Before Bryan Dubno graduated from UF, he created an application for The Gator Nation.
The computer science alumnus developed the original UFmobile app, which he said could reach about 36,000 users daily.
“But I ran into legal trouble with the university and had to take it down,” he said.
Now, a UF-sponsored app stands in its place.
Dubno’s original UFmobile app sparked his interest in app creation and has led to his latest endeavor — Kiwi.
Just two weeks after Kiwi was released, the phone personalization app had been downloaded more than 1.1 million times.
The app allows users to create a custom keyboard with color backgrounds and images from photo libraries, which users can then apply gradient and blur effects to.
“It gives people a way to make their phone their own,” Dubno said. “It’s sort of like opening your computer and seeing a picture that makes you happy.”
About 200 fonts are available for keyboard use on the app, Dubno said. Kiwi also allows iOS 8 users to share the keyboards they create with a link for other people to download and use, he said.
Dubno started working on the app in July, and it was released Sept. 17.
Travis Noddings, a 20-year-old UF English junior, said he downloaded the app as soon as it was released.
“I think the app is awesome — instead of just having a custom picture on your lock screen or home screen, you can have something personal on your keyboard.”
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 10/14/2014]
