Mickael Romaniello
30 minutes, no slides, nothing to prepare.
Mickael Romaniello
30 minutes, no slides, nothing to prepare.
From concept to publication. One dedicated expert, 12 years of experience.
In short: android app development for Chicago (2,693,976 residents) means a project driven by a senior expert — not an agency. Direct communication, ownership of the code, published on App Store and Google Play within weeks.
Often, yes, by noticeably. The dev tools are free. But beware, device fragmentation in Chicago can increase testing time.
It is a progressive deployment. We first launch the app to most users in United States. If no major crashes are reported by Crashlytics, we increase. It is a question of logic and safety.
Yes, it is an excellent way to keep your app visible to your users in the Illinois area.
Yes, that is the key advantage of Android. We can install an app via a simple file (APK). Ideal for internal tools in Chicago.
Most of my expertise is on mobile and tablets. But the core architecture allows planning for these extensions eventually.
I use tools like Proguard to obfuscate the code, and I secure all communications with your servers in Chicago.
Less than Apple (a large rejections on the first submission at Apple). But their privacy rules have become very strict.
Central. We apply Material Design 3. The app will even adapt to the user's system colors.
We use Google Analytics for Firebase and the Google Play Console to analyze usage in Chicago.
Yes, I am an independent freelancer. You speak directly to the technician coding your project for Chicago. No middlemen.
Look around you on the streets of Chicago.
What do you see in people's hands?
Samsung, Xiaomi, Google Pixel phones.
Android is everywhere. It is the most used operating system in the world.
Your future clients spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on their phones.
The key point is that your business needs to be where the attention is.
In their pocket.
But launching an app on the Play Store is not a walk in the park.
Many companies in United States think having a good idea is enough.
Spoiler: a good idea with bad execution is worthless.
He clicks. He leaves. He forgets.
That is what happens if the app is slow, crashes, or ignores Android guidelines.
Many people think an app is just a website put inside a box.
That is wrong.
Developing for Android means using Google's native tools to create a flawless experience.
Today, Google's recommended programming language is Kotlin. It replaced Java.
It is a modern, fast, and safe language.
For the interface, we use Jetpack Compose. And we follow the strict visual rules dictated by Google's Material Design.
The most important factor is understanding that the Android world is an open ecosystem.
Unlike Apple's walled garden, Android offers immense freedom.
You have access to endless hardware options. You can deeply customize the system behaviors.
You can even distribute your app outside the official Google store if needed.
This is perfect for internal enterprise tools in Chicago.
But this freedom comes at a price.
There are over 24,000 active Android device models worldwide.
Small screens, large screens, foldable phones.
The app must adapt to every single one of them, without ever breaking the user experience.
That is the real job of an Android developer. Turning this technical chaos into a simple, smooth interface for your end user in United States.
The number one fear when starting an app project is losing control: you sign an estimate, hand over your idea, and hear nothing for three months. The way of working described here exists so that does not happen.
Three rules, the same on every project:
You test the app on your own phone every two weeks.
Chicago work tends to come from established businesses rather than startups, which means there is usually a system already running and the app has to talk to it. The hard part is almost never the app. It is the API you already have, and how much of it we can use as it is rather than rebuilding it.
Most internal APIs were written for a web application on a fast office network, where an oversized response cost nothing. Put the same API behind a phone on a cellular connection in a basement and it takes eight seconds to answer, and the app looks broken while working exactly as designed. So the first real task on a Chicago project is usually measurement rather than design: see what the existing system actually returns, how fast, and decide what to fix on the server rather than paper over on the phone.
The second recurring question is what not to move. A mobile app that tries to reproduce a whole business system always fails — the screen is small, the user is standing up, and they have one free hand and thirty seconds. What works is three or four actions performed fifty times a day: log a job, confirm a delivery, look up a customer, photograph a document. Everything else stays on the desktop, and saying so plainly at the start saves the argument later.
