🎙️ AMA: From Rippple to Trakt

Discussions General
1

Hey everyone :waving_hand:

I’m Kevin, a longtime Trakt user, VIP, and probably best known around here as the developer behind MOVIST (2014-2021), SERIST (2016-2021), and more recently Rippple for Trakt (2018-now).

For over a decade, I’ve built apps that rely on the Trakt API and have always been deeply passionate about this ecosystem and its community. Trakt has been a big part of my personal and professional journey — so today, I’m excited (and a little nervous!) to share that I’m officially joining the Trakt Team.

:briefcase: What’s changing for me?
After years of working with Trakt, I’m now working on Trakt. I’ve recently started contributing to the Trakt API Partner Program, which I’ve been shaping to better support app developers and create a more sustainable future for our ecosystem.

In the coming months, I’ll be stepping more into a Product Management role. My focus will be on communication, team alignment, and helping shape how Trakt builds and prioritizes features. I believe deeply in Trakt’s mission, and can’t wait to help us grow stronger from the inside out.

:test_tube: What about Rippple?
Rippple is still my side project. It remains independent, loved, and actively maintained. In fact, it’s the first app piloting the new API Partner Program I’ve been shaping. I hope it sets the tone for a new chapter where Trakt and third-party apps thrive together.

:handshake: Let’s Talk
This post is an open door. Ask me anything! My background, the Partner Program, what’s next for Trakt, or anything in between. I can’t promise to have all the answers, but I’m here to listen, to share what I can, and to learn from this amazing community that I’ve been a part of for so long.

Let’s continue building something awesome together :rocket:

Kevin

3

Congrats!
Rippple is awesome!. User of serist and movist in the past.

4

Rippple is just the first of many apps we’d like to see take advantage of the Partner Program. We are in contact with several developers doing amazing stuff on all kind of platforms.

8

I understand you are not using all the features of Trakt, like nobody is watching every single piece of content on their Netflix subscription. I also understand you feel like you are not taking full advantage of the Trakt VIP subscription at that price.

First, the way this Partner Program is build doesn’t cost you anything additional. If you are already a VIP, you get another app for free. If you are not a VIP and want to support the app and not Trakt, you can. If you are not yet a Trakt VIP, you automatically get more out of your Trakt VIP. If you don’t use the app, you are not paying for other users that do.

But instead of talking about lowering the price or bundling things differently, which are also valid options, can we discuss about what we could do to make you use more of the features you feel you don’t need? How can we improve them so you feel you get a better value out of our current proposition?

11

This isn’t how it is. Here is my point of view (as a Partner with Rippple, as a user and as a Product Manager):

  • Rippple was built over 7+ years. It has always been a Trakt client. It has always had a Premium tier (freemium model). Rippple still has a 9$/year subscription to get premium features. You can take Rippple Premium on top of or alongside Trakt VIP or none at all. Rippple Premium even gives access to some nice features that sometimes are close to what Trakt VIP offers.
  • The price of the Trakt VIP subscriptions have been increased but it has nothing to do with the Trakt API Partner Program or Rippple. It was a business decision made before we even started working on the Partner Program.

I’ve said it above but maybe after you posted. You are not as a user contributing to anything if you are not using other apps. You are contributing to our effort to make Trakt better and this is awesome. But your bucks are not used to fuel only things you don’t use or need or whatever. I hope to be able to shake off this feeling some of you have.

PS: you may be using only the Trakt website but I know some users who use only Trakt through a third-party app. This is something quite unique and beautiful, just look at the diversity of apps using Trakt. It’s something to be encouraged imho… as long as it doesn’t hurt you as a customer (again, the price increase is multi-factor and this is not one of them).

12

Following this logic would mean that you should be mad on Netflix because your subscription is being used to fund creation of low quality shows and movies that you will not like or watch at all.

But other subscribers may be quite opposite - they will like it watch those shows and movies.

