Support for Android vs iOS

[varaonaid]

Hellooo,

I'm a long, long time Android fan having had Android phones/devices from shortly after they first arrived. I've rooted, flashed, and generally had loads of fun exploring all the features Android has to offer. Our family is Android only (with the exception of a couple of Windows PCs, although we used to run Linux distros) and we've only ever had Android tablets, too. I dislike many things about the Apple/iOS products: build quality, locked down system, closed source, dumbed down setup, iTunes requirements, poor ethical working conditions (despite ample cash flow to be able to choose to stop those practices, yet they don't), the high price for similarly spec'd devices...I could go on. I've never owned an i-Anything...not even an iPod. So this question comes from a place of loving Android.

It seems like lately, despite the numbers showing more Android adoption than iOS, that more and more items are focusing their development on iOS device apps with Android development being something of an afterthought, if it exists at all. The feature-set in comparable apps are significantly weighted in favor of iOS with Android users waiting months or years for features that have been in iOS apps. On some items, I've been waiting, two years or more with empty promises to develop for Android. This trend seems to be growing especially in the areas of Home Automation device apps, although things like Evernote have similar issues. While the iOS apps are robust with a strong set of really useful features, Android users are left with primitive versions lacking heavily advertised features. I've seen this in things from door locks, smart health care connected items, Automatic car device, etc.

Is there a reason for this (other than simply these companies' skewed perception that iOS is more popular) that I don't understand? Is it the issues with bluetooth that aren't as robust in Android as iOS? If so, does anyone know any timelines or plan in the future for Google to remedy this? This is a serious, and seemingly growing problem. If people can't get the features available in iOS in Android, the popularity will wane. It's my understanding that this year has been a harder one for Android with the iPhone 6 coming out with a larger screen and people moving to, or back to iOS. I can't even bear that thought of doing that. But I'm disappointed about continuing to wait for features and deal with crippled apps.

Any thoughts on this? Anyone else experience these frustrations? Have these issues cause anyone to switch to iOS? Really interested to hear your opinions. Maybe it's just the things I'm interested in and it's not as wide an audience as I would imagine. Please share.

Thanks.

 

[Hadron]

To be honest my impression is that home automation is still very much a niche area. Sure, I've read reports of Google and Apple investing in this area, tech websites and even radio programmes run features on them, this week's Google I/O included an announcement of a stripped-down Android for "the internet of things", but in real life I've never heard anyone even mention these things, never mind contemplate buying them.

Now if you mean developing apps for home automation systems, then it's not just the installed based of devices (where Android is vastly larger than iOS once you consider the world rather than one particular market). I guess the manufacturer/developer has to take their own guess at what fraction of their potential customers will be using each platform (and if the app isn't simply an adjunct to their own hardware, how they will make money from it). I don't know how good their information would be, and projections into the future will be worse, but if I had to allocate limited resources those would be the questions I'd ask. These things also change with time, e.g. if one platform builds better support into a software development kit that will encourage development, but I don't follow this area at all closely myself so can't really comment.

 

[AZgl1500]

just from the periphery , I think it has more to do with iOS users being used to plunking down $$$ for any and everything they do. Developers of hardware are not a Non-Profit enterprise, they want money for what they do.

While most apps in Android come out first as a free version which will do 'most everything' but reserve a few niche features for a Premium $$ paid version.

 

[mikedt]

It seems like lately, despite the numbers showing more Android adoption than iOS, that more and more items are focusing their development on iOS device apps with Android development being something of an afterthought, if it exists at all. The feature-set in comparable apps are significantly weighted in favor of iOS with Android users waiting months or years for features that have been in iOS apps. On some items, I've been waiting, two years or more with empty promises to develop for Android. This trend seems to be growing especially in the areas of Home Automation device apps, although things like Evernote have similar issues. While the iOS apps are robust with a strong set of really useful features, Android users are left with primitive versions lacking heavily advertised features. I've seen this in things from door locks, smart health care connected items, Automatic car device, etc.

Product safety and approvals may come into that, because if the phone running a supporting app, it's part of it and could be safety critical. Say a medical product needs FDA approval before it can be sold and used, the phone it's being used with has to be approved as well. So OK our products have been approved, safe and guaranteed to work with iPhone 6 and 6+. Got anything older.....you'll have to buy a new iPhone.

They could say OK we can support and approve Samsung S6 and S6 Edge as well. But they can't really go getting their medical product FDA approved for every single Android device that's out there. Same with vehicle safety etc, all the type approvals, safety issues, etc.

