Samo in the app store

As the new year begins, there is a brand new way for the student body to access Samo information. Two mobile apps were released this school year, one designed by Benjamin Swerdlow (’22) and another by Finlay Nathan (’22) to help get information to students. Swerdlow created Samohi Connect because he noticed that important information about Samo was hard for students to access on their mobile device. With his previous background in creating mobile apps, the development of Samohi Connect was a relatively smooth process. Swedlow began the progress on his own, but throughout the designing of the app, he gained the support of Jessica Golden (’21), along with many others, to help out with the graphic design. Parents have taken a like to the app, despite the fact that the general idea was for students’ use. Samo student Tanya Casillas Castro (’21) finds the new app helpful in various ways. “The Samohi Connect app makes it a lot easier for me to navigate through the different school websites much easier, while checking information about school events and grades. I also like how its quick and easy to use,” Castro said. On average there are between 30-60 active students on the app daily and once the first version was released, the demand for the app to be available to different phone types came soon after. “It became much bigger than I expected it to. I planned on releasing [the app on] Android about five months after Apple, but Android users pushed so hard I did it in about two weeks,” Swerdlow said. Samohi Connect has additionally been approved by the district but it is not the official school app. However, they are sponsored and promoted by ASB for students to expand its use. Swerdlow has additionally created the Malibu High app, John Adams Middle School app and next week he will be releasing the Lincoln Middle School one.  Similarly, Nathan created the Original Samohi App for students and parents to access school resources and information on an easy to use mobile platform. Nathan also has a history of creating similar apps, like the Lincoln Middle School app, so making the Samo app in January 2017 was very similar to the making of the previous ones. The final product came around October of last year, programmed and designed entirely by Nathan himself. The programming system that he chose to use has allowed the app to take up a small amount of storage on a device. The app makes it easier for students to access the school’s resources, Illuminate, find classrooms and stay up to date with the school’s news feed. He is hoping to soon update it with easy access for students to sign up to flex time as well. Although his experience has been successful so far, Nathan hopes to further improve the app, especially to make it available to Android users, in accommodation for all students to use it. “The Samohi App has always been and still is an ongoing project. I work on it almost everyday to improve the app and I try to push updates as often as possible. I have great things planned for the future of the app,” Nathan said.  Nathan is satisfied with the response his app has gotten, with positive reviews in the App Store and overall positive feedback from parents and students that have tried out the app. He is pleased to see that his hard work has paid off and that the app has served its purpose in helping out students and parents.