Ask HN: What do you think about this Android app? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What do you think about this Android app?

2 pointslpellegr8 comments

I am the developer of the Medical ID app on Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.medicalid.free

What do you think about this app? I am looking for honest feedbacks and idea to improve it.

Any comment is welcome ;)

Great idea! The only thing I could think of adding, is when you last took your drugs, you could have some sort of button you press on the lock screen and a tick list.

Going further you could have a progress bar next to each drug which slowly goes down depending on when you should take it next .

Thank you n-gauge. Your idea is really interesting. I will try to consider it for next versions.

The app seems to require some permissions that seem, at least to me, a bit orthogonal to the primary function and perhaps are at odds with the user's intent.

If it meets the guidelines, this might make a good 'Show HN'. Though the engagement with mobile apps tends to be lower. 'Show HN' guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

If I understand, you suggest a better onboarding which explains what is the purpose of the app and why and how permissions are used?

Thank you for the hint about "Show HN", I was not aware of it. I will probably give a try.

I was wondering why the app needs access to my all contacts and usb storage and requires full network access.

Read contacts permission is for enabling emergency contacts auto completion. Usb storage is for saving image photos. Network access is for Crash reports and fetching first aids techniques Web page content.

Android already natively has a similar feature (at least in the last versions, not sure about kitkat and lower). So how does this app improve on that ?

What I have seen until now on Android is limited to a list of contacts to call in case of emergency. Furthermore, this last is not always trivial to access.

The app I have developed aims to go further. First, its availability on the lock screen is clear. You don't have to look for a tiny icon on top left/right side. Besides, it allows to create multiple profiles, which is useful if you have for instance young children.

For each profile, you can specify, emergency contacts but also the blood type of the person, its/her height, weight, allergies, medical conditions and any other information you may consider vital.

In addition, the app provides some utilities that allow to display your location (address, GPS coordinates, altitude), find nearby hospitals, send an SMS alert (e.g. if you are not able to speak in case of emergency).

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