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Phone App: iPhone/Android app
- Thread starter dsm363
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- Model S User Interface
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
It's kinda funny. My latest Android phone broke (I've been an Android user since the very first G1 phone in 2008) and I decided to give iOS a try... in part because I didn't really care for Lollipop, in part because I really liked the Tesla app better on my wife's iPhone, especially the notifications. So now all I need is my new car to stop being in production and instead making its way to me... (grmbl)
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
If I inferred correctly from your statement that you think it's like the old days, where you'll be able to access you car via the app once it is en route to you, Tesla has changed that. Apparently they grew tired of people about to take delivery of their vehicles honking horns and flashing lights randomly. So now you won't be able to control your car via the app until after you take delivery.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
I didn't even know that used to be possible! I thought you had to explicitly enable remote access once you took possession.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
It's long before I was around here, but from what I've read, at one time Tesla would enable communication with the app when the cars left the factory, and people could track their cars' progress towards delivery. I mistakenly thought that's what you were referring to when you said that all you needed now was for your car stop being in production, and be on the way to you (so that you could try out the app.)
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
Nah, I really want to take delivery. (the car finished production today - based on dashboard status)
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
I also think the notifications are the iPhone app feature I would most like to see in the Android app. In fact I started a thread a few weeks ago trying to find a solution for forwarding notifications from my wife's iPhone to me, and apparently there just isn't one.
I know software is complicated. And when we're talking about software involving the Model S, it can be life and death, so all sorts of testing is involved, etc., etc. But with respect to taking a feature like notifications that has already been developed for the iPhone app, could we really be talking about it taking a software developer familiar with the android app more than a couple of hours to add the feature to the android app? Perhaps a day if he wanted to make it slick? Please tell me if I'm way off here.
If I'm right, or even close, I really don't understand why Tesla can't throw all of us Android users this bone.
The gap may be pretty wide from an appearance standpoint. But from a functionality standpoint, give us notifications, and I think Tesla gets most of the way there. And unless I'm really missing something, I just can't see why that would be hard to do, since all the programming to pull the information from the car has been done already.
dirkhh
Middle-aged Member
Not at all. To get a feature like that at the current quality level of the Android app (which is rightfully called "beta", I could get it to break all the time) would not take more than a couple of days.
Actually, taking the current Android app, adding the missing features that are in the iPhone app, adding scheduled starting of pre-heating the cabin, getting all this to work reliably would be maybe a couple of weeks for an experienced Android developer.
My guess is opportunity cost. Based on what they have today I would bet that they don't have a dedicated, experienced Android developer. Much more likely someone for whom this isn't their day job hacked the current Android app together. And spends an hour or two on it once every other month.
Correct. As I said. Maybe a couple of days, assuming you know your way around Android.
Mayhemm
Model S P85+ "Lola"
Notifications would go a long way to leveling the playing field for sure, as it is really the only major feature still missing from Android.
However, there are still a number of bugs/usability issues that plague the Android app but not the iOS one, as detailed in the previously-posted video. I would like to see those corrected just as much as to have notifications.
Pilot_51
Member
My thought as well. It's evident that Tesla doesn't really care about Android and the app probably only exists because that one employee wanted to do it. At over 10,000 employees, one dedicated mid-level Android developer could make a big difference in owner experience with hardly a rounding error on financials.
I've been thinking of offering to work on the app on the side, but I've been holding back due to my limited time and it doesn't appear Tesla would allow remote.
In Japan where Apple has about 50% share in smartphone market, I think higher priority on iOS version makes sense, but in China and other Asian countries - Android should be much more popular than iOS. As Tesla grows globally they will need to focus more on Android integration.
ken830
Model S 85, Model 3 Performance, Model X LongRange
Pilot_51
Member
For those interested, I went ahead and created the Tesla Android App Users group.
Some benefits I have in mind for the group:
1. Members have the Android logo under their name, so it's clear which version of the app they use.
2. If someone makes an iOS app users group, it could be kind of a gauge for the user distribution between the platforms, at least among the active TMC members. I should note that, looking at the Play Store and App Store listings, Android has 841 ratings and iOS has 191 ratings, but that's a bad way to estimate actual usage. Android has 10,000 - 50,000 installs and I don't see that info for iOS (maybe it's in the App Store within iOS?). If the Android app turns out to be more popular, maybe we can make a case for Tesla to give it more attention. Need more statistics!
3? I'm not sure what sorts of things would be worth posting inside the group instead of other threads like this one. Perhaps some more general Android stuff such as other apps that are useful with the car and whatnot. I'll leave that up to the community to decide.
Some benefits I have in mind for the group:
1. Members have the Android logo under their name, so it's clear which version of the app they use.
2. If someone makes an iOS app users group, it could be kind of a gauge for the user distribution between the platforms, at least among the active TMC members. I should note that, looking at the Play Store and App Store listings, Android has 841 ratings and iOS has 191 ratings, but that's a bad way to estimate actual usage. Android has 10,000 - 50,000 installs and I don't see that info for iOS (maybe it's in the App Store within iOS?). If the Android app turns out to be more popular, maybe we can make a case for Tesla to give it more attention. Need more statistics!
3? I'm not sure what sorts of things would be worth posting inside the group instead of other threads like this one. Perhaps some more general Android stuff such as other apps that are useful with the car and whatnot. I'll leave that up to the community to decide.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
Good idea! Thanks for doing that. I became the third card-carrying member. Well, the third member, anyway.
Pilot_51
Member
Yes, but I really doubt they would ever tell us and it seems they largely ignore the dev console, judging by the lack of any comment replies let alone the infrequency of updates. So, we may need to be loud with whatever supporting facts we can gather.
ronnussbaum
Member
When I tried in December of 2013 my delivery was under way but could not track it immediately until after delivery!
Model S
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Model S
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**Mods - I am in agreement with 99.9% of all of your decisions and 100% a fan. But when the iOS and Android threads were first merged this seemed like a big mistake. Each platform was bound to have different feature sets and release cycles. I think the comments since have only confirmed this. PLEASE separate these threads!!!!!
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