Pinch’s contribution to Albert Heijn’s new Food First app.
Through a large campaign, Albert Heijn has launched its revamped My Lifestyle Coach app. Pincher Thomas Middel, as a senior developer, played a leading role in the development of this app. What’s special about the project: the application is built with the cross-platform framework Flutter, which Albert Heijn is fully committed to – and in which Pinch firmly believes.
My Lifestyle Coach app: a personal lifestyle coach
The My Lifestyle Coach app already existed for some time, but has now become a full-fledged lifestyle coach in app form. The mobile application inspires and motivates users to eat better, move more, and sleep better. Coaching takes place through challenges, motivational videos, fun exercises, handy schedules, smart tips, and delicious recipes.
The app was developed in collaboration with behavioral scientists and lifestyle experts and by a team including Flutter developer at Pinch, Thomas Middel.
Coaching through challenges
The initial version of the app, built by an international app agency, was relatively simple and contained only content. In April this year, the major renovation started, and Pinch, through our regular partner NOISE, was asked to contribute to the development. Within the team of people from Ahold and the international agency, Middel as a senior developer had the task of steering the project and increasing productivity.
“With the renewal, the app has really become an interactive lifestyle coach” – Thomas Middel, Flutter Developer
“The main feature we added for this are the challenges. Such a challenge runs for about seven days. Each day you receive content related to it and push notifications to motivate you.”
Intermediate check-ups thanks to advanced chatbot
Creating a chatbot-like system that facilitates interactivity was the biggest task for the developers. Middel: “For the intermediate check-ups, users must always answer questions, creating a kind of conversation with a chatbot. This creates nice branches and personalizes the app for the user.”
This system is actually woven throughout the entire app, all screens with questions are based on the chatbot. Middel: “Our biggest challenge was to make this as smooth as possible for users. To be able to set this up well, we started at the beginning, when Albert Heijn was not yet directly involved in the development, by building a simple app with chatbot integration so we could see how such an interaction works.”
Flutter is the message for Albert Heijn
The My Lifestyle Coach app is developed with Flutter, a cross-platform framework from Google that allows for the simultaneous creation of different types of applications—including iOS and Android apps. “Albert Heijn is very enthusiastic about Flutter and is fully committing to it. For example, they are using it to create modules for existing apps, such as the login flow, which is the same for all apps. You only have to make it once in Flutter and then you can integrate it everywhere,” explains Middel.
Thanks to Flutter, programming can be done quickly and productively with lower development and maintenance costs. “Moreover, the flexibility is a great advantage for Albert Heijn: you only have to worry about one project instead of having to adjust two native projects side by side,” says the Flutter developer.
No Flutter limitations, but a step counter integration
With a cross-platform framework like Flutter, certain aspects such as accessing cameras or sensors can be challenging for developers. Almost all manufacturers now provide software development kits (SDKs) for Flutter. If they are not available, developers need to write a bridge.
“In the My Lifestyle Coach app, we have not encountered significant Flutter limitations. Currently, we are working on integrating step counters through smartwatches to make the app as interactive as possible. Although such an integration goes a bit deeper, I do not expect any problems here either. We see that Flutter is rapidly maturing. The gap with native development is already much smaller than when Pinch started with Flutter two and a half years ago.”
Transformation to a tech company
Albert Heijn is explicitly transforming from a supermarket company to, in their own words, a ‘food and technology company.’ The AH Technology unit has departments for data, digital, and tech and focuses on personalized advice to customers and simplifying online shopping. And AH Tech Labs develops ‘next big things’ with a team of business developers, software developers, and UX designers.
As a result, Albert Heijn has multiple apps, including the AH supermarket app, AH Compact, Allerhande, and an internal app for employees that enables payment via QR code upon delivery.
Ongoing collaboration and valuable takeaway
Besides Middel, another app developer from Pinch is currently working for Albert Heijn. The Flutter developer expects the collaboration between Albert Heijn and Pinch to be enduring, although he will soon be working on apps for other companies again.
He takes with him a new valuable insight: “Albert Heijn highly emphasizes quality assurance by adding tests during app development. I have learned a lot from that. At Pinch, we have even made measuring quality through tests one of our main goals for next year.”
Having an app made by Pinch
Pinch is a well-known agency for mobile development that has developed more than a hundred apps. We build Android, iOS, and Flutter apps. Having an app made by Pinch means working closely with a team of enthusiastic specialists, who are eager to strive for the best possible result with you. During the development of the app, a dedicated project manager at Pinch oversees both the process and the communication between you as the client and the developers and designers who work on your app every day.
We realize that making a good app involves more than just building the technology. Pinch also relieves you in the area of concept development, visual and interaction design, and technical development. From idea through development and launch to maintenance: we ensure that your app becomes and remains a success.