16

Thank you for introducing yourself. Good to see someone from Trakt actually reach out to the community after the commotion of the last few. days :slight_smile: I would be more nervous about that than about taking on a new job. :wink: I wish you the best of luck in your new role.

In my household we currently have 2 active VIP subscriptions of which 1 has been cancelled as a result of the price increase. The 2nd was renewed earlier this month, still under the $30 subscription fee. Whether or not we will keep it is yet to be seen.

We are using Trakt from an iPad as well as from AppleTV. Tracking watches is typically done manually from the Trakt app on iPad. My wife also uses the Trakt app on Apple TV to launch the next eposiode in the right streaming app. We have no long lists, collections or notes. Our only use for Trakt it to keep track of what we’ve watched, and easily find something to watch. In this regards, the advanced filtering should allow us to filter on movies and episodes available on our streaming services. Unfortunately this is not available on the iOS, iPadOS and tvOS versions of the Trakt apps, making the promised VIP feature unusable. I’ve always felt that $30 (or even 2x $30) was a fair contribution to keep the site running, but I can honestly not justify $60 for that one feature, especially since it is not working on the platform we are using.

We are now exploring Rippple. The ability to show the icons of your favorite streaming services next to available movies and episodes is actually the closest we are getting to the one feature we want to use. Given our limited use, for us it might make more sense to let the Trakt VIP expire and pay for Ripple Premium…

17

I’m really trying to be fair and I absolutely get why you are excited about making your passion your job. I wish you best of luck and success.

Your Netflix example is actually a good example for another company being at risk to do it wrong.

Not because not anyone will watch everything they offer. No, because they are branching out too far from their initial premise. They do games too, dabble into sports. The more heavily they invest in those other fields, while also constantly increasing their prices, the more they will come under pressure to split up their services. To make it optional to subscribe to sports or games. Just like Disney and other megacorporations do too.

And that’s the same issue with Trakt. I consider exactly one VIP feature essential: Advanced filtering.
But all I see is these filters being less functional in the official app, options getting reduced (last year filter option was dropped) while the Trakt team is feverishly searching for what else they might “improve” next. And if you’ve been following the feedback, you’ll know that Trakt’s choices and priorities have been quite … controversial.

18

OK, so let’s take that request a bit further (just to play devil’s advocate).

I’d rather my money wasn’t used to develop the features you want to use.

That just doesn’t work, does it? Development has to be a mix of features, to provide a range of users the features they want, with prioritisation and compromise.

20

My use-case is also centred on the Apple TV, in a general Apple ecosystem household. Unless I’m misunderstanding you, this is available in the current TestFlight beta?

“Filter by Favorite Services In Shows/Movie Tabs”

21

The counter point to this is that by branching out, and adding some of the recent, new features, Trakt has become the essential centre for my viewing workflow, and nothing else is available that does that.

I’ve been a reasonably long-time user of Trakt (I think ~10 years), but before I could take it or leave it, and had alternatives. Now it is the only practical option for me. That is through product development, and expanding what it does.

22

Thanks. That option is also available in the current version, but as the name suggests, it only applies to the Shows and Movies tab. It does not apply to the Up Next. If a show has 2 seasons, and you’ve seen the first season, but not the second, and the second season is not available on any of your streaming services, then it still shows up in up next.

23

Ah ok, unless I missed it I don’t think you mentioned Up Next specifically.

You are of course correct. I currently use the Drop Show option to allow for that right now, and have a list of shows I’m monitoring for when they return to something I subscribe to. You should put a suggestion/request into the iOS beta section - I’ve found Tyson very responsive and engaged with feedback.

24

You didn’t miss it. I didn’t explicitly mention it.

25

Good. Then you should be required to pay $120 a year for your unique set of must-have features and I should get a $30 tier with core features.
If you are so certain that these features are so spectacular and appealing to the masses, there should be no doubt that your tier would be quite popular. Why should the rest of us finance free users and Trakt’s extra niche features?

27

And I would argue that the future of the product is the new features, and these need to be focussed on. It seems pretty obvious to me. It’s what will grow the product and the reach.

