Understanding Android Devices

Solar2D Android
#1

Hi guys,

I wonder if anyone could shed some light on this issue.

I now own 8 separate Android devices for testing purposes. My apps work on all of them, from the Kindle Fire HD to a low budget cheap tablet.

But - I’m still getting the odd e-mail through from a customer who says they have a problem of some description or other with one of my apps on Android. It will typically be something like the app exiting when they go to a new screen or tap a button, so could really be anything causing it. It’s never exactly the same issue that anyone else has reported and it’s consistent across all the apps but not very frequent.

I can’t ever replicate these issues on any of the devices I own and clearly I can’t afford to buy every device there is. I have been over all the memory management stuff and made sure the apps all follow these “rules” to ensure I’m not leaking memory. My code is pretty clean. I use no super-large graphics or audio files and there’s relatively little animation.

My question is, is this just one of those things we have to accept with Android? I spend 90% of my support time on Android issues and yet I only make 15% of my profit from Android sales. Sometimes I feel tempted just to stick with iOS to be honest because it’s just plain sailing there. No issues, no crashes, lightning fast speed and just a handful of devices to buy.

I’d welcome any thoughts / experiences anyone else has had with this. Are there any testing services out there that can help isolate individual issues like this?

Thanks,

Ian

#2

Yeah, Android is a lot like Windows.  Two devices can be the same and have the same version, yet weird things will happen on one.  I often sound like a tech support guy when I field questions regarding my Android apps.  I usually ask them to first completely turn off their device, then back on, and see if that resolves it.  If it doesn’t then I’ll ask them to move the app from internal memory to external (or vice versa).  In the end, if the problem isn’t fixed I usually just issue a refund to avoid getting negative reviews.  Often times when a user becomes very upset I will plainly tell them, “I’m sorry but this app works fine on 50,000 other Android devices, I’m not sure why it’s not working on yours”.  The problem is fragmentation.  Each manufacturer has their own forked version of Android, and there are a fair amount of users who jailbreak them as well.  

#3

Thanks for the reply. I’ve been following a pretty similar pattern in terms of suggestions for customers and the option of a refund is always a good final back up but I just hate getting to that point where someone is walking away feeling let down. It’s just so frustrating though to be spending such a disproportionate amount of time on supporting and developing for a platform that makes me a relatively small percentage of me income! iOS is just so much simpler to deal with! Guess it is just one of those things I’ll have to accept - there will always be the odd person who can’t run the apps on Android for whatever reason.

#4

Of course errors are unavoidable, but I see so many fellow Corona users stressing on making sure their app/game gets to ALL Android devices. I don’t waste my with low end devices and just focus on the high. Most of my customers are using new 4.0+ devices which are more powerful than iPhones and iPads. If they want to game on a tablet or phone, they’re going to make sure they have a good one anyways. It’ll weed out people who give bad ratings because they have an old device. I’ve only received 2 errors the past year with just focusing on the high end Androids and focusing on the target audience.

#5

Yeah, Android is a lot like Windows.  Two devices can be the same and have the same version, yet weird things will happen on one.  I often sound like a tech support guy when I field questions regarding my Android apps.  I usually ask them to first completely turn off their device, then back on, and see if that resolves it.  If it doesn’t then I’ll ask them to move the app from internal memory to external (or vice versa).  In the end, if the problem isn’t fixed I usually just issue a refund to avoid getting negative reviews.  Often times when a user becomes very upset I will plainly tell them, “I’m sorry but this app works fine on 50,000 other Android devices, I’m not sure why it’s not working on yours”.  The problem is fragmentation.  Each manufacturer has their own forked version of Android, and there are a fair amount of users who jailbreak them as well.  

#6

Thanks for the reply. I’ve been following a pretty similar pattern in terms of suggestions for customers and the option of a refund is always a good final back up but I just hate getting to that point where someone is walking away feeling let down. It’s just so frustrating though to be spending such a disproportionate amount of time on supporting and developing for a platform that makes me a relatively small percentage of me income! iOS is just so much simpler to deal with! Guess it is just one of those things I’ll have to accept - there will always be the odd person who can’t run the apps on Android for whatever reason.

#7

Of course errors are unavoidable, but I see so many fellow Corona users stressing on making sure their app/game gets to ALL Android devices. I don’t waste my with low end devices and just focus on the high. Most of my customers are using new 4.0+ devices which are more powerful than iPhones and iPads. If they want to game on a tablet or phone, they’re going to make sure they have a good one anyways. It’ll weed out people who give bad ratings because they have an old device. I’ve only received 2 errors the past year with just focusing on the high end Androids and focusing on the target audience.