Intro
The PrayerMate app has now been helping people in their prayer lives for well over 11 years, and it remains such a privilege to get to work on this app and serve the amazing PrayerMate community in this way. These past 12 months have felt like such a significant time in the life of the app, and we wanted to take a moment at the end of the year to look back, reflect on what we've been up to, and give thanks to God for all of the ways that he has been so faithful through the highs and the lows.
Reaching 500,000 Downloads
First, a few of the headline numbers, just to set the context:
In 2022, PrayerMate had almost 40k downloads, taking it up to a total of 527k downloads
Yes, that's right - this little app that Andy created whilst sitting in an armchair at his parents' home during a long Easter holiday has now had over half a million downloads. It's come such a long way since that first little "MVP" version (in the first release you couldn't even delete records, it was that basic!) but it still seems incredible to have reached this amazing milestone, and we are thankful to God for each and every person it has helped along the way.
In 2022, 107k people used the app, an average of around 28k per month.
16.6 million items were prayed for so far this year - that's 1.45 millon per month
It's always so encouraging to us to imagine what God is doing in answer to all of those prayers. At a time when so many people are experiencing such need for various reasons, it's wonderful to know that the body of Christ is there intercessing for our broken world.
PrayerMate's New Design
The biggest news in the world of PrayerMate has been the rollout of our major new redesign project. Our UX Developer Josh has been hard at work for well over a year rebuilding almost every single screen of the app one by one, seeking to address some of those long-standing useability issues and generally to modernise the app. If you haven't seen the new design yet, here's a quick video introducing the key changes:
Inevitability there have been a few bugs to iron or opportunities for improvement, and we are so thankful to each and every person who emailed in with their feedback on the changes to help us identify these issues. We've been so overwhelmed by the passion and enthusiasm that you have all demonstrated for this app, which has evidently become such an important part of so many people's lives!
Overall, the response to the redesign project has been so overwhelmingly positive, which is all credit to Josh's hard work and skill, since previous redesign efforts have not always garnered such a response! Change is always difficult for all of us to adapt to, so it speaks volumes that on the whole people have been so quick to embrace the new version. Here's just a small sample of some of the comments we've received:
“Great development: much more intuitive. Have tried a number of prayer apps over the years but mostly become shopping lists- this one though facilitates worship as well as intercession....”
“Congratulations on the awesome redesign of the app! It is fresher in appearance - more up to date.”
“Really enjoying the the new update / format. For me, the update has made it easier to develop my prayer list; adding, moving cards, etc.“
“This is great! Love the new UI. Functionality is maintained but the fresh new feel is much more modern.”
“The new interface is great so far on my iPhone. I’m enjoying its look, design and flow - definitely easier to use and it’s more accessible with all features. It’s sleek in design and a much needed aesthetic upgrade that encourages me to keep coming back now.“
“I enjoy the new layout. It is easy to understand, flows nice for the eyes and I like how easy it is to change or add new prayers.“
“The new design format is AWESOME! The layout makes it easier to see my cards and just organize everything. Thank you so, so, so much for encouraging and making a way for the body of Jesus throughout the world to talk with the Lord more!”
“Loving the new PrayerMate, THANK YOU! Easy to navigate, pleasing to the eye, some great features - nice work”
We know there's a few areas where more work is needed but this design provides a great foundation for moving forwards, especially in the way that it allows our tiny team to support both iOS and Android.
If you haven't yet tried the new design, do give it a try - you can find the option to enable it in the app's "Settings" page. Please note that the new interface is currently only available in English. For now, you will be able to switch back to the old interface at any time, also in the settings page.
Sneak Peek: Answered Prayer
We are already reaping the benefits of the new design in the way that it has allowed us to prototype a proof of concept of some potential new answered prayer functionality, which has long been one of the top feature requests from PrayerMate users.
Because this is such a big change with the potential to change how people engage with the app (and ultimately in how they think about prayer itself) we want to take a cautious approach, and are testing the changes internally for a bit. Hopefully at some point next year, if we decide to take it forwards in its current form, we may invite people to beta test it before rolling it out more widely. If you make sure you're signed up to our email newsletter then you'll be amongst the first to hear as and when this takes place.
New video! How PrayerMate can help grow a culture of prayer in your church
One of the things we have really enjoyed putting together this year is a new video aimed at church leaders, helping explain how PrayerMate can be used to help grow a culture of prayer in your churches:
We're so pleased to have worked with Jonathan Greenaway on this and we hope you enjoy the video!
