Google Play Store Removes Version Numbers From Android App Listings (9to5google.com) 35
In response to user criticism, Google Play is bringing back the list of app permissions, but another curious Store change sees version numbers removed from the App info section. 9to5Google reports: Historically, you've been able to find the version number by opening a listings's "About this app" section and scrolling down to "App info" where it was the first line item. As of today, "Version" no longer appears there (or in the phone section of "Compatibility for your active devices") and "Updated on" is at the top. This information is only gone for the phone version of applications. It curiously remains for Wear OS and Android/Google TV apps. Meanwhile, version numbers still appear on the Google Play website. This issue does not appear related to (or just impact) apps that only note "Varies with device."
get used to things moving around (Score:4, Insightful)
People get paid to change things, not leave them the same.
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People get paid to change things, not leave them the same.
And removing proof of change (version numbers) conveys value about as well as a degree in underwater basket weaving.
Re: get used to things moving around (Score:1)
Some people. Other people get paid to make sure that things work. It's a somewhat expected tragedy that it wasn't the latter that came to dominate tech.
I say "somewhat" expected because back in the day it wasn't clear at all that the heroic engineering of getting a man to the moon and back wasn't going to become the dominant culture in American technology. It was reasonably sexy in the eyes of the unwashed masses and still finds adherents among not just the crusty greybeards. But it is less sexy than the sp
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The people in charge of getting a man to the moon didn't have to answer to shareholders.
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Is that why they were able to fake it?
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And Android Update UI is Now Crap!! (Score:4, Informative)
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Here's an Android UI fail from my point of of view:
Two of the buttons in my dropdown quick-settings menu: "Internet" and "Bluetooth".
Tapping the Bluetooth button instantly turns it off (or on). If I want to change settings, I need to hold the button.
Tapping the Internet button takes me to the settings menu instead of instantly turning off the internet.
Why make them respond differently?! That's poor UI design right there. I now have to remember whether each button (out of ~15) has a "tap enable/disable" func
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Why make them respond differently?! That's poor UI design right there.
Look again, they aren't the same button. The Internet button has an icon on it indicating that taping it will take you somewhere else. Why make them respond differently? Because by design it makes sense to have a device connection scheme turn off and on, and a network connection scheme take you to settings for the network.
As for the the symbol on the internet button I can help you: https://www.specsavers.com/ [specsavers.com]
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Not saying this is a good idea, but on the subject of version numbers I've largely given up using them. I use a build number that is just the build date and time concatenated. If marketing or whoever wants a version number they can choose the scheme themselves, or use the release number which is just a simple incrementing integer.
The build date is much more useful than some arbitrary version number IMHO.
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That's one of the main reasons I stopped using them. So many people have trouble with it.
Never a Sign That Things Will Get Better (Score:5, Interesting)
And when Microsoft did essentially the same by announcing that "Standalone" versions would be de-emphasized [slashdot.org] so they can smuggle in any changes they want under the cover of "updates"?
All of that was about causing enough confusion to blunt resistance to awful features, preventing the public from even giving a name (like "Vista" or "8") to the problem.
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> All of that was about causing enough confusion to blunt resistance to awful features, preventing the public from even giving a name (like "Vista" or "8") to the problem.
Well maybe that's the intention, but if there's no name or number associated with any the version of the product, then the product itself takes on the ire of the user base.
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Two things about this:
a) It's monumentally stupid to remove version numbers in an "about" section which exists to spew information and not be fancy in UI design.
b) It's the "about" section. People complained about mozilla's development related to version numbering, whereas in this case I challenge that not only would 99.99% of customers never look at that version number, but not even be able to tell you how to find it.
This won't be confusing anyone. ... Except as to why they would remove it, that's confusin
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They can't win. If updates require even the slightest bit of effort, people won't install them. Their OS and app store gets a reputation for being insecure.
So make them automatic, and people complain that they don't have control over updates and you are sneaking things in under the radar. There is some truth to that too.
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user experience experts (Score:3)
Self-proclaimed user experience experts often have their head so far up their own ass that they forget people have been regularly using computers and mobile devices for decades. The idea is not new to lay people that an application changes over time and is referenced by a sometimes opaque number.
I'm starting to wonder if they're scared of... (Score:1)
Raccoon(s)
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Raccoon(s)
They're in your trash, stealing your version numbers?
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You too?
In future updates ... (Score:5, Funny)
The Google Play Store will remove App Names from Android app listings as they are redundant to App Icons.
Too much money, not enough to do (Score:3)
This is what happens when you have a company with too much money, but not enough useful work to do. Middle management will start to make up work to fill up their team's time, so they won't appear redundant.
Worse when you have UX designers with no new product to design, they go to "redesign" old products to make them less useful. Making changes for the sake of change.
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Making changes for the sake of change.
No such thing. Redesigning UIs to keep them "fresh" has quite sadly shown to have a positive impact on sales. Changes aren't made for changes sake, not even in the scenario you just mentioned, it even had a reason you just gave.
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Making changes for the sake of change.
No such thing. Redesigning UIs to keep them "fresh" has quite sadly shown to have a positive impact on sales. Changes aren't made for changes sake, not even in the scenario you just mentioned, it even had a reason you just gave.
Office 2007 and its replacement of menus and toolbars with the ribbon UI was controversial at the time (lots of Slashdotters still avoid it). However, there was an extremely interesting keynote [youtube.com] regarding how they got there. Lots and lots of research was done, A/B testing, mockups and running into issues with those mockups, back to focus groups, until they eventually came up with the Ribbon. I'm not saying that the result is perfect (I still think they should have kept the drop-down menus and 'search' should
For us security-conscious / paranoid Android users (Score:2)
That's bad news.
I don't have a Google account, so I don't have direct access to the Google Play store. As a result, as a (minor) extra security against fake apps that may contain malware, when I install an app from one of the alternative app stores, I check the app's version number on the web version of the Google Play store first, then ensure that it's the same version stated in the package from the alternative app store. Then I install it on a old test phone and recheck the actual version number reported
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Is it just bad for the paranoid or does it affect the illiterate too? I mean if you read TFS you'd see your approach isn't impacted by the change in the slightest and you can continue to do what you've always done.
Imagine all the things you can do with your time if you read TFS which would have taken a fraction of the time of writing your post.
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What I've done is make backups that Android is designed to prevent. A big part of that is version numbers for all the software. Now the version number must still exist inside each app, otherwise Android won't know it's old and download the latest version. Google is just building a closed ecosystem a la Apple Corp. Thankfully, there are apps that report the version number of installed apps.
That will be annoying (Score:3)
There are apps that become worse on one phone after an update. In that case I look up the version number of the last good one on another phone, download the old apk from the internet, and set it to never update.
Android is a software ghetto (Score:1)
That is all.