Our Own Mobile Applications
It took us some time to analyze our strengths and weaknesses and focus solely on what we do best and at the same time is the smartest business-wise. On the way, we not only provided software development outsourcing services, but also, we developed and marketed our own software products – mainly mobile applications. Recently we released two new apps and this sent us on a trip down memory lane. Here’s a brief history of our most significant and interesting application the past 18 years. Some of them are no longer available but our team’s creativity, skills, and hard work keep us proud still.
E-Additives
E-Additives displays what you always wanted to know about the controversial and dreaded food additives. It brings important information related to the food you buy and consume, and helps you identify if there are any dangerous ingredients that can harm your health.
It was initially developed in 2009 and our team has been supporting and updating it ever since. In 2021, we recreated it to a cross-platform mobile app to make it accessible not only for iOS, but also for Android users. E-Additives is built using React Native framework. Our team is often working on the app to keep it up to date and make it more and more useful.
Melon’s mobile developers worked hard to make the app as simple as possible, and easy to navigate through. It features a comprehensive and up-to-date database with more than 590 food additives. For each additive, there is an informative description with the level of danger, its origin, its history, in which foods you can typically find it, and the category the additive fits in. There are also different color ratings that discern between safe, dangerous, and neutral additives.
The biggest challenge our software developers faced was to make sure that the data appears correctly since it is gathered from a lot of different sources. Since the app does not have a back-end, it can work completely offline and does not need user authentication.
LoveGuide
LoveGuide was released in May 2021. It answers the most frequently asked questions by teenagers related to love, sex, friendships, and relationships. It strives to compensate the lack of sex education in school in Bulgaria and to prevent young adults from feeling ashamed by providing them with the proper information they need growing up safe and healthy. It’s one of Melon’s pro bono projects as part of our social responsibility corporate program.
In the app, users have to sign up and create their own accounts. Afterward, they are able to search through multiple categories on specific topics. LoveGuide is also built using React Native mobile application framework. All the infrastructure is deployed on AWS on a single server.
You can find E-Additives and LoveGuide on both Google Play and App Store.
GPS Voice Navigation
Melon’s GPS Voice Navigation was released back in 2013 and it was built especially for Windows phones. It was among the first apps to provide voice driving navigation. It used to give directions in eight languages, and was the only one on the market to offer users a choice between four map and routing providers: Google®, Bing®, Nokia®, and MapQuest®. GPS Voice Navigation also offered information about speed cameras and police traps, and 3D Maps.
GPS Voice Navigation not only spent over a year in its category’s Top 5 apps in key markets such as the USA, UK, Brazil, Italy, and Spain, but also won many other awards. Some of them are the Mobile Solutions award at E-volution Awards 2013 by Forbes, and was recognized as the Best Mobile Application at the Bulgarian Web Awards 2013.
Hotels 4D
Hotels 4D was a hotel booking service launched in 2013. The app was supported by Android, iOS, Windows phones, and a webpage. Melon identified why a lot of hotels don’t want to offer their services on most booking websites – such websites lower hotel room prices in order to attract more customers.
Our solution to this problem was Hotels 4D. The app’s goal was to make the booking of a hotel room more convenient for the clients. An interactive map, quick search, and live results filtering made the process simpler. Hotels 4D used to offer a database of over 400 000 hotels worldwide.
Our app earned a lot of recognition from the users and received a lot of prizes. On the Bulgarian Web Awards 2013, it was given the big jury award for Best Website. Later the same year, on the Australian Mobile Awards, Hotels 4D got the best Travel operators & Booking apps award as well as appearance in the Best of The Best selection as Best Windows App. At the Bulgarian Association of Information Technologies (BAIT) Awards, Melon received the E-Business award.