The Ever Changing Android App

[allendick 98]

I don't use the Android app often, but whenever I open it, I need it without delay. and there seems to be a surprise waiting on the way to what I intended to do.

The latest surprise is that instead of opening where I left off,  it opens on an irrelevant screen, and I have to hunt for where I was last.

I managed to find the preferences and I cannot figire how to change the start page. Was that not an option at one time?

And frankly, speaking of annoyances, I do not want my software to wish me Good Morning!

I find it condescending and stupid coming from a machine.  I have actual humans around me for that.

At least the thing has stopped trying to address me by the name I am registered with, but no human I know calls me.

Small mercies.

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,977]

Sounds like you may be experiencing the new experimental(?) "home screen." You can get at your real one by finding widgets on the hamburger menu, I think.

Personally, I don't mind a cheery hello anywhere I can get it. But that feature does seem to wind a lot of people up.

[mackid1993 774]

No longer experimental. It's officially released in 10.86. They added scratch pad to the new home screen, added shortcuts to the bottom bar (replaced with notebooks, notebooks are accessed from the notes screen) and widgets are still in the side menu from the experimental versions. You can see an explanation on their YouTube channel. 

[allendick 98]

I don't know what you are seeing, but I am seeing this on a Pixel 7XL and it is entirely uselss to me.

I want to find myself exactly where I was when I last closed the app.

[mackid1993 774]

That's one of the experimental layouts. When you get the 10.86 update that is rolling out or can be manually downloaded here if you're impatient you'll have the official new layout. 

[Dave-in-Decatur 3,977]

On 4/24/2024 at 11:23 PM, mackid1993 said:

No longer experimental. It's officially released in 10.86. They added scratch pad to the new home screen, added shortcuts to the bottom bar (replaced with notebooks, notebooks are accessed from the notes screen) and widgets are still in the side menu from the experimental versions. You can see an explanation on their YouTube channel. 

Thanks. I'm still on 10.85.1, and I have automatic updates turned off on my phone, so I'll just wait until I have the time to deal with this to move up to 10.86.

[mackid1993 774]

3 hours ago, Dave-in-Decatur said:

Thanks. I'm still on 10.85.1, and I have automatic updates turned off on my phone, so I'll just wait until I have the time to deal with this to move up to 10.86.

I have to say you can still get to your widgets but the update is so much nicer, everything loads right away, tasks sync immediately now. It's a massive improvement.

 

 

[ferol 460]

17 minutes ago, mackid1993 said:

I have to say you can still get to your widgets but the update is so much nicer, everything loads right away, tasks sync immediately now. It's a massive improvement.

 

 

is really fine

[Dave Green 210]

Including some ownership pride:

[allendick 98]

Another surprise today.  Still opens at a home screen instead of where I left off and has replaced the greeting with an equally uselss waste of space saying "Your Evernote". 

Do they think I am stupid?  Of course I know it is my Evernote.  After all, I just opened it, right?  Do I want 20% of my screen wasted telling me that?  (No).

On opening, I was offered a video to explain the wonders of this new mutation, and when I touch the link, I was greeted by a noisy, irrelevant ad, so, of course I killed it.

Are they using YouTube instead streaming na clean video from their own server?  

Anyhow, at least on that mostly wasted page there are links to places I might want to go -- but anything except where I really expect to be -- where left off last and that is all I expect.  And, of course that is not an option, one I can find, anyhow.   

Every time is the first time. 

[PinkElephant 8,174]

I took a measure. On my iPhone 15 Pro Max "Your Evernote" takes up 4mm out of 15.5cm total screen height. Which is 2.6% of the screen height, not 20%.

You can take this answer as serious as I take your rant.

You are long enough in this forum to know that your answers should be directed at

feedback@evernote.com

[VincentC 272]

Well, a quick personal anecdote.  Yesterday I had a medical appointment at a place I have been to infrequently.  I opened Google maps, entered the name of the facility, got the result, and off I went.  But when I arrived at the address, there was no sign of the office I was looking for.  And I had left the paper that listed the address at home.

