Being able to actualize new experiences, tools, and utilities for Android is an absurd adeptness that opens abounding doors. You can advance your users’ circadian lives (in some cases alike change them!), change the way we communicate, or aloof accommodate some much-needed entertainment. Maybe you’ll alike accomplish a blade in the process!
But with abundant power, comes abundant responsibility.
It additionally creates opportunities for you to get up people’s noses. Your software is active on a accessory that will get agitated with its users consistently and that contains a huge bulk of claimed data. Our phones beddy-bye appropriate abutting to us. Generally at face height.
Cross the amiss band and your app can become an intrusive, abhorrent guest. Unfortunately, abounding developers don’t apperceive area these curve are, or they balloon to anticipate about the user as they add appearance and brightness their creations.
Developers: don’t do these things. They’re annoying.
This ability complete like a first-world problem: “boohoo, my app has too abounding features!” But it can absolutely be abundantly annoying. To allegorize the point I acquire aloof one babble for you: ES Book Explorer.
Okay, maybe two words. Or three.
But anyone who’s acclimated this app for a while will hopefully apperceive what I’m talking about. This book administrator started out as the best book charlatan (IMO) on the Comedy Store. It could do everything, looked smart, and acquainted like application a absolute computer.
Then the developers started abacus all kinds of abundant “features,” like array extenuative tweaks and malware detection. They were accoutrement absolutely altered to the amount utility. I’d acquisition my phone behaving abnormally and, lo and behold, some new ‘innovation’ from ES Book Charlatan would be the cause. Eventually it had to go!
The moral actuality is to abstain affection bloat. Focus on the amount functionality of your app and its amount purpose.
Apart from annihilation else, affection balloon is adverse to how Android is designed. Google is auspicious developers to actualize their apps in a modular fashion, calling aloft added apps, via intents, to accomplish altered functions. If your user needs a contour photo your app should accessible up the arcade or the camera app, rather than try to body in your own camera solution.
This is why Google wants us – area accessible – to stick to the aforementioned ‘Material Design’ aesthetic. The user should be able to seamlessly about-face amid apps to get a job done in the best constant and able way possible.
When one app starts to booty over and do too much, the acquaintance becomes aimless and bloated. Don’t be aloof abundant to anticipate that your users appetite to use your app for every distinct task!
Every app should behave in a constant way, which agency apropos the operation of the software keys and not cardinal them unless absolutely necessary.
Users acquire been accomplished by application hundreds of apps to apperceive that beat aback will abutting a dialog, booty them to the antecedent activity, or avenue the app entirely—in that order. Aback a user clicks aback to abolish a card and the app closes abruptly, it’s jarring. Aback they bang aback and annihilation happens, it’s alike added frustrating.
This is absolutely a complaint I acquire with Google Now (well, Google Feed). I adulation accepting recommended belief and news, based on my browsing history. I don’t adulation accepting to re-open the app every time I appetite to avenue one.
More often, this addition case of developers accepting a bit agitated away. Aloof because you can override the aback button, doesn’t beggarly you should.
This complaint is a absolutely altered pet peeve. Developers acquire the advantage to actualize a name or ‘label’ for their app but they additionally acquire an advantage to actualize a appellation for their abundance listing. These are not consistently the same.
Take Hangouts Meet for instance. In the apps drawer, it’s aloof alleged Meet. This isn’t too big a deal, Meet is my additional assumption already I’ve arrested all the ‘H’ apps.
But aback the app’s name is too acutely altered from the abundance listing, it can booty ages to acquisition in the drawer, and alike on consecutive attempts if you balloon what the developer absitively to alarm it.
Not the end of the world, but a bit of a nuisance nonetheless! It’s not abundant branding either.
You shouldn’t charge me to acquaint you advance notifications are a pain. Actuality a developer myself, I apperceive absolutely why they sometimes assume like a acceptable idea. You appetite to admonish bodies that your app exists admission engagement. You appetite those ad clicks!
Very generally advance notifications will acquire the exact adverse effect, acceptable users to uninstall your app. I adulation the bold 1010! but aback I haven’t played for a few days, it will acquaint me ‘1010! is cat-and-mouse for you!’.
This bulletin is absolutely meaningless. I apperceive I acquire the app. It’s not like I’m actuality abreast of some new feature. Aback I acquire the notification while I’m at assignment or out with friends, it’s absurd my acknowledgment is activity to be shut bottomward whatever I’m accomplishing and comedy the bold as instructed.
If it comes afterwards I’ve accordingly absent absorption in the app, I’ll acceptable uninstall it as a aftereffect – rather than aloof abrogation it on my accessory to potentially be rediscovered on some continued journey.
You can use notifications, but aloof accomplish abiding you acquire commodity advantageous to say first—useful for the user that is, not your basal line.
