No, I’m not asking which YOU prefer, just trying to see if my general perception is correct…
Do Monzo build for Android first?
Most of the sneak peeks (the business CASS one prompted this post) seem to suggest they do, with Android releases and builds featured more heavily than iOS.
If so, why? Because it’s easier to build for?
And the real kicker, what is the actual split of devices (only Monzo can tell us this)?
I think they answered this somewhere before.
Basically, due to holidays and such, IOS/Andriod teams fall out of sync then other things take priority.
Sole iOS accounts seem to generally get features first. Although it’s become more balanced over the last year or so between the OS’s since Monzo claimed to reach iOS/Android parity.
My gut instinct is that there isn’t a preferred OS - I’ve seen some things (custom pot images) which are fan favourites come out on iOS and some more “functional” things come out on Android.
I personally don’t see the preferred nature of it as it comes out on iOS when it comes out on iOS 
without having both I’m not sure I’d really pick up on the nuances.
Yeah I’ve searched the forums and spotted a few bits and bobs but nothing conclusive.
I’ll try and find it later 
It’s basically what I said above, plus some are “Monzo time” projects that then don’t get built for the other platform (EG pot history)
Not looking at the parity issue here, more if there is a reason why certain features appear on one OS rather than the other.
Doesn’t feel sustainable and hence the ‘which has more users’ question comes into play 
Yeah, don’t start me on ‘Monzo time’! (a great idea for little add things, not actual features surely… ohh there I go, I’ve started…)
Not sure if this was in reply to my comment but I wasn’t trying to mention parity, more I think things get developed and when the things are ready they are deployed - I don’t think it is an internal decision to say “Android will get this feature first with iOS receiving it X days later”.
It does seem that Android is more malleable (I have no idea how the OSs work) but iOS for the most part seem set in the ways in which you are able to provide updates and deploy new features whereas Android doesn’t.
Yeah definitely know that Android is easier to release updates for, but I think that falls into ‘just because you can’…
Sure build a new feature for both OS, but you don’t have to release until it’s ready for both?
Looking at the Custom Notifications thread as an example though, that level of granularity isn’t available on iOS. Why not? Because it can’t be or because it’s just never been developed?
Feels a bit lacking in control/management is where I’m going with all this, I love Monzo but this is the downside of Agile development for an ‘established’ product, particularly one with a vibrant community forum where we can dissect all this. Nothing against Agile but could maybe do with some polish on the release mechanisms?
There is some good information about how the developers work in the below Q&A:
Here is the first reply, and if you go into the topic he goes into more detail with some subsequent ones 
Hmmm I definitely see where you are coming from but at this stage for Monzo I think waiting to deploy until both OSs are lined up would be more of a hindrance IMO.
Allowing one group to test, review, feedback etc can in effect help the other if it isn’t near deployment yet. Granted I know nothing about this stuff and it goes WAYYY over my head so not sure if this is actually possible in practice.
But one of the things I do see a lot of positive feedback on is the time it takes Monzo to update, iterate etc. This would surely be affected if you needed to wait for both to be ready.
It seems harsh to make an OS wait because the other is having issues - I’d personally rather the product comes out when it is ready for the OS I’m not on if it is ready for that OS.
Pretty sure I recall reading somewhere that the nature of release cycles for the respective app stores also has an effect on which one comes first.
Custom Notifications is an example where we have it on Android and not on iOS. Automatically categorizing all spend abroad as expenses or holiday is something that you have on iOS and not on Android. That one drives me insane and there seems to be zero plan to resolve it.
Ultimately - it’s not even, and perhaps that’s a bad thing. I know going forward all the main features are released on both platforms and I think it’s okay they’re released at slightly different times. They’re only ever a few weeks apart at most it seems.
So they should hold back good stuff from everyone because not everyone can have it yet?
There’s no real answer for this, sometimes features get built for iOS first, sometimes they get built for Android first.
Broadly, by the time the public gets a feature widely deployed, it should be at parity. Anything not at parity is an oversight, a platform specific feature, or was due to historical reasons.
Occasionally, things will go to Labs on one platform a week before the other. This will be down to release train timing, super early experimentation, or last minute bugs more than anything intentionally against the other platform. 
Gosh, what? And have parity for all users? That sounds terrible.
OK, so lets say I agree with this, are you saying that the majority of users would:
a. KNOW about a new feature (the % of Monzo customers on this forum is very small)
b. be annoyed at waiting a week or two for the next release?
Almost every other app I use releases now and then, some do it regularly (fornightly or monthly) and I just don’t see this as being an issue.
Or are you that bothered that you’d be up in arms at waiting for a couple of weeks for something?
A nice aim for sure. The parity wiki page suggest otherwise though. And I don’t see any mention of restoring parity anywhere so is this only going to grow?
That makes sense but those release cycles are known (even if they vary slightly), could be factored in?
At the very least.
New release with feature X can be announced for both platforms, and arrives in the next app store update, surely?
It doesn’t work on iOS. At least, not for everyone, every time.