Chorus - A Dream Realized, Vicariously

This winter break, a new obsession overcame me - that of developing a trail-blazing Android app. Now, this was nothing new. Every vacation, I get captivated by a new idea - last break it was creating an app, before that it was composing a song, before that it was writing a novel, before that...Well, you get the picture. Right now, I'm dreaming of making a new social website; the Facebook of the Future, if you will. The thing about these ideas is that, more often than not, they fail to materialize; but when you do manage to implement some of them, the satisfaction is unparalleled. For example, the novel never happened (I'm still working over the nitty-gritty's, like the plot); but I did manage to write a song along with some of my school friends. Even though a year has passed after the song was completed, I make my classmates listen to the song as soon as I get the chance, and force them to say good things about it. 

So, back to the app. The app was one of those fantasies that I had actually worked for. I was fuelled partially by my brother's comments ("About time you did something useful with your life."), and the enthusiasm shared by my college friends. In fact, I was so gung-ho about the app, I actually went all the way to Kandivali to begin work on it, which is way beyond my usual sphere of social visits. However, as is the wont of these meetings, we never managed to achieve anything useful that day. Eventually, after a few feeble attempts to continue making the app (watching a few YouTube tutorials and joining an Android development course on Coursera), the idea of making the app was relegated by me to the 'I'll definitely do that someday' category, along with the unfinished novel and the uncreated website.

Around the same time, one of my close friends told me that three of my college mates - Aditya, Rahul and Varad had started developing an Android application as well. "But that was my idea!", I protested, as if I was the first computer engineering student ever to think of making an Android app. But I didn't give that a second thought, as I figured that they would meet the same roadblocks as we did, and give up making it altogether. I soon forgot all about the app, and went back to my usual holiday routine of sleeping, playing FIFA, and sleeping some more.

About a month later, I had to return to my beloved college for participating in a Treasure Hunt contest for Pratibimb (that's right, I participated in Pratibimb). I did not actually win anything (surprise, surprise), and half an hour later I found myself all wound up from about 5 minutes of running around and solving verbal puzzles. Worse still, I was in my college for a cultural fest, which would be the very definition of a fish out of water. Naturally, I did what I always do, and tagged along with Aditya (who was one of my team-mates in the contest), who took me to a classroom where Rahul was going nuts swearing at a poor laptop. 
"What's he doing?", I asked Aditya.

"He's working on our app." he told me.

"Oh, great!" I said.

"Oh, you're still doing it?", I thought.

I had planned on leaving the campus the instant the Treasure Hunt was done. But my interest had been piqued by watching my fellow classmates do what I had dreamed of doing just four weeks ago - create a working Android application. So I sat down besides them - pretending to be useful, reading snippets of their code and silently congratulating myself when I actually managed to understand something. And those congratulations were few and far between, because Rahul had been heavily involved in coding. And here's the thing about him, even if he's coding something as simple as c = a + b; he'll use a ton of in-built functions, or use a programming language I've never used, or code it directly in the terminal; ensuring that anyone that tries to copy his code has a nightmare discerning it. But after a while, I gave up trying to understand the program in its entirety, and started bugging Aditya with questions about the app. 

"What does it do?"

(Now, this is the part where I describe the app, so you can skip it and read the app description here, because it has, in my opinion, one of the best app descriptions out there on the Play Store. But for those less inclined to do so, here goes: )

The app streams your music files on multiple Android devices at the same time, and synchronizes it, thus amplifying the music. The streaming was done via a WiFi hotspot, that was created by the 'host' of the group. (Later they added the feature of creating a group on any given WiFi network, so that as long as the devices were connected to the same WiFi network, they would be able to stream the music. This meant that one could enjoy uninterrupted access to the Internet while using the app.) Each group would have one host and multiple guests, and anyone that was connected to the host's network would be able to play songs on his/her own device, even if he/she did not have the song physically stored on the said device. One can stream an individual track or create a PlayList and play multiple tracks one after the other. 

When I entered the classroom, they had actually managed to stream the music tracks successfully on three devices at once, but getting the Sync feature right was posing a bit of a problem. The timing was off by only about a few milliseconds, but the lag was audible, and more so when you tried it with Chad Kroegar's raw, husky vocals. And so Aditya came into the picture, debugging the code and testing Rahul's logic at the same time. Varad was in charge of testing the app, checking if all the features worked properly and verifying the application's compatibility on a plethora of Android devices.

After a few minutes of watching each person have a go at the other, I quietly asked Rahul what the app was called. "Chorus", he said. Now, I fancy myself as a bit of a writer (as evidenced by this blog), but I had to admit, the name fit perfectly for the app. It had a pretty nifty logo to go with it as well, thanks to our very own in-house Photoshop expert, Sahil Dhayalkar. And soon, after several permutations of an existing if-condition in the code, the troika of Rahul, Aditya and Varad were able to get the Sync right, so that the app, though a little rough around the edges, was close to fruition. 

However, my pestering hadn't stopped, as I started thinking of ways to monetize the app. I asked the trio if they planned to put advertisements, or make it a paid app. But each query was met with a firm no. They were very clear that they hadn't made the app for minting money, but instead wanted the app to reach as many users as possible. And advertisements would only dilute the experience. The app, they reasoned, was supposed to provide all Android users the functionality of Group Play - a Samsung application that was available for only the high-end Galaxy devices, such as the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy Note 3; and not only the ones who shelled out about ₹ 40,000 on a smartphone. And they were actually delivering on that promise, considering that my Galaxy Fit with an ancient 600 Mhz processor under its hood could run the app flawlessly. Come to think about it, that was the very idea on which the Android platform was conceptualized. Great software for all, without having to pay truckloads. Slowly, my skepticism had turned into optimism, and I was actually waiting for Chorus to be published on the Play Store. And when it was actually launched, I kept fiddling around with it all day, trying to find out more features and thinking of improvements for the app.

Now, around a month has passed since the app was first launched, and it has already been updated twice. And I must say, each update has improved Chorus tremendously. Several new features have been added, and the user interface now has a refined, polished look. The most useful new feature is the one that allows you to connect all devices on a common WiFi network without having to create your own hotspot, as this means I can use the app while using my home WiFi network. What started off as an amateur project has now developed into one of the best utility applications on my device! Chorus has even been featured on the homepage of the XDA developers forum, featuring a very special write-up from Samantha, one of the most read News Writers on the forum. Goes to show, if you keep at it, you can achieve anything. Or, to quote Homer Simpson, "It is better to watch stuff than do stuff." So, the next time you visit the Play Store, download Chorus! 

P.S. : The Tendulkar Trilogy has not been abandoned, Part Two is still on its way. So, the three readers who are actually waiting for the second instalment, stay tuned for further updates!