iOS and Android feature parity please

[Pythagoras]

Why launch features on iOS and Android separately? Each time it happens Monzo have to explain why (see twitter today), and it’s slightly jarring when your platform doesn’t get the feature at launch.

[16bitkieran (Kieran)]

I’d say it’s better to release when a feature is ready, rather than make one platform wait a few weeks until the other is ready. It swings in roundabouts too, sometimes Android will get it first. Android got the account tab and iOS hasn’t. ​

[217698]

Google Pay is another good example, but I appreciate it can be frustrating.

[Marky_S]

Agreed - Since the big list was released back last year, some features come to iOS and Android at different times. It does feel that this is fairly balanced.

When you consider iOS currently has custom images on pots, but (some) Android users have the new account layout. It’s my view that the balance between features on different platforms seem fair enough to me.

[gmclean]

Or just have two BIG lists? One per platform, same items just in the ‘delivery’ order?

[Pythagoras]

I do understand that they eventually reach parity (or seem to).

I’m suggesting that the experience of ‘here’s a new feature but you don’t have it yet, and we can’t say exactly when you’ll get it’ is actually a negative experience that’s avoidable through parallel releases.

I offer no data in support of this argument!

[awjdean]

I can definitely see why people would get frustrated by features coming to one OS before another.

However, there could be development benefits of releasing one feature on iOS first wholeness another is being released on Android first.

For example:

• It could reduce time spent waiting around it issues are found in the backend (ie: if issues are found, then only either the iOS or the Android team aren’t held up).

• For design changes (eg: the new Account tab on Android) - staggering releases allows Monzo to figure out what works well and what doesn’t so, when the new Account tab is being built from scratch for iOS, the iOS devs don’t spend time building stuff which didn’t work so well the first time.

• It helps Monzo to see if the feature scales up well to its entire customer base.

Overall, I think staggering feature release could lead to faster development in the long term.

[gmclean]

Fine.

Add in some transparency around those decisions and I’d buy that line of thinking.

But without knowing, it’s all comes down to … “”

[Ordog]

There is a lengthy discussion on parity between each OS here:

Android-iOS Parity Wiki

I thought it would be good to have a place to keep a note of the differences between the iOS and Android versions of the Monzo app. This topic is a wiki so others should be able to edit this post to say if a feature has been added to or is already on either platform. Any other differences not included in this post can also be added. Bugs on either OS should be added to the Bug Reports category instead of this post. Features still in Monzo Labs are not included. Not on Android (but …

Add these to the list

[Eden]

@16bitkieran

I’d say it’s better to release when a feature is ready, rather than make one platform wait a few weeks until the other is ready.

I disagree a little. Monzo are in a habit of releasing features quickly so they can say they have them (I presume). The problem is they often are not quite usable by everyone or don’t quite work right.

If they spent time getting the features right and working correctly for everyone then they could build the release time on both platforms into that.

But they don’t. At least not for now.

[Bradley]

Not to mention the fact that the Android transaction search is way behind iOS

[jonnyuk (Jonny Wilson)]

It would be nice to habe a common core in the solution and then an iOS and Android project on a higher level then - hopefully - a change in one can be rolled out in both.

[gmclean]

Swift for Android: Our Experience and Tools

It is possible to code for both…