When developing Java apps used internally by users in the company I work for, I would have the app display a message such as "An issue occurred. Please contact the Help Desk and report it", when an issue occurs with the app that is being used.
Now that I am learning to develop mobile apps on my own, I am faced with the question of how best to handle app issues in this environment, since there really isn't a help desk.
My initial thought was to asynchronously call a service to log the error. But, remote communication may not be possible. Then, I thought to display an error alert with a number to contact or e-mail address to mail to report the issue. But, is that really best practice?
So, for mobile apps, what is the best practice for capturing issues or having users report them, so that they can be properly addressed and not have them become very frustrated with your app, especially if the root cause may be related to something that is out of your control, such as an issue with a godaddy server, which hosts a database used by the app?
Thanks in advance
For recording crashes, you could use Crashlytics, so that you can see the device log when that crash occurred and investigate the reasons to improve your app / prevent the crash from happening again in the future, or reaching out directly to the specific user (as you could record user id / email addr in Crashlytics) if you for instance see the app crashes for her/him repeatedly.
For issues/problems the app experienced (but it didn't crash), you can use things like Rollbar to record the incidents. You can put special logic in your app, especially places that are prone to failure, or whenever your app recognizes "an issue".
If you want to have a place in your app that users could search for FAQs, ask questions or provide feedback and concerns, you may want to use things like UserVoice to provide a central hub.
[Things aforementioned may not be free software.]
You can use Crashlytics and if you do not want to go for third party then you can read all of your logs from iOS SDK for your app,so you can go for it as well
or there is always solution with third party softwares
Related
I have created an Android app after months of hard work and when it came to publishing, Google straight away rejected it.
Google says i am using a sensitive permission PROCESS_OUTGOING_CALLS. To use this permission either my app shall be a default call handler or my core feature shall fall under the exceptions they have provided. If my core feature doesn't fall under those exceptions which it actually doesn't, then i must report a new use case. I reported new use case properly and waited for two weeks NO RESPONSE. I tried publishing my app again as exception "device automation". It got rejected again saying my app doesn't fall under this exception.
Basically what my app does is, base on phone number to which call is being made, it shows some personalize data on an overlay screen over dialer. ( Cannot tell you the complete details, i am really sorry for that). No it is not a caller id or spam detection either.
I went through Google document over and over to see if i missed something.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9214102?hl=en
I couldn't find any.
My time and money has been invested in this and i can't start showing it to people.
If someone came across same issue and able to resolve it please help.
And if more details required please comment i will provide.
I've encountered the similar problem with Google a while ago but with this sensitive permission.
From my experience - the chances that the use case you submitted will be approved is near zero.
There are two things you can do in this case:
either extend your app to fall under one the exception cases.
or go the path I went - change your app main purpose to be the default dialer and your current main feature would be just a minor perk. (make it extendable to add more minor features in future)
This is the easiest way to publish your app. Well frankly I see it as the only solution possible - Google is known for its strict "You are banned and I'm not gonna change my decision" policy. Youtube and Play Store have tens of thousands ban stories non of which is ended in a user beneficial way.
Hope it helps.
i am VERY new to the Android platform coding, have no skills at all, but know to edit stuffs and add some basic modifications like everyone else so, however im trying to get my app to inform me about how many ppl each click.
I mean, each time when someone clicks on the ad Banner, it should send an anonymous email (without anything special in the mail, just sending it to me).
At the same time during clicking on the ad, it should both send the email without any special message and show the ad page.
I need this to know when people clicked it, because i can't track people who really says they done or not and im uncapable to trace who clicked or not.
as i said, im VERY new, so please be kind to me im not skilled at all.
Using email to do this work is a very bad idea. The answer to your question is "don't do it this way".
it's technically a poor solution - dealing with that large volume of email will likely cause all sorts of problems, both for you and for the people who are installing your app
sending email surreptitiously on behalf of your clients is considered shady, usually - you're likely to get your app marked as containing malicious code.
going around existing ad tracking interfaces and apis is often against the agreements you're normally required to sign with ad providers
the end result is likely to be not useful for you - email, in large quantities, for this kind of stuff, can be less reliable than alternatives
Instead, look into creating a service/api, and have the app call the service/api each time an ad is clicked. Most ad providing software provide an interface for hooking into the ads so you can track them.
