10 ms·

I miss being able to actually refuse an update. Or even being able to disable them!

dleslie 4y ago
I miss knowing that updates even happened. I also miss important features remaining stable. Which is why, for the most part, I've stopped using web-based applications.
- ethbr0 4y ago
  You want a chuckle, turn off automatic app updates on an Android phone and see how many prompts you get. And how terrible the patch notes are ("Fixed some things")
  - dleslie 4y ago
    In fact, my Android 11 device has no browser enabled, the play store is disabled, and almost every app it came with is disabled. It functions solely for email, instant messaging, a TODO tracker, and taking photos. Edit: not sure why this was downvoted. Did someone find the idea of a narrowly-focused phone to be offensive or unworthy of discussion?
    - xwolfi 4y ago
      We know but OP was telling you to experiment: turn off auto update and turn on the play store, and see how many prompts you get. We're not sure why you went to describe how you read emails, and that's why we downvote you. Your answer was completely irrelevant !
      - dleslie 4y ago
        There's almost nothing to auto-update on my device, aside from less than a couple of IM apps and an email app. Sharing that info was the point of my reply.
  - bluGill 4y ago
    I have 25 applications on my android that never get updated. I don't use gmail, and I don't want it installed on my phone at all. (I have the mandatory account to activate the phone, but all my mail is via fastmail). I update the apps I use (or sometimes apps I think I should use but don't)
    - jjav 4y ago
      > (I have the mandatory account to activate the phone, but all my mail is via fastmail). Interesting, I don't have a google account associated with my phone. It means the google app store doesn't work, but everything else works fine AFAIK. I use FDroid or just download apks directly.
  - OkGoDoIt 4y ago
    Nowadays even on iPhone half the apps phone home to their server, determine they’re not running the latest version, and then refuse to let you use them until you update.
    - babypuncher 4y ago
      If the APIs backing the app have changed, then this is better than letting the user deal with the consequences of undefined behaviors.
  - actionablefiber 4y ago
    I wonder if developers who do this simply don't want to publicly identify and take responsibility for bugs that they introduced earlier. It's easier to just say "bug fixes" then it is to say something like "I overlooked several surprisingly common edge cases in the parser module and have updated it to correctly handle several character sequences that were causing exceptions to be thrown." With automatic updates and vague update notes, anyone who did not directly experience the bug never has to know it existed in the first place and the developer never has to admit it existed in the first place.
    - whynaut 4y ago
      In my experience, these notes aren’t written by devs in bigger companies.
techsupporter 4y ago
Or that every ducking time an application developer pushes an update, they feel the need to pop up something in front of me the next time I open the application. The worst time to do that is when I first open the application because that's when I've made the intentional choice to use it to get something done and the last thing I want is for that flow to be interrupted. The irritation is tripled if it's an un-skippable "let us walk you through the nineteen changes in a slowly constructed slideshow!" This is second only to applications that don't properly retain state--especially after an update--so every time I open them I get a brief glimpse of what once was (and what I probably wanted to go back to) before I get a 50/50 split of being dumped to the application home screen or "oops, something has gone wrong! lol, software, yannow! Please to be logging in once more, thx."
- dleslie 4y ago
  If your feature requires a tutorial _for all users_ then it shouldn't be shipped. I'm strict on this; I return video games with unskippable tutorials. It's cause for an immediate Alt-F4 and return to store.
  - ThunderSizzle 4y ago
    How does Left 4 Dead's style fall in to this (assuming the intro vid would've required on first run) The tutorial is basically the intro video with some tool tips periodically in game.
  - barnabee 4y ago
    If it requires a tutorial for all users, that’s called a manual and it doesn’t have to appear on launch or force you to read it. Unskippable step by step tooltip guides are the absolute worst. Many features are better off hard to find and left that way than shoved-in-your-face discoverable, or introduced by a tutorial. Those who want to get the most out of their tools will find them and will appreciate you treating them like fellow intelligent beings. The rest will never know what they missed and won’t worry about it either.
    - 4y ago
babypuncher 4y ago
On the flipside, browsers not auto-updating would be both a security nightmare and make web development miserable.

