How many apps does it take to build an app?

A reflection on what I have built (so far). I had to take a step back and just appreciate how many mini apps it took to get to this point. How many connected things had to work in unison in order for the choir to shine as a whole.

I guess some of us more technical folks may call it microservices. While that's not wrong, I wanted to refer to it as a mini app for general understanding and perspective on the supporting pillars and layers of complexity of most modern large-scale apps. It's not, however, related to its robustness or even complexity, but only mini because of its relative scale in comparison to the whole. By themselves, they are mighty, mighty apps that can stand on their own.

So far, I have built AI content moderation as a first line of defence to automatically prevent nudity, hate speech, and inappropriate content from ever becoming part of the community.

I built an R engine to find dependent (correlational) data between two polls using Fisher and Chi tests.

I have built a notification (push notification) engine to keep users updated, informed, and engaged.

I have built an alerting (monitoring) engine, so I know if my app ever experiences any issues during general operation.

I have built an analytics engine to understand and improve the product.

And most recently, I hacked together an SMS solution that feels like a chatbot over SMS, which had me learning about RCS messages, SMS servers, message segments, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), how to reuse existing connections, TTL (time to live), and mGet to save a few milliseconds off requests so that texting back and forth seems natural.

Hopefully, you could understand now what I mean when I say "mini apps" and the breadth of knowledge a developer has to have to make each one of these work well on its own and as part of the whole. I'm sure as well you could find some company that offers one of these apps alone as a service.

That's the thought that brings a tiny grin of contentment to my face. It's the idea that the journey wasn't for nothing. Experience and experiments compound, mental models expand. The number of "mini apps" and side projects I would have built before this point isn't insignificant—it would have built the competency and confidence to attempt this. Because consistency breeds confidence, and confidence breeds competency.

So, how many apps does it take to build an app?

As much as it takes.

As much as you need.