Evernote quality decline especially for mobile

[otterprods 10]

Greetings, I am a professional Quality Analyst and would like to offer some of my time here for free, in exchange for (hopefully) some real quality improvements.

 

Evernote version: Evernote 10.100.1 (1227604)

Most common devices: Evernote app on Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, iMac arm with latest Chrome browser.

More specs available upon request

Major problems encountered:

1. Text being cut away when I clearly choose copy... Leads to data loss

2. Notes drawing out of view at the top of the list

3. Loss of data when indoors even though I pay for the offline level of service

4. Inability to type or add specific words at random times

... and many more things, which seem to get worse with each new version. If someone on Evernote dev team wants to reach out directly, send me a personal message so we can work together directly.

[Gazebo 49]

4. Inability to type or add specific words at random times

Yes confirm that this is an issue on my Samsung Android phone currently running 10.99.1

[PinkElephant 8,996]

Android ≠ Mobile

On iOS most things work OK. There are some very annoying mistakes, like from time to time resetting the offline toggle by updates.

But the mobile client runs ok on my iOS devices. 

Which leaves the question which technical problem is underlying a 4 year long streak with Android client problems.

[agsteele 3,069]

3 hours ago, PinkElephant said:

Which leaves the question which technical problem is underlying a 4 year long streak with Android client problems.

And possibly, why are so many of the issues reported on Samsung devices? 🥴

[Jon/t 1,742]

2 hours ago, agsteele said:

why are so many of the issues reported on Samsung devices?

It is interesting. I'm using a Fairphone 4 and don't get many issues at all. 

[s2sailor 2,504]

There are advantages to developing software on locked down hardware vs open.

[PinkElephant 8,996]

From observation (I don’t run any Android devices) I have seen these topics:

• Use of 3rd party keyboards
• Bloatware / Crapware installed by cash-strapped makers
• Devices left without OS updates
• and of course the wide variety of technical solutions, some of them using cheap components
• plus a tendency to seek a market niche by isolated technological approaches (has anybody said „foldables“ ….)

[Alxa 502]

Evernote for mobile on Android had been running lightning fast on any of my Android devices before they switched from native programming (legacy app 8.13.3) to the framework they now embed or better imprison the whole thing into. The native app was snappy even on old Android devices (Samsung and Motorola) for me. The chosen framework seems to be the bottle neck on Android eco system. I think therefore we will not see any substantial performance improvements as long as they keep on avoiding native programming efforts.

The - native - OneNote app shows, what Android is capable of in terms of performance.

[PinkElephant 8,996]

Snappy app from a company killed by maintaining overly complex native code was never a solution ….

[Alxa 502]

Yeah, but take this native code and make it better could also have been an option. We are 4 years into EN10 and the Android app still is in such a desolate state in terms of performance that I cannot see the announced benefits of the  "unified code base" approach (on Android). 4 (lost) years maybe for improving and evolving legacy native code instead🤷🏼‍♂️ Knowing what is possible on my devices, the given performance of EN 10 on Android is really sad. 😞

 

[Dave-in-Decatur 4,014]

23 hours ago, otterprods said:

Greetings, I am a professional Quality Analyst and would like to offer some of my time here for free, in exchange for (hopefully) some real quality improvements.

 

Evernote version: Evernote 10.100.1 (1227604)

Most common devices: Evernote app on Samsung Galaxy S20 FE, iMac arm with latest Chrome browser.

More specs available upon request

Major problems encountered:

1. Text being cut away when I clearly choose copy... Leads to data loss

2. Notes drawing out of view at the top of the list

3. Loss of data when indoors even though I pay for the offline level of service

4. Inability to type or add specific words at random times

... and many more things, which seem to get worse with each new version. If someone on Evernote dev team wants to reach out directly, send me a personal message so we can work together directly.

To actually address your question: this is (obviously by now, given the general gripe-fest above) a user-to-user forum, not a way to address Evernote directly. The place for that, I think, is still feedback@evernote.com. That said, they're a pretty big company and I'd doubt that they accept offers of free QA (or coding, or other) advice. Though I admit it sometimes seems that whoever did get paid for some bit of work on an update should not have been. 😁

[otterprods 10]

@Dave-in-Decatur Thanks for responding. Some large software companies have employees that browse user forums to harvest bugs from the wild and even offer solutions at times. The one I work for encourages that. The only reason I mentioned my QE experience is to let people know that I'm will to take some time to provide some actually useful info like specific version info, hardware specs and possibly even some reliable repro steps. As opposed to just a gripe fest, which usually does very little to help out. Also, this was just a starting place for me. You're right that Evernote's quality has been noticeably degrading lately. I'm trying to help change that, even just a little.