I miss knowing that updates even happened. I also miss important features remaining stable. Which is why, for the most part, I've stopped using web-based applications.

ethbr0 4y ago
You want a chuckle, turn off automatic app updates on an Android phone and see how many prompts you get. And how terrible the patch notes are ("Fixed some things")
- dleslie 4y ago
  In fact, my Android 11 device has no browser enabled, the play store is disabled, and almost every app it came with is disabled. It functions solely for email, instant messaging, a TODO tracker, and taking photos. Edit: not sure why this was downvoted. Did someone find the idea of a narrowly-focused phone to be offensive or unworthy of discussion?
  - xwolfi 4y ago
    We know but OP was telling you to experiment: turn off auto update and turn on the play store, and see how many prompts you get. We're not sure why you went to describe how you read emails, and that's why we downvote you. Your answer was completely irrelevant !
    - dleslie 4y ago
      There's almost nothing to auto-update on my device, aside from less than a couple of IM apps and an email app. Sharing that info was the point of my reply.
- bluGill 4y ago
  I have 25 applications on my android that never get updated. I don't use gmail, and I don't want it installed on my phone at all. (I have the mandatory account to activate the phone, but all my mail is via fastmail). I update the apps I use (or sometimes apps I think I should use but don't)
  - jjav 4y ago
    > (I have the mandatory account to activate the phone, but all my mail is via fastmail). Interesting, I don't have a google account associated with my phone. It means the google app store doesn't work, but everything else works fine AFAIK. I use FDroid or just download apks directly.
- OkGoDoIt 4y ago
  Nowadays even on iPhone half the apps phone home to their server, determine they’re not running the latest version, and then refuse to let you use them until you update.
  - babypuncher 4y ago
    If the APIs backing the app have changed, then this is better than letting the user deal with the consequences of undefined behaviors.
- actionablefiber 4y ago
  I wonder if developers who do this simply don't want to publicly identify and take responsibility for bugs that they introduced earlier. It's easier to just say "bug fixes" then it is to say something like "I overlooked several surprisingly common edge cases in the parser module and have updated it to correctly handle several character sequences that were causing exceptions to be thrown." With automatic updates and vague update notes, anyone who did not directly experience the bug never has to know it existed in the first place and the developer never has to admit it existed in the first place.
  - whynaut 4y ago
    In my experience, these notes aren’t written by devs in bigger companies.

techsupporter 4y ago

Or that every ducking time an application developer pushes an update, they feel the need to pop up something in front of me the next time I open the application. The worst time to do that is when I first open the application because that's when I've made the intentional choice to use it to get something done and the last thing I want is for that flow to be interrupted. The irritation is tripled if it's an un-skippable "let us walk you through the nineteen changes in a slowly constructed slideshow!" This is second only to applications that don't properly retain state--especially after an update--so every time I open them I get a brief glimpse of what once was (and what I probably wanted to go back to) before I get a 50/50 split of being dumped to the application home screen or "oops, something has gone wrong! lol, software, yannow! Please to be logging in once more, thx."

dleslie 4y ago
If your feature requires a tutorial _for all users_ then it shouldn't be shipped. I'm strict on this; I return video games with unskippable tutorials. It's cause for an immediate Alt-F4 and return to store.
- ThunderSizzle 4y ago
  How does Left 4 Dead's style fall in to this (assuming the intro vid would've required on first run) The tutorial is basically the intro video with some tool tips periodically in game.
- barnabee 4y ago
  If it requires a tutorial for all users, that’s called a manual and it doesn’t have to appear on launch or force you to read it. Unskippable step by step tooltip guides are the absolute worst. Many features are better off hard to find and left that way than shoved-in-your-face discoverable, or introduced by a tutorial. Those who want to get the most out of their tools will find them and will appreciate you treating them like fellow intelligent beings. The rest will never know what they missed and won’t worry about it either.
  - 4y ago

babypuncher 4y ago

On the flipside, browsers not auto-updating would be both a security nightmare and make web development miserable.