‘Bespoke’ has become an uncomfortably generic word in the world of app development. Apps are advertised as ‘purpose-built for your school’s requirements’... and they are, insofar as a container app can be.
A container app? Well, if it really is bespoke for your school, why does it still have a generic name? If King’s College has its ‘own’ app, why is the app not even called “King’s College”?
The secret is actually embedded in the coding: it’s not quite a ‘bespoke’ app, I’m afraid. An app development company makes one ‘container app’ which holds all the information for all their schools in one set of code, then allows each school access to only their part of the information, depending on which PIN the user types in. Naturally, this means that the app can’t be given any school’s name in particular.
To use an approximate analogy, imagine giving out advent calendars, but each person who receives one can only access certain doors -- even though, underneath, it’s the same advent calendar for everybody.
Apps for Schools is currently the only company that designs you an advent calendar, so it always has 24 doors in it -- and any type of chocolate you want.
Benefits of a branded school app
‘Apps for Schools’ is the search term the schools use to look for an app. But parents, teachers, students, will expect to search for the school’s name in the app store, and for the app to have the school’s logo and colors.
When we began developing our app company in 2012, we consistently found school branding to be one of the most important features. So our bespoke apps have the school’s branding and colour scheme -- and the name!
We do offer a container app, too, because we realise some schools simply need a relatively inexpensive and efficient messaging and alerts app with secure areas! And even here, we go the extra mile to match your school’s colour scheme.