Free Social App For My Ning Community Isn't a Social Network Supposed to Be Social Friendly?

[Lisa A Cash Hanson]

Ihave a quick question. I'm not on the Pro yet still on Plus but I am paying about $50.00 every month to NING ( using paid access feature also)

I'm thinking there should be a free option to add an app. When so many other communities allow apps all  over the place. My members are asking about apps. So they can keep up with the community.

Then I realized this may be added if I pay more- Isn't the entire reason for a social community so members can be more social? Shouldn't NING include that even in their most basic service an app so the community can stay connected? If they do it would be great to know

What are my options? I'd love to hear how can do this. When I go to check the NIng api it says I have to upgrade to pro ( only 35$ more a month)  That's not "only" that's a portion I don't want to pay as I'm already paying $47 a month and would have gone with a different community if I wanted to pay close to $100 monthly.

I just need to know if I have any options at all on a plus membership for apps my community can access to connect with each other. Thank you

[Ron Fritzemeier]

You can use the "Ning Apps" that already exist, but if you are trying to add something else that requires an API endpoint from Ning, then I don't think you have any option but to upgrade to pro.

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? Letting your users post their ning content on other social sites? Integrate a specific third-party application with your network?

[Lisa A Cash Hanson]

Hey Ron- thanks. My members keep asking if my community has an app. I think they are looking for an app they can add that tells them what everyone is doing? Some have added talkatap on other communities so I think they are looking for something like that. Is there an option like that?

[Eric Suesz]

We don't offer mobile apps like you might get in the iTunes App Store. We have a partner named Shoutem who builds apps like these. We instead have invested a lot of time in making a new mobile version of your site that works across all devices. You can investigate apps for iPhones and BlackBerries and Android devices, although they do have ongoing costs associated with them. Other folks here may have good advice, but it can be costly to offer an app that is branded and custom-made. I'm not aware of any similar service that offers that kind of full-service app store app as part of a regular subscription. But, I could be wrong about that. 

[Lisa A Cash Hanson]

Thanks Eric

I think they are looking for something simple like TalkaTap.  If you could design that for your members as part of their paid service that would be great. It just makes sense on a social site to have those features easily available without investing a ton more.

[Ron Fritzemeier]

You should really check out the mobile version of the site and see if it handles what you are looking to do (make sure mobile is enabled in your control panel).

Tapatalk is just a native iOS/android app that is designed to read threaded forums. Even if you had API access, I think you'd want something different than tapatalk anyway.

I haven't messed around with the mobile version of my site much, but you can probably make some additional modifications to the mobile site and achieve the same experience as a mobile app would provide.

[Lisa A Cash Hanson]

Thanks Ron I did :) I think for now you are right this will handle it. I've added some video  their pages they would want and a few other things so we'll see how that goes.

[Ron Fritzemeier]

P.S. (since tinyMCE is fubar and I can't edit)
You could always create an app that just accesses the mobile version of your site. It's no different than just going to the mobile site, except it lets your user download an app if that's what they really want.

Additionally, you can try and get your iOS users to create a web clip shortcut to your site (which is basically like an app on their springboard)

Set the icon for it like this:
http://gigaom.com/apple/how-to-create-ios-device-home-screen-icons-...

[Lisa A Cash Hanson]

Ok I'll check it out thanks again!