I thought to myself, "Was I smart enough to scan that info sheet into Evernote?"  So I opened Evernote on my Pixel 6.  OH NO -- it's a new opening screen!!  Now a video starts, *****!  I killed the video.  Hey, there's the search button.  Typed "endoscopy."  Immediately a note with a pdf appears.  Uh oh, now I have to open the pdf.  I tap on the link.  The pdf immediately opens and displays.  Turns out I was at the right place but the wrong side of the building.

My point: In this very stressful situation, I was able to find what I needed, when I needed it, without having seen that UI before, and, all-in-all, I had a much faster experience than I can recall having with Evernote Android before.  Yay, Bending Spoons.

So, I'm just fine with the new UI.  Despite what I might think about colors, font choices, location of boxes, greetings...  the tool just worked when I needed it.

(And I recognize that others' experience may differ.)

 

Vinnie

[PinkElephant 8,174]

Nice to hear about your experience.

The iOS version is ok, basically the same new UI. What I find irritating is that it now has a significant delay on opening. Before the app opened on the iPhone in an instant. Now I am forced to admire that Bending Spoons made it with love for a felt eternity. In fact it’s only a few seconds -  but exactly then when I don’t need it, because I want to get at an information quick. No, it’s not the iPhone (it’s a shiny blue 15 Pro Max, running the latest iOS), and the delay survived even a forced restart.

I would prefer less love and a little more professional effort in coding the user experience. Of all waiting experiences, probably app startup wait is the most annoying.

[allendick 98]

> Your Evernote" takes up 4mm out of 15.5cm total screen height

Lucky you. 

On my phone it uses 2-1/2 CM out of 12,  That is 20% for a totally useless function.  Not only that, there is a lot of empty real estate that could have an obvious link to useful functions, like -- dare I say it -- where I was whan I last closed the app? 

This is not stable software, if, by definition, we mean stable software works reliably and does not change every week or two.

Evernote  -- desktop and phone -- is now is clearly beta by all normal measures. Legacy never crashed in five? years?. The current version does strange things sometimes and has to be killed and re-started occasionally.  AFAIK it does not lose data, but, then how would I know?

This phone app is different at unexpected times without so much as a "Do you mind?" when I open it, usually at a time when I need it. I used to be able to count on it opening predicatably but lately I find it changed, bragging about how much better it is than what I was expecting to see, and wanting to discuss how much it has "improved". 

(Is it just me, or is there really an annoying hallucination 'bot haunting this forum, magically seeking out  any post that expresses confusion and displeaure with the random aspects of an increasingly costly formerly stable and predictable product that users invested time and precious data to?)

[Paul A. 627]

6 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

The iOS version is ok, basically the same new UI. What I find irritating is that it now has a significant delay on opening. Before the app opened on the iPhone in an instant. Now I am forced to admire that Bending Spoons made it with love for a felt eternity. In fact it’s only a few seconds -  but exactly then when I don’t need it, because I want to get at an information quick. No, it’s not the iPhone (it’s a shiny blue 15 Pro Max, running the latest iOS), and the delay survived even a forced restart.

That's interesting; I wonder if you're experiencing a bug? Because supposedly the rationale for the mobile redesign was startup performance. I (on Android, Pixel 8 Pro) haven't received the "latest" mobile home screen experience, instead I have one of the interim steps that doesn't have any "made with love" splash screen. I took some informal benchmarks to compare to when I receive the latest version, presumably this coming week.

• Launching Evernote about a minute after a cold boot: under 4 seconds until the list of notes populates all content.
• Launching Evernote after the phone has been running a while and lots of apps loaded: up to about 8 seconds until all content loads.
• Launching/returning to Evernote after having recently launched it: virtually instant.

I will test these app startup load time scenarios again after I receive the final home screen redesign.

[anfang 37]

Mine:

• Launching a very recently minimized Evernote (e.g. switched app less than a minute ago): Instantaneous
• Launching Evernote (e.g. anything not a minute ago): ~3 seconds

3 seconds' not really that slow for most apps (e.g. Microsoft Office, Google Docs, Dropbox), but it's considered slow for note-taking apps.

I think the lack of a spinner also gives the illusion that launching Evernote is much slower than it actually is.