This is a architecture best that I feel a few apps are accusable of. The bigger blackmailer is apparently Facebook.
We’ve all had it area we’re scrolling through the feed, alone to accidentally ‘like’ a account of a stranger’s baby. “Hey man, adulation your baby!” That’s weird.
I afresh thumbs-downed a bulletin a acquaintance had accounting in a accumulation babble months ago. Bodies will alpha to anticipate I’m a psycho.
Of course, you can’t ascendancy the touch-sensitivity of a user’s screen, but you can think about which accomplishments acquire the best abeyant for accident and again ensure they are harder to enact, or at atomic accessible to reverse.
What is the big advantage that adaptable gaming has over gaming on PC or console? Simple: you can alpha arena instantly, anywhere. It’s one of the affidavit why the Nintendo About-face has been such a big hit.
Many developers absence this point absolutely and block admission to the amount acquaintance of their creations by accepting assorted burst screens, fiddly airheaded and more. Again, this generally comes bottomward to arduous narcissism!
This is why I acquisition myself arena amateur like 1010!, Ballz, and Downwell far added than abounding added absorbing and all-embracing amateur that booty too continued to cossack up. (Though, to be fair, Downwell is appealing awesome.)
I would adulation to comedy a platformer that would ping aback to activity from area I best up afterwards a abrupt amount screen. Wouldn’t that be bigger than banishment the amateur to go through the alpha menu, baddest a save file, apprehend ‘fun tips’ etc. every time? Sonic the Hedgehog is one of my admired amateur on Android, but accepting to sit through two abstracted appellation screens and airheaded (one for the accommodate and one for the aboriginal game) holds aggregate up.
This is absolutely what I acquire to be the absolutely best affection of the Switch. Sure, it’s portable, but so is my laptop. The aberration is I can alpha arena the About-face in seconds, because the amateur artlessly pause.
Games aren’t the alone apps accusable of this. Several utilities acquire arresting burst screens (which are alike added confusing aback switching amid tasks with intents) and labyrinthine airheaded which end up chipping abroad hours of your life. The Garmin Connect app is still a daydream to use, admitting all its air-conditioned features.
Be intuitive. Be quick. Save user preferences. Help your user get to what they appetite as bound as possible.
This should go after saying, but one of the greatest crimes you can accomplish as a developer is to acquaint a accomplishments account that agilely uses up all of the user’s anamnesis and battery. This became such a botheration that Google has absitively to try addressing it in Android 8. But alike with restrictions in place, you still charge to act responsibly.
In fact, these changes can absolutely force added creators to use beginning services, with notifications that can’t be dismissed—which is alike added annoying!
Don’t be the bedfellow who doesn’t get the adumbration it’s time to go home.
Another one you should apperceive but it bears mentioning: users don’t like actuality affected to acquire all address of aberrant permissions in adjustment to use your apps. Wherever possible, attending for another means to accomplish the tasks you charge to. Follow Google’s guidelines on this accountable and accomplish abiding that you endeavor to consistently be transparent; acquaint your users absolutely which permissions you’re application and why.
Ads are fine— to an extent. Best users admit they are a all-important angry to accumulate adventures and accoutrement free. They alone become a botheration aback they abstruse the awning or get in the way of the experience. The activity that you ability accidentally bang on an ad while zooming in or out can accomplish bodies afraid to use your app. It can alike actualize a awareness of claustrophobia.
Again, it’s a amount of ‘more is less’. Sure, added ads will get you added clicks and added money in the abbreviate term. But accepting added users is ultimately the goal. Flooding an app with ads will alone drive them away.
Don’t do this.
I can’t anticipate of abounding apps that do.
Yours shouldn’t be one of them.
Can you anticipate of any apps that you absolutely alarming using? You accumulate it because you adulation the amount amount it offers, or because you charge it, but you apperceive it’s activity to be a affliction to navigate. Maybe it makes you delay around. Maybe you end up analytic for ages in the app drawer. I can name a few such apps.
This is an commodity built-in of frustration, but it additionally comes from my acquaintance as a developer. I get why some of these mistakes are made. I’ve fabricated them myself. The key is to administration in the appetite and ego, and account the user. Abstain aggravating to accomplish a quick buck. Focus on accomplishing one affair bound and well.
Feature bloat
Hijacking software buttons
Giving your app an capricious name
See Also: hack viberPush notifications
Making things too accessible to click
Tons of burst screens and menus
Battery clarification services
Permissions
Ads
Make loud noises in the average of the night and about-face on the flashlight
Conclusion
Boohoo, my app has too abounding features!
Hey man, adulation your baby!
Don’t be that bedfellow that doesn’t get the adumbration that it’s time to go home.
Develop responsibly!
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