Ask HN: How long to learn and build a standard social iPhone app?

3 points·argonaut··5 comments

I'm trying to get a bit of a handle on the complexity involved in learning iOS app development and then building a fairly standard "social" iPhone app. Meaning there will be pretty standard stuff like FB login, feed, profiles, friends, search, etc... , all accessing a backend service that already exists. I'm already fairly fluent in Objective-C.

Any ideas?

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To build a client is relatively straight-forward. It should take you between 4 - 8 weeks of development work depending on the number of screens you will be need. You need to add some time for Graphics but you could do this in parallel.

Or you could buy a template and work on top of it which should save you some time http://www.binpress.com/app/social-iphone-app-design-templat... http://www.binpress.com/app/social-share-iphone-app-template...

Since you already have Objective-C down, you're pretty much there. You know what you want to build, and you already know the language. I'm assuming you're new to Xcode, which is the cleanest and easiest environment I have ever developed in.

I recommend just finding an "Introduction to Xcode" video, and then just dive in to your project.

Take it one step at a time; find a Facebook login tutorial and learn how to do that, etc.

It's definitely not as hard as it may seem, but it takes some getting used to.

Thanks. I'm actually really familiar with Xcode already. My background is in mobile game development (Unity and cocos2d).

Then you are DEFINITELY ready to jump in as soon as you want to. What type of games have you worked on?

Casual arcade-type 2d games.

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