The following interview is with the creators of Call Bliss.
1) Tell us a little bit about your company
nVariance was founded in Scottsdale, Arizona in 2012, by Randy Hill and Cesar Gonzalez.
2) How did you get into the business of developing iPad/iPhone apps?
As iPhone lovers, and with a history in developing Mac applications, we decided to stop talking about ideas for how the iPhone user experience could be improved, and actually start building some of them.
3) How did the idea of creating Call Bliss come about?
When iOS 6 was announced this summer, we were still working on our first app, CallScreen. We quickly realized that Do Not Disturb was a great addition to the iPhone, but that it also addressed CallScreen customers most common request, to keep their phone from ringing from unwanted calls. We immediately started brainstorming on ways Do Not Disturb could be made even more useful, and Call Bliss quickly came to us.
4) What makes your Call Bliss app stand out from similar apps?
There is nothing similar to Call Bliss yet. It’s the first and still only app to not only manage your allowed callers by location, but also to make it easy to create groups of allowed callers.
5) How did you come up with the name Call Bliss?
When testing the first versions of Call Bliss, one of our testers was telling us how great it was to no longer be bothered all day by unwanted calls, and exclaimed “it’s bliss!” and the name stuck.
6) What features of the Call Bliss app warrant the $2.99 price tag?
We gave Call Bliss an introductory price of only $2.99, but intend to raise its price shortly as we feel its value is significantly higher. The reason Call Bliss is so valuable is that it makes Do Not Disturb substantially more useful and usable. Call Bliss enables you to now use Do Not Disturb all day long to filter out unwanted calls, while being confident your important callers are still able to reach you.
7) Will we see, in the future, a feature that allows you to block calls even when the screen is unlocked?
That clearly would be a valuable feature, as we have gotten numerous user requests for it. We will only provide it if we can do so within the allowed iOS APIs, as we want to always ensure Call Bliss is available to all iPhone users. Otherwise Apple will need to add it to a future revision of Do Not Disturb.
8) Do you have any other apps currently being developed or any planned updates for Call Bliss?
We are actively developing an update to Call Bliss now, and our focus is on making it even more useful and accessible.
9) What's some of the general feedback you have received from users about Call Bliss?
We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from users, which is always gratifying. Most are just happy they can finally use Do Not Disturb all day without worrying about missed calls, but we have also been getting an intriguing number of feature suggestions.
10) Other than your own apps, what is your favorite app?
Garageband!
Check out our official Call Bliss app Review
