Modernizing Offline-
First Mobile Apps for
Water & Wastewater
Field Operations

Digitizing field data for critical infrastructure

BirdNest is a long-established company in the water and wastewater industry, specializing in digitizing log sheets and meter readings used by field operators at treatment plants and monitoring stations.

When BirdNest came to Cheesecake Labs, their mobile applications — used daily by field professionals — were built on legacy iOS and Android codebases dating back to 2005.

Their primary goal was to migrate and modernize legacy apps into a mobile cross-platform that would maintain existing workflows while improving reliability, usability, and data integrity.

Updating a mission-critical app without disrupting users.

Maintaining two separate legacy codebases for iOS and Android

Unreliable offline behavior in low- or no-connectivity environments

Outdated UI patterns that no longer meet modern usability standards

Inefficient image handling and data queuing

Limited error handling, logging, and observability

Risk of data loss during field operations

Since the app was used by experienced field operators, any modernization effort needed to avoid radical changes to workflows while still resolving long-standing technical and usability issues.

Why modernizing legacy apps mattered: reliability, compliance, and future growth

The legacy architecture limited future feature expansion

Why modernizing legacy apps mattered: reliability, compliance, and future growth

A unified, offline-first mobile platform

Cheesecake Labs partnered with BirdNest for a project-based outsourcing, providing end-to-end solutions, from product management & strategy, to UI/UX design, and engineering for the mobile app.

We rebuilt the BirdNest app from scratch using React Native, delivering a single codebase that supports iOS, Android, phones, and tablets.

Key improvements included:

Offline-first architecture, ensuring data is safely stored and synced once connectivity is restored

The result was a more reliable and maintainable platform without changing how operators work in the field.

Technologies: built for reliability and maintainability

Mobile

React Native
Expo

Observability

Bugsnag for error tracking and monitoring

Data & Offline

WatermelonDB for local-first data management

Development Workflow

Cursor to support developer productivity
Jira for project management
Bitbucket for code repository and pipelines
Codemagic for CI/CD

A strong foundation for the future

The new application is currently being tested with a controlled group of users.

Early outcomes include:

Improved usability and user experience

More reliable offline data collection and synchronization

A modern codebase ready for future expansion and long-term support

The engagement concluded with a signed Support & Maintenance (S&M) agreement, ensuring continuity and ongoing improvements.

Modern mobile software for real-world environments

BirdNest now has a scalable mobile application, designed for real field conditions—offline, reliable, and built to scale—supporting the critical work of water and wastewater professionals.