Draft:ClassTap

ClassTap Learning App

ClassTap (ClassTap by Knowly) is a learning app developed by Nikolaas McNeil and launched in May 2023. The app is a popular student-learning orientated app dedicated to making learning easier through the usage of AI and more. It serves as a digital hub for the ClassTap range of products, including: Journal by ClassTap, ClassTap Pages, Dottie (AI By ClassTap), and other services.

As of October 2023, ClassTap has over 60,000 users.

History

ClassTap began its developmental journey in 2020 as a school messaging app. Nikolaas would begin testing ClassTap Beta in late 2022 with the expected launch set for early 2023.

ClassTap 1.0 (2022)

Launched as a free service, "ClassTap By Nikolaas McNeil" (now referred to as ClassTap 1) launched as a progressive web app built on the HTML programming language for students to use. Initial response was positive, as students enjoyed using ClassTapAI (built on OpenAI's custom Text-Davincci language). Other features to ClassTap 1 included homework tracking in the "logbook" feature, classes and scheduling tracking, and popular social features like profile customization.

ClassTap would begin to launch spin-off versions of ClassTap 1, such as "SportTap" (discontinued in 2023) and "ClassTap for Events" (discontinued in 2023).

The development cycle of ClassTap would end in early March 2023, and begin work on the next era of ClassTap.

ClassTap 2.0 (2023)

ClassTap 2 would be announced via in-app announcement on April 26th, 2023. The major update would unveil a new user-customizable home screen, new sharing features, and a redone AI engine named "Dottie", powered by a custom OpenAI's ChatGPT engine. The app would have a short beta cycle for just lasting over three weeks, and launch to the public on May 1st, 2023.

Feedback for ClassTap 2 was much more positive than ClassTap 1. The upgraded AI engine made ClassTap stand out from the competition and offer an easy solution for students to learn and ask questions to an education-designed AI.

Future Editions

ClassTap would bring future updates to ClassTap over its developmental cycle (April-September 2023).

ClassTap 2.1 would bring a introduce a controversial friend system, referred to as: ClassTap Circle.

ClassTap 2.2 would update its AI Dottie from Dottie 1.0 to Dottie 2.0, built on a newer ChatGPT 3.5-Turbo engine.

ClassTap 2.3 introduced a new note-taking feature, referred to as: ClassTap Notes. This would become ClassTap Pages in the near future.

Controversies

ClassTap 2.1 would introduce a controversial changed friend system, referred to as ClassTap Circles. Circles would separate the users friend list with a new "Circle list". This Circle list would be auto-generated based on your interactions with the other user, and the user could not change who was on their Circle list.

The main development cycle of ClassTap would end in June 2023, just before the lunch of ClassTap 3.

ClassTap 3 (2023-Current)

ClassTap 3 would launch via a Instagram post on ClassTap's page, and would surprise users with a redone user interface and reimagined services. The app would feature a lengthy beta cycle from June-September 2023, likely due to the major UI changes. This is considered to be ClassTap's most progressive update to date.

ClassTap 3 would introduce major revisions to the previous design, adding a new interface referred to as "LiveTime". LiveTime would cycle throughout the day and change the background theme based on the time of the day. LiveTime was featured on a controversial new Home Screen, titled the "Start Screen". The Start Screen removed all user-customization, going full-in on AI predictions.

ClassTap 3 also featured many other updates, such as ClassTap Pages, a redone note-taking system powered by Dottie, and ClassTap Binder, a file system based off of Google Cloud.

Future Editions

Future updates to ClassTap 3 would bring more features to the platform.

ClassTap 3.1 updated UI elements that felt "off" in the system.

ClassTap 3.2 added ClassTap's updated AI titled "Dottie 4". Dottie 4 would be powered by OpenAI's GPT4-Turbo engine and would boast up to 3x faster speed improvements and include ClassTap's own custom AI Citation engine, ClassTap's first example of its own in-house AI.

Success

ClassTap 3 would become Nikolaas McNeil's most popular version, gaining over 35% of the current app's user-base.

While ClassTap 3's development cycle is not over, ClassTap 3 will likely end its development cycle following the launch of ClassTap 4 in 2024.

ClassTap 4 (2024)

ClassTap 4 launched on November 18th via a Instagram post on the official ClassTap Instagram account. The update would be titled as ClassTap's "most refined version yet" focussed on tiny refinements on the major updates introduced in ClassTap 3.

ClassTap 4 would be "Supercharged by AI", as ClassTap built its latest update all around its powerful AI engine Dottie 4. New features would include a new calendar assistant, which can view the individuals frequently visited location and tasks in the user's journal and recommend on when the user should allocate time for homework. Other features include major sharing and productivity features like ClassTap Messages, Flow Modes (built on Apple Focus Modes), and a redone ClassTap Pages to rival Google Docs or Microsoft Word.

While ClassTap 4 is not currently ready for release, the app is currently in its beta phase and is expecting a launch for January-February 2024.

Controversial Changes

ClassTap 4 removes the well-loved LiveTime interface introduced in ClassTap 3. The app would replace the LiveTime interface in favour for the "Accent Colour UI", which lets the user choose between 50 colours and a light versus dark interface. Many users expressed disappointment for ClassTap removing a well-loved feature so soon into the development process.

Future

While ClassTap does not often share its plans for future developments, we know that ClassTap has a few upcoming projects launching soon.

ClassTap 4 is expected to launch in early 2024. The update is currently in its beta phase and is working on making the experience smoother before its launch. ClassTap has also expressed expanding its availability beyond North America, such as Europe and Australia.

Dottie 5 is being worked on by ClassTap as well. New features are expected to be launched such as a higher token limit and a better understanding of Math and Physics.

ClassTap for iOS is also coming. Nikolaas McNeil has expressed interest on expanding ClassTap's HTML system to Apple's SwiftUI language, and could launch in 2024.