Chicago's logistics and manufacturing base adds the field constraint on top: warehouses, yards and trucks, where signal is unreliable and the phone is not a desk. That pushes the same way every time — full offline capability with automatic sync, large touch targets, minimal typing, and no data loss if the device dies mid-entry. Those are architectural decisions made in week one, not features added in month four.
With Invent Better, the person who understands your project is the person who writes it. No sales representative, no account manager in between, no handover between three teams. You talk to the developer from the first call through to launch. On a first product, where most of the decisions are made in the first six weeks, that proximity is worth weeks of calendar time.
I do not use obscure technologies that will be abandoned in two years.
I use the industry standard, dictated by developer.android.com.
The key point is the longevity of your code.
Here is what I use under the hood of your app in Chicago:
You have a massive idea to disrupt your market in Chicago.
That is great. Now, we are going to cut that idea right down.
Why?
Because most app features are never used.
In short, we are going to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP).
We will focus on the single feature that truly brings value to the user in United States.
We build this V1 quickly.
Then, we send it to the 20 testers mandated by Google Play rules for new accounts.
Those 14 days of mandatory testing are not a constraint. They are an opportunity.
It is a chance to see how the app behaves in real conditions on the streets of Chicago.
To see where people click. Where they get stuck.
We adjust, we fix the silent bugs.
Then we publish.
Once on the market, your real users will dictate the next steps of the project.
If they scream for a new feature, we add it. Otherwise, we save your budget.
It is a question of financial and product logic.
Let's take a concrete example.
A client contacted me to build a home services booking app, specifically targeting the Illinois area.
The initial problem? The app had to target the general public.
And the general public uses Android. From all brands. At all price points.
The most important factor was managing Android's terrible fragmentation.
The app had to be as smooth on a five-year-old cheap Xiaomi as on the latest Samsung Galaxy S.
I rebuilt the interface using Jetpack Compose, Google's new design tool.
The result? Much lighter and more robust code.
We launched the app in Chicago via a Staged Rollout on the Google Play Console.
A large first. We detected a strange crash that only happened on old Oppo phones using Crashlytics.
We fixed it the exact same day. Without the majority of users ever noticing.
Then we opened it to everyone.
The app maintained a 4.8-star rating on the Play Store. And the client was able to expand their service without fearing their servers would melt.
Treat an Android budget as a growth line rather than an expense, because that is how it behaves. Someone online will code something for almost nothing, and it will be slow, insecure and impossible to extend. The useful comparison is not one quote against another, but the cost of building it twice against building it once.
When talking budget for an Android app in Chicago, you have to change your perspective.
It is not an expense. It is a growth tool.
You can find someone on the internet who will code you something for almost nothing.
Spoiler: it will be a technical disaster. Termites in a house.
The app will be slow on half of your United States customers' phones. Bugs will pile up. You will lose credibility.
In short, redoing a poorly coded app always costs more than doing it right the first time.
With me, you are not buying lines of code. You are buying a solution.
Every domain has its problems. Android often has the appropriate technical answer for your business in Chicago.
Twelve years ago, I launched my very first mobile application. Phones have changed since then, but my job remains the same: turning ideas into concrete tools.
From my office in Cannes, I help entrepreneurs and SMBs design iOS and Android apps that make real sense. I don't just code for the sake of coding. I try to understand your business, your users, and your actual needs.
My goal is simple. Build an application that people will actually want to use every day. The key point: we build for them, not for us. Let's talk about yours.
Ready to launch your app in Chicago?
You have the idea. You know your market in Illinois. Now, it is time to take action.
But not just in any random way. The key advantage of working together is absolute clarity. I will not sell you useless features. I will not make empty promises that I cannot keep.
30 minutes to start
Book →Most of my projects run remotely, and in practice that changes very little. We talk over video whenever you need to, not only at major milestones, and you can reach me with questions at any point during the project — I always answer.
Once we are working together, travelling to meet you on site can absolutely be arranged if your project calls for it. Travel costs are quoted separately, upfront and with no surprises.