# LBP Notes

> Notes from someone running a mobile applicaton


## Posts

- [London Bus Pal now does Tube, tram, rail and more — here's what it took](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-now-does-tube-tram-rail-and-more-heres-what-it-took/): Live arrival times for Tube, tram, National Rail, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line — all in one app. I spent weeks customising each mode so the information actually makes sense wherever you are.
- [London Bus Pal (LBP) - out with the old, in with the new](https://buspal.app/blog/new-brand/): A new icon, a new name, and the same app you've trusted since 2013.
- [A Few Honest Words About Ads](https://buspal.app/blog/ads/): You may have noticed the banner ad at the bottom of the screen has recently grown a bit taller (approximately 25%).
- [How London Bus Pal Delivers the Most Accurate Bus Predictions in London](https://buspal.app/blog/how-london-bus-pal-delivers-the-most-accurate-bus-predictions-in-london/): Ever wondered how London Bus Pal can tell you exactly when your bus will arrive?
- [Privacy and trust](https://buspal.app/blog/privacy-and-trust/): Today I want to write a little bit about your privacy and trust in the London Bus Pal application.
- [Accounting Treatment of Google Play and Apple App Store Earnings (UK Edition)](https://buspal.app/blog/revenue-recognition/): It's time for something different. One of the many hats I wear as part of running my own business is my accountant hat.
- [The end of an experiment: why I closed comments forever](https://buspal.app/blog/the-end-of-an-experiment-why-i-closed-comments-forever/): After four and a half years, I've permanently closed the comments section in London Bus Pal. This decision wasn't made lightly, but it was long overdue.
- [Why subscriptions matter](https://buspal.app/blog/why-subscriptions-matter/): When I was growing up, the world of software was a simpler place. Companies would create an app, burn it to disc and ship it in a box that you bought in a shop.
- [Superloop SL6](https://buspal.app/blog/superloop-sl6/): Following my fairly pleasant experience on the SL5 last week, I decided to try out the SL6 this morning.
- [Superloop SL5](https://buspal.app/blog/superloop-sl5/): Today I want to try something different and tell you about my experience on my first ever journey on the Superloop (I have taken the X26 before, but it wasn't called the Superloop then).
- [I am back!](https://buspal.app/blog/i-am-back/): Well, I wasn't really ever gone to be honest, but I think it's about time for an update of where I am.
- [Summer update for London Bus Pal](https://buspal.app/blog/summer-update-for-london-bus-pal/): The last time I gave any update on development for London Bus Pal was before the global pandemic became a thing in the UK.
- [London Bus Pal v20.8.3](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-8-3/): Thank you so much to all who have given me positive feedback. I am actively working in the background on some awesome features.
- [London Bus Pal v20.8.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-8-2/): A fix for version 20.8.1 where stops with no buses due would break the app 🔥 (sorry!!!)
- [London Bus Pal v20.7.3](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-7-3/)
- [London Bus Pal v20.7.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-7-2/): You can now back up your favourites and other settings to the cloud and restore it on another device (requires sign in through the settings menu) 💾 (this is not yet automated!)
- [London Bus Pal v20.7.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-7-1/): I have made the decision to remove support for Android 4 altogether.
- [London Bus Pal v20.6.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-6-1/)
- [What's been happening?](https://buspal.app/blog/whats-been-happening/): I haven't written any posts for a while, but you will notice that there have been some updates to the app.
- [London Bus Pal v20.2.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-2-2/): Swipe the stop name left or right when viewing stops to see the 5 digit stop code.
- [London Bus Pal v20.2.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-2-1/): Next update to make things better.
- [London Bus Pal v20.1.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v20-1-1/): First update of 2020 - it's just a small one to make sure everything stays up to date.
- [It broke and I am not fixing it](https://buspal.app/blog/it-broke-and-i-am-not-fixing-it/): Version 19.9.2 of London Bus Pal "Pro" version seems to have broken it and a user had to point this out to me after it had been live for a few days.
- [London Bus Pal v19.9.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v19-9-2/): Improvement: you can now choose whether the application is permanently in dark mode, light mode or if it should use the system settings.
- [London Bus Pal v19.9.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v19-9-1/): Improvement: improved the look of the home screen and allow users to choose exactly what to show when the app starts.
- [London Bus Pal v19.8.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v19-8-1/): This is a required update to ensure that the app keeps working after Transport for London (TfL) changes the way in which some of their data feeds work.
- [Connecting to the cloud](https://buspal.app/blog/connecting-to-the-cloud/): I have some grand ideas which need users to be less anonymous than they are now.
- [London Bus Pal v4.5.0](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-5-0/): Updates: Library updates to ensure the app is always as fast as possible and using your phone as efficiently as possible.
- [London Bus Pal v.4.4.5](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v-4-4-5/): • Dynamic updates of bus route info and bus stop info - all of the latest bus route changes should hopefully now reflect in the app.
- [London Bus Pal v4.4.3](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-4-3/): This is a fairly big update where the app will now dynamically be able to update route and bus stop information.
