Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Ahmad Hammoud, the Founder at Play My Way about Play My Way

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

Like many people in this day and age, my family and I are always connected. Whether at work, school, home, at friends' houses, we're always connected either via laptop, iPad, smartphone, smart watch, smart who-knows-what-else-they'll-come-up-with! To that end, I tried to think of an idea that would get the most benefit out of the massive amounts of time the kids spend on their smartphones and tablets on a daily basis.

It took several months of research and brainstorming before I could share the idea with anyone! I didn't want to share it not for the fear that it might be stolen, but rather since I didn't want to present it before it was as close to 100% my full vision for the app. When I did end up sharing it, the feedback I got from my wife, friends, and other exasperated parents, was phenomenal. This feedback was later confirmed again after we launched the app publicly.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

The feedback we've gotten from parents on social media channels has by far been the most rewarding, encouraging, and motivating aspect of this whole experience. We have been asked to add several languages which we will as soon as possible.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

The most innovative feature by far is the fact that Play.My.Way is compatible with ANY other app or game, and it does this simply by running atop the app actively being used and asks the child an educational question. Next we have the detailed report for parents to see their child's performance as well as strength and weakness points.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

The number of educators we had to employ to cover three subjects for 9 grades! Play My Way is grade specific, we had a huge team working on the questions to cover all chapters objectives. Then we had a huge team reviewing all questions. This took a lot of effort and time that I didn't expect it to take. After launching Play My Way I was surprised by huge number of genuine and helpful feedback from our users. We have several areas within the app which allow for users' feedback, and it's been a pleasant surprise to see that a lot of people have actually contributed valuable suggestions or modifications to the app or the questions that are for their kids.

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

We wanted to reach the largest amount of people possible, and this is why we chose to release for both iOS and Android simultaneously. For our second version we will include windows phones as well.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

There has been one major challenge for the majority of educational games on the market: they're not engaging enough for the children they're designed to educate. Given that there are literally thousands of new apps/games published every day, Play.My.Way was designed to be compatible with any app or game on both Android and iOS devices. This gives parents the benefit of testing and educating their kids while they're using mobile devices, while at the same time allowing the kids to use the apps and games they typically use, without having to log in to a separate app.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

We have several neat features which we plan on rolling out in the future, some of which are directed towards the parents while others are directed towards the children. For example we are working on new methods for answering questions which include animations. So that answering questions is fun as well.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

Play My Way is a combination of three types of mobile apps which have inspired us: educational apps (quizzing and testing apps), educational games (mostly for younger children), and parental control apps. We made sure Play My Way covers those three aspects.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Patience. Patience. Patience. Everything from brainstorming the idea to defining the requirements to actually getting around to the design and development, and finally to submitting to the App Stores (and getting approved!) is a very long and at times frustrating process. However after all that is said and done, when the fruit of all that effort are realized and you see your app, your idea, your baby, online and accessible to anyone in the world, it makes it all worth it.

You can view Play My Way here