Not updating your app or submitting it to the app stores for an average of 1-2 years is a disaster. Always update as soon as possible.
Prisoners of Google Android development
231–240 of 318 posts
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#232While I concur with the author on the challenges of Android development, the author made two major mistakes. One, he didn't test his app on the latest version of Android. This a very major mistake and the reason why we keep 11 virtual machines around with all the versions of Android that our app is supported on. Two, when you release an app on Google Play, you never, never, never deploy the app to 100% of your user b…
This is my same sentiment, author has been too dramatic with the blog title. Updating from 30 to 33 SDK is just a disaster waiting to happen. In the mobile world that is just too long.
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#233It was always obvious that Play Stores and their captive developer "communities" were a trap. Forced API upgrades are just one aspect of that. There are certainly tasks that are best done by a phone or mobile app; usually, these are things that involve moving around, such as navigation, or depend on phone sensors, such as working out which way is "up". But nearly everything else can be done by a website. I'd hate to…
> It was always obvious that Play Stores and their captive developer "communities" were a trap. Forced API upgrades are just one aspect of that. I was convinced the app stores would be a flop because I didn’t think there would be a critical mass of developers that were willing to give up the guarantee they could actually deploy their apps.
The big problem with this logic is that devs have to go where the users are if they want their money, no matter what.
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#234I don't get the comments tearing into OP. Sure, he could have been more careful. He could have tested the login on the latest version of Android. But what if it wasn't a login crash? What if it worked on the latest version but not others? At what point do you draw the line? At some point, you just have to say "OK this is a platform used by literally millions of apps and millions of developers, and mistakes will be ma…
>At what point do you draw the line?
It is inexcusable that for a task to port an app to Android 13 (targetSdkVersion 33) that the app is not tested with Android 13.
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is exactly how Android works. But because API changes bring privacy and security improvements, scummy software used old compilation targets to abuse backwards compatibility to avoid complying with privacy and security practices. This is why Play slowly enforces apps to raise their compilation target and implement safer APIs. It's lagging for YEARS after API changes, so there's plenty of time to fix apps. The OP…
I'm the OP and wanted to clarify in case you missed some points - it is a legacy application which does not have any active dev teams on it and needs only developers attention when Google says so and as mentioned by multiple other commenters here the first time I got that e-mail from Google, was at 18th of August. I would not agree that I have been lazy, but instead trying to solve this problem in the time-constraint…
This deadline had been sent around last year. I am not sure if you’re bullshitting your way out of this or something.
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#236Not exactly a fan of Play Store policies, but for this situation, I'd say that Google gave ample time for developers to migrate to API 33, and all behavioral changes and API deprecations are documented (however annoying it is).
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
And web apps are always a worse experience. Even with simple things that should be a decent experience like the Papa John’s pizza app or AirBnb
> And web apps are always a worse experience. Check out: https://timetable.fusion-festival.de/
That’s pretty good. The only feedback would be to use the browser’s built in API for showing the share sheet. It’s part of the standard
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Navigator/s...
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#238To add more context, the [1] policy has been around since last year.
> Today, as part of Google Play’s latest policy updates, we are taking additional steps to protect users from installing apps that may not have the latest privacy and security features by expanding our target level API requirements.
Starting on November 1, 2022, existing apps that don’t target an API level within two years of the latest major Android release version will not be available for discovery or installation for new users with devices running Android OS versions higher than apps’ target API level. As new Android OS versions launch in the future, the requirement window will adjust accordingly.
[1] https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2022/04/expanding-...
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually nowadays it's not that bad anymore. Android browser itself offers installable PWA and there is an event called beforeinstallprompt event ( https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Window/befo... ), which can be used to perform PWA installation on user interaction. Of course it's not supported in every browser. iOS is more difficult since user needs to understand that "saving to home screen" is same a…
That’s not a PWA. Saving to home screen literally creates a link shortcut which just opens a new tab on your safari app. Apple never supported PWAs.
> Apple never supported PWAs.
That's not really correct. "PWAs" actually just describe a suite of APIs, most of which Apple supports: https://firt.dev/notes/pwa-ios/.
The biggest "missing link" has been support for push notifications, which iOS 16.4 added: https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/16/23603042/apple-push-notif...
Re: Prisoners of Google Android development
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
In iOS it’s also buried deep in the “share” menu which makes absolutely no sense as you are not sharing the website with anybody.
How is it buried when it’s on the same level as everything else?
Because it doesn't make sense that it's part of the web share functionality to begin with.
The native share dialog is about "I have this piece of content, now share it with one of these other apps", e.g. saving a document locally, or sending it with AirDrop, or saving to Google Drive, or sending as an email attachment, etc.
Installing a site as an app on your homescreen has absolutely nothing to do with sharing content to begin with.