[fcolina 4]

I don't claim to understand the native code issue, but all I know is that on my Android phone EverNote has never been as slow as it is currently.  I had to wait at least 30 seconds for the app to open after upgrading to 10.101.2.  I've been a paying client since 2009 and the app used to be lightning fast.  Especially when adding notes with photos.  I don't understand the reason why the app is slower now than it was 15 years ago.

[otterprods 10]

Thanks @fcolina ... I've been a paid customer for years too. The Android app quality continues to decrease with every minor update. Too many features in there and not enough support for just simple cloud based note writing. I don't need all that extra junk, just reliable note saving and NO LOSS OF DATA. I hope the developers will hear our pain.

[Paul A. 681]

2 minutes ago, otterprods said:

Thanks @fcolina ... I've been a paid customer for years too. The Android app quality continues to decrease with every minor update. Too many features in there and not enough support for just simple cloud based note writing. I don't need all that extra junk, just reliable note saving and NO LOSS OF DATA. I hope the developers will hear our pain.

It seems they are only responsive to social media posts, particularly social media posts which get traction. Posting on Twitter/X seems to get attention, particularly if multiple people respond / engage with the complaint. Federico (the product owner/executive) is active there. He's @fedesimio over there.

[otterprods 10]

Thanks, I already reached out to some dev folks directly, through a different channel than this public facing user forum. But we should all make our voices heard howver we can. Posting on X about it sounds good to me.

[Paul A. 681]

6 minutes ago, otterprods said:

Thanks, I already reached out to some dev folks directly, through a different channel than this public facing user forum. But we should all make our voices heard howver we can. Posting on X about it sounds good to me.

Are you getting any engagement / acknowledgement that there are issues that need to be fixed with the Android app? First they have to realize there are significant issues. Then they have to actually allocate the development resources to fix them.

The text editor on Android has a number of issues as you highlighted in your first post. One of my most irritating bugs falls in this category and has been there for years and affects the billion+ phones running Gboard:

 

[otterprods 10]

When did Evernote get so sluggish and awful? Even for my paid account. Does anyone on the dev team care? I can't get through a few paragraphs of text right now... junk!

[andycrichards 1]

It's not just on Samsung Android, it's on a Sony mobile that is fast for everything else. Just testing that you can create a new note on this device would be a step forward, I can't currently do that unless I both have very good broadband connection and search for another note first. I shouldn't have to post on X to get that fixed. I am a long term user who steadfastly just wants the basic functionality to work at a reasonable speed and to be tested on every release. If necessary remove all the functionality added in the last 3 years to achieve that please.

[otterprods 10]

Or give us some other app to migrate all our notes away from Evernote. More data loss today, and other major problems. Why does no one on the product even care?

[PinkElephant 8,996]

No idea what other Android users experience, being myself on iOS.

It seems this thread here is just maintained by 2 or 3 individuals, which makes a widespread issue unlikely. It could be any combination of apps (in the past we had weird interaction with 3rd party keyboards, just as an example) that kills the experience.

[Jon/t 1,742]

I have a 3 year old Fairphone 4 and the Android experience has never been better. The app is faster than it ever has been and works as expected.

Yesterday I scanned a 25 page insurance document and it just worked. By the time I had finished saving it, turned around to my PC the note was inside my desktop Evernote. Super fast.

Could you have stuff on your phone that interferes? Tried an uninstall, log out and back in again?

 

[otterprods 10]

No but I probably should. Thanks for responding

[Paul A. 681]

On 9/23/2024 at 11:10 PM, Jon/t said:

I have a 3 year old Fairphone 4 and the Android experience has never been better. The app is faster than it ever has been and works as expected.

Yesterday I scanned a 25 page insurance document and it just worked. By the time I had finished saving it, turned around to my PC the note was inside my desktop Evernote. Super fast.

Could you have stuff on your phone that interferes? Tried an uninstall, log out and back in again?

 

Consider yourself fortunate. There are known bugs on Pixel and Samsung phones... Just yesterday on Reddit multiple people complaining about the Android app, but some chimed in and said they didn't experience those problems. Odd how experiences vary, but it comes down to a lack of focus on Quality and a lack of developer time allocated to tackling known bugs: