I’m an 18-year-old developer, and I recently built my first app, Quesmo, to address a personal frustration with how I was spending my time online.

A few months ago, I deleted all my social media accounts. The decision came after I realized how much of my time I was giving to platforms that seemed designed to hold my attention rather than offer value. Instead of feeling connected or inspired, I often felt like I was wasting time—scrolling for hours with nothing meaningful to show for it.

This experience made me wonder: What if there was a platform where time spent engaging with others actually felt rewarding? That question became the seed for Quesmo.

Building Quesmo At its core, Quesmo is a gamified Q&A app. The idea is simple:

Users ask questions, provide options, and wager points on their answers. Their friends or contacts try to answer, earning rewards for correct answers. Points earned can be redeemed, turning engagement into something tangible.

But more than the mechanics, the goal was to create a space where time spent online feels productive, whether through learning, challenging others, or just engaging in fun interactions.

Lessons from the Journey As a solo developer working on my first app, I ran into several challenges:

Balancing Features with Privacy: One of the key features of Quesmo is syncing with users’ contacts to let them challenge friends. It was tricky to design a system that respects privacy while ensuring a smooth user experience.

Dynamic Media Handling: I wanted users to upload both images and videos with their questions, but that meant reworking the backend to handle different media types efficiently.

Juggling Everything as a Beginner: From UI design in Kotlin to setting up APIs in Python using AWS Lambda and DynamoDB, this project was my first real exposure to end-to-end development. I had to learn to prioritize and accept imperfection in early iterations.

Why This Matters This app might not change the world, but building it taught me the importance of intentionality—both in how we design technology and how we spend our time. Quesmo is my attempt to create something that encourages meaningful, rewarding interactions online, even if on a small scale.

Sharing to Learn I’m sharing this here because Hacker News has been a source of inspiration for me throughout this process. Whether it was technical insights, philosophy around software design, or just reading stories from others, this community has shaped how I approached this project.

If you're curious, you can check out Quesmo on Google Play - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.svanq.quesmo

I’d love to hear your thoughts: What have you learned about designing apps that respect users’ time and attention? How do you balance complexity and simplicity in your first projects?

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I’m happy to answer any questions!