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Prisoners of Google Android development

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Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#281

Post by Tsiklon »

kaba0 wrote: post #278
callalex wrote: post #168

Earlier 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.

The share menu is used for everything on ios, I had to get used to it at my first apple device’s case. One notably stupid usage of the Share option was (I believe it is no longer how it’s done) adding an image to a hidden folder — that’s something you definitely don’t want to share, yet quite easy to accidentally send to someone during this process.

Thankfully this insanity is changing in the upcoming release due in September. A button for a 3 dot/hamburger menu appears in the bottom right when you select photos.

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#282

Post by johanbcn »

lawgimenez wrote: post #235
jarm0 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes and no. These notices started last year, but back then targeted lower API levels, which is why OP might not have seen them until now.

But it's true that the first notice was sent months before the time limit, so he might have missed previous warnings.

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#283

Post by michelb »

Ozzie_osman wrote: post #225

This is actually ironic because one of Google's SRE principles is that "rollbacks are normal". https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/gcp/reliable-releases... "At Google, our philosophy is that “rollbacks are normal.” When an error is found or reasonably suspected in a new release, the releasing team rolls back first and investigates the problem second. A request for a rollback is not interpreted as an attack on the…

"rollbacks for me but not for thee"

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#284

Post by anders_p »

scarface_74 wrote: post #251
anders_p wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you seriously think analytics makes for a worse user experience, then you're speaking out of ignorance. Analytics tell developers exactly where bugs and crashes occur. And on which devices or versions of the OS the problem is. Without analytics it would take weeks/months to figure out exactly what line of code is causing the issue. Heck, the developers might NEVER KNOW that the software has an issue. Apps would ju…

But if he needed to have ads, what are the chances that analytics were added to “measure engagement”?

The native ads module on both Android and iOS can do that...so, I dunno, ZERO?

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#285

Post by mort96 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #88
BaseballPhysics wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Truthfully, I'd prefer to get rid of the app and just have users go to the website and install the PWA, but the average user still doesn't know how to do this. Let's be clear: that's not because users don't know how to do it. It's because Google and Apple haven't made it as easy as installing an app from their app store. That's a choice, and it's a deliberate one.

I disagree, at least on the Android side of things (Apple has long been hostile to PWAs). Installing a PWA from a website is trivially easy on Android, it's just that most users really have separated in their minds (not surprising due to history) that apps come from app stores, and the browser is used for websites. Also, Google has made in much easier in recent years to submit plain PWAs to the Play Store: https://yo…

On iOS you click share -> add to home screen. How much easier can it really be on Android?

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#286

Post by kramerger »

dep_b wrote: post #280
kramerger wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless the framework you used came from Google that is an unfair statement. You don't blame Microsoft for Adobe Flash not working on Windows 11 store, do you?

If Google breaks the framework I built, I still blame Google.

Why? Should Android be bloated with compatibility layers for every buggy framework ever existed? Including third part stuff such as Cordova and Ionic that have more or less stopped development?

And it's not like Google is randomly breaking things. And even when there are breaking changes they provide support libraries and explain very clearly what has changed and why it needed to be changed.

Still, no sympathy for app shops that work according to fire and forget.

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#287

Post by kaba0 »

scarface_74 wrote: post #259
TexanFeller wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not the only point. Web apps can have far lower performance or battery utilization than real native apps for one thing. If you care about the environment or your battery life use a compiled app, not the web.

How would that possibly true? A native app doesn’t go through the three or four phases that a modern JavaScript engine goes through. Especially on iOS more so than Android apps since there is no JVM like environment.

You are saying the same thing (though do note that the “JVM” on android does a hybrid execution with cached native functions)

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#288

Post by philipwhiuk »

mavamaarten wrote: post #91
binkHN wrote: post #34

While 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…

Protip: that field takes decimals too. We always go for 99.99999999% so no users get left out accidentally. But it allows you to cancel a rollout like you say

That's hilariously crazy.

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#289

Post by nvm0n2 »

mcsniff wrote: post #66

I'm sorry, but this is on the developer / maintainer. Google has been putting out these warning messages for a while, and any decent Android developer should know about target SDK versions. Didn't test the app on the platform they were updating to? Didn't function test the app on a physical device that surely had on hand? Somehow this is Google's fault? I dislike the stronghold Apple and Google have as much as anyone…

> this is just shoddy maintenance

The point being made by the author is that the app didn't actually need maintenance as far as its developers or users are concerned, which is a fair and reasonable complaint.

Re: Prisoners of Google Android development

#290

Post by WeylandYutani »

mvdtnz wrote: post #141
l72 wrote: post #51

I also got this email, but professionally and personally. Personally, I voluntarily built and run open source apps for 16 different cities for their transit system. This gave me two weeks to update 16 apps, for no benefit of anyone. My app is a PWA, and the Android version just uses cordova + a few plugins to add a few native options. Unfortunately, updating cordova to support the new target android api broke some of…

Your customers have been using websites for much longer than they have been using apps. I simply don't buy that they can't understand how to use a website. Stop underestimating your users.

That's just ridiculous. Apps made smartphones big.
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