We’re on a Road to Somewhere—An Android App!

There are all sorts of universal truisms in life: the lure of the cold side of the pillow, the joy of an empty airplane row, the need to release your product’s app on both the iOS and Android platforms. On this last point, Tracker has succeeded at the iOS half of the equation, but lagged behind on the Android front. No longer! We’ve heard (and sympathized with) you, Android users, and we’re pleased to finally release our Android Alpha into the Google Play wild.

It’s finally here!

Given that we’re all software pals here, we don’t need to belabor what it means to release an alpha version. Having said that, it’s important to stress the limited nature of the features that are available now.

Here’s what you can do with the Tracker Android Alpha:

• Respond to notifications—Use the side menu when you click the hamburger, the notification screen, and when you tap a notification.
• Interact with story details—Once you have a notification, you can interact with the story details to add tasks and comments, upload attachments, and edit labels, owners, requester, and description.
• Tap a link in an email and open it in the Android app.
• Sign in using either your Google or Tracker account.

Why an alpha?

Why release an app that is partially done? It might seem weird to release an app that gives you access to view photos of pretty meals and cats, for example, but doesn’t allow you to post your own; at the same time, the ability to view images still provides some value. So while we could’ve waited until we had a more robust app to offer, we opted instead to release this limited-feature alpha now so that we could provide some benefits to our users, as well as better implement your feedback into the future releases.

Where do we go from here?

Speaking of future releases, if you look at the screenshot from our actual Android backlog, you can get a better idea of where we are now in the process and the way we’ve used epics to structure the product roadmap. As you can see, we hope the upcoming versions will include project view, the ability to add stories, fuller navigation and notifications, and much more.

We’re eager to hear your feedback, both about what this alpha contains, and what you’d like to see in the future. We’re quite aware that this is just a start, but because people use their phones primarily for quick responses to notifications, we consider it a good one. As you get familiar with the app, please email us with your feedback.