IANAL

BTW from what I've seen so far, Android is running some home entertainment and home automation type things already. Certainly entertainment it is, Android TVs, etc.

 

[SiempreTuna]

Azgl1500 has nailed it: it's all about the money. iPeople spend way, way more on apps than Droid people. And use there apps way more, apparently - people on here may use their smartphones to the full, but they're not typical of Android users who, for the most part use their new smartphone just like they did their old dumbphone.

 

[funkylogik]

Think you could be onto something there
The amount of Samsung's I see with stock launcher and alert tones....
... That bloody whistle!!

 

[AZgl1500]

Think you could be onto something there
The amount of Samsung's I see with stock launcher and alert tones....
... That bloody whistle!!

You got that right, that horrible whistle was the 1st thing to disappear on my phones. Then came the stock colors, putrid they are.... I changed those also after 5.0 managed to make a mess of my carefully designed layouts.

 

[Stuntman]

Think you could be onto something there
The amount of Samsung's I see with stock launcher and alert tones....
... That bloody whistle!!

The reason you hear that bloody whistle all the time is that whenever you reboot the Galaxy S3, the S Planner notification settings always reset to use the whistle sound for notifications. Every time I reboot my GS3, I have to go into the sound settings to change the S Planner notification settings off again.

 

[dan330]

I think it is the high number of different android phones. shear numbers!!!... the double edge sword.
great for consumers to have choices... but make it hard for developers.

lets say you make car radios... and they have cables with brand specific connectors.

lets pretend GM makes only 2 cars.. and they all have the same connectors AB. and they own 40% of the world market.

lets say every other car maker uses different connectors XY.. they have 60% of the world market
but each maker has a different power plug... lets say there are 40 different versions.

you have to test your radio to all the different power connectors... for safety. cost time and money.
well, you can see why testing your radio with GM cars first, might have a faster/higher ROI (return on investment).

==================================
with android tech.. you have many different screens, with size and resolutions; memory sizes; cpu designs; and many other things. and each have different software drivers. so you have hardware and software...
then add on manufacture UIs.

to a developer... you can cut up android market to .. a bunch of smaller markets.. by brand and model.
then everyone .. updates / changes it every year!

====================================

so If I was a small developer.. with finite budget and time..
I can see why.. they would look at IOS first.

 

[Slug]

I think it is the high number of different android phones. shear numbers!!!... the double edge sword.
great for consumers to have choices... but make it hard for developers.

The vast majority of apps in the Store don't care what the actual model is, only what version of Android it's running. Games sometimes only support specific GPUs, but most apps simply state that they require Android ">x.x". I'm sure @scary alien will be able to elaborate further if needed.

 

[scary alien]

When making an app, you specify an API level in your AndroidManifest.xml file to indicate which version of Android you want you app to work on (in simple terms).

(see http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/manifest/uses-sdk-element.html for too many details about all of this )

There are also screen size/density settings that you can set which is how the Play Store knows that a game made for a large tablet won't work/run on a small-sized screen / device it wasn't intended for.

The developer, of course, can put in his own checks / tests to look for device or environment-specific features, which I can imagine might be useful needed in very narrow circumstances, but not for the vast majority of apps or devices.

Hope that helps!

[edit: also forgot, the developer controls which countries an app may be distributed in]

 

[boyo1991]

I've got to say, I don't think it's because of a niche market (take video games as my prime example for this) but its the money. If I need to pull up some articles I can *try* to dig for them but from what I've read, ios users spend more on apps than Android users, despite Android having more of an install base. So devs think they will buy when its on ios vs pass if its needing to be paid for on Android...

My speculation is that it's all part of the apple mantra of "buy and worry if its good later" which excuse me, I'm not for that sorry lol

 

[Hadron]

To be fair, you do see a lot of people here who are only interested in free apps.

I personally find this bizarre: why would I want to have ads on my screen forever rather than pay the equivalent of a cup of coffee to both never see them again and to actually support development? But maybe that's just showing my age: I would buy apps for my Palm devices without too much thought because they were so much cheaper than PC software that it wasn't a big deal. Smartphone apps are, in most cases, even cheaper, even without allowing for a decade or two of inflation. So to me the cost of most apps isn't enough to for it to be a big decision, but there clearly are many people who just expect software to be something they don't have to pay for.

(Or maybe it's because I've written enough code that I know that it takes real work to produce a decent app).

 

[funkylogik]

Lol

The vast majority of apps in the Store don't care what the actual model is, only what version of Android it's running. Games sometimes only support specific GPUs, but most apps simply state that they require Android ">x.x". I'm sure @scary alien will be able to elaborate further if needed.

