Update:
I am finding it hard to build a decent app (beyond a very basic app) with Blynk. With four labeled data displays, that "cost" met 400 x 4 = 1600 credits. That means I cannot add more of value (like another country or two's datasets for the Wuhan virus and a data chart), without getting into the “feed Blynk money”¯ business model. Blynk is starting to feel "disappointing". I was advised to “just give Blynk another 1000 free credits to share”¯; but I don't have any “free credits to share”¯ because this “very tiny app”¯ leaves me with only 400 "Blynk energy credits".
As many people know, I have a very low threshold for corporate greed, and surveillance capitalism in general, and I have promoted Blynk in the public service cause; but I think I was premature in doing so due to Blink's business model.
So, after this experiment with Blynk, I'll probably stop developing public service apps with Blynk. I have already "learned" the impression that Blynk is quite a bit more “feed me money”¯ than I care for; based on my experience with this public service app today. Unfortunately, as some know, I have a very low threshold for the "Blynk-like" business model, as I have come to understand it. Maybe I simply do not understand it?
People keep saying Blynk is "free"; but Blynk is not free for any real useful app. Everything in the app has a “cost”¯ and after we use the very tiny “2000 Blynk energy credits”¯ we have to pay real money. What am I missing? Any user created app of more than a few small data parameters exceeds the "free credits" provided by Blynk. I find today, I cannot add a chart of the Wuhan coronavirus without digging into my bank account to feed Blynk's requirement for "real coin" on a public service app. I don't have the “Blynk credits”¯ to add more countries, charts, or whatever. It's seriously - pay to play.
This Blynk business model is not designed for public service, as I have experienced over the past day.
Also, on the tech side, I do not like / appreciate it when we create a Blynk app on our phone, Blynk just “deletes it”¯ without warning. I was running a test server monitoring app one phone, and the Wuhan stats app on another phone, and Blynk just deleted the server monitoring app and replaced it with the Wuhun stats app without warning me. I'm not happy about this at all. My work on that "server monitoring app" is gone from Blynk; there appears to be no mechanism to save the Blynk app we created in the phone, so after Blynk deletes it, all that work is GONE!
Anyway, I have a low threshold for the things I am seeing with Blynk, especially after building a public service app, meant only to help others who are in crisis, and learning more about Blynk today, in the process.