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Custom App Spotlight: List25

List25 is a news entertainment website that compiles lesser-known intriguing information on a variety of subjects.

It was started by Syed Balkhi and David Pegg in 2011, and has amassed a very large following which includes over 1.2 million YouTube subscribers. Their unique angle is displaying their posts in “top 25” lists, which can be about anything from animals, to sports, to serial killers.

The List25 Mobile App

List25 mobile app

List25 needed a mobile app that displayed the top 25 lists from their WordPress based website, in a design that was optimized for mobile devices.

The app needed to be fast, and also have some functionality offline. They also needed several types of media in each post, including images and video.

The app features a slider, post list by category, next/previous button, native social sharing, and more.

We are very happy with the way it turned out, take it for a spin at the links below.

Download for iOS | Download for Android

Technical Details

The List25 app leverages the WordPress JSON REST API to import the data into an Angularjs based hybrid app framework. This allows the app to be really fast, and data can be saved for offline use.

List25 uses the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, which presented some unique challenges with the WP API. We had to write custom endpoints for this data, and tweak the html filtering in the javascript to allow for the different types of media.

The next/previous button were harder than they looked, since the WP API does not have this type of functionality built in.

Overall this was a really fun project, and we learned a lot about how to integrate WordPress into a mobile app using the WP API.

13 Comments

  1. Wizlo on September 13, 2014 at 12:38 am

    So you created a real native app, without using apppresser ?
    So apppresser can create real n ative app ?

    • Scott Bolinger on September 15, 2014 at 2:36 pm

      Technically it’s a “hybrid” app. It can be distributed through the app stores, but all the native code is handled with Phonegap.

  2. Frankie on September 14, 2014 at 9:00 am

    It’s look good, just a few bugs as follow:
    1. Inapp browser not working, the whole screen of the App go to the website
    2. Can’t share to social media
    3. The slider sometimes can’t be loaded

    • Scott Bolinger on September 15, 2014 at 2:37 pm

      Hi, I haven’t seen these bugs, can you let me know what device and operating system version you are using?

      • Dejan on November 8, 2014 at 7:49 am

        “Can’t share to social media” – True.
        iOS 8.1, iPhone 5



      • Scott Bolinger on November 11, 2014 at 2:44 pm

        We are aware of this issue, it was due to iOS 8. It should be fixed shortly, thanks for the heads up!



  3. Jon on October 24, 2014 at 3:18 pm

    Love the app, just curious if there is the ability for users to have a menu to turn on and off categories to receive push notifications for published post?

    Great Work!

    • Scott Bolinger on October 24, 2014 at 3:20 pm

      Thanks Jon, there’s not currently that ability, but it would be a cool feature for sure!

  4. Gavin on November 9, 2014 at 4:15 am

    Love the app. Noticed that it’s sharing is not native in iOS (ie does not use Apppressor’s AppShare for iOS). Will this mean than Reactor will allow a more broader and custom range of sharing options that AppShare (eg LinkedIn sharing)?

  5. Grant Derepas on November 11, 2014 at 10:52 pm

    So is this built using AppPresser or Reactor or completely custom?…

    • Scott Bolinger on November 12, 2014 at 2:41 pm

      This is a custom app, but it is built with the same technology used by Reactor. If you’d like to make an app like this, I’d highly recommend giving Reactor a try.

  6. hi on March 3, 2016 at 3:47 am

    how we can do app like this ?

    • Scott Bolinger on March 4, 2016 at 7:22 am

      Hi, List25 was built custom, but I would recommend taking a look at reactorapps.io. It uses the same technology as the List25 app.

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Scott Bolinger