Where the name comes from
My name is Mokhammad Irfan, and people call me Ipan. The app first went by Panpan Piano, but it felt too long and too personal, so I shortened it to Papiano: short, simple, and a little funny. There is no big philosophy behind it. I just like the name.
Made alone, with the help of AI
I started Papiano without any coding background, so AI became an essential part of the whole process. That does not mean giving one instruction and taking whatever comes back. I still decide what to build, try it, judge whether it makes sense, and reject what AI produces when it does not fit.
Papiano has changed its approach several times: a website, a WebView, a hybrid, back to a website, and finally a native app. Some features, such as the 3D piano and audio transcription, I deleted and then rebuilt. Not every experiment worked, and I would rather stop an approach that is wrong than keep it just because it already exists.
Why Papiano exists
I want more people to be able to try features that other apps often keep behind a subscription or a powerful device. I do not think the way other apps do it is wrong; I just want to try a different way.
I know many apps are far more mature and have far more resources. But I do not think I have to be the best before I try to make something useful.
Why it is free, but has ads
Free does not mean it costs nothing. Some features rely on servers and third-party services that keep costing money, such as Audio Transcribe, Multiplayer rooms, Papiano AI and the AWS infrastructure behind them. My finances are limited, and I do not want to ask for pity to keep this app alive.
So I chose ads. Ads do make the app less comfortable, and I do not think they are a perfect answer, but they are the most reasonable compromise for now. For those who want to support Papiano or play without ads, there are Coin and Premium, while the core features stay free.
On the community
My principle is simple:
When I'm building the app, I'm a developer. But when I open it, I'm a player.
I welcome criticism, suggestions and bug reports. But listening is not the same as doing everything that is asked. A suggestion can suit one player and not another, and one change can fix a problem while creating a new one. So I weigh every decision by what players need, its cost, its time and its consequences, not by how many people agree. An opinion held by only a few people still deserves a look.
Inspirations
Papiano grew out of my experience with dozens of piano games and apps, and not every idea in it is my own. The ones that inspired it most:
- SeeMusicpiano visualization and showing music visually.
- Perfect Pianogameplay mechanics and how players interact with the app.
- Synthesiathe chord detector, sheet music, performance, and a design that is simple but functional.
- Visual Piano (Roblox)the idea of audio layers and mapping a QWERTY keyboard to the piano.
- Falling Notesthe child theme and hand visualization.
- LumaKeysusing gradients in visual design.
Thank you to the developers behind them for work that became part of how I learned. Acknowledging inspiration does not take value away from a work. How those ideas were developed, adapted, or left out is still my own decision in building Papiano.
This appreciation is personal. It is not a statement of affiliation, endorsement, or partnership with any of the parties named.
In the end
Papiano is not about proving that I can make a better app than anyone else. It is something I want to make, with the approach I chose and the limits I know I have. I do not ask everyone to like it. I only want people to have the chance to try it and decide for themselves whether it is useful to them.
