WebholeVault Android Open Beta Is Now Live on Google Play

Today marks a pretty big milestone for Clifford's Webhole.

After months of development, testing, debugging, rebuilding, and more testing, the WebholeVault Android app has cleared Google Play review and is now available through Google Play Open Testing.

That means it's time to move beyond my own devices and start putting WebholeVault into the hands of real users.

And I need your help.

What Is WebholeVault?

WebholeVault is a privacy-first photo and video storage platform I've been building from the ground up.

The idea behind it is intentionally simple:

Your personal media should stay personal.

WebholeVault isn't trying to become another social network.

There are:

  • No public profiles
  • No public galleries
  • No social feeds
  • No follower counts
  • No public discovery system

Your photos and videos belong inside your private vault.

That's the architecture I've been building around from the beginning.

The Android App

The new Android app provides a native way to access the most important parts of WebholeVault directly from your phone or tablet.

The current beta includes:

  • Secure native sign-in
  • Photo and video uploads
  • Multiple-file selection
  • Android Share integration
  • Real upload progress
  • Background upload support
  • Storage usage information
  • Photo and video counts
  • Account and plan information
  • Direct access to the full WebholeVault website

Android's Share system is one of my favorite additions.

If you're looking at photos or videos in another compatible Android app, you can select them, tap Share, choose WebholeVault, and send them into your private vault.

For larger uploads, the app is also designed so that transfers don't have to depend on keeping the WebholeVault screen open the entire time.

Built With Security in Mind

I didn't want the Android application to simply be a wrapper around the website.

It's a native Android client communicating with a versioned WebholeVault API.

Authentication tokens are protected using the Android Keystore, passwords aren't stored by the application, uploads are authenticated, and the app doesn't request broad access to your entire photo library.

When you choose media to upload, Android's own file-selection system provides WebholeVault access to the files you've actually selected.

The app also doesn't contain advertising or depend on advertising trackers to provide the service.

Why an Open Beta?

Because there's a huge difference between something working on my devices and something working reliably for everybody.

I've tested WebholeVault extensively during development, including photo uploads, large video uploads, multiple-file uploads, background transfers, interrupted sessions, Android sharing, authentication, and storage reporting.

The Android application also went through Google Play Internal Testing before reaching this stage.

But now I need the kind of testing I can't reproduce myself.

Different Android devices.

Different Android versions.

Different Internet connections.

Large videos.

Big batches of photos.

Slow connections.

Fast connections.

And users who inevitably do something I never thought to try.

That's what this beta is about.

I'm Looking for People Who Will Try to Break It

Seriously.

Don't treat WebholeVault like a demo.

Use it.

Upload photos.

Throw a big video at it.

Select a bunch of files at once.

Share something to WebholeVault from another Android application.

Switch away from the app while something is uploading.

Come back later.

See what happens.

If something fails, looks strange, takes too long, gives you a confusing message, or simply doesn't behave the way you think it should, I want to hear about it.

Finding those problems now is exactly the point.

The Beta Is Free

I'm intentionally not accepting paid subscriptions during this testing phase.

Before I start charging people for WebholeVault, I want to see what happens when real users start putting real workloads on the system.

I want data on things like:

  • Server performance
  • Upload reliability
  • Storage growth
  • Bandwidth usage
  • Large-file behavior
  • Multiple simultaneous users
  • Backend storage costs
  • Real-world Android behavior

I'd rather discover the limits now than after somebody starts paying me.

Once I'm satisfied that the infrastructure can reliably handle real-world usage, I'll be in a much better position to make decisions about the next stage of WebholeVault.

Join the WebholeVault Android Open Beta

If you have an Android device and want to help test what I've been building, you're invited.

Join the WebholeVault Android Open Beta on Google Play

Follow the Google Play testing instructions, install WebholeVault, and start putting it through its paces.

This is an open test, so I don't need to manually add your Google account to a private tester list.

This Is a Pretty Cool Milestone

WebholeVault started as an idea for a private place to store photos and videos.

That idea turned into a backend.

Then authentication.

Private object storage.

Uploads.

Thumbnails.

Video processing.

Folders.

Storage accounting.

Administrative tools.

Security controls.

An API.

And eventually a native Android application.

Today that Android application made it through Google Play's review process and into Open Testing.

There's still plenty of work ahead, and that's exactly why I'm calling this a beta.

But we're past the point where WebholeVault is something that only exists on my development server and my own devices.

It's out there now.

So if you want to help me find out what WebholeVault can handle, grab the Android beta and start throwing some photos and videos at it.

And if you manage to break something?

Tell me. That's what beta testing is for. 😎

WebholeVault
Private by architecture, not by setting.

Built from the ground up by Clifford's Webhole.