How is the Android app SO bad?

[floofycroissant]

Paragraphs are non existent, I can't tag other posters, no matter what MN emoji I use it always appears as a bottle of gin for me, there are no thread deleted messages just a loading error message and it seems to default my topic randomly which is how I ended up asking property for hair care advice yesterday!

Hi OP

We're going to flag your feedback to our app developers.
We're working on quite a lot at the moment, and do have lots of plans for improvement in place - please do bear with us.

Agree!
Would be great to be able to post pictures too.
And see other people's photos
And take part in the votes/see the results.

I totally forgot about images, wondered why they never worked

Hey everyone - you're right, the Android app is a long way behind the iOS app! We're working on the Android app currently, but it has a lot of catching up to do.

@Seeline I'm currently struggling to adapt the Android app to accept heic images, although normal png and jpg images should be fine. We released a new version 4 days ago in the Google Play Store that has made some improvements, can you let me know if it makes any difference for you?

@floofycroissant thanks for mentioning those other issues, the deleted messages one I didn't realise, and I know what you mean with the incorrect topics bug. Both should be fairly easy to fix.

I'll pop another message on here when I've made some progress, thanks for your patience!

@TimMumsnet

Thank you for the update. I will download the new version, but it may be awhile before I try it. Due to one of the other foibles of the app it has again randomly logged me out and I can't remember my password. If I change it I will be logged out of MN on all my other devices and it doesn't seem worth the hassle at the moment! It would be good to be able to log into the app via other social media such as Facebook, or google as you can via the desktop site.

@Seeline fair, socials login is also on our list to add!

@floofycroissant I've just released a test version of the app that shows deleted thread messages and removes the default topic selection in the thread composer, could you take a look before I release it to all users?

You can sign up for it here: play.google.com/apps/testing/com.mumsnet.talk then you'll need to go to open the Talk app in the Play store and download the test version of the app.

It's really helpful to know:

1. Does it fix what was broken?
2. Does anything else go wrong (crashes or other bugs)

Thanks!

I get an app not available message

@floofycroissant that's strange! Well I've now released it on the Play Store, so you should be able to update the app as normal here - I hope it helps!

@floofycroissant also just found the bug with paragraphs in the Android app. I think it was breaking whenever there was an emoticon in the post. I'll add it to the next release we make.

I've just got an android and I'm so gutted how behind the app is compared to iPhone! Is there any way to view posts by just the person who has written the thread? That was the best time saving feature! Thanks.

Hey @sunnymondays, unfortunately you're right, there's a number of things that are missing in the Android app that are in the iOS app. Currently we're working on social login, but 'filter by OP' is on the list. Thanks for letting us know you use it, we'll get there!

I've just tried messaging about this from the android app but will ask here too, as it said it failed - please can you remove the moving advert animations or let me pause them on my device? I have real accessibility problems with them, but don't want to install ad blockers and the like.

But also, everything here. The app is very hard to use. It doesn't allow namechanging either without logging out, changing on the web, and logging in again.

I just use Chrome as the app is so dreadful on Android. It has none of the useful features at all.

I only tried it for the first time recently and then came looking for this thread, which I was sure must exist, although the problems I have aren't exactly the ones in the OP.

Problems:

1. Lots of thread titles are repeated in the list of threads for a topic, at least the coronavirus one.
2. Often when I open the app the page is blank - there's no way to refresh it so I then have to use my back button to go back to a page with content.

Comments:

1. Quoted text is really hard to differentiate from the body of a post - that fine line in a very faint colour isn't really clear enough IMO. A brighter colour or a shaded background would be easier to see.
2. It seems like it should be possible to refresh a page (whether a thread or a list of threads) by dragging down at the top as in browsers and many other apps, but that doesn't do anything.
3. I'd like to be able to speed scroll by swiping faster.

I will try it again sometime but for now I think Chrome is better for Mumsnet.

And before I go completely bonkers can someone tell me how to filter for OP posts only on the android app? I assume you can do it.....otherwise I'm gonna need to ask why you put all your time into the Apple app and no time into the android app. 🙄

I don't think you can filter op posts, I can't.

Add I get the repeating threads in the list too, I have to go on Chrome to see everything.

The android app is rubbish!

I give up, got so annoyed I deleted it a few months ago. Came back to ask a genuine Q and I can't even select the topic without it throwing an error

The app on my phone has stopped working completely. My phone updated yesterday and the app is blank, only showing the 'oops, something went wrong' error message.