for our years of development experience to be applied to this expansive frontier.

Hello! Messenger sorts and displays chats

Upgrading A Hosting Platform

Hello! Messenger were running their site on an unmanaged Amazon EC2 cloud server which regularly ran into performance issues. While developing the app for them, Hello! realised that Gossamer Host would be a great fit for their needs, and would reliably serve all Hello! Messenger users worldwide.

After completing development of the app, Hello! Messenger migrated their site and app infrastructure to one of our virtual hosting plans.

Moving Forward With Android Development

The Android version of Hello! Messenger is now in public beta release and can be downloaded for free.

If you have an Android-based project in the works and are looking for a partner with over 15 years in web development, please get in touch with us.