8 things we've changed in Allies in 2020

For us, 2020 started with a thorough review of what our users thought of the service.

The last months of 2019 were spent finding out about it, through interviews, surveys, and emails with demands/requests for changes in Allies.

January and February, we spent compiling, ranking, and deciding what we would do and in what order. Then the Coronavirus appeared and stopped most of everyday life, but did we give up? No.

We saw the chance to develop, and developed we did. There were some new additions requested, of course. Still, mostly we spent March, April, and May refining things that already existed but were not optimal. And it paid off. Early this summer, we had weeks in a row where almost a third of our users were using Allies at least once a day, often several times.

What did they do? They communicated, planned, and looked for each other addresses and emails, one could say. So we decided to grind on with Allies, quite precisely in that order; communication, calendars, and contacts.

Fine-tuning is two exercises in one. I would be lying if I said that I like to change something I've invested heavily in, because I am a slightly stubborn person, albeit the low-intensity kind.

But since the whole point of Allies is to offer a service that our users, well, de facto use, all we could do was listen and obey when they spoke.

We have this basic idea for Allies about gathering everything in one place. Simplifying and letting more people share the same information. We will never change that. It is HOW they go about that we need to stay attentive to as well as adapt to.

In 2020, we have made the following changes to make it easier and perhaps a little more fun to use Allies.

1.New notifications in the chat

Everything that happens in a group gets a notification in the chat. When someone joins, leaves, an event is added or deleted, a document is uploaded - it's manifested in the chat. 

"Too vague, though," users said. OK.

We listened, and today the notifications are smaller and more straightforward. And more people click on them. Win-win!

2. Data from your team's app

One of the guiding principles of Allies is that each user should share what they know, for the sake of other users. But what if that info is already available somewhere? Like in your team's existing app? It is obviously... undesirable for someone to have to enter the same things twice, into different apps.

So we solved it.

For a few months now, Allies has been able to retrieve all dates, times, places, and notes from basically all sports teams apps out there. This is something we are extremely pleased about, but which does not yet work as well as we would like.

On the one hand, it is enough if one user activates the service for everyone to receive it. On the other hand, it requires a little work to happen. Now, we have an idea of ​​how to fix it this fall, as the response from teams using that particular service is overwhelming.

Do you want to import your teams' practices, game dates, and away games to Allies? Read more about it here.

3. Updated design

There will never be a version 2.0 of Allies, the idea is to continue to develop this one infinitely. As part of that, we try to clean up the design at regular intervals, which we have done. Sometimes it is visible, sometimes not. But you should expect a significant design update later this fall.

4. A Better chat

We get a lot of feedback about the Allies chat. It is one of the most used services in Allies, as the concept is such an integral part of everyday life. Try naming one person who does not use short, written messages to communicate with their surroundings. Or emojis. Jesus, you like your emojis!

The chat we use now, we have developed ourselves. This is because we could never predict how much it would be used. But since we try to be consistent - to adapt and evolve Allies to our user's needs - we decided to upgrade.

After the summer, a new chat comes to Allies. However, that is a COMPLETELY different story, for another post. All I can say is this chat service will contain everything you are used to and have asked for; threaded discussions, the ability to star messages, to send private messages, the ability to see when someone writes a reply and a bunch of other stuff. But it will still look like Allies, mind you.

5. Faster app

Maybe you haven't noticed, but Allies is much faster now than six months ago. It loads faster, is way leaner, and responds better. I won't go into details, but let's just say Jonas is good at coding.

6. QR codes

Users told us that it was not always that easy to invite others to Allies. Honestly - we know. And we hated in. But we fixed it and it seems that the solution - scanning a code using your camera has worked out well. 

Since May, the number of new users in Allies has almost skyrocketed, most of them invited to us by other parents. Meanwhile, requests for "simpler invitations" have dropped like the stock market. Perfect!

7. Map thumbnails

I admit this is a very personal demand that I have allowed myself to stick to; the opportunity to get a glimpse of ​​where you are going to be for a game, an outing.

I have been a parent for eleven years now, the fact that no one seems to have given a single thought to implement a simple solution like that bugs the hell out of me. It seems I had to build my app to get it. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

8. Better swipes

Someday I might allow myself to think about all the time we've spent correcting things we bothered about, maybe not users, like the sensitivity when you swipe an event from Allies to your phone's calendar. The one out now is our sixth iteration of how it should look and feel, and I think we've gotten it right. Who am I kidding, there will probably be a seventh.