Native Android apps that use the camera and keep working offline
A real app that installs on a phone, opens the camera, and keeps working when the signal drops. Not a website wrapped up to look like an app.
This is for you if any of this sounds familiar
Your people work away from a desk
Drivers, technicians on site, sales staff out in the regions. They will hit places with no signal. A native app keeps working there and sends the data up once the phone reconnects.
The camera does real work
Scanning barcodes, photographing documents, reading receipts. A native app opens the camera faster and reads more reliably than anything running inside a browser.
You want an icon on their home screen
An icon on the phone gets tapped far more often than a link someone has to open a browser and type an address for.
You need notifications people actually see
App notifications land on the lock screen. Email and chat messages get buried under everything else that arrived that day.
Three packages. Pick the one that matches what you actually need
These are full project prices, not starting points that grow later. If anything falls outside the scope, I tell you the number before I start on it.
- Native Android app written in Kotlin, not a website wrapped to look like one
- Up to 5 main screens, login, and a live connection to your server data
- Install file tested on real hardware, ready to hand out to staff
- English README and code comments, so your own team can carry the code on
- Contract in English covering scope, delivery dates, and who owns the code
- 60 days of support after handover
- Offline use is not part of this package
- Push notifications are not part of this package
- Everything in Connected Android App
- Keeps working with no signal, then uploads on its own once the connection is back
- Camera capture and scanning inside the app
- Push notifications to the user's phone
- Up to 10 screens, with different access levels per user
- User manual in English, written for staff who have never seen the app
- 60 days of support after handover
- Reading text from photos on the device is not part of this package
- Everything in Offline Sync and Camera
- Reads text from photos on the phone itself, so no image leaves the device
- Maps and location tracking while staff are out working
- Web admin page for reading what the app sends in
- Play Store submission files and listing text prepared for you
- Technical handover doc in English: how it is built, where data goes, how to build it again
- Replies inside the working hours written into the contract, counted in your time zone
- 60 days of support after handover
Not included in any package, and I am telling you before you pay
- iOS. I will be straight with you: I cannot build it right now because I do not own a Mac. That is a tool limit, not a skill one. If you need both platforms, hire someone separately for iOS.
- The Google Play developer account fee, a one-time 25 US dollars, paid under your own company name so the app belongs to you and not to me.
- Pressing submit on the Play Store for you. I prepare every file and document, but the submission should happen inside your own account. I will walk you through it while you do it.
- Ads and getting people to install it. That is marketing, a different line of work from mine.
- A registered company on my side. I am one developer working under my own name in Thailand, and the contract is with me personally, not with an agency.
How it works, from first message to launch
Tell me who uses it and where
Staff or customers, inside one building or out on the road. Those two answers change how the whole thing gets built, so they come first.
You get the scope and one price in writing
Scope, price, and what I need from you, in one English document. The price moves on four things: how many screens, whether it has to run with no signal, how much work the camera does, and whether you need a web console. Nothing gets added on later.
You try the real app partway through
I send install files while the work is going, so you are holding the app on a phone long before the end date, not waiting to see it at handover.
Handover and store preparation
Source code, install file, English manual and technical doc, and the files for a Play Store submission. Then 60 days of support.
Questions people ask about this service
Why not build a website instead? It would be cheaper.
If your work does not lean on the camera and does not have to run without a connection, I will tell you to build a website. It costs less and it is easier to change later. I say that during scoping. I do not push an app because an app bills more.
Can you do iOS as well?
No. Building for iOS needs a Mac and I do not have one. That is a tool limit, not a skill one, and I am saying it here so it does not come up at the end of a conversation. If you need both platforms, hire someone separately for iOS.
Whose name is the app published under?
Yours. Open the Google Play developer account in your company name from the start. Then the app is your property and you can change who maintains it whenever you want, including replacing me.
Where do the camera images go?
In On-Device OCR and Admin Console, images are read on the phone and no picture leaves the device, which suits confidential paperwork. In the other two packages, photos go to your own server over an encrypted connection. Never to mine.
Is there real work I can look at?
ReceiptLens. A native Android app I wrote in Kotlin that reads receipts with the camera and does the processing on the phone. The code is public on GitHub and it is on the portfolio page.
Why is there no price on this page?
Because I would be guessing. A five-screen app that reads from your server and an app that runs offline, reads documents on the phone and feeds a web console are not close in size. Tell me which one you need and you get one fixed number for the whole build, in writing, before anything starts.
Often booked together
Tell me who uses the app and where
Tell me who uses it, where they use it, and whether they lose signal out there.
If a website would do the job better and cost you less, I will say so instead of selling you an app.
I reply inside one business day, counted in your time zone. I work alone, so you talk to the person writing the code. No call needed.