- [London Bus Pal v4.4.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-4-2/): This was a fairly small update from a feature perspective.
- [GoDaddy hosting upgrade](https://buspal.app/blog/godaddy-hosting-upgrade/): My back-end API's are all running on a GoDaddy hosting account.
- [It broke!](https://buspal.app/blog/it-broke/): I have a post ready to tell you all about the new functionality that I launched for bus information, but during a migration to a better service today, it broke a bit.
- [London Bus Pal v4.4.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-4-1/): Version 4.4.x introduces more bus information into London Bus Pal.
- [Flutter - the honeymoon is over](https://buspal.app/blog/flutter-the-honeymoon-is-over/): In January, I created a post where I sang Flutter's praises over Android native. Three months later, does this still hold true?
- [Monetisation - the results](https://buspal.app/blog/monetisation-the-results/): It's been a while since I posted here, mostly because I'm busy behind the scenes with huge new features.
- [London Bus Pal v4.3.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-3-1/): The next release is here.
- [London Bus Pal v4.3.0](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-3-0/): • Journey Planner is here - it is very much in beta phase, but should be very usable! Let me know if you experience any issues.
- [Bad apps will wreck your battery](https://buspal.app/blog/bad-apps-will-wreck-your-battery/): Following my previous post where I did some rudimentary experiments on other bus apps, I decided to leave my phone running for another couple of hours and see the effects on battery usage.
- [Kinder to your battery and data](https://buspal.app/blog/kinder-to-your-battery-and-data/): London Bus Pal now has a dark mode which will help you to save some crucial battery life.
- [London Bus Pal v4.2.4](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-2-4/): • Introduced dark mode which you can activate and deactivate in the settings. This should save your eyes and battery life!
- [Dark mode: this is why I love Flutter](https://buspal.app/blog/dark-mode-this-is-why-i-love-flutter/): I've seen all of the hype around dark mode lately and I knew that at some point, I'd probably have to jump on that band wagon.
- [Monetisation - ideas vs implementation](https://buspal.app/blog/monetisation-ideas-vs-implementation/): About a month ago, I wrote a post about my ideas for improving the monetisation of my app (give it a read if you haven't).
- [Flutter in-app purchases (part 2)](https://buspal.app/blog/flutter-in-app-purchases-part-2/): My previous post (part 1) on implementing in-app purchases in my Flutter app, was a bit of a vent after being incredibly frustrated with Apple's process for using in-app purchases.
- [London Bus Pal v4.2.3](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-2-2/): This update was mostly to get the Apple version out - (version 4.2.1 was rejected by Apple). Version 4.2.2 and 4.2.3 are the same.
- [Flutter in-app purchases (part 1)](https://buspal.app/blog/flutter-in-app-purchases-part-1/): This is the first of a multi-part post on my experience with using Flutter in-app purchases (and in this case the flutter_inapp_purchase library - using version 0.8.8+2 at the time of writing to be exact).
- [London Bus Pal v4.2.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-2-0/): This release focused mainly around providing functionality to give me tips. It feels slightly selfish, so I also included some bug fixes.
- [London Bus Pal v4.1.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-1-2/): This was just a quick update to fix the reordering of favourites issue which may have occurred. It should all be fixed now.
- [Why Flutter is better than Android native](https://buspal.app/blog/why-flutter-is-better-than-android-native/): There are two inaccuracies in my title: firstly, Flutter is Android native, but we will be talking about developing Android native apps using Java versus Flutter app in Dart; and secondly, one isn't really better than the other, but in my circumstances, one approach was definitely better than the other.
- [London Bus Pal v4.1.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-1-1/): This update was to bring back map views to the way in which they used to work, but also give you the ability to have new features (like a half-page view where you can also see the data in the bottom half).
- [It's not all about being a great developer](https://buspal.app/blog/its-not-all-about-being-a-great-developer/): Building a great app and making it a success on the app store, requires you to be much more than just a good developer.
- [Android OS version distribution in a real app](https://buspal.app/blog/android-os-version-distribution-in-a-real-app/): I was reading a post on Reddit which had some interesting statistics about Android OS versions and the speed (or tardiness really) of updating to the latest OS versions.
- [Building long-lasting apps](https://buspal.app/blog/building-long-lasting-apps/): I've been looking around for interesting data points to share with other app publishers and found some data in a place I didn't really expect to find it.
- [Flutter on iOS for Android developers](https://buspal.app/blog/flutter-on-ios-for-android-developers/): I'm previously an Android developer who got started with Flutter and rewrote my Android app in Flutter to release it on iOS.
- [London Bus Pal v4.1.0](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-1-0/): We finally have the ability to re-order favourite stops - hopefully this will make life a little bit easier for some people.
- [Ideas on monetisation](https://buspal.app/blog/ideas-on-monetisation/): As I start a new year and trying to make a bit more revenue from my app, I've been thinking a lot about monetisation lately.
- [Tips I wish I had when I started with Android apps](https://buspal.app/blog/tips-i-wish-i-had-when-i-started-with-android-apps/): I first published my app in September 2013. I am still iterating on the app, with 4.0.9 being my latest published version and 4.1.0 under development.
