Why are App upgrades too frequent?

"If you don't pay attention for a while, there will be dozens of APP upgrade prompts on your mobile phone. Only a few of them can understand the logic of the upgrade. Others, I really don't know what changes the upgrade brings. Upgrading is like an endless task, and I am all under obsessive-compulsive disorder ." Mr. Li, a mobile phone user, told reporters.

He said that many applications are not significantly changed after the upgrade. For example, a recently upgraded reading software called "Improving the page flip experience" in the upgrade prompt ", however, in practice, it seems that there is no big difference with the usual.

The most common saying in the APP upgrade prompt is "fixing some bugs", but Mr. Li believes that the specific Bug is often unknown: "For example, I am using a social software, bugs have been fixed in multiple upgrades. Why are there so many bugs? Cannot a new version be released after one-time optimization? It is too troublesome for the user to fix only a small location at a time ." He said that there are still a large number of apps that do not even write any update prompts. Users are even deprived of their right to know about themselves and can only passively upgrade. Too frequent but relatively low-value upgrades sometimes lead to a decrease in the goodwill of an APP, or even an uninstallation.

The upgraded experience is uneven.

In principle, the upgrade will give users a better user experience, but this is not exactly the case.

Mr. Li believes that Sina Weibo's mobile client is a good example. In the latest version, it finally transplanted the "send multiple images" function on the PC, improve the fun of mobile phone sending. However, when watching "Forward" and "comment", there is an additional click step, which is not as clear as the previous version.

Even after the APP is upgraded, the user experience is sacrificed. For example, some video playing software often uses various open-source decoding devices at the beginning to make itself look like an omnipotent video application, accumulating a large number of users. However, with its reputation, developers will receive various decoding authorization payment letters from time to time. Developers will quietly cancel some decoding support because they do not want to pay the fees. This change is rarely mentioned in the upgrade instructions, the functions that can be implemented after the upgrade are inferior to those of the previous version.

Game applications have high requirements for matching with the latest hardware, and sometimes some user experience is sacrificed to adapt to the hardware. For example, when the Tegra3 processor was launched, the game "rapids speedboat" was able to have two more eye-catching stunt water splash shots on the device using the processor, and a new version was released. However, this version cannot be used by other devices equipped with Tegra2, so it is not well evaluated in the app store.

The concept of "agile development and frequent stacking" is caused

The reporter told APP developers that for some relatively mature APP production teams, the update frequency is usually about a month, and some apps will release an updated version every one or two weeks, especially on Android platforms, apps are updated more frequently than iOS apps.

Liang Huadong, content director of Fan Feng, told the it Times reporter that users often complain about frequent APP upgrades in APP Store forums. This is mainly because APP development and PC software development have different characteristics. Due to a more competitive environment, developers are required to quickly complete development and have a keen sense of smell to constantly cater to market needs, therefore, the concept of "Agile development and frequent stacking" in APP development is very obvious. Especially for Android applications, the development threshold is lower. Some apps can be completed within one or two weeks from project initiation to launch. Therefore, especially for small development teams with only a few people, limited to manpower, the strategy is to first make a basic available APP available and then optimize it step by step. The numbers after the serial numbers of many application versions are very long, and the update frequency is very high.

Chen Ming, tuding brand manager, said that some Android apps submitted the new version to the APP market after slight changes, because the review of the updated version is far less rigorous than the first release of the APP, it is usually very soon, but the application market often puts updated applications in a better recommendation position. In order to get a better impression, some apps may be updated frequently if not necessary, which puts a burden on users.