I’m very happy to announce the general beta release of Zulip’s next-generation mobile app for Android and iOS! For over a year, we’ve been rebuilding mobile Zulip from scratch atop a new technical foundation powered by Flutter. The new app offers a sleek new design and a faster, smoother experience than the old app built on React Native. For those of you just tuning in: Zulip is an open-source team chat application designed for seamless remote and hybrid work.

Agile methodologies have long been heralded as the key to responsive and efficient product development. However, recent insights reveal that many organizations struggle to realize Agile’s foundational values and full potential.

Ever notice your employees’ cursors dancing away even when they’re not at their desks? Enter the world of mouse jigglers—a crafty little invention that’s giving office monitoring tools a run for their money. While they might seem like harmless gadgets, their misuse can throw a wrench in workplace productivity and trust. To put things into perspective, companies as giant as Wells Fargo & Co. have fired more than a dozen employees as they were using mouse jigglers.

Is it even possible to monitor employee performance without micromanagement? Asked a random bad manager. It was impossible and daunting for her to do. However, the reality is managers like these have no clue how they are harming their employees’ mental health. We can call micromanagement in simple terms, too much management or monitoring employees while crossing certain boundaries. Did you know that a flip side to micromanagement is under-management?

Running a small business is like trying to get a ship through stormy seas. Deadlines crash in like waves, the budget is as tight as the sails, and your crew looks up to you for guidance to get them through it. It’s tough, but there’s a lifeboat: project management software. No matter how rough the waters get, this tool can help streamline tasks, improve communication, and keep you on track.

Wrangling a team has never been trickier. Deadlines creep in a little closer, the tasks multiply, and it often feels like messages live everywhere: emails, text threads, and some mix of apps that don’t quite sync. Whether your team is spread across time zones or sitting in the same office, poor communication often becomes the silent productivity killer.

Effective communication is, without exaggeration, a key success factor in a business environment where the speed and accuracy of information exchange have become crucial. However, traditional means of communication have their limitations. These include the time it takes to deliver messages and the risk of losing important emails in the spam stream. But at the same time, SMS, as a universal channel, does not require access to the Internet. It is available on any mobile device.

In the era of mobile applications, Increasing roles of security and legal concerns in mobile applications are essential to developers of mobile applications, owners of businesses, and information technology (IT) workers. Their failure can result in losses, deterioration of user trust, and tarnished company reputation. This paper looks into compliance best practices of mobile applications in 2024 considering mobile privacy policies, security measures, and required laws.

The product development process is a six-stage plan that involves taking a product from initial concept to final market launch. This process helps break down tasks and organize cross-departmental collaboration. Find out how to implement a process of your own. Product development is both an exciting and difficult endeavor. From initial ideation to research and prototyping, no two product launches are the same.

The holiday season is made special by its little delights – a glowing string of lights, a crackling fire, and a perfectly wrapped gift. In that same spirit, our Christmas update brings together many thoughtful improvements that may seem small individually but collectively add to a more delightful user experience.