So it’s better for you to go and find an alternative product that now better fits your needs, at a price that fits your budget. Which is pretty much what many are saying they are doing. This is by far the best solution, as it allows Trakt to follow what they think is now the best direction for the product, and those that are no longer their target demographic move onto something else.

29

Oh? And I thought you are such a huge fan of applying logic.

But I guess Trakt introducing a tier with core features for $30 is somehow worse than Trakt losing these paying customers to other platforms instead?
And somehow losing these paying customers helps developing more features for Trakt? Interesting thoughts, quite creative I dare say.

You also suddenly don’t seem very convinced anymore of the super appealing Trakt features you were so excited about.

Anyway, have a good day. I think I consumed enough of your “logic”.

30

Thanks for your message. As someone who’s also been part of this community for years, I understand your frustration and disappointment.

I come in at a time when there’s a lot to fix, especially around communication and trust, and I’m here to help move things in the right direction. It won’t happen in a snap and I’m not alone but I’ll do my best :flexed_biceps:

If this is goodbye for now, I totally respect that. But if you ever decide to return, I hope the experience will speak for itself.

32

I’ve posted in other threads how it may generate increasing revenue even with a loss of subscribers. It’s not only a logical argument, but not uncommon business practice. It’s not possible for us to know the impact, but there are different plausible outcomes.

And I never posted that I’m excited about a load of new features. Really not sure where you got that idea from. I did say that recent features (from last year) have made Trakt an essential part of how I view programs, but that’s just me - and only to illustrate that developing Trakt and introducing new features will make it more compelling to a wider audience. It’s normal product evolution to become more appealing to a new audience and broaden appeal.

33

One big part of my job in the coming days, weeks, years (hopefully) will be to map what users have been asking for, link all of this to opportunities our side, then set the right priorities (because we won’t be able to do everything, all at once) based on your feedback (that we value a lot) and on some of our own plans (because we also value some things).

Now, I understand you’ve been asking some things for years so this may feel repetitive for you but with the right tools to track them, I’m sure the team will eventually take them on. I’m looking at better ways to do this our side, both in terms of getting your input in and in terms of getting the output out. In the meantime, if it’s not there already, don’t hesitate to post in Feature Request and upvote the things that matter to you.

Sometimes we may still have to say no to some ideas for some reasons. For instance (sorry I’m not going deep right now into your post but I’m taking the opportunity to give you a bit of insights form the inside): when you ask for multilingual comments, it is an extremely good suggestion. But until now, it would have been impossible to moderate them (I agree with you, with AI, this changes things, but AI has also a cost).

Your money is not used to fund third-party apps. The only apps Trakt is funding are the official ones: the website and API, iOS, tvOS, Android and LITE (which is cross-platform by nature). You may not like LITE but it is us exploring things and what will come out of it will benefit Trakt, one way or another, and thus will benefit you. Maybe not directly if you are not using it. For instance: localisation is something built-in on LITE, like you mentioned. This is us learning things.

My expertise and talent (thank you :sweat_smile:) is and will be used to build a better Trakt, and I’m saying that in a bigger way than just the iOS app. That’s the whole point, yes! But without killing third-party apps, like Rippple and many others on the way there, is a plus in my opinion. I may be biased tho :rofl:

Again, Trakt is not funding the other apps in the Partner Program. It has been built in a way that makes you get better apps (if you use them or want to use them) by giving developers that created awesome experiences better tools (including referral links who give access to revenue sharing → sharing, not funding!) to do it. If it helps, you can see it as an extension of the Public API, which is something that spawned a lot of apps that a lot of people loved over the years bringing more people to Trakt.

I think the car comparison is not fitting, while the Netflix comparison is… but we can disagree :wink:

I wouldn’t say it is a coincidence because the price increase started way before the Partner Program. Also, we are trying to add value to Trakt VIP all the time, so, inevitably, when we increase the prices, you will see something as being the cause of the other.