[coreywstone]

Hi all. This is v2.0 of my HERO Keyboard. It's been completely re-coded for better typing action, and it adds the center "Bolt" button which you tap for SPACE, or hold (or 3D touch) to reveal numbers and your most recent emojis and symbols. On iPhone 6/7 and Plus, tilting the device moves the keyboard to the side for easier 1-thumb typing.

It's free for basic typing, with a $0.99/month subscription for premium themes and full emoji, dialpad, and symbol views. This is a self-funded project but I'm a designer not programmer, so I paid contract developers to build it. So basically, I'm out of money, and I'm hoping the v2 launch goes well enough to fund development of swipe typing, Android, GIPHY integration, text snippets, other languages, and any other helpful stuff I can think of! :) Marketing is definitely not my strength, so please let me know if you have any advice for me to help spread the idea. Thanks! -Corey

[leesalminen]

Looks interesting. I will give it a try!

Do you have any metrics on how long it takes to get through the learning curve? That's my only hesitation to trying a new keyboard layout.

Also, I'm not sure I understand why this would be a subscription service. A one time fee to unlock feature X seems much more appealing to me as a consumer. In my mind a subscription has to provide new value on a regular basis.

[coreywstone]

Hi Leesalminen - thanks for the comment.

People report about 3 days to feel fairly comfortable on it.

As for the subscription, there will be a new theme every month, so that provides a little recurring value.

The problem I ran into with version 1 and 1.5, which just cost a buck or two upfront, was that with that business model, it takes a lot of customers to pay off continuing development costs (because the customer is essentially getting lifetime updates, all for a buck or two). And it leaves little money for customer acquisition (ie marketing).

So my hope was to: a) Provide a way to let people try the keyboard for free (which Apple's App Store policies don't make very easy to do), and b) Fund continued development so I can keep adding good features.

I admit I'm not sure I have the right pricing model, but I'm going to give it a try and see how it goes, then adjust from there. :) Pricing per feature might work, though I hate to keep upselling people, and Apple does not allow In-App Purchases to be in the keyboard area, so it doesn't work quite as well as in a normal app. Thanks for trying it! -Corey

[leesalminen]

Hi Corey,

I was unaware of the IAP limitation with keyboards. That's pretty lame and limiting.

I'll sign up for a subscription and see how I feel in a couple months.

3 days doesn't seem bad at all. Maybe you could consider pushing that in marketing materials some more?

Thanks for the reply!

[coreywstone]

Good idea, and thanks! And to clarify, Apple seems to allow IAP to exist in keyboards (a subscription is technically an IAP), but you can't promote it or initiate it from the keyboard area (I had to appeal Apple's rejection on clarifying this difference -- it's worded a bit vaguely in their policy.)