Hey everyone, I’m the developer of Dot Hub. Dot Hub for Glyph Matrix has just hit 25,000 downloads, which is a number I never imagined reaching. When I saw that the Nothing Phone (3) came with a Glyph Matrix and that there was an SDK available, I knew I wanted to build something for it. I started by sketching out a few Glyph Toy ideas and quickly put together a basic UI.
When I finally managed to buy my Phone 3 at a community event, I actually started coding on the train ride home. At first, I had to figure a lot of things out. I started programming only two years ago, and my knowledge at that time was mostly basic Java. After a lot of reading, searching, and experimenting, I managed to finish my first three Glyph Toys. Then I wanted to release my app on the Play Store. Turns out, that’s not as easy as I thought. I had to deal with privacy policies, legal requirements like an imprint, and missing parts such as a settings page.
I thought I was ready for release, but then I learned that every Play Store app needs a two-week beta phase with at least twelve testers. I had no idea where to find twelve people for that. So I asked for help, and within an hour I already had enough testers. Over the next few days more than fifty people joined. I want to thank everyone who took part in the beta. Without you, none of this would have worked. During the beta I added new Glyph Toys like the music visualizer and also the main feature that inspired the app’s name and logo: a section showing Glyph Toys from other apps.
When Dot Hub launched, I was afraid nobody would notice. But the launch went great. Within two weeks, the app had been downloaded over a thousand times. I even received some donations through Buy Me a Coffee and got featured by Nothing India with some really well-made videos. It was a crazy experience. After that, I quickly started on version 2.0, which came out a month later. Around that time, I was honestly pretty burned out. I had been coding every minute I could, and that wasn’t sustainable. I forced myself to take a break because I was afraid of losing motivation completely. That break was definitely needed.
Once I got my energy back, I started working on version 3.0. Unfortunately, I had to drop several planned features for different reasons. In the end, I built the Ultimate AOD, which combines five features in one Glyph Toy. I also realized that for this project to keep growing, it needs to generate some revenue. That’s why I decided to switch to a subscription model even though I personally don’t love it. Ongoing development just requires ongoing support. I hope you can understand that.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me so far. I’m excited to keep working on Dot Hub and I’ll share more about the next update next week.
