In the past on this blog I’ve written about my thoughts on magic apps. I personally don’t use any that need to be connected to the internet in my shows. It’s just too risky, especially at large events when the internet will frequently run very slowly.
As of writing this, we’re on day four of the Inject 2 app being down. According to Greg Rostami, Google has suspended the app and it’s not working on any platform (android or iOS).
**I want to note that I own Inject 2, I don’t use it, but I paid for it. So this does affect a product that I paid for. **
This really highlights what to me what the problem with app based and that’s there’s soo much out of your control. What I mean by that is if my thumb tip breaks I can tape/glue it together or have a back up one. If an app stops working, there’s really nothing you can do. You can’t go through and look at the code and fix it or pay for a server that the app creator didn’t renew.
Here’s one of Greg’s updates:
There are many back up plans? Why aren’t they being activated?
We’re on day four of Inject 2 not working. If the power went out at my house and I had multiple power sources that worked that I could use as a backup, I would have switched to one of them by now. Why haven’t we switched to a back up plan as New Years Eve is tomorrow and that’s probably the busiest single night for performers worldwide. I seem to remember years ago an app (I don’t remember which one) was running very slowly and not usable in real time because everyone was using it and overwhelming the server it was on.
Now we get this update that Matt (I’m assuming he’s a partner on the tech end) is unavailable to help sort this out. I heard that Greg posted on the Magic Cafe that he expected this to be resolved in 1-7 days, we’re at halfway through that time table. I don’t know if Matt being unavailable changes that time table.
In the Inject 2 Facebook group people are saying things like, “If this is the end of inject, I did it thousands of times and I got my moneys worth.” or “you can’t expect apps to last forever“. I do agree with both of those…for those people, but what about the people that Inject 2 for Christmas and had 3 days with it or someone that bought it today and it never worked?
One of the things that bugs me is that the Inject 2 app is NOT working as of right now, it’s still being sold! A known, non-functioning app is still being offered on the app store, and at major magic shops. This is creating a HUGE customer service nightmare for shops that sold the download card for Inject 2.
How do they handle it?
I don’t think they can return it as if Inject 2 ever gets working again, then their app will work. As a magic shop how would you handle it? The customer deserves a refund if they just bought it and it didn’t work or stopped working after a couple of days.
I hope all of this makes you think real hard before using an app and not having solid billet technique or whatever is your backup plan that can be implemented on the spot with zero notice. Practice what you’d do during a performance if the app just stopped at the critical moment when it was supposed to do whatever it does.
I honestly hope that Inject 2 gets fixed as a lot of people love it.
-Louie
Great article, Louie. Unfortunately, I have a bad feeling that Inject won’t be back anytime soon. I know for a fact that the whole app was built pretty cheaply using an off-shore developer. I have never heard this Matt person mentioned by Greg before now and he isn’t listed as part of the Inject team either.
Today (Jan 2nd) is the seventh day of Inject not working, so we’re at the end of the 1-7 day range that Greg predicted. I hope it’ll be back up soon as tons of people use the app.
I have a feeling it’s going to move to a subscription model, which really most magic apps should. It’s the only way it makes sense to keep them updated. I’m not sure how that would work for Inject as he offers it as a physical download card that magic shops sell. That probably got him a big lump of money a few years ago when he started selling the download card, but complicates things now because he’s going to have to deal with refund requests from recent purchases. Who knows how many magic shops have those cards on their shelves, and if Inject 2 gets discontinued he’s going to have to deal with those download cards that magic shops still have in their inventory that they paid for and can’t sell.
This is all speculation, as I don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes.