Business of Apps Podcast28 Elo 2023

#161: Building apps for a billion users with Rajesh Janakiraman, Engineering Manager at Gmail Android at Google

One of the things that set mobile apps apart from desktop software is the scale. Since 2008, when the mobile app stores were launched, and on, scale has been a crucial ingredient for any iOS or Android app project success.

For both Apple’s and Google’s app ecosystems to grow mobile apps had to be affordable for lots of people. But for app developers and brands to make app enterprises profitable, they had to acquire a large number of users.

And there is more - in some cases when we talk about a free app from one of the most influential companies on the planet - Gmail app, we’re talking about roughly 1.8 billion users. This scale implies some unique challenges we’re going to be discussing with Rajesh today.

Today’s Topics Include:

Rajesh Janakiraman's background
Definition of app onboarding
Challenges of building an app for billions of users - development and management-wise
Rajesh's Thoughts on Generative AI in Gmail
Toughest projects in Rajesh's career
What Rajesh would like to change about tech the most
Android or iOS?
Rajesh's first mobile phone
Leaving his smartphone at home, what features would Rajesh miss most?
What features v would like to see added to his smartphone?

Links and Resources:

Quotes from Rajesh Janakiraman:

“Having a product [Gmail] maintained that reputation for so long is a very difficult thing to do"

“It's such a massive set of users that you see this whole spectrum of how they use the product."

"Just from your device perspective, you see the latest $1,500 Samsung device running the latest version of Android with hundreds of Gb of storage, so it's not gonna matter how much space you take up of their phone, with multiple processors so it's gonna matter how efficient your app is, all the way to the $10 no-name smartphone."

Brought to you by Business Of Apps

A message from App Promotion Summit Discounted ticket prices are currently available on all of our 2024 summits https://apppromotionsummit.com/ London - 25 Apr 2024 NYC - 27 Jun 2024 San Francisco - 26 Sep 2024 Berlin - 5 Dec 2024

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(274)

274: “The Influencer Playbook: Flo, Numan & HelloFresh on the Future of Growth” BOA London 2026 panel

Today we're talking about influencer marketing - and about the point where creator content stops being a brand play and starts being a performance channel. Creator-led ads run four times better on cli...

31 Elo 38min

273: How ASO and paid ads feed each other with Stephanie Ino, Client Services Manager at Gummicube

In this episode, we're talking about app store visibility - and about the fact that organic and paid aren't two separate budgets. Every channel you run, no matter where it starts, ends up on the same ...

24 Elo 7min

272: Why your app store A/B tests are misleading you with Scott Masters, Director of Strategy and Partnerships at Gummicube

Today we're talking about mobile A/B testing - and about the moment the app store hands you a winner. Because that result is directional, not the truth. And if most of your traffic is paid, you may ha...

17 Elo 10min

#271: Why news app readers pay attention to your ads with Ramesh Ramalingam, VP of Product at SmartNews

In a world built to fragment your attention, one news app made the opposite bet: fewer ads, trusted sources, and users who actually stay. In this episode, we speak with Ramesh Ramalingam, VP of Produc...

10 Elo 18min

#270: “The Future of App Growth: Expert Interactive Panel” Business of Apps London 2026 panel

Everyone in app growth has an opinion on AI, web-to-app, and channel strategy — but few of those opinions ever get stress-tested in public. In this episode, we bring you a live panel debate featuring:...

27 Heinä 29min

#269: The performance channel app marketers wrote off with Mike Fogarty of Tatari and Lauren Frame of Greenlight

What if the channel you've written off as "brand-only" could measurably lift your Meta and Google performance? In this episode, tech journalist David Murphy is joined by Mike Fogarty, Head of Client D...

20 Heinä 45min

#268: “2026 CRM Trends: The Ultimate Guide to Customer Retention” Business of Apps London 2026 panel

Let's be honest — nobody wakes up in the morning excited to open your app. Well, some people may but definitely not all of them! And in 2026, the CRM teams that win aren't the ones sending more messag...

13 Heinä 41min

#267: “AI in Action: Real-World Use Cases” Business of Apps London 2026 panel

You know it better than us — the era of experimenting with AI is over. The question isn't whether to use it anymore. It's whether it's actually moving the numbers. In 2026, the winners aren't the team...

22 Kesä 46min