Disappointed Android users

suzzlo

I I bought the Spartan Sport Wrist right after it went on sale. The first versions had many bugs but little by little they were corrected. It is still far from giving the user the functionality that a watch of that price should have, but company give us a calendar of new releases.Although the development of the Spartan watch software is, in my opinion, rather slow and not very transparent and the Movescount platform, it still does not correctly reflect the functionalities of Spartan watches, the case of Android’s Movescount application is a real shame. The case of Android’s Movescount application is a real shame. I don’t know of an application that is so underappreciated. Approximately half of your users give you the worst possible score and all the updates I’ve used have been to correct some serious bugs or to add new watches, never functionalities.
My hope was that Suunto had decided to fix this problem with the new Suunto App platform. I have participated in this community, waiting for a beta version for Android but after about a month, I see that the company is still on the same line, ignoring Android users, without submitting a version or a date for publication.

best regards
Ion

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@suzzlo Hi Ion I understand your concerns as I am as well a core Android user.
However hold on tight. We did not promise a version anytime that we did not deliver.

For the above exact reason we did not give any estimates for the Android release. So it’s bit of strange to feel neglected as even for iOS it’s a very early beta.

FYI the Android version should be coming this month.

Just to clarify and perhaps let you think this over:

when the iOS app was deemed to be ready for beta it opened up
at that point the Android version as not deemed ready.

In your opinion what do you think should have been done ?

Also please keep in mind that Android has too many devices with different chips on Bluetooth. That takes extra time. Apart from that the devices do not always run the official Android builds but vendor modified ones.

In your opinion you would have preferred to open the Android beta with a big sync fail ratio?
What if for your friends it was working ok and not for you? You would have preferred this path?

Jouko Tyni

@suzzlo Thank you for the feedback. I do understand and hear you.
The Android release candidate is in our internal tests as we speak. It is unfortunate how complex the Android system with all the different versions is compared to iOS.
The mobile team is trying very had to complete their planned tasks and meet the expectations of the customers. You should be able to test also the long waited Android version of Suunto app pretty soon. Like I said It have to pass our internal tests now. How ever I can’t give a exact date since almost anything can come up with the tests to postpone releasing, so bear with me in this.
Suunto is aware of the issues with Movescount application.

suzzlo

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos I understand that implementation of bluetooth Sync in Android devices can be difficult, but, Suunto has Movescount app working for Android users. All knowledge obtained implementing Bluetooth has not been used? Is bluetooth the only issue that is not ready? Are Android and iOS features implemented at the same? Both versions has the same features?
Perhaps iOS it’s easier to implement, but there are more Android phones than iPhones. If Suunto what to sell mid range watches (like Trainner) , must have a good version for both worlds.
Happy to ear that this month Android beta will be ready. Perhaps in January with this beta and new firmware update, my opinion will change.

Best regards
Ion

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@suzzlo Indeed it takes more time on Android for most of the features. Take for example other iOS/Android apps. Usually, if you visit for example androidpolice.com (I am a fan reader there) you will see articles like x app finally arrives on android.

From a developers perspective, you have to start with one app. As I understand either Android or iOS have to take the lead.

Let’s see when we have the beta and the new FW how things go.

Believe me, your feedback is much appreciated. That is why these forums are here. Else they would not be!

So please hold on there, and once the beta is out you are most welcome to come and rage on complains, bugs and issues as well as feature ideas and so on.

Klunzinger

@jouko-from-suunto
Interestingly, Garmin is able to develop Android apps much faster.
Customers have no understanding to wait years for a working app for an expensive watch like the Spartan.

Jouko Tyni

@klunzinger That is most likely true. Garmin has a lot more resources than Suunto has, in all levels not just in Android development.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@klunzinger as far as I know also Garmin is behind with the Android updates. About 2-3 weeks usually for bigger app updates no?

Alberto Yoldi

Keep on Suunto devs

We are all impatient but Im sure we will get a great improvement with the new app compared to the current Movescount. And we will be very happy to contribute here

Regards,

Mff73

Hi all, and @Jouko-from-Suunto
Still no news about Android App release date ? Just a clue, little news about how it progress ?

Jouko Tyni

@mff73 We have had a small set of users as field test group for some time, about 2 months or so and we are opening it in Google service for really, really, really small group today. It will not go open for wider audience before January since we need to have the support available before it is truly open beta.

Klunzinger

@jouko-from-suunto please add me to that group, pure android on nexus 6p running android 8.1

Jouko Tyni

@klunzinger The list of people was selected before my post here. At the moment it seems that we are not going to add more before we have all of the resources available. There has been some lessons to be learned and fixes to be made in Google play where we just moved the application this week. I believe we are going to add whole Android user queue into the beta and that will happen in the beginning of next year.

Alberto Yoldi

@jouko-from-suunto Oh, what a pity that we (the impatient one of this thread!) were not included :S

Anyway, have a nice Christmas and charge your batteries for an upcoming 2018 full of features and improvements. We will be happy to contribute here

Klunzinger

@jouko-from-suunto

@jouko-from-suunto said in Disappointed Android users:

@mff73 We have had a small set of users as field test group for some time, about 2 months or so and we are opening it in Google service for really, really, really small group today. It will not go open for wider audience before January since we need to have the support available before it is truly open beta.

OK, January is here and we are ready

Jouko Tyni

@klunzinger Unfortunately there were too much reports about connectivity issues from the December Release Candidate, let’s see if this next one is now good enough for wider population. We will start adding from the registration queue when those issues have been verified. There will be an Android release note in this forum when we are ready. I am disappointed too, not just you the end users.
Small hint about how close we should now be: we are now asking for mobile OS in registration, not just if you want to be added to queue for Android…

Luís Pinto

@jouko-from-suunto as past user i have to say that Android OS is a nightmare in some many technical issues like connectivity, memory and storage management… I really don’t like robot…

Klunzinger

@jouko-from-suunto said in Disappointed Android users:

Small hint about how close we should now be: we are now asking for mobile OS in registration, not just if you want to be added to queue for Android…

Then we hope that there will be positive news soon.
Btw, I have a Google Nexus 6P with pure android (8.1), that should work best anyway.

BR

Luís Pinto

@klunzinger Its a question of time! I’m sure Android users soon will be able to test.

Dimitrios Kanellopoulos

@klunzinger yep. I can say it works fine. 6p and been through all the betas (Android) and sunto app