Re: Are Playstore app updates tested before release?

On 11/07/2024 22:29, Andrew wrote:

Jeff Layman wrote on Thu, 11 Jul 2024 18:58:14 +0100 :
 

A search at the Play Store on "solitaire klondike"
>
https://play.google.com/store/search?q=solitaire%20klondike&c=apps
>
finds several apps with those words in the app name.  You didn't give
the URL to the app in Google's Play Store for anyone else to know which
one you are discussing.

>
There are very few ad-free. The one I was referring to is:
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.potatojam.classic.solitaire.klondike>

 Hi Jeff,
 I never play games (so I don't know much about them) but I was surprised
you assessed the number of ad-free solitaire games on Android as "very
few", as I would have thought there were very many, not very few.

I am not a "gamer" as such. I just like to have a few simple logic games to play (such as Simon Tatham's excellent collection) when waiting around.

So I ran a search and found there are at least 324 apps with that in the
name which are also free, ad free, and in-app purchase free.
 Take a look at my results run for