It can be really difficult to find a great project to work on. Golden ideas don’t come that often around, but most people make the mistake of being too focused on original ideas. Having a completely original idea is by no means a bad thing, it is in fact amazing if you can come up with something new and refreshing and will earn you a lot of attention. However, it’s easier said than done and sometimes, the solution is already in front of you, in the form of an already successful app that needs new feature.
Making existent apps better
Consider one of your favorite digital services. Isn’t there anything that you would change about it? Is there no feature you would die to have, as it would complete the app for you? If you feel that way about a specific concept or feature, you can be sure that there are others just like you which would die (and even pay good money) for that particular improvement.
High end services are not perfect
No high end service is perfect, and no matter how many millions of users are using an app per day, there are always things that the app could do better. Let’s take the example of instant messaging software. Currently, most mainstream services have realized that users need a desktop solution, but there used to be a time when it was impossible to access your messages from a desktop computer, especially through official means. There have been many developers that have worked around this and provided desktop solutions. They weren’t perfect, and certainly not official, but they were useful. Another example would the music streaming service Tidal. While it is not yet available on consoles, there are devs that are working towards bringing a third party app in the fold. It would allow users access to their Tidal library and act as a replacement for the official app that hasn’t yet arrived.
New features for free services
It’s not just the high profile, paid apps that could use some polish. Consider the very commonly used service, YouTube. You are probably one of the many people that have spent an accumulated total of days watching video content on YouTube. There are a lot of people out there which would like YouTube to offer even more features, like downloading songs offline. Creating a youtube to mp3 converter can fill that gap. Keep in mind that there are many good converters already on the market but you have the opportunity to come up with the best one yet.
The issue of copyright
You might be wondering what happens when you try to make money off of a big company’s product. The results are usually not desirable, but the trick is not to work behind their backs. Instead, aim to create a prototype and then see it made official by the company or business in question. You’d be surprised of how willing they are to accept a fresh idea. This kind of development is also an opportunity to get yourself out there. Offer the feature or tool for free in exchange for a stronger online presence and building a fan base which would support your later, original endeavors.