Well the UK TV on demand app "Demand 5" was aparently incompatible with my phone but I found a site that let's you download and install the legitimate play store version on my phone and it works perfectly (android 5 which it's supposedly compatible with)
5.5" 1089p display, qualcomm 801 and I can't see anything that would make it incompatible??

 

[scary alien]

5.5" 1089p display, qualcomm 801 and I can't see anything that would make it incompatible??

Check this out, funky:

Spoiler: say's my devices are incompatible, too :(

Spoiler: The Demand 5 App currently supports operation on

● Samsung Galaxy
● HTC One mini
● Tesco Hudl
● Kindle Fire HDX 7-inch
● Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 -inch
● LG Optimus
● Motorola Xoom
● Nexus 10
● Nexus 5
● Nexus 7
● Sony Xperia T
● Sony Xperia U
● Sony Xperia Z
● Versus TouchTab 9.7 inch

Since I can't download / install the .apk file, I can't tell what might be going on...

 

[funkylogik]

Fs man. I can tell why the non UK carrier versions wouldn't be compatible but the rest....
Also, it mentions in the description it only works over wifi (which is rediculous for a mobile app) but it actually worked over data for me which is a bonus since I don't have wifi. Didn't even have to use a vpn

 

[funkylogik]

I used this site to download it (aparently from Play) btw https://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/

 

[scary alien]

Thanks, @funkylogik!

I reviewed the AndroidManifest.xml file and there's nothing in there screen/density-wise or even Android version (i.e., the "sdk" settings I mentioned above) that could account for it's being unavailable.

Then I remembered in my developer's console that I can choose/select which countries an app can be distributed in.

That probably explains why it's not available for me, but certainly not for you...

 

[funkylogik]

Yup mate should defo be available for me geographically.
Lazy development?

 

[AZgl1500]

I for one, don't mind spending a few bucks to support the developers who provide me with good apps that make my life simpler...

The dev at MacroDroid, has been in an email conversation with me about 8 times so far....
I bought his premium version, and he has answered some good questions for me.
One of which was why his app (and others) can't turn DATA on/off in Lollipop at the moment.

This is what he explained to me on that question.
Hi,
Believe it or not there is no official way to configure the mobile data setting via the Android SDK. Because its such a a popular user requirement I found a way to implement it using private APIs.
The APIs were unfortunately blocked in 5.0, which means my app (and thousands of others doing the same no longer work with this feature. I literally spent 2 days solid implementing the root only workaround because it is not an easy thing to achieve when Google are trying to stop you! I'm afraid there is no way any app will be able to do this on 5.0 with a non-rooted device.
Sucks for users and sucks for developers!

 

[funkylogik]

I for one, don't mind spending a few bucks to support the developers who provide me with good apps that make my life simpler...

The dev at MacroDroid, has been in an email conversation with me about 8 times so far....
I bought his premium version, and he has answered some good questions for me.
One of which was why his app (and others) can't turn DATA on/off in Lollipop at the moment.

This is what he explained to me on that question.
Hi,
Believe it or not there is no official way to configure the mobile data setting via the Android SDK. Because its such a a popular user requirement I found a way to implement it using private APIs.
The APIs were unfortunately blocked in 5.0, which means my app (and thousands of others doing the same no longer work with this feature. I literally spent 2 days solid implementing the root only workaround because it is not an easy thing to achieve when Google are trying to stop you! I'm afraid there is no way any app will be able to do this on 5.0 with a non-rooted device.
Sucks for users and sucks for developers!

So data on/off don't work on lollipop? That would explain while I can still stream podcasts with the screen off then
Incidentally I created a new profile lastnight which speaks the time when I shake my phone (while screen is on (to save battery) and it works great
I keep my statusbar hidden on all screens so it's useful to me as well as having some wow factor

 

[AZgl1500]

You can Manually turn DATA on or off, 5.0 has purposely changed the APIs to prevent a developer's app to do it if NOT rooted.

I have changed the order of the top line on the Notification Panel. Left to Right:
Data, Location, WiFi, Bluetooth, Rotate to make it much easier to reconfigure on the fly.

For myself ATM, I just leave DATA always turned off. Then I let MacroDroid turn WiFi off/on.
that prevents the internet from sucking battery power down....

If I'm not home, and I need the internet, I just turn DATA on manually.... this is something I did for years before MacroDroid was known to me.
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, Lollipop
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen UnLock, turns WiFi ON
PureVPN when using a public WiFi

 

[funkylogik]

So can macrodroid still turn off data with root? (rooted lastnight). If so, how do I "activate" that?