Learning track

App development

Building an app is not one technical decision, it is several taken in a row: what runs on the phone, what stays on the server, which stack it is written in, and which door it finally enters the user device through. This path opens those decisions in an order that leaves you able to say what your app needs and, more usefully, what it does not.

  • 8 lessons
  • Free, no signup

From your idea to the customer phone, and the four things that must cross

Your business

This is where it becomes clear which job the app takes over from something done by hand today.

The app layersThe stack choiceInterface and backendPublishing and upkeep

The customer phone

Where the program actually gets installed, and where every mistake of yours is seen by the user rather than by you.

None of these four is optional and their order is not arbitrary either. Projects that stall halfway usually started from the far end of the bridge.

The path, step by step

Lessons are ordered so each stands on the previous one. You can also jump in anywhere.

  1. 1How an app actually worksAn app is a program installed on the device itself, whose interface and logic run on that device, and which talks to a server for every piece of fresh data. Most of what a user calls a slow app happens inside that conversation with the server, not in the code sitting on the phone.Beginner
  2. 2Native or cross platformNative means a separate program for each operating system in that system own language, and cross platform means one codebase that runs on both. For an app whose job is showing content and taking forms, cross platform is usually the right choice, and pitching native in that situation is overselling.Beginner
  3. 3Principles of mobile interface designA mobile interface is driven by one thumb, on a screen its user is often holding while standing and half distracted, so every design decision has to pass through those two constraints. Four things build it: thumb reach, hierarchy, feedback and consistency, and only the first and part of the second have numbers.Beginner
  4. 4Flutter or React NativeThe main difference between the two is one thing: Flutter draws the interface itself, while React Native invokes the actual Android and iOS views. Every other difference you hear about, from the language and the ecosystem to how the app feels, follows from that single architectural choice.Intermediate
  5. 5How to build a Telegram botA Telegram bot is a program that runs on your own server and sends requests to api.telegram.org with a token; Telegram itself runs no code of yours. Creating the bot with BotFather takes a few minutes, and the real work starts where you decide how to receive messages and what to see inside a group.Beginner
  6. 6What an app backend isAn app backend is the part of the product that does not live on the user phone: an API that receives the requests, a database where the data stays, and an auth service that decides who is allowed to see what. The app on the phone is not the decision maker and only shows what the backend permitted, which is why a perfectly healthy app can do nothing at all once the server stops answering.Beginner
  7. 7Publishing an app, from local stores to Google PlayPublishing an app means five things in a row: building the release version, signing it, listing it in a store, passing the review, and then releasing it to users. Of those five, signing is the stage that cannot be undone if it goes wrong, because without the signing key no new update for that same app is accepted.Intermediate
  8. 8Building an app with AIAI genuinely builds the screens of an app fast today, and those screens are the smallest part of the project; the rest, meaning permissions, money, error states and maintenance, is exactly where model output gets into trouble without a human pass. The right route is to change the order of the work: the specification in plain language first, then code generation, and last a security pass you read yourself.Intermediate
A black smartphone cut open like a geode with red, green and blue crystals and a white cable to a distant server

The order of these eight lessons comes from a simple rule: until you know what layers an app is built from, picking a framework is an opinion somebody handed you and you cannot defend it yourself. So we start with the path one tap takes, then the native or cross platform decision, and only after that with interfaces, bots, the backend and publishing.

One thing has to be said at the start, because we also sell app work: most of what is written about apps in Persian is either an advert for a framework or a list of tools. This path is neither. Wherever a number appears it comes either from the vendor own documentation or from our own measurements on this server, and every lesson states for itself where its advice stops working. There is also an Iranian detail that affects your plan more than the framework does: the route to a user device is different here, and the publishing lesson opens exactly that.

This path sits on top of programming and the internet and networks, but neither is a prerequisite for the first three lessons. What you need to start is a phone and some curiosity about the thing you use every day. From lesson four onward we assume you have met the basics of programming.

Real follow-up questions

Do I need to know programming to start this path?

Not for the first three lessons. They are about understanding and they run with a phone and a bit of attention. From lesson four onward we assume you have met variables, conditions and functions; if you have not, the first five lessons of the programming path are exactly what is missing.

Should I build an app, or is a mobile site enough?

For most small businesses a fast site answers first and costs less, because the user installs nothing to see it. An app earns its keep when the user is going to come back repeatedly, or when you need notifications, offline work or the phone hardware. The first lesson opens exactly that boundary with examples.

Why does this path not say which framework is best?

Because the answer depends on your team, your budget and the life of the project rather than on somebody ranking. Where a choice is needed, the lesson says what each option buys and what it takes away, and which three facts about a project flip the answer. Naming one is the easier job and it goes stale within a year.

This path is written for someone who wants to work out for themselves what their app is made of. If the decision is already taken and you would rather have someone do the work, the services and our position on native versus cross platform are there; see the app development page