The modern world has changed the lifestyle of a major fraction of the population. Since the introduction of smartphones in our lives, we have been attracted to a virtual world that fulfills most of the desires of people. Believe it or not, the internet has created a virtual community where people can openly share their ideas, discuss, and much more. These communities have been classified into two parts: social networks where you can make friends, chat, share memes, etc. Then there is a second type; professional network, which is more interested in formal conversations, ideas that drive the world, and much more.
Professional community app development has seen a rapid rise in the past years. The reason behind this compound growth is the realization that the IT sector can work wonders, and the same quality of work can be achieved by working remotely. Since the pandemic, people are doing everything online from the comfort of their homes, but the experience needed some professional touch that is being fulfilled by these professional community apps. The Fishbowl app is one of the great examples of a professional community app that has amazed the world. The current global market is desperately in need of more such apps, and the future seems promising. Before you move forward with the community app development, let’s understand the Fishbowl app.
What is the Fishbowl app?
If you look closely at the foundation of the Fishbowl app, you will notice it is like any other social network app, except it is dedicated to professionals. It allows various individuals from the same industry or company to have random and meaningful conversations about their workplace and work topics. I am sure there are some topics and questions you are not able to ask your colleagues but want to get that out and attract a solution. With Fishbowl, you can get the solutions to all your unanswered questions related to the company directly from the senior management or the peers in the industry. In a way, it helps in breaking down organizational barriers. It delivers industry news and trends that are new in the industry.
Now, you must be thinking, if I can’t talk about my issues or any XYZ problem at work, how can I ask the same question to my senior management on a professional community app? Well, I hear you. The answer is quite simple, on this platform, you need not disclose your full identity to the person or the group you are talking with; it can be simply your designation or the industry name, for instance, “Sales executive at XYZ,” “employee at XYZ,” etc.
Fishbowl is simple to use; it has got extraordinary features and great functionality. It was founded in the year 2017, and since then, its popularity is enhancing exponentially. Let’s understand how it rolls?
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How Does it Work & What’s the Need of such an App?
In a simple sentence, the Fishbowl app works just like any discussion forum or social media network; it’s not that complicated. But when you dig in deep, it is based on a new concept. It values your privacy and gives you the freedom to be anonymous up to some percentage. Let me explain it; when you log in to the app, it asks you details about your professional life, such as the company working at, the designation, etc. You need not worry; these details are going to be completely private. Only if you choose to display your real name will it share your real name. You have to enter either your LinkedIn profile details or your work email. All the profiles on this platform are verified.
Now we are done with login; it analyzes the industry types you are working on and suggests to you some bowls that may suit your interests. Mind you; the bowl is nothing but a fancy name for a group on this app. When you post a question on the app, there is an option that offers you options as to what it should write in the name of the user. For instance, a history teacher of high school wants to know about the salary at different schools. He/she posted, what is the average salary at XYZ school? Then he/she can either choose to post the question under their name or simply works at XYZ school or history teacher. Yes, it is that simple.
The reason for the popularity of such apps lies behind an unprofessional office culture that has gone unchecked for decades. Employees are terrified of their managers at any given instance of the hour; either they don’t want to disturb the entropy of their mind or simply don’t want to engage in a meaningless debate by asking the type of questions people ask on the Fishbowl app.
If you are working in any corporate job, you must follow the hierarchy, but this app allows employees to get the answers from higher-level management at the same time, mask their identity. On average, any employee works for more than 40 hours a week and doesn’t have much time left for their me-time. Such professional community apps give them satisfactory answers that help them in keeping their cool and move forward in their professional career. If you are thinking of starting the professional community mobile app development, you should know the timeline.
Development Timeline for a Professional Community App like Fishbowl
Creating something Fishbowl app is not that much complicated as you think. The only thing it requires is your focus and a great vision; rest everything falls in place automatically. Before you start with the development process, proper planning and research is the key to get an extraordinary product. Remember, the more you address the problems of the target audience with your app, the more your platform is going to prosper. Let’s start with the first step
Planning
The most important part of any project of any industry involves planning. This detailed process involves a lot of stages. However, we will discuss the important ones. Market research is the one you should start with; either you can hire a marketing firm or handle this task to the in-house team. There is a third option that involves purchasing the market research report of your genre from various online firms.
