Heatma.ps gives developers the full story on their apps

Analytics service tells where people touch first, where they click most often

There are countless mobile apps created every day (trust me, I know. They would all love for me to write about them.) But how do the developers know what is working? I mean, they can see how many clicks their app may have gotten, but that doesn’t really tell the story.

A new analytics service called Heatma.ps is available to iOS developers today, on the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad devices. It gives app developers better insights into how their apps work, including where people touch first, what functions are never used, what gestures people make, scrolling depth, device orientation, user interface layout problems and more.

In an interview with VatorNews, Heatma.ps founder Cyprian Ciećkiewicz said that the service gives developers a new way to

Ciećkiewicz says that the idea came when he was developing his own apps, and he wanted to look through the eyes of the users. He wanted to find a better way of improving feedback on how the app was working, without bothering the user or influencing them too much.

With Heatma.ps, developers can have a better idea on how to change the interface and the functionality of the app, based solely on how it is used. The information is particularly valuable when it comes to design, since developers will be given a better idea about what to put front and center on their app.

The design of the app can have a big effect on how many times it is downloaded, how users rate it and how much money it ultimately makes.

Heatma.ps takes up less than 80 KB. The data that is taken is sent to a data center, where it is aggregated and converted into meaningful information. The data is also translated into custom reports. The number of custom reports a developer receives depends on the subscription plan selected.

Ciećkiewicz says that he has no direct competitors in this space, since all of the other analytics companies are focused on clicks. Heatma.ps tells the deeper story but going further into what exactly is working, and not working, on each specific app.

The service is currently only available to developers on iOS, but an Android version should be coming in the next six months. Ciećkiewicz says that 80% of the knowledge that is used in the iOS version can be transferred over to Android.

Both smaller, independent developers, and larger, more commercial apps can use Heatma.ps, since there are both free and paid for versions, based on the amount of data being used. The free version provides 10,000 data points, but for apps that are larger, and have more users per month, would have to pay.

Right now, Ciećkiewicz says, most of the developers use the free version. He also sees possibly making money in the future by selling the knowledge he gleams through the service.

Ciećkiewicz said that he thinks that the industry is in a good place right now, given that there are new apps being developed daily.

“Everyone is trying to create an app,” he said. But they need to understand what works and what doesn’t work on their app, and that is what Heatma.ps provides.

Heatma.ps touts security as the company’s top priority, as it anonymizes and aggregates all of the data that is collected for the user’s protection. What this means, Ciećkiewicz said, is that while Heatma.ps can see how many times a certain part of an app is clicked, it cannot tell which specific user clicked there. The identity of the users is kept anonymous, and therefore cannot be used by anyone for targeted advertising.

Warsaw, Poland-based Heatma.ps was created a year and half ago, with the last six months spent testing it. The company is also announcing a $400,000 seed investment to help take it beyond beta, which comes from private investors. 

Despite being based in Poland, the app is available worldwide and is primarily in English, since that is the language most frequently spoken by developers.

“We have not had any problems communicating,” Ciećkiewicz said.

Watch the video below to see how Heatma.ps works: