This is the first post in a series where I'll be sharing my experience trying to turn an app I made into a real business.

I recently entered this app into the Google Gemini API Developer Competition.

What The App Does

'Letter Creator' is an app that makes it easy to write letters on your smartphone. And once you’re satisfied with your letter, the app automatically prints it and sends it for you via US Postal Mail.

It's a simple way to handle important letters from pretty much anywhere.

If you'd like to be notified when the app is ready to download, enter your email address here.

What happened

I submitted 'Letter Creator' to the Google Gemini API Developer Competition on August 12th, 2024.

The app uses the Android API, Jetpack Compose, Hilt dependency injection, the Room database, CameraX, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech libraries, and the Gemini multimodal API.

Here is the target persona and segmentation that I'm aiming for.

My Plan

My plan is to improve this app, make it more usable and more accessible to everyone, add in-app payments, and eventually turn it into a real business.

At first, I’ll be printing and mailing the letters myself, but as more people start using the app, I hope to partner with small businesses that can help me with these tasks.

What’s Next?

Soon, I'll add better instructions and pre-made templated prompts. I’ll add features to make sure all the addresses are double-checked and triple-checked. And I'll user-test various workflows to add/correct missing information to each letter.

I also think the app needs to send a copy of the letter to the original sender (either by PDF in an email and/or by actual US Postal Mail). Plus, I'll be exploring the issues with registered letters with tracking numbers and return-receipts.

Right now, the app is focused on formal letters, but I think it can eventually be used for personal letters, custom greeting cards, and custom postcards as the technology improves.

I’m also planning to make an iPhone version, but first, I'd like to fully flesh out the UI on Android. If you'd like to be notified when the app is ready for the iPhone, just enter your email address here and select iPhone version from the pull down.

Follow along as I share what it's like to try and turn this app into something bigger. I’ll be talking about the challenges, successes, and everything in between as I work to make my app a real business.