Team Update
Since this time last year, it's been a privilege to have Emma and Nick join the team. Emma has been handling our user support, social media and marketing. If you follow us at all on social media you will no doubt have appreciated her contributions these past 12 months - not to mention almost 400 user support tickets resolved!
Nick has also kindly been assisting us with some book keeping each month, helping free up more of Andy's time to focus on app development rather than dealing with spreadsheets.
It's been a joy to have Josh continue as our second full-time developer too, funded in large part by user donations. You can find out more about how you can support the ongoing development of the app below.
Advent: Waiting for Jesus
This year we hosted 12 different daily Advent devotionals in the app, including our own "Waiting for Jesus" feed - asking the question "what happens when Jesus doesn't come?" and exploring different Bible verses where God keeps people waiting. We were really blessed in the process of writing these devotionals and it was a privilege to be able to serve the 900 or so subscribers in this way.
Lent: Praying the Psalms
During Lent we also had a range of daily devotionals, and 800 people joined in with our daily "Praying the Psalms through Lent" feed, including a few questions for reflection and a short prayer each day as we worked together through Psalms 62-107.
Word Alive
Back in April it was a privilege to attend the Word Alive conference in Prestatyn, North Wales, and to meet many from the PrayerMate community, as well as hear some fantastic teaching. It was a really refreshing time for Andy and his family - as well as a rare opportunity to get some of the team together in the same geographic location for a week!
We look forward to returning to Word Alive in 2023 - so do drop by the stall if you are there!
Kingdom Code BUILD
In October we attended the Kingdom Code BUILD Christian hackathon weekend in London.
We worked with a crack team of volunteers to try and prototype some kind of web desktop client for PrayerMate. It proved harder than it seemed for various boring technical reasons, so we didn't get as far as we would have liked, but it was still a really helpful exercise and a good opportunity to better understand the scope of the project. We have some ideas for ways forward, but no immediate plans at this time.
BUILD did also provide one huge answer to prayer, however, in the form of a volunteer called Nim who was able to implement "Sign in with Apple" functionality in a single night - which was a huge deal, as Apple was refusing to accept any new updates to the app until we added that option. So, thank you Nim - and you Lord for sending him to us!
Harder Things
The "Sign in with Apple" situation was just one of what felt like a long string of challenges that we faced around that time. It sometimes felt like every week there was a new issue being imposed from outside forcing us to drop all our plans and address something urgently. In God's kindness, each of them was resolved fairly swiftly in the end, but it did feel rather draining at times. Sometimes it is easy to underestimate the enormous amount of work that goes into even just keeping an existing app operating, as the surrounding ecosystem (like operating system versions, etc) change around you - and that's even before you start thinking about bug fixing and new feature development. It's one of the reasons we're so thankful to our amazing donors and patrons who enable us to continue doing this work full time - there's no way Andy could have got through this year if PrayerMate was still just a hobby alongside a full-time job, as it was until 2016! Thank you to each and every person who gave in 2022 to make that possible.
The Serpent & The Seed
Alongside PrayerMate, work has continued on our mobile adventure game Bible Overview project, seeking to create an experience that is engaging for people who wouldn't normally open a Bible for themselves. It's been a real rollercoaster of emotions of its own - especially with all of the PrayerMate issues going on alongside it - so Andy created this little end-of-year video about the project (including giving some little glimpses of what the game itself will be like):
Financial Giving
All of the above has only been made possible because of the generous support of so many backers who have financially supported Discipleship Tech as we work on PrayerMate. Here's a quick overview of 2022 so far:
- Around 62% of our income came from user donations/in-app patrons
- £39.3k donations
- 100 regular monthly donors (e.g. PayPal/Stewardship/Patreon) PLUS in-app patrons
Your donations have directly supported a second developer on the team, helping us to continue to invest in making improvements to PrayerMate. In 2023 we will continue working on improving our new user interface for the app, and hopefully trialling the new answered prayer functionality we have been prototyping. If you are able to consider making a regular monthly donation, or one off, please go to our website for details of how to set one up.
Conclusion
We are so grateful to God for all his goodness and provision to us in 2022. It has been such a privilege to serve you all in this way, and we have been so blessed by your support and encouragement that lets us know that all the hard work is worth it. We thank God lots for you all, and pray that PrayerMate continues to be useful to you in the year ahead.
Keep praying,
Andy Geers
Discipleship Tech CEO
PrayerMate is a free app to help you be consistent in prayer. It is a ministry of Discipleship Tech, a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Registered as a Charity in England and Wales (No: 1178838)