Why Monzo think Android app is on par with iOS

[cookywook (Richard Cook)]

Appreciate this a lot but fact is on Big List blog it still says Bring Android fully up to speed with iOS is done and tweets from Monzo still say feel like big odd.

I’ll take some responsibility for this, too. “Android = iOS” clearly isn’t a 100% accurate description of the situation, and we could have worded it differently. (We’re literally pushed to the character limit on the update tweets, but I’ll be more aware of it in future!)

[bentalbot]

Thank you for not just saying that the wording is fine like some others…

[mjlynch (Matt Lynch)]

I have an Android phone but use the Monzo app on my iPad at home so have seen both interfaces. The smooth way to switch between accounts within the app is so much better in iOS than Android. Surprised no one has mentioned this already. For this feature difference alone, there isn’t parity between the apps.

[coffeemadman (Jonathon 🏳️‍🌈)]

I’m not an Android user so it doesn’t massively affect me.

But isn’t it simple?

Question: “Can this feature be implemented on both platforms in the same manner?

Answer: Yes.

Result: Not parity

Answer: No.

Result: Parity (as far as possible)

If search is on iOS, then maybe just say “this can’t be done on Android” or, if it can, do it.

[CraigR]

I think our platforms are now at feature parity? Willing to stand corrected on this but excluding labs (bill splitting in particular) I’m struggling to think of something that isn’t on both platforms.

Are you winding us up?

[HughWells]

Are you winding us up?

Not at all - if you think there is something missing from one or the other I’d love to know so I can look into it

[CraigR]

if you think there is something missing from one or the other I’d love to know so I can look into it

As mentioned in this thread and others, from memory, all available in iOS and missing in Android:

• Search
• Sneak Peaks (from the Help tab)
• The Graph differences
• Bill Splitting lab

[Rat_au_van (Em)]

Android have better options on frequency of payments

[HughWells]

Bill Splitting lab

As I mentioned, I don’t think we should include labs given they are in there for testing The feature will gradually be supported across both platforms and then come out of labs.

Search

I think this is at parity? Sure, there are bugs on both of them and they work in different ways but I’d say they are broadly the same.

Sneak Peaks

That redirects to the forum if I remember correctly?

The Graph differences

Again, I think this is broadly the same on both platforms. What do you feel is different?

Android have better options on frequency of payments

Interesting - thanks! What options is iOS missing?

[Ganey]

Is the account switcher between personal and JA the same on both?

[Rat_au_van (Em)]

From what I’ve seen, Android can select a number of weeks etc, iOS can’t, it’s just every day, every week, every month or every year. Not good if you need quarterly or fortnightly options

Sneak peaks is a section of the app, not a link to the forum btw but with making Monzo it’s not really needed now, there’s more up to date info on that twitter

[CraigR]

As I mentioned, I don’t think we should include labs given they are in there for testing The feature will gradually be supported across both platforms and then come out of labs.

Fair enough

I think this is at parity? Sure, there are bugs on both of them and they work in different ways but I’d say they are broadly the same.

iOS have a whole toolbar UI with multiple filter options (category, people (?), amount greater than/less than, attachment, locations etc) whereas Android just has a plain text input.

That redirects to the forum if I remember correctly?

As I remember, iOS had a menu which showed the sneak peeks, separate to the community links. It was promised that this was “coming soon” to Android. Here’s the blog post: https://monzo.com/blog/2018/05/09/sneak-peeks/

Again, I think this is broadly the same on both platforms. What do you feel is different?

On iOS, I think there’s an information popup on the graph which shows the balance/spent at that particular point. This does not exist on Android. I don’t know if it’s just Android, but the graph annoyingly bounces/snaps when scrolling.

Also - there’s no widget for Android. I understand the iOS one is buggy, but at least one exists

[coffeemadman (Jonathon 🏳️‍🌈)]

I think this is at parity? Sure, there are bugs on both of them and they work in different ways but I’d say they are broadly the same

It might have changed since I used the Android app, but the search function on Android was far, FAR less powerful than iOS.

Merely having a “Search” bar does not make it equal or “parity”.

[HughWells]

Merely having a “Search” bar does not make it equal or “parity”.

iOS have a whole toolbar UI with multiple filter options (category, people (?), amount greater than/less than, attachment, locations etc) whereas Android just has a plain text input.

That’s a fair point - the iOS version does have it’s fair share of bugs however so these both may end up getting some love in future.

It was promised that this was “coming soon” to Android.

I believe this is on Android - it’s at the bottom of help

This does not exist on Android.

It doesn’t need to - the same information is displayed As you scroll back you’ll see the balance/spent today update.

I understand the iOS one is buggy

I don’t know when/if we would do an Android widget - I think widgets in general have become a lot less popular.

Android can select a number of weeks etc, iOS can’t, it’s just every day, every week, every month or every year.

These are the same options as on Android

[CraigR]

these both may end up getting some love in future.

“may” I would say Android search needs some love, no matter how buggy the iOS one is.

I believe this is on Android - it’s at the bottom of help

Just the link to the community section, yes. But not the built-in functionality as described in the blog post.

I don’t know when/if we would do an Android widget - I think widgets in general have become a lot less popular.

OK!

I don’t know when/if we would do an Android widget - I think widgets in general have become a lot less popular.

That’a a shame

[simonb]

Just wanted to chime in with some answers here.

Search on iOS is fairly broken. It’s buggy, gets stuff wrong, and needs a complete re-write. There’s no point us recreating a broken feature on Android. When we re-do Search, we’ll do it on both platforms.

Sneak Peeks, as it exists right now on iOS, can’t be recreated on Android in exactly the same way. Something to do with the tool we used to build it - I don’t know the details but the plan is to rebuilt it in a platform agnostic way. @naji may have some more info on this.

We’ve discussed this before but if we are going by the strictest definition of the term “parity” then it was probably the wrong term for us to use. We’ve put in a huge amount of work with The Big List project to bring the main things that people requested to Android, but the apps aren’t (and probably never will be) exactly the same.

I personally like that we have NFC activation on Android as well as granular notifications. Yes, the lack of these is a platform limitation of iOS but at least for the former, we still had to build it in.

[coffeemadman (Jonathon 🏳️‍🌈)]

Search on iOS is fairly broken. It’s buggy, gets stuff wrong, and needs a complete re-write. There’s no point us recreating a broken feature on Android. When we re-do Search, we’ll do it on both platforms

I think that explanation is sufficient for me, and I would agree.

Sneak Peeks, as it exists right now on iOS, can’t be recreated on Android in exactly the same way.

To me this is a case where you can say parity because it’s not something you have control over

[SC95]

Search

I think this is at parity? Sure, there are bugs on both of them and they work in different ways but I’d say they are broadly the same

Tell me you’re not serious or you have not looked at iOS app

[simonb]

Let’s try to avoid this conversation becoming circular, folks. There’s really not a huge amount to say that hasn’t been covered in the 89 posts above this one