What this package is
Field is for work that happens away from the office. Staff record what they did with no signal at all, the app holds it on the device, and it uploads by itself once a connection returns, with nothing for the user to remember to press again.
It adds a camera inside the app for evidence photos or barcode scanning, and push notifications that appear on the lock screen rather than sitting unread in an inbox. Screens go up to ten, with separate access levels controlling who sees what.
If you remember one thing about how this differs from Install: Install needs a connection to do anything, Field does the work first and sends it afterwards. For field operations, everything depends on that difference.
See it working
Nothing is open yet. Send the urgent job from the office and watch the phone screen.
This is the one thing a website genuinely cannot do. Once someone closes the tab, a website can reach nobody. It has to wait for them to come back. An app that is closed, in a pocket, still lights up the lock screen. If your work depends on telling someone right now, that is the reason to build an app, not because an app looks better.
| Nothing has arrived yet |
Once the signal returns the app sends what was waiting, with nothing for the engineer to press again. That is the part a real user never has to think about.
This mirrors the screen of the delivered app. Everything here lives in this page and is connected to nothing. The real thing is an Android app written in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.
Everything you get
This list is the entire scope of the package. Nothing is hidden in a contract.
- Everything in Install
- 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
- iOS. This service is native Android only. If you need both iPhone and Android, I build those separately as an iOS + Android app in React Native from one codebase.
- The Google Play developer account fee, a one-time 25 US dollars, opened under your company name and verified with Google. That one account covers both a Play Store listing and registering an app you hand out outside the store. The D-U-N-S number a company account needs is free.
- Waiting for the D-U-N-S number and Google's verification, which can take up to 28 days, is not counted in the delivery window. The build carries on while you wait, but putting the app on every staff phone waits until the account is ready.
- 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.
Questions about this package
How long can it stay offline, and how much can it hold?
The data sits in a database on the device, so the limit is free storage rather than time. In practice a full day of work for one person is under a megabyte excluding photos, and photos are compressed before they are stored. A week with no connection at all is comfortable.
If records do collide, how do I know nothing was lost?
Nothing is lost. Every upload is recorded with a timestamp and the name of who sent it. If the rule we agreed causes one to overwrite another, the overwritten version stays in the history and can be read back. It is built to overwrite, never to delete.
Do push notifications cost anything monthly?
No. They use Firebase Cloud Messaging from Google, which is free with no message limit. Any cost would be on your own server if it needs a larger plan, and I give you that figure before it happens.
Why an in-app camera rather than the phone's own?
The in-app camera opens straight into a framed shot with one button that does one thing, and the photo enters the system immediately with no file picking. Using the phone camera and attaching afterwards takes more steps, and leaves copies of your customers' paperwork in a staff member's personal photo library.
Can we buy Install now and upgrade to Field later?
Yes, and you pay the difference at that day's price rather than starting again. But honestly, if you already know you need offline, doing it in one go is cheaper. Designing the data structure for offline from the start is simpler than opening it up afterwards.