- [How to show support](https://buspal.app/blog/how-to-show-support/): Many mobile app users (including myself in the past) think that there is only one real way to show support for a developer and that is by paying for, or buying their product.
- [Reordering favourites](https://buspal.app/blog/reordering-favourites/): Today was spent finally implementing something I have been meaning to do for probably years now.
- [The many hats I have to wear](https://buspal.app/blog/the-many-hats-i-have-to-wear/): If you thought I was just an app developer who wrote a bit of code and published it to Google Play, you'd sadly be horribly mistaken.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.9](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-9/): Really small change in this one with a drastic improvement in load times when trying to find nearby stops.
- [The helpfulness of reviews (even bad ones)](https://buspal.app/blog/the-helpfulness-of-reviews-even-bad-ones/): Last week I posted on here after I felt really frustrated about a number of bad reviews I had received.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.8](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-8/): Bug fix: "Unexpected errors" when trying to find location would happen more frequently than it should.
- [Happy New Year - my plans](https://buspal.app/blog/happy-new-year-my-plans/): Following a fairly rough week in the world of London Bus Pal, I want to take the opportunity to wish everyone a happy 2019.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.7](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-7/): Major bug which was introduced from version 4.0.0 onward - if you ask for stops near me, the stops would just display in random order and it might not necessarily be the stops nearest to you.
- [Devastation of bad reviews](https://buspal.app/blog/devastation-of-bad-reviews/): Reviews on the Google Play store since the release of London Bus Pal 4 has been disappointing (it has only been four days since release, but the reviews have been generally negative).
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.6](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-6/): Bug bash! No new features in this release, but after a couple of days of running and seeing how things work out, I made the app more stable by going through all of the logs and making sure that when the unexpected occurs, the app doesn't blow up!
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.5](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-5/): Bug fix: As part of the rewrite, a feature which was in the app since day was went missing and I added it back now: you can expand and collapse bus stops.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.4](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-4/): This is a follow-up release on v4.0.3 with some quick bug fixes based on observed behaviour in production.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.3](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-3/): Map views are back and definitely improve on the map views we have had so far.
- [Version history](https://buspal.app/blog/version-history/): This was my first attempt at ever making an Android application.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.2](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-2/): This version increased the speed of route searching significantly as it was terribly slow previously.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.1](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-1/): This update contains just a minor fix as advertisements were not displaying correctly in the previous version.
- [London Bus Pal v4.0.0](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-v4-0-0/): This is the initial release for iOS devices only.
- [History of the app so far](https://buspal.app/blog/history-of-the-app-so-far/): Back in 2013, I was a regular bus user in London and I remember having to use two different apps to get the information I wanted.
- [What a GDPR disaster!](https://buspal.app/blog/what-a-gdpr-disaster/): May 2018 has been a really long and frustrating month in terms of updates to London Bus Pal.
- [Map views are here!!](https://buspal.app/blog/map-views-are-here/): I was hoping to get this out there quicker, but rather late then never! This week I added some map views of all the data to London Bus Pal.
- [Racing the bus by tube!](https://buspal.app/blog/racing-the-bus-by-tube/): I travel between Angel and Waterloo on most days.
- [Just how accurate is TfL's countdown system?](https://buspal.app/blog/just-how-accurate-is-tfls-countdown-system/): Just how accurate is TfL's countdown system When I started developing London Bus Pal, the one thing that was always going to be completely out of my control was going to be the actual prediction data.
- [London Bus Pal launched - the ideas](https://buspal.app/blog/london-bus-pal-launched-the-ideas/): My first Android application was launched on 6 September 2013. It's called London Bus Pal.

## Pages

- [Terms](https://buspal.app/blog/terms/)
- [TfL countdown issues](https://buspal.app/blog/tfl-countdown-issues/): I am very sorry for any inconvenience you may have experienced over the last few weeks with predictions data in London Bus Pal.
- [Blog](https://buspal.app/blog/blog/)
- [Contact Me](https://buspal.app/blog/contact/): Let me know what questions and/or feedback you have for me. I’ll get back to you as quickly as I can. Thanks! I look forward to hearing from you.
- [About Me](https://buspal.app/blog/about/): Hi - my name Pieter and I have created a mobile application called London Bus Pal. It has been live since September 2013 and it has some really good reviews.
- [Ad technology providers](https://buspal.app/blog/ad-technology-providers/): Adtelligent Inc.
- [How your data is used](https://buspal.app/blog/how-your-data-is-used/): When you use London Bus Pal, the use and distribution of your personal data is limited wherever possible.

## Optional

- [Agent (MCP protocol)](websites-agents.hostinger.com/buspal.app/mcp)

[comment]: # (Generated by Hostinger Tools Plugin)