Polkadot Mobile App Updates

[Birdo]

Hey all, I realised I haven’t posted any updates about the app here, but have made some on twitter / medium etc.
I’ll add the forum into my monthly update circuit so everyone here can also be aware of what’s going on and the progress we are making

Here is the update from March → https://x.com/itsbirdo_/status/1910269710697963649
And below is the April update!

As mentioned in my March update these posts are to help keep the community in the loop and provide more insight into our work and what we’ve been working on.

I’ll continue these even after we’re live, as once we launch there is still a lot more to build and look forward to!

About the app

As you may know the Polkadot App is a mobile app previously approved by the community to give newcomers and existing crypto users an easy entry into Polkadot and crypto more broadly.
Our goal is to simplify as much of the blockchain and technical complexity as possible and really make Polkadot simple and easy to use.

Last months work

In April we had the easter break and a bit of leave from the team.
We have finished up staking in the app which is awesome and works super smoothly.

If you have staked with Polkadot before this experience should be pretty familiar. To make it normie friendly we’ve branded it as “Earn” rather than “Stake”. When the user enters the “earn” section of the app they will see the an onboarding screen, telling them how it works.

The app defaults to the max available amount to depost, or I can just type in the amount I want or switch between tokens and fiat. Then swipe to confirm, done!

The user can then see their history, their earn rewards and withdraw their funds whenever they want subject to the usual Polkadot staking-related configurations.

The other main change we have been working on is feedback from the latest user testing we performed during the Polkadot Miami week. We found the in-store payments too slow and we weren’t happy to launch with the user experience.
However great news, we’re close to finishing a change which will decrease the waiting time for the user by around 90%.

We have hit some roadblocks with the Apple Developer account and we’re working through this with them.

What’s next

We are making one last change (fingers crossed) to how the app integrates with Asset hub, or the Polkadot Hub.

We noticed in our most recent user testing that the ED on Polkadot was an issue for users, so we’re going to default the app to using Assethub as the primary network.

This reduces the ED from 1 DOT to 0.01 DOT which is a really nice quality of life change for users. It decreases fees when transferring funds and provides overall a better experience for users.

This sets the app up to be future proof with the upcoming Assethub migration and rollout planned in Q3. We will still support the relay chain and have some tricks up our sleeve to make it seamless to the user (what else would you expect!)

Unfortunately we still don’t have a date for launch but I would estimate we’re still at least a month away with the support for Assethub.

Future plans

The gifting experience that I mentioned last time is ready! Here’s a screenshot from our Figma showing off how it works.

We’re working in the background on two pretty cool ?things? for the Polkadot ecosystem. Should be more info to share next month

Thanks for listening and I hope you found this helpful!

Until next month

[POLKABOT.XYZ]

Hey, thanks for the news!
Sounds awesome

Just wondering… I remember it said that buying with Polkadot will be available across 250 different stores. Is that still the case?

If so, how is payment implemented? I was wondering. Do you have any deal with a credit company to use Dot as payment?

Thanks for the again great info!

[Birdo]

gm, it’ll be more like 1000 brands which provide around 1M stores (physical / online) in the US.

We are using a payment provider which is Raise.com, no need for credit applications etc.
On the backend it’s just a “funds transfer” to Raise and they take care of the rest

[gbaci]

thanks for the update, Birdo.

re gifting, i’m curious how it works from the receiver’s POV. how do they recieve it? can they easily cash it out or are they bound to the Polkadot network (i.e. holding the DOTs).

in my head, the ideal experience would be a receiving flow that also makes it seamless for the user to get fiat direct (this might require integrating something else, or composing an automated workflow that does most of the work in the background).

i say this cos the whole point of gifting someone something is so they can be able to use it, not just hold it. if holding is the primary thing that can be done (with no easy way to offramp), then the tool will be used less than it could be. why? cos i will likely not use it so i avoid having to answer questions of “how can i get the money?”

so i think this feature should be designed with a normie end user in mind who wants to exit as soon as they get the tokens. unless the rationale for this feature is different.

[francisco.aguirre]

I wouldn’t even think about the relay chain. With the upcoming Asset Hub Migration, the idea we’ve always had of a minimal relay, the future upgrade to jam, it just doesn’t make sense to support the relay chain. Everything users need is on the Hub. It should’ve been the Hub from the start, even before the migration they still have everything there.

Also, wen other countries other than the US?

[Birdo]

Hello all, here’s the May update on the Polkadot App from the Polkadot Community Foundation! These updates are to make sure everyone is up to date and has deeper insight into what we’re working on.

So, big news, we have submitted the apps to Apple and Google — the launch is imminent and will take place next month!!!

