Prisoners of Google Android development

Post by scarface_74 » Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 9:39 PM UTC

l72 wrote: post #73

TexanFeller wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 I think you misunderstood users, it's not just ignorance. I want apps to go back in the direction of real(not cordova) apps, not some low effort web thing. Basically zero web apps match the experience of a well crafted actual app.

I agree with you in many cases. At my professional company, we've made the decision to write native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, and the web, because we have pretty deep integration into each platform and want the best native experience for our users. But, for my personal apps (which is what I am talking about in this thread), I can't support that. Writing it once and maintaining it takes up enough of my free time…

Post by zaat » Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 9:41 PM UTC

mvdtnz wrote: post #182

zaat wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not what I said, I live half my life within browsers. But big chunk of the population that you are probably not thinking about is not like that. My mother in law is using browser to read on her computer, and will never do that on her phone - the screen is too small and the whole experience not something that fits someone at her age. On the other hand, my children use apps since they are two years old, and at t…

The screen is too small to use a web browser, but not too small to use an app? Can you explain what you mean? This doesn't seem at all reasonable.

Post by WirelessGigabit » Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 9:45 PM UTC

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.

Post by izacus » Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 9:47 PM UTC

jarm0 wrote: post #170

izacus wrote: post #155

Earlier 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…

Post by scarface_74 » Sun, Aug 27, 2023, 9:51 PM UTC

sofixa wrote: post #158

l72 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that many of my users are temporary. For example, I have an app for the public transit system for a resort town in Colorado. The town has a decent, albeit small bus system. They technically have an app from their vendor, although it is not very good and is difficult to find. If you search for "$town_name transit app", it won't show up anywhere, where as my app does. And I think my app is much more user…

> If you search for "$town_name transit app" Do people really search for entirely temporary/short-term/single-use use apps, like for a resort town's transit or a restaurant? For me it's a last resort thing, if there's no website or it's unusable.