Mobile App are Like a Box of Chocolate

Everyone knows the famous line from Forrest Gump

Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get

The same can be said for App Updates on your Mobile Device, except for the most popular apps (i.e. Facebook, some of the Twitter clients) there is very little documentation about what is changed in a new version.  Once you upgrade there is no going back.

The most common item listed in the What’s New section for any app “bug fixes”, no details.   Sometimes when I upgrade my mobile apps I am pleasantly surprised to find something fixed or a great new feature, just as often a feature I relied on changed or was removed.

How do you handle Mobile App upgrades? Do you check your devices App Store regularly for upgrades or do you wait and see?

I guess the same could be said for Gmail, Facebook, you name it………

5 Responses to Mobile App are Like a Box of Chocolate
  1. Harald Gaerttner
    November 23, 2011 | 9:29 am

    Checking on a regular base and updating … there is no choice anyway (more or less).

    Only thing is that on most (but not all) apps I check the provided information about the changes. Just to get an impression what to look for. If it just says “bugfixes” … well, I just have to believe it 😉

  2. Chris Reckling
    November 23, 2011 | 6:35 pm

    I don’t update unless I have to. I’ve gotten quite used to the little red number on the appstore icon. My recent foray into updating to Gingerbread over the air was a mess I finally fixed today (but I broke traveler in the meantime trying to create more space for the update).

    Chris

  3. Chris Whisonant
    December 1, 2011 | 2:40 pm

    I usually stay up to date on apps. Generally I will update the apps on my iPhone and see if there are any issues with it (especially if it’s one I use a lot, like Facebook or Tweetings). Many times Facebook has been known to remove the ability to view the feed by lists which I use. If they do that in a certain release, then I will make a copy of the non-updated app from my mac so that I can push the old version back to my iPhone. I haven’t had to do this often and if I update from iTunes first this may not work well. Though if you have a backup of your computer you have the older version of the apps. So I guess this is one benefit to having iTunes in the mix. 🙂 (Oh, and it debunks your no going back myth too – or is that just a droid limitation? :P)

    • Mitch Cohen
      December 1, 2011 | 4:03 pm

      You could always backup the APK or otherwise find a copy of it to install a previous version on Android

  4. Gili Nachum
    December 17, 2011 | 3:01 pm

    I sympathies with your dilemma.
    My rule is (Android user):
    – Turn off notification for updates – I rather see it only when I’m actively in the market app.
    – Update only big names apps: Google, Facebook.
    – Never bother updating any non critical app, unless I know it to be buggy.

    I got some ugly surprises following an update, like app crashing on load, or ads added.
    Android’s developer can update apps 300 times a day (unlike AppStore developer), so some of them release new versions without properly testing them (I’m an Android developer and I’ve sinned myself).