Regardless of choice, make sure it does have some crucial points in the content, such as competitors, their strategies, their business plan, audience expectations, market trends, and much more.
Since we are following Fishbowl as an example, we should take some insights from its business plans. Apart from the app, it also has a web version. Make sure to ask your development partner to consider this point. The next thing you should include in your perfect plan is the number of features that should be integrated into your professional community app.
Features to be Considered
Any app can only awe its user base if the features are interesting, useful, and efficient. Your project should have a number of interesting features that satisfy the vision of the app. Our mobile app developers are extremely trained and are aware of the trending features that are most liked by the users. You can ask them for suggestions and believe me; you won’t regret the same. They will suggest and integrate the features that will be a perfect fit for your audience after your approval. Here are some of the features that the Fishbowl app offers.
Live News Feed: Working-class people are only interested in facts and trends of the industry; this feature allows them to read what other professionals are saying in real-time. It would be a cherry on top if you can customize the feed as per various sectors of the industry.
Live Chat and Audio Events: Since most of the people on this platform don’t want to reveal their identities, you can’t organize any video conference. Make sure to give them an option where they can organize live discussions and gather ideas. On the other hand, a live chat is just a plus point. Live chat is a necessity in these social networking applications.
Enhanced Networking: Any working-class professional loves to build connections with a number of professionals in their genre. This feature allows them to send a connection request, direct message, discover new jobs and get referrals to companies.
Groups or Bowls: Your app should have a group classified as per the genre of the industry. It enhances the chance of meeting people who have similar professional interests.
Common Features: Apart from these core features, there are a lot of features that are common in most social platforms, such as.
- Onboarding
- Account
- Push-Notification
- Filters
- Search, etc.
Tech Stack to be Considered
The foundation of any project’s development is the tech stack that is being integrated into the same. An efficient tech stack makes sure the features are performing their assigned function. The overall app’s performance is dependent on the tech stack of the app. Our developers are extremely comfortable in working with ultra-modern technologies that are the base of most of the popular apps. You name the feature, and our developers will integrate the same in your project.
Start with the application and data part of the project, LinkedIn and Fishbowl app uses jQuery, React, NGINX, Java, MySQL, Apache HTTP Server, Bootstrap, Amazon S3, jQuery UI, Modernizr, Microsoft Azure, Backbone.js, RocksDB, etc., for the application and data purposes.
Now let’s move towards various utilities of the application; these prominent professional community apps use Google Analytics, Dyn, Okta, ClickTale, Recurly, Amazon Mechanical Turk, Rest.li, etc., for the utility purposes.
You would want your app to function efficiently, and implementing DevOps is considered a smart choice. Some of the famous apps of this genre use Jenkins, New Relic, Bugsnag, SVN (Subversion), Cloud9 IDE, Salt, Apache Ant, Gemfury, etc., for DevOps purposes.
After everything, you have to take care of the business, and you’ll need analytics and marketing for the same. You should consider WordPress, Confluence, Adobe Experience Manager, Balsamiq, Unbounce, DocuSign, etc., as business tools.
Why Choose Matellio for Your Professional Community App Development?
Matellio has been developing applications and software for more than a decade. We have developed IT solutions for almost every genre of the industry, from healthcare to fashion and beyond. Our team of developers hails from a diverse background which gives us an edge over the other mobile app development companies.
Apart from a legendary legacy, we offer customized services that will fit like a glove with your business needs. The main concern of any project is budget planning; we offer a range of hiring models that will solve the problem of your budget. With us, you will get the most affordable prices. Our quality can be judged on our massive client retention rate.
Our developers are highly trained and know every in and out of the professional community app genre. We can deliver you an app like Fishbowl network or even better than that; it totally depends on your business needs. Why wait when we are just a few clicks away? Fill the form to book a 30-min free consultation call with our experts now!!
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