The Journey Behind Velocity Lapse (Part 6)

Welcome to the 6th post in a series of “dev-log” style posts sharing my journey creating Velocity Lapse, a time-lapse app for Android.

You can read the previous posts to get context up to this point: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

If you have any comments or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.

The v0.9.x series

I’m not going to give all the details on every release in the v0.9.x series this time. That would be too much (and perhaps quite boring).

Instead, I’ll just mention that this stage of development fixed many things and added many features that made Velocity Lapse feature complete and much more stable in preparation for the v1.0 launch later in the year.

Just a few of the highlights included localization, improvements to the manual camera controls, video effects, capture scheduling, 8K image capture and video export, and support for three different video codecs.

Localization

Although I had not originally planned to prioritize translations and localizations, things fell into place. I was able to get the app backend set up without too much issue. Then it was a matter of putting it out on social media and the forum requesting volunteers to add translations to Velocity Lapse.

Special thanks to @thomas_tesar for the Czech translation and @dzartsiomi for the Russian translation.

On the technical side, I used standard ARB files that Flutter uses natively for storing strings for localization. I decided to use Loco for managing the translations. That way the volunteer translators would have a nice interface to update the strings.

Both of these worked out well together.

Video Effects

As mentioned in a previous post, effects like motion blur and star trails were some of my personal feature requests.

With the video export now working smoothly, I decided to tackle these effects.

Using OpenCV and a bit of C++ through the Android NDK I was able to get satisfactory motion blur and light trails effects.

Preparing for the v1.0 release.

Finally, based on feedback from users and my own look at the state of Velocity Lapse, I knew that it was time to exit beta and launch. That isn’t to say that everything was absolutely perfect and ready to go (it won’t likely ever get to that point!).

At the start of November, I announced the launch date on 11/4/2024 via Instagram and the email list.

Speaking of which, one thing I think I could have done better was growing the email list. :)

User guide

With v1.0 on the horizon, I worked to create the user guide. It would give users an overview of the functionality and settings of Velocity Lapse. At first the guide was just a page on the main website, but was later moved to its own subdomain at guide.velocitylapse.com.

An updated logo

After two and a half years of development in early access beta, I knew that the current logo had served it’s purpose as a stand-in logo.

For whatever reason, I always had it in the back of my mind to “find the time” before the v1.0 launch to refine the concept to better reflect the state of Velocity Lapse. Here and there I would play with different designs, but I hadn’t come up with anything much.

Finally, I did find the time.

I simplified the logo both in terms of colors and shapes while still keeping with the same theme and concept.

The resulting logo was something I was much happier with than the prior design.

Saying goodbye to the video gallery

A few weeks before the v1.0 launch, I removed video gallery tab. I also changed the functionality so that videos played in the device video player app.

You might remember that in a previous post I had mentioned how the video gallery was a popular feature request. Well, based on looking at the analytics, it appeared that not very many people actually used the built-in video gallery.

That fact, combined with my realization that removing it would save me a lot of code burden, made it a clear decision. In my analysis, it turned out that by eliminating just the video gallery, I was able to cleanup a lot of code and dependencies.

No doubt, it felt wasteful to add and maintain a feature for almost two years only to remove it just before the v1.0 release. However, it was better to drop the burden sooner than later so I could focus on other parts of the app.

The week before the v1.0 launch

The week leading up to the launch day, I was busy doing my part to make the launch a success.

I redesigned the website, created promotional images, and scheduled the launch on Product Hunt.

With a couple last-minute bug fixes and tests, I uploaded the app bundle to the Google Play console a few days before the launch to give ample time for Google Play to review it.

Launch day: Nov. 17th, 2024

At 12:01a.m the v1.0 release of Velocity Lapse went live on Google Play. The Product Hunt launch was scheduled to go live at 12:01a.m PST (2:01a.m my time). I then went to sleep because I wasn’t going to stay up all night. :)

A few hours later I woke up to some comments on Product Hunt about the launch.

Since I had written up a plan and did a lot of preparation for the v1.0 launch, it was a matter of just following through. A post on Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and the forum was the majority of the promotion that I did on launch day outside of Product Hunt and the newsletter.

I spent most of the morning conversing with people on Product Hunt, Instagram, and via email.

On Product Hunt it ranked #10 which meant that it was featured on the homepage for the day (a really good thing).

By the end of the day, the v1.0 launch on Product Hunt received 103 upvotes and 13 comments. The day rank was #10 and the week rank #80.

Reflecting on the launch

Overall, the launch of Velocity Lapse into production went well. One might reasonably suggest that the v1.0 launch was more of an “official” thing rather than a real launch to the public, especially since Velocity Lapse had been available in early access for over 2 years.

All things considered, the v1.0 launch was a success with no major problems. For that I am very thankful. 🎉

After the launch

v1.1.0 was pushed into production not too long after the v1.0 launch. v1.1 added a remote shutter feature and other improvements that didn’t make it into the v1.0 release.

For the weeks following the launch, I pushed updates with bug fixes and new features in preparation for the new year.

Another milestone

Another milestone happened about the time of the v1.0 launch: Velocity Lapse crossed 200,000 downloads on Google Play.

The journey continues

Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post.

If you have a suggestion, a comment, or advice, relating either to the app or this post, I’d love to hear what you have to share either in the comments below or via email.

A big thanks to numerous individuals for their support and advice, making this journey possible. Special thanks to @sundrycode for which I am grateful for his help developing the Android native side of the app and taking part in testing. And Yahweh, our Heavenly Father, from whom all knowledge and every good thing comes.