Planefinder Android APP

Hi there,

Sorry for posting this in the Iphone app section but I can't find a place on the forum for the Android App anywhere, has the Android App been abandoned?

Anyway just a bit of feedback for you regarding the your paid for android app if your interested in it?

I've used your free android app for a while now, and whilst obviously limited in features I've always found it a very useful app to use alongside my copy of FR24pro when that sometimes has problems refreshing on the 3G network here in the UK. Your app has a refresh button so normally I can get that one working.

With all this in mind, I decided to download your paid for android version a few days ago... Sadly all I can say is what a disappointment :-( This app seems to need a lot of work, here are some of the problems I've had with the app on my phone the Samsung Galaxy 3 (GTI-5800)....

When I click on a plane, it puts up a large information box underneath the aircraft and shows the trail of where the plane has come from, this works fine and I can click on the information box and it will put me through to the information page where more information is shown, or should that be where more information is supposed to be shown! If I select in the options to have the picture of the plane shown then it's impossible to scroll down to see the information underneath the picture! So to get the extra information you have to have the picture permanently turned off in the options

Once I've clicked on a plane, there it no way to actually click off all the planes, yes I can click on another plane and that will click off the first plane selected, but there is now way to actually click off all the planes for example clicking on a blank area of the screen. Once a plane has been selected and the trail is on the screen, the app then runs very slowly, moving the map around becomes at best jumpy rather than the smooth scrolling it had before, the more times I click from one plane onto another the slower and slower the app will run until it becomes unusable. I have found a very messy work around for this, which is after I've selected on any plane, use the back key on my phone so that the phone goes back to my home screen then click on the app again and all the trails will be cleared and it will move around the map freely until I click on a plane again.

Another bug in the software is once you have clicked on a plane and the information box is there underneath the plane you can't click on another plane below the information box! Clicking on another plane within about 1cm below the information box, will not select that plane it will just keep acting as though you have clicked on the information box and going through to the information screen even though you are clicking no where near it! The only way to clear this is to back out of the app as described above.

Another bug (sorry if I'm going on now but this is quite a bad one) is if the 3G network is having one of it's bad moments in this area the app seems unable to cope with this. It will scroll between "Need active internet connection & Error getting planes, trying again" which is all well and good, the problem is it will carry on and on and on doing this! It will even carry on doing this when it does get data and loads the planes! It will still carry on doing this if you actually exit the program as well the messages will keep scrolling on your phones home screen, the only way to stop these messages coming up once the app gets locked into this loop is to go into the applications manager and force stop the program!!! If this isn't done eventually the program will actually crash the phone.

Apart from that it all seems to work well lol. I don't even know if your still developing this app or not? Looking at the forum and the fact that the Android app has no dedicated section I'm guessing not, which is a shame really as if these bugs were addressed this could be a good app. The silly part is the free version has none of these bugs described above and works pretty much as it should on my phone!

Sorry to post such a negative first post :-(

On the plus side, I've been using the planfinder.net website for a few years now and find it fantastic, it's just a shame that this app seems to be so poor.

2 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Smith on February 6, 2012 at 11:38

I'm guessing that the lack of replies means that no one is interested in this app then? Shame really as with just a little effort and the bugs corrected this could be a good app.
:-(

Permalink Reply by Mark Daniels on February 7, 2012 at 8:24

Hi Paul,

Thanks for taking the time to put together your thoughts and experiences with the Android App.

It's good to know that you enjoy the web version too.

We do care about the app and our Android users.

Unfortunately the development work was taking us a lot longer than we had expected.

Over the last few months we stopped this to concentrate our efforts on the iOS versions, website and backend systems.

We do intend to develop the Android app in the coming months and as part of this will pay careful attention to the points that you have raised. (Our intention is to re-write the app rather than to patch the current version).

Sorry that this is taking us so long.

Regards,

Mark

Mark Daniels
pinkfroot.com

Permalink Reply by Paul Smith on February 7, 2012 at 15:30

Hi Mark and thanks for the reply.

It's good to know that your still planning future updates for the Android App, I'm sorry to have posted what appears to be such a negative first post, but I wanted to try and give you some genuine feedback about how the App performs on my phone, rather than just leave a random bit of feedback on the Android Market.

I look forward to seeing the future developments with this App and if there is anything I can help with then please don't hesitate to let me know.

Regarding the website, I can't fault that! Works perfectly pretty much 100% of the time for me. The website is even partially respnsible for getting my 16 y/o daughter a lot more interested in the world of aircraft now, so much so that she is eventually planning on pursuing a career within the airline industry after leaving school this year!

