After months of work on my iPhone application, which I was sure to make thousands of dollars on, I hit a wall. The "Apple Wall". I've heard from many Droid lovers and PC lovers about Apple's restrictions and how frustrating these can be for programmers and users alike. Well I finally found out the hard way. My genius app idea that I was so passionate about proves to be nearly impossible. Apple won't let an application send out text messages programmatically. I'm not going to get into the details of my idea, but it basically requires the ability to send out many text messages programmatically. Apple forces you to use their text messaging application if you would like to send a text within your app. You can pre-populate the text message with a recipient and a message, but the user must still hit send. This requirement basically killed my idea.
I'm not giving up on getting an app in the app store, but I'm going to start small this time. A few friends of mine started a nonprofit called Save the Mermaids (www.savethemermaids.net). They are a group of girls dedicated to ocean conservation. The girls give talks to elementary schools, work with city councils and politicians, organize beach cleanups around the world, and spread awareness to the detrimental effects that pollution and single-use plastics have on our ocean. I decided to make a basic iPhone app for them. I'll be working with a graphic designer, who happens to be one of my best friends, Drew Rueda. Together we will create a very simple, informative and beautiful iPhone application.
