The students have become passionate about this free mobile application for managing school life. With its modern interface, its fun functions and, above all, its practicality, it is much more appreciated than Pronote.
In the digital age, National Education has made school life management software available to students, the terrible Pronote. Students can see their homework to do for the next few days, their grades, menu, tardies, punishments, absences and their schedule. Known for its complexity, the platform has never been very popular with students and teachers, in particular because of its restrictive interface, very far from intuitive. Concretely, it’s more of a thorn in the side than anything else.
In 2021, Vince Linise, then a high school student and computer enthusiast, launched an alternative to school life management software. Called Papillon, it collects data from platforms like Pronote or ÉcoleDirecte to offer a much more complete and fluid application. Users can follow the evolution of their average in real time, organize their schedule, recharge their canteen card or even receive useful notifications. To put it simply, Papillon brings together all the information in one place, with a modern interface, much more accessible for students and parents. In addition, it is customizable, allowing you to choose the colors, icons, highlighted categories… The result is very fun and attractive, taking up the aesthetic codes of youth.
The application has thus become number one in downloads in the Education category on the App store, and has more than 100,000 downloads on the Play Store. The comments are particularly laudatory of him. Its popularity is exploding thanks to TikTok, with videos viewed hundreds of thousands of times. In the comments, the students are extremely enthusiastic. Registrations on Papillon are exploding, with 400,000 new users all at once.
But such an application raises questions about the security of personal data – an issue for which Pronot was regularly criticized. Vince Linise would like to reassure: “Papillon is a free and open-source project. The data is not stored on servers. Everything remains on the user’s smartphone. There is therefore no risk of theft or hacking”he assures BFMTV.
Note that Papillon does not generate any commercial income and relies on a volunteer team of around ten people. It is solely financed by donations, with only 400 euros annually required for its operation.
Subsequently, the teams work to develop new extracurricular functions, in order to reinforce the fun side of the application in order to motivate students to work. It should soon allow students to take a photo of themselves when they receive their grades, a bit like on the Bereal social network.