Readfeed Graduates From Google’s Early Access Program, Now Available In Google Play Store

Readfeed is a mobile app designed to assist book enthusiasts in sharing and talking about their favorite books. It is also one of the first apps to graduate from Google’s Early Access program, and is now made available in the Google Play Store. Declaring itself as the biggest online book club in the world, Readfeed comes with a full social platform that basically allows a mobile user to connect with other book lovers, especially those who have read the same titles as the user. The app also lets people set up virtual book shelves and personalized reading lists, as well as monitor their reading progress and chat with other Readfeed users.

According to Rajiev Timal, the founder of Readfeed, the Readfeed mobile app was first released in beta through Google’s Early Access program. By being included in this program, the creators of Readfeed were able to solicit suggestions for features and functionalities, eliminate bugs, identify and plan target audiences, and even establish a solid initial reader community. This means that by the time the app graduates from Google’s program, it has basically polished itself properly just in time for a wider release.

The Early Access program has certainly provided advantages for apps that needed a little bit of polishing before being officially rolled out to the masses. The program is set up in a way that requires users to sign up in order to join, essentially forming a group of people that are more interested in improving mobile apps before they are released. Because the feedback provided is almost always more focused, the result is that apps get to perfect the logic in their programming better. And because the Early access program is a global community, creators of apps get to have an idea in advance of which markets their apps will likely acquire a better response.

And with regards to bugs, they are unavoidable. But inadequate debugging can cause an otherwise well thought mobile app to crash in front of users’ faces. No app creator wants that, and all the negative reaction that situation will generate for sure. But if those bugs are discovered while the app is still in the Early Access program, not only will creators get a chance to get rid of those bugs, they also can gain relevant feedback on how or why the bug is there in the first place.

It is no secret that early adopters, for the most part, tend to want to give each other a hand. Moreover, the relationship began between a developer and a community member in the Early Access program, can easily translate to a vendor and buyer dynamic by the time a mobile app graduates from the program.