Critical Air Quality Mobile App For San Francisco Families

The Spare The Air program is one of the most visible public health and environmental initiatives in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is a region-wide air quality monitoring and alert system administered by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, covering nine counties and millions of residents. The program’s official mobile app is the primary touchpoint for residents checking whether it’s a “Spare The Air” day, monitoring county-level air quality forecasts, reporting smoking vehicles, and accessing real-time pollution data across the Bay.

When BAAQMD needed to transition the app from its previous technology provider, the agency went through a formal competitive procurement process in which sixteen firms submitted proposals. QuantumERA was selected as the most qualified contractor to provide mobile application services, then tasked with inheriting a live government-grade application without disruption: conducting a thorough audit, identifying technical debt, surfacing bugs, and establishing a sustainable maintenance infrastructure for an app with over 40,000 combined downloads.

QuantumERA’s engagement began with a structured Preliminary Scope of Work designed to ensure nothing was assumed and nothing was missed before a full maintenance commitment was made.

Knowledge Transfer

QuantumERA arranged formal knowledge transfer sessions with the previous developer to gain a complete understanding of the app’s architecture, known issues, technical debt, and any outstanding development obligations. All source code repositories, development environments, servers, and third-party service credentials were transferred and documented.

Application Audit

The QuantumERA development team conducted a full audit of the Spare The Air codebase; reviewing code quality, app architecture, security, performance, all known bugs, and each of the app’s active features across both iOS and Android platforms.

Stakeholder Alignment

QuantumERA established direct communication with BAAQMD stakeholders to understand agency priorities, ongoing requirements, and user pain points. This was supplemented by a structured review of App Store and Google Play user feedback to identify real-world friction in the experience.

State of the Application Report

The findings were compiled into a comprehensive written report delivered to BAAQMD covering code quality, technical debt, bug inventory, UI/UX recommendations, performance metrics, risk assessment, and a prioritized action item roadmap.

Provider Transition Management

Full knowledge and resource transfer from previous developer, with zero disruption to live app

Codebase Audit

Complete review of architecture, code quality, security, and documentation

Bug Identification & Triage

Documented inventory of all known issues with prioritized remediation recommendations

UI/UX Evaluation

Detailed screen-by-screen assessment with specific, actionable improvement recommendations

Technology Stack Roadmap

Version update plan for Flutter, Dart, Gradle, and Java to maintain compatibility and security

Ongoing Maintenance Infrastructure

Issue tracking, monitoring and analytics setup, regular stakeholder check-ins, and proactive maintenance scheduling

“QuantumERA has demonstrated professionalism, technical expertise, and a collaborative approach during the transition from the previous vendor. Their staff have been responsive to project requirements, timely in meeting deliverables, and proactive in identifying and addressing technical needs.”

— Kristina Chu, Communications Manager, Bay Area Air District