(Archived) What can we (the users) do to help the developers?

[scio 0]

Hi,

Like many on the forum, I am a pro user that is sorta unhappy with the state of the Android client. This is not in comparison with other EN versions, I just think this version could be better. Now I understand EN is closed source and for the most part that means the users are at the mercy of the developers to get added functionality to the respective versions of EN, but because of how much I want to use EN, and want to make it a bigger part of my online organization, I want to do everything I can to make this work for me.

So I ask this:

Is there anything at all that we, the users, can do to help the developers? I am talking about anything ranging from speeding up development releases with private beta tests with required reporting to narrowing down bug possibilities. I know you all have had much more time developing top notch apps in the Apple realm, but Android has always been about openness, and I feel like if there is anything I can do to help, besides becoming a pro member, I would be willing to try.

Thanks,

Rich

[engberg 89]

Thanks for the offer, and for the feedback.

I know that the last few months haven't really reflected it, but Android is actually one of our top company priorities right now. (Phil Libin said in a management meeting that it's our "#1 priority", but he gets to have more than one #1...)

This priority is obviously partially because we love you all, but it's also self-interested based on the rapid growth of the Android platform (and the opportunities to bundle Evernote directly on some phones). I've been carrying a Motorola Droid Milestone since they were released, so I share both your interest and your impatience.

That means we're interviewing constantly to staff up our Android team. It's very hard to find people with any relevant experience, unfortunately, and those who have experience are in high demand. (So I guess one answer to your question would be: "If you know any good Android developers, particularly in the SF Bay Area...")

We'll continue to ask for help in testing beta releases, and we appreciate reports of new bugs (with steps to reproduce, if at all possible).

Occasionally, the detailed information about problems can only be pulled out of the low-level logs on the Android, so we may ask for users to go above and beyond the call of duty by installing something like SendLog:

http://www.l6n.org/android/sendlog.shtml

to get us the logs. We'll usually save this for when there's a tricky problem, however.

Otherwise, I think that "patience" is probably the best thing we can ask of you right now. We think that Evernote on Android may be a bit frustrating at small time scales, but hope that it becomes fantastic at longer time scales...