Williams Record: WSO Mobile

In the February 11th, 2026 issue of the Williams Record¹, there was an article about the new version of WSO Mobile, which had an interesting development cycle. The Williams Record interviewed me about this and published an article about it; I am archiving it here verbatim for historical purposes (in case the original site goes down).

A new version of the Williams Students Online (WSO) mobile app was released for all iOS devices on Jan. 26. According to an email from President of WSO Nathaniel Flores ’27, the release marked the first time the app has been updated in six years.

WSO is a Registered Student Organization that maintains the website and mobile versions of WSO. Flores said in an interview with the Record that the changes were necessary because the old app could no longer be updated. “The software had gotten so radically out of date it wasn’t possible. The people who worked on it have long since graduated.”

The new WSO app has features that were not included in the previous version, like seeing future menus. According to Flores, a bug in the dining software lets students read menus before they are officially published. “You can actually see menus in the future,” he said.

Flores added some hidden features to the app, which, as the app’s developer, he can see if people are using. “Only like 20 people have actually found all the easter eggs,” he said. “There’s a whole hidden game no one’s found yet.”

The new app also contains other lesser-known features. Flores said that students should go to the “Important Links” section in their “more” tab to find links to important events and information submitted by RSOs. He said he made the links easy to submit, in the same tab, so that clubs can get more publicity for their events.

According to Flores, because the previous version of the app worked for both iOS and Android devices, the code was much more complicated. Nathan Vosburg ’27, the previous President of WSO who is currently studying abroad, initially tried to make improvements to the app by editing the previous iteration of WSO mobile, according to Flores. However, the original code had been written in multiple coding languages, proving a complex challenge for making adjustments. “The old app was actually a full-screen webpage,” Flores said. “It does a bunch of tricks to make it look like a normal app… So there’s a website running in the old app too. That’s messy.”

The decision to design a new app only compatible with iOS was a necessary one, according to Flores. Based on data collected about the app’s users, WSO leadership had discovered that most users accessed the platform from their phones, rather than the website. “We realized that the mobile experience should be better,” he said.

The new mobile app is written in Swift, which is Apple’s programming language. Chris Pohlmann ’27, a member of WSO, said that this made the app better to update. “It’s going to make it much easier to do more with the app,” he said.

WSO is also working to make an Android-compatible version of the app using the programming language Kotlin, Vosburg wrote in an email to the Record.

Flores said he also had personal motivation to re-create the app. “I knew it was bad, and that offended me,” he said. “I knew I could do better if I just tried.”

Flores and Pohlmann beta-tested the app in December in order to fix its initial bugs, inviting 73 students to download and try the new interface.

One of WSO’s most dedicated beta testers, Addison Kiewert ’28, tested the app 244 times, meaning they accessed 244 distinct versions of the app, each with updated code. “I thought it was really fun to just try and break the app,” they said. “My process there was like ‘Oh, I’m going to first do whatever Nathaniel says he fixed, and then tap buttons until something breaks.”

Kiewert recalled specific bugs that took Flores longer to fix, such as the login system. The WSO app can be downloaded by anyone, regardless of their affiliation with the College, but a unix is required to access some services like Facebook, where students can search for the names of other currently enrolled Ephs.

Kiewert said they consistently struggled to open the app with their unix. “The most ongoing problem was probably the login bug,” they recalled.

Pohlmann emphasized that the login had been a consistent bug in different versions of the beta, partially because of the separate iOS verification. “Since the app is iOS only, the entire authentication process has to go through iPhone’s Face ID feature, and that’s a pretty challenging thing to get working correctly,” he said.

Flores also hopes to make additions to the new app in the future “We’re going to revive Dormtrak,” he said, referring to the feature of the old WSO app where students reviewed their dorm rooms, so that other students could make educated decisions about their housing for the upcoming year.

Pohlmann said that Dormtrak had been offline since last year because of recent administrative decisions. “It’s not currently running because the school reassessed its policies around FERPA,” he said, referring to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act. The act, passed in 1974, outlines what information about students’ schools can share with third parties. Pohlmann said that these FERPA changes are also the reason why underclassmen cannot currently display their hometowns on their WSO profile.

Flores and Pohlmann plan to release a new version of Dormtrak in the next month. The new version will have a similar structure to the old one.

According to Pohlmann, Dormtrak might provide answers to questions such as “How loud is this dorm?” and “Do the pipes make noise in the winter?” he said. “It’s not something you’re going to find from the school. We’re hoping to kind of crowd-source that information.”

Students can also anticipate a revitalized version of Ephmatch. “I’ve been experimenting with a Tinder swipe-like interface,” Flores said.

This addition, however, is still in the works. “I have to think about the social consequences,” he said.