Why another speed test?
Among other features, our flagship app OpenSignal tests the speed of your internet connection. So why create another app to do that? Well, we don’t really see Meteor just as a beautiful speed test (though we agree it is!). When we came up with the concept for Meteor, what we had in mind were the connection needs of internet users who don’t necessarily know their megabits from their megabytes, but want to understand how much (or how little) they can do with their current speed. And this is where the idea of looking at the way specific apps will work at a given speed came into play.
From testing speed to grading apps
A series of user interviews confirmed our hypothesis: there was definitely interest for an app that would go beyondtesting speed, to measuring what it was good for How did those megabits and milliseconds translate in terms of video streaming, web browsing or gaming? What was the impact of download speed, upload speed and latency in the way apps worked? How Meteor addresses these questions — by grading your speed results and the apps’ performance you can expect from them — is the outcome of several rounds of interviews, design iterations, copy writing and beta testing.
Some out-of-this-world results
The impact of Meteor has by far exceeded our expectations. Covered by press outlets all over the world — from Chile to China, from India to Italy —, it’s been hailed as “the prettiest internet speed test app” and “a decent alternative to Speedtest.net”. The feedback we’re getting from users is even more exhilarating: “amazing and passionately crafted”, “works flawlessly”, “a lot more accurate than all the other testing apps”, “extremely informative and thorough. I wish I could give it more stars”. If you are of the opinion that numbers speak louder than words, we can offer you a few of those too!
Meteor's first two months in numbers
An updated Meteor touches down!
We still have a lot planned for Meteor in the upcoming months and as a matter of fact, the latest release is hitting the app store as I write this, with some rather cool new features in tow. What’s new in Meteor 1.02, I hear you ask?
- New apps to choose from, based on our users’ feedback, including Netflix, Snapchat and Twitch.
- New awesome way of selecting apps you want to test for
- Added Kbps units, by popular demand
- Better performance in History tab
- Sharing options for your beautiful speed test results
- Additional settings for increased control of the app
- Neater display of app performance details
- Other UI improvements (we’re keeping our designer as busy as ever!)
- Last but not least...drumroll...Grade Your App Experience — a novel feature to contribute your personal app gradings to Meteor. Because we believe there’s no better judge than you of the quality of experience you’re getting from your internet connection!
Some of Meteor's new features
What’s on the horizon...
This is the story of Meteor so far — an upward trajectory that wouldn’t have been possible without the feedback and support from our users, beta-testers and interviewees. And it’s only the beginning, with some exciting developments yet to come. The Grade Your App Experience feature will bring valuable Quality of Experience feedback; we’ll use it to train Meteor’s model to make its apps’ gradings more and more accurate. An iOS version of Meteor is also cooking — get notified when it’s ready to be sure not to miss it, the sign up form is below! And watch this space for more...
Space
Opensignal Limited retains ownership of this insight including all intellectual property rights, data, content, graphs & analysis. Reports and insights produced by Opensignal Limited may not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, published for any commercial purpose (including use in advertisements or other promotional content) without prior written consent. Journalists are encouraged to quote information included in Opensignal reports and insights provided they include clear source attribution. For more information, contact [email protected].