It all started when Faisal Alhazza, a Saudi student, started having issues with keeping up attendance and academic performance at university due to poor time management. And so he created Jamaie, the solution to his dilemma. But it wasn't that easy. “We are in an era when everyone has a smartphone in their pocket with thousands of apps to engage with. With many global success stories of so many developers, I wanted to create something useful for students across Saudi Arabia and the region. At university, I had an issue with keeping track of my attendance and academic performance. Many of my classmates were going through the same problem. I thought of developing an app to help students deal with this issue. The first step I took was to enroll in training courses to learn app development and coding. I was so eager to try to turn my idea into a reality. Post my graduation, I met my partner Mohammed Al Oraini and we discussed ways to improve students' academic life and we both agreed to start building an app,” he told Saudi Gazette. Alhazza, developer of Jamaie, said he faced problems during the development period. “We needed support to learn how to make the app functional and user interface friendly. As we got closer to completing the app, we had many doubts on whether it was going to succeed or fail. We came to the conclusion that we will start with a teaser on social media. The results were phenomenal; we were amazed by how people reacted toward the app. We were encouraged and kept working on it with a renewed level of energy.” After eight months of working on the app, they realized it was ready to launch on the iOS platform. “Initial reaction to the launch was great,” Alhazza said. “10,000 downloads only on the first night with great positive feedback. Today, we reached more than 70,000 in less than a year. Students keep leaving positive reviews and comments in our social media accounts and in App Store.” He admitted their families played a huge role in encouraging them along the way. “Thanks to them, we managed to make it real and live the experience of being successful and helpful toward our students in the region.” He said the region has come a long way, with young Arab app developers adding great value in terms of creativity and usefulness. “There is so much potential in our developers but what they need is to hone their skills in mobile developments. We would love to see more training courses at universities and educational institutions for them to learn to develop useful and great apps.” Alhazza said the app started as an idea during university but he strongly believes that he could only achieve the goal with Apple. “Pure need was the reason behind my simple idea. Soon after I graduated, I had more time to develop an iOS app with my partner Mohammed. To be honest, Apple's iOS platform made my idea come to life, as I always knew it is friendly and widely popular platform. It allowed me to connect with a large number of students in Saudi Arabia that supported me through reviewing the app and gave me the chance to improve the app. The more feedback I received from students across the Kingdom, the more beneficial the app became for students using it.” Most development includes adding new universities and colleges to the app to calculate the attendance limit for students. “Currently, our focus is to improve Jamaie by introducing new features and tools. We are also looking at expanding into new markets. We think there is room for improvements and there is a lot to add. The academic life is missing many elements and we are going to facilitate it by adding features that connect students with their communities. We realise there is a need for more communication between students and we plan to improve the way students reach out to each other. Imagine that there are no obstacles in finding a classmate's experience with a specific course or a professor. That's what we are going to do with Jamaie.” 30,000 students use the app on a daily basis, Alhazza tells us. Discussing future expansion plans he said there are primarily two goals he wants to achieve. “The first goal is to improve the educational platform in the country by introducing apps and tools that would be beneficial to students. Our second goal is to set an example to encourage other developers to peruse their visions and make it a reality.” He said the opportunity presented to him and his partner is bigger than they expected. “There are millions of students in Saudi Arabia alone, not to mention other countries in the region and the growth is vast. We believe in our young developers skills and we are able to set an example for others to follow and to get encouraged.” He hopes that his work can motivate other young Saudi developers to start creating apps that serve the region in various fields.
