Create a Loomio App for Android

The last comment here is ( a uear ago) not encouraging. My G4 Adriod wont let me see what I type as I type . A preview allows the final to ne seen bit not edited )in sigjt). Love OpenSource votings programs. Hipe tp jere this can progress but wont wait. :-) :-)

An app is going to happen. In my mind it's a question of designing what it will do.

Unfortunately, we can't easily port all of the stuff that happens in the web interface over to a mobile app, and while doing a web wrapper within an app is an option, it means it'll be a less-than-stellar experience (you know, like, using the web on mobile.)

Building a whole nother feature-parity app is an option, but we don't have the dev power to make that a reality in a short period of time and continue development on the main product and support our existing users... and then we have to support two completely different codebases going forward. This is the kind of pie-in-the-sky investment which can cripple a small shop like us (although the argument can and is being made that not having an app is also crippling us.)

All that's to ask, what are the three things that you absolutely need the Loomio mobile app to be able to do?

Mobile notifications are the biggest need for my group. Being able to change the text size would be awesome for those with eyesight challenges.

Is there a mobile app? During a Sept 2016 TedTalk, Alanna Krause said Loomio is available for mobile devices, but I cannot find it on the Google Play store, or anywhere online

Have you tried using Loomio in a browser on your mobile device? In another thread on the subject of mobile apps, about a year ago, @alanna commented that she uses Loomio that way, with a shortcut on her home screen, and it works fine for her.

Thank you for the clarification.

I am on my mobile device to write this response - I find the interface quite laggy, and already have issues, such as not being able to access my email settings on mobile. When I click the link I am brought to the email settings page, but the page immediately beings to 'save changes' and boot me back to the home page.

Thanks for sharing these experiences. Would you be willing to create detailed bug reports on the things that aren't working for you on the Loomio crew's issue tracker? Fixing such things is much easier when they know details like what OS/ version you are using, so they can reproduce the bug.

Loomio crew; is there a place (a subgroup?) specifically for mobile users of the Loomio web app to give feedback and make feature requests? @richarddbartlett @hannahsalmon @jonlemmon @mixmix @nicolaswormser @robertguthrie

Hi.

We know it's not that great on mobile - Wish it could be better - it might be with react or react native or just native, but we're stuck on angular 1 which has quite poor performance on mobile.

Right now we're focusing on identifying what the best function of the app is, and its easiest for us to do that with just one codebase and without a technology change.

I don't get a lot of value from issues where the major problem is already known.

If the decision tools and instant Loomio stuff takes off then we'll circle back and sort this issue out, hopefully get apps in the app stores for you.

If the decision tools and instant Loomio stuff takes off then we'll circle back and sort this issue out, hopefully get apps in the app stores for you.

That makes lots of sense. I've never been especially concerned with Android use, but thanks for sharing!

If the decision tools and instant Loomio stuff takes off then we'll circle back and sort this issue out, hopefully get apps in the app stores for you.

Sorry, I'm confused, because this statement seems to contradict everything said so far by Loomio crew, on this thread and others. The message so far is has been that Loomio crew want to focus dev energy on making the web app work across all platforms with web browsers, rather than fragment your efforts by trying to create OS-specific apps. As I said in my previous comment to the one you replied to, I think mobile use of Loomio is best discouraged. It's totally up to the Loomio crew of course, but IMHO native apps would be a serious misapplication of resources.

That said, these gripes about mobile UX keep coming up, so people are using the web app on mobile. If they have issues that are different to those on other platforms, it seems like good stewardship to have a space for them to report and discuss them. Even if that's just a thread (or subgroup?) on the Loomio Community group.

Perhaps there could be an issues tracker specifically for mobile UX, one that you don't have to deal with Robert? One that somehow feeds detailed bug reports about mobile UX upstream to the Angular devs, so they can maybe fix some of the problems at their end?

I don't know what to say. We want to make Loomio good. Right now we're focusing on the decisions and integrating them into other tools.

We want people to have a good time using Loomio with their phones, but we can't spend much in that area this quarter. To deliver a good mobile experience means using a fast software stack. I personally believe that can be a web based stack, but we know users expect apps in app stores so we need to be able to deliver that.

We want bug reports written up in the normal way, but I can't promise to address the bigger problem at play here, if those reports are about the app being sluggish on mobile.

From what @koy said in the comment I was responding to it sounds like there are mobile bugs unrelated to it being sluggish. This is what I was suggesting detailed bug reports on, so it seems like this was the right advice to give, but now I'm unsure.

BTW Robert I tagged you in because I was looking for official comment from the Loomio crew to make sure I'm not giving people a bum steer. You are under no obligation to comment on these kinds of discussions if they frustrate you, as the tone of your comments suggests that they do. If you feel like you'd rather be using your time elsewhere, it's probably better all round if you honour that feeling :)

My general response to all the people calling for native apps for mobile is to ask them to really sit down and think about the quality of engagement on their Loomio groups. If people were able to hammer out comments or take positions on their mobile when they have a few seconds between other things , it might well increase the volume of participation, but it might also decrease quality of participation.

Decision-making is not social media (try a GNU Social or Mastodon mobile app), and it's not realtime chat (try an XMPP or Mumble app). It requires focus, and often some very delicate diplomacy, especially in an online platform that lacks all the subtle subverbal feedback available in face-to-face meetings. This is probably best done when you have time to sit down in front of a desktop or laptop.

If you really need to do something on Loomio on the run, it is available in mobile web browsers. It's a web app. That's the best place to use it, and the best place for the developers to focus their work on improving UX. The Signal text+voice chat app used to struggle along with push notifications relied on Google Play Services (on Android), and similar proprietary dependencies on iOS, but they are moving towards using WebRTC and other newer tech to improve the UX of their native apps. Maybe the Loomio team can look into borrowing some tricks from them to improve their web app UX?

One more thing, I've seen people claim that owning a desktop or laptop is a privilege. This just isn't true, or at least it doesn't need to be. Even the cheapest new mobile costs more than $100. I struggle to give away working 2nd hand desktops, and decent 2nd hand laptops can be bought as cheap as $50, both of which provide for a much greater range of uses than even an expensive mobile.

Also, desktops can be easily repaired by anyone who can use a screwdriver, and parts can be replaced cheap or free (by ripping working parts out of dead boxes), allowing them to last an average of 5-10 years with a regular oil change. The same is roughly true for laptops, although the hardware is much fiddlier to work on. Mobiles are doing well if they last a couple of years before needing to be replaced, and if you add up the cost of a new one every 2 years over a 10 year period, and compared it to the cost of 2 second hand laptops...

Sorry. Yes we want bug reports about mobile experiences. github issues is the right place for that.

Offical Loomio stance on mobile is that we want it to be great but know we've got a lot of work to do..