As I understood, it is possible but such applications are not allowed in the official stores.
The app should get permissions in advance, from the user, and then, at random times, send an SMS to a random user from the phone contact-list, without further user interaction.
My questions are:
1) Is it possible at all?
2) If so, is it something that the official stores will approve?
1) In Android this is possible. If I recall correctly, there is no API for sending sms in iOS, without going through the stock sms application.
2) It's sketchy... Apple would probably not approve this kind of application, if it's even possible to make in iOS. Its never a good idea doing things behind the users back.
Apple will definitely NOT approve this kind of app!
I have tried this for over 2 years now, even contacted Apple - there is no approval for this!
There has been an App in iTunes at sometime (how that could have passed the review process - nobody knows) This has been removed as soon as Apple got to know about this.
Besides the approval issue, there is no OFFICIAL way to even accomplish this.
While there are/were some direct calls to private libraries, using these would immediately be identified (even automatically nowadays).
Just stick with Apple's rules if your App allows - give the user some background information, why they need to explicitly press "send" again - otherwise you might get some bad reviews, since this fact is certainly not known among all iPhone users.
In Android this is just a normal usage of SmsManager.getDefault();
I'm looking for an .jar or library project that will allow users of my application to easily send feedback from inside the application about their experience.
As asked in this question, I am looking for something similar to the crash reporting tool used in Google Plus, that allows the user to get in contact with me, besides leaving bad reviews.
Some not-quite there solutions that came up in answers to other questions:
ACRA : Application Crash Report for Android (functions as a crash reporting tool)
Hockey Kit: Helps distribute betas, nothing related to send feedback to developer.
Does a library like this exist? Is there an easy way to gather user feedback from within the application?
For a full-featured user support service, you can have a look to Capptain: http://www.capptain.com/
But with ACRA you can also trigger a report programmatically. You could call the method handleException(new UserRequestedException()) when the user selects an option in your preferences screen, for example.
You would then filter your ACRA reports spreadsheet for all stacktraces containing UserRequestedException.
UserRequestedException would be a custom Exception that you would implement.
The NOTIFICATION mode can be configured to display a form containing an e-mail field and comments field. The e-mail given by the user the first time is saved in the apps preferences.
A bit late to answer your question, but you might want check out this: http://www.android-feedback.com/ . Its an in app feedback / support system. Its not live yet, but the beta stage is going to start in a few weeks. (and beta testers get bumped to the premium/paid plan once live)
Edit: Disclaimer: its my project
i think you need to use a tool like instabug it provides you a way for collecting bug reports and feedbacks about user experience and also you can talk back to them
As of this date (27th April 2018), HockeyApp can handle this issue. It enables users to send In-app Feedback to developers, which then developers can access through a Dashboard.
Check out: www.hockeyapp.net
The problem I've had with implementing HockeyApp, is that, the feedback form requires the user to add unnecessary details like name, email, etc. I can't seem to find a way to add these detail programmatically.
I was just using Sports Tracker when it crashed, and when I pressed "Report" button to report the crash, I'm given a simple input field asking for a comment regarding the crash.
However, pressing "preview" will give me insight of what data is being send with the crash log. The amount of data is actually immense, including date/time, device name/version, system log, stack trace etc. All kinds of usable data.
From logcat I can see that this is com.google.android.feedback activity.
The question is, is this something Sports Tracker developers implemented themselves, or is it the default crash report every android user has installed on their phones? In other words, do all my apps (=the ones I've written and posted to Play Store) already have this function, or is it something I could/should implement myself**?
I have received some crash reports via android's build in crash reporting service, but it doesn't really give me any useful data (besides stack trace). Or is it just that the crash reporting on developer's dashboard is still far from complete?
I don't know about this special feedback activity. I'm currently using the ACRA system that it's really easy to use and give me useful bug reports. Let's have a look on it for your bug report.
I am sure they must be using one of these.
ACRA is great as well as try ZUbhium, it comes with silent crash reporting & in app support desk. So whenever application crashes, it captures more meaningful data and does analysis onit .
You can either add Zubhium as backend to ACRA & view advanced crash reports or use ZubhiumSDK. Both do excellent job.
Actually TestPoke is a beta testing platform that allow you to see all crashes your android app fall in, even thought they notify you when such thing happens through it Android App.
http://www.testpoke.com