Permalink Reply by Trevor Carpenter on February 18, 2012 at 20:51

I use the paid for android App on an Orange San Francisco and it works pretty good

Point 1, I have no problem seeing the picture and scrolling up and down

Point 2 agree can't turn off all planes but I don't see any performance deterioration

Point 3 agree with this one, very difficult to select a second close to the first

Point 4 agree does get it's knickers in a twist and even reloading doesn't always help

To the guys at Pinkfroot, don't worry about those Apple guys there are a lot more Androids out there.

Seriously, keep up the good work

Permalink Reply by Dave on March 26, 2012 at 15:33

Hey guys new to the group.
I just bought the pay version of Plane Finder last week. After using it for about 5 days here are my thoughts.
In the description it says "near real time' air traffic radar maps. I wouldn't call 30 second updates near real time. Heck the free version had 30 second updates. If I would have known the paid version was the same I wouldn't have bought it.
It doesn't work very well with 3G data service. Keeps asking for an internet connection even though I have several bars.
Use a different plane icon for commercial and private jets.
Different colors for the planes would be great too.
Over all I do like the app. I just wish it was more real time like the PC version.
Also a AR version would be great.
Looking forward to the complete re-write version.

Permalink Reply by Paul Smith on April 6, 2012 at 9:57

Any updates on any Android development? FR24 have just upgraded their app and seem to have made a total mess of it if your using a phone that's older than about a year old or what they define as a lower spec phone which seems to include these phones....

Samsung Galaxy Spica
HTC Wildfire
HTC Desire HD
HTC Desire S
HTC Desire
Samsung Galaxy 3 (Mine)
HTC Sensation 4G
Samsung Galaxy S2
HTC Hero
Sony Tablet S
Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Hardly low spec or older phones really, so that's the latest version of both Apps on the market that now have problems, hoping you guys have started work on something? As at least you listen to constructive criticism & ideas on here without appearing to go off in a strop :-)

I would use your app all the time if I could, but once it goes into that no data loop I described above it pretty makes it unusable unless your on Wifi which defeats the idea of the app a little lol. ;-)

Permalink Reply by Al Henderson on July 12, 2012 at 13:51

I'd like to add my voice to those for updates to the Android App. Its great, but very flakey if used for extended periods. I usually have mine on for a few mins at a time when I see something, anything over about 5 mins and you end up with a map full of plane icons - several planes for each flight, the older ones seem to get left behind as it moves on.

Also experience the 'Need Active Internet Connection' and 'Error Getting Planes' messages despite showing the data OK. Happens a lot when I'm on the edge of my WiFi range at home and the phone switches between that and the phone network. The most annoying bit is that these messages keep coming up even when I turn the app off! A phone restart seems to be needed to get rid of it.

I had been thinking of moving to FR24, but won't bother as mine's a Desire HD - lower spec?? Hardly! They've really limited their market if that list of phones is considered too under powered.

Al.

Permalink Reply by Mark Daniels on July 12, 2012 at 16:51

Hi Al,

Thanks for sharing your observations on these issues with the Android versions.

We are aware of various issues on different Android device and OS versions.

As the timeline of this post shows we have not progressed our Android development for some time.

We are very much aware of this.

Sorry for the continued lack of progress and for the current problems you are experiencing.

Regards,

Mark

Mark Daniels
pinkfroot.com

Permalink Reply by Al Henderson on July 12, 2012 at 19:49

Thanks for the reply, Mark. Any ideas on timescales of an Android update - assuming there's going to be one?

Al.

Permalink Reply by Paul Smith on July 13, 2012 at 9:28

I'm starting to think there isn't going to be one, at least not in the near future anyway. :-(

Shame really this could have been a good app, but it seems to have been pretty much abandoned for Android now?

Permalink Reply by Al Henderson on July 13, 2012 at 9:33

Paul - I fear you might be right. Why is Android always second best - I'm sure there are more Android phones out there than iPhones. Read the other day that there's a Dambusters app available for the iPhone, but not for Android because they don't have the memory or processing power to make it work. Absolute rubbish - couldn't be bothered more like.

I'm probably going to be getting a Nexus 7 and was looking forward to running PlaneFinder on it, looks like it'll be the old buggy version. I appreciate I didn't pay much for it, but surely we can still expect updates?

Permalink Reply by Dave on July 13, 2012 at 9:56

I agree with the gentleman above.
It seems Android is the black sheep while Apple gets all the attention.
Back in February the developers said they were concentrating on IOS for a few months.
Well it's been 5 months and I still can't use this app without a wifi signal.
Sad