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> Developers can force users to update, say with a full-screen blocking message, force-install the update in the background and restart the app when the downloa

> Developers can force users to update, say with a full-screen blocking message, force-install the update in the background and restart the app when the download has completed or create their own custom update flows. I don't like this idea from a user experience point of view. I hate auto updates (on iOS) because I have been disappointed heavily more than a few times with some games that got worse (on ads or more ads or experience) or some apps that made bigger changes in how they work and how they charge users (like going to a subscription model from a fixed price model). I also like to read the release notes of app updates so that I get to know about new features in a release. This is very cumbersome (or impossible) to know if auto-update is turned on. Some apps show the list of changes on launch of the new version, but this is up to the developers to do in a way that's not very intrusive while keeping it interesting. Ideally, there should be APIs for these, and users should be able to reject updates and stay on an older version if that's what they want (subject to some platform related restrictions or constraints). Edit: It's ironical and amusing that Android, the (almost) "do whatever you want" OS on mobile, is the one forcing this on users first. Surely there'll be ways developed to disable this by/after rooting the device?!

vanilla_nut 7y ago
Especially annoying when an update comes out that is known to have issues on your device and you'd like to avoid it until the issues clear up. For instance, I don't update my Macbook to the latest version of macOS immediately after the update comes out -- this is because I know there are likely to be bugs and I don't need to live on the bleeding edge most of the time. Another example: venmo recently updated on my iPhone SE (very small 4" screen by modern standards). I can no longer send a payment request or pay a friend because the buttons for those options are literally displayed off screen. I can also no longer dismiss the "get the venmo card!" popup that appears a few times a day when I log in because, you guessed it, the dismiss/ok/cancel buttons are all rendered off-screen. I actually knew this was an issue prior to updating because of a friend, but auto-update pushed the new version to me before I could stop it and now I can't use venmo. Software needs different release channels for different users. A lot of us would rather be on stable stuff than the bleeding edge. Of course, with modern alpha/beta testing techniques bugs are going to show up in most applications no matter what (looking at you, Spotify)... but it would at least help a little.

vanilla_nut 7y ago

Especially annoying when an update comes out that is known to have issues on your device and you'd like to avoid it until the issues clear up. For instance, I don't update my Macbook to the latest version of macOS immediately after the update comes out -- this is because I know there are likely to be bugs and I don't need to live on the bleeding edge most of the time. Another example: venmo recently updated on my iPhone SE (very small 4" screen by modern standards). I can no longer send a payment request or pay a friend because the buttons for those options are literally displayed off screen. I can also no longer dismiss the "get the venmo card!" popup that appears a few times a day when I log in because, you guessed it, the dismiss/ok/cancel buttons are all rendered off-screen. I actually knew this was an issue prior to updating because of a friend, but auto-update pushed the new version to me before I could stop it and now I can't use venmo. Software needs different release channels for different users. A lot of us would rather be on stable stuff than the bleeding edge. Of course, with modern alpha/beta testing techniques bugs are going to show up in most applications no matter what (looking at you, Spotify)... but it would at least help a little.