KaiOS.dev is written by Tom Barrasso. Previously the Head of Developer Relations at Cloud Phone, Tom helped many developers bring modern digital services to affordable mobile devices. Tom has developed for feature phones since early 2020, learning by experience how to design, build, and scale the best experiences on budget devices aimed at serving the next billion internet users.
Tom is the founder and developer of PodLP, the first and most popular podcast app for KaiOS and Cloud Phone. PodLP surpassed 10M+ installs around the world and was a 2020 KaiOS Staff Pick. It is available for free on the KaiStore, JioStore, and Cloud Phone. Learn more about Tom’s journey by listening to recent podcast interviews on Frontend.fm and HTML All The Things.
Readers of KaiOS.dev may also find the following resources helpful:
- KaiOS.dev Source Code
- KaiOS Developer Portal
- KaiStore Submission Portal
- Waterfox Classic
- r/KaiOS Reddit
- r/KaiOS Discord
- BananaHackers
kaios-typesLibrary- @Tombarr on GitHub
- KaiOS.app
- Cloud Phone Developer Program
- Cloud Phone for Developers
- Cloud Phone GitHub
KaiOS, built on top of Firefox OS, allows developers to build scaled-down web applications that run on low-end phones, most of which are equipped with 4G, Wi-Fi, 240x320 non-touch screens, D-pad navigation, a T9 keyboard, and VGA camera. This format is perfect for simple applications and classic arcade games. With less than 2,000 total applications and games available, it’s much easy to stand out on the KaiStore than on the Google Play Store for Android or the App Store for iOS.
Cloud Phone, a remote browser based on Puffin, serves as an app store for budget 4G feature phones that run a real-time operating system (RTOS) like Mocor by Unisoc. Thanks to server-side rendering, Cloud Phone is an easy development target as there is no need for optimizations or costly refactors. With over 100+ devices, Cloud Phones come in all shapes and sizes but typically sport small QVGA (240x320) or QQVGA (128x160) screens, D-pad navigation, and a T9 keyboard. With about 100 total applications and games, it’s easy to get organic traffic and make an impact on the lives of millions.
For corporate consulations, please email [email protected] to discuss. Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. Code samples are provided “as is”, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement.
This website is open source and available on GitHub.
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