USA Launch Imminent

About the app

If you haven’t heard of the Polkadot App before, it’s a mobile app built for newcomers and existing crypto users to provide an easy entry into Polkadot and crypto more broadly.
You can see more details and all the features at The Polkadot App

Last months work

In the last month we have been finishing everything up and getting ready for launch. As I mentioned we’ve now submitted the apps to the app store and are in the final testing stage before we launch it in the USA.

There is a quick video run through on the AAG from last week about the app and I will be publishing a deep dive into the app, covering off the features and showing how everything works next week.

Autonomous Projects who is the group managing the Polkadot Community Foundation have posted a treasury proposal through governance (#1573) to obtain additional funding and runway to keep building into the future once we have submitted the app. There will be a representative on AAG each week while the proposal is live

The Polkadot App will feature a live chat service which is available for anyone that’s stuck or needs help — we have onboarded two community members to provide customer support!

What’s next

Next we are going to have a mini google meets party to celebrate the launch, it’s been a massive amount of work to get to this point!
We have another exciting update to share early in June too, we’re just getting our ducks in a row. We’ll pick up building the gifting flow that I demo’d last month and work on any feedback from the launch.

Thanks for listening and I hope you found this helpful!

If you want to collect this story, I’ve minted a PROOF OF SAUSAGE NFT
https://dotmemo.xyz/claim/mayupdate which you can mint for free

Until next month!

[BobKomar]

Many thanks!

[Birdo]

Hi everyone,

Here’s our June update on the Polkadot App on behalf of the Polkadot Community Foundation. Apologies for the delay, we’ve been heads down getting the app ready for release. While we didn’t hit our June launch target, we’re making steady progress and getting closer every day.

What Happened in June

• Apple App Store Review:
  Our biggest blocker was the Apple review process. While app reviews typically take 1–7 days, ours was held in review for nearly two months. It required extensive back-and-forth to meet all their compliance standards.
  The good news: it’s now approved.

• Legal & Operational Work:
  We completed all legal agreements, contracts, and operational setup / steps required for launch. This was a significant milestone involving multiple teams.

• Launch Preparedness:
  All launch materials: announcements, content, and communications have been finalised and are ready to go.

• Space Monkeys interview :
  I recorded an interview with Jay from the Kusamarian discussing the app, its features, and what makes it stand out. Worth a watch if you haven’t seen it yet:

The Polkadot App with Birdo - Spending Crypto with the Easiest Web3 App Ever? - Space Monkeys 198

What’s Next in July

• Final Testing:
  We’re currently wrapping up infrastructure verification, regression testing, and QA to ensure a stable launch.

• Feature Development:

  • We’re progressing on the Gifting feature, which is expected to wrap development in July and move into testing.

  • We’ve also shipped several UX improvements,

  • Next up is UI development for the Polkadot payment card.

We’re excited to finish testing and finally bring the app to the community. Thanks for your patience and support, looking forward to sharing more next month!

[Birdo]

Polkadot App — July 25’ Update

Hi everyone,

Here’s the July update on the Polkadot App on behalf of the Polkadot Community Foundation.

Video update if that’s you’re thing → https://x.com/itsbirdo\_/status/1953738106022023343

Is it live? Not yet.
Is it close? Yes.
Why is it taking so long? We decided to audit an additional piece of code, which was the right thing to do, but this unfortunately takes more time. We are working with Oak Security who have an excellent standing in the security field and the good news is they are finishing the first phase of the audit this week.
Has the app been approved by Apple and Google? Yes it’s approved and now ready to go, pending the results from the audit!

What have you been doing in the meantime? As per the last update, we have been working on gifting.
Gifting will let users easily send DOT to friends or family. Moreover, it’s a simple, convenient way to introduce new people to Polkadot. Most of the work is already complete, and the feature is expected to roll out shortly after the app launches in the U.S.

What else have you been working on?

• After we finish gifting, we will be starting work on the UI and integration for the highly anticipated Polkadot Visa card. This will be a reasonable amount of work and will likely take two to three months to complete.

• We have submitted the Polkadot Visa card design docs to Visa via our partner Baanx and are waiting on confirmation. This doc contains the card design and all specifics around look and feel of the virtual and physical card

• We have been cooking up a more detailed roadmap to share as many people have asked about future plans for the app. We’ll share this soon.

• We’ve also been working on the next phases of country rollout — more on this soon!

We are honestly so, SO excited to finish this first version and get it live. We have spent so much time and effort designing, building and testing the application and supporting services, sorry we’re not quite there yet but no-one wants to see this live and being used more than us.
Thanks for your patience and support, looking forward to sharing more next month!

[alice_und_bob]

Thank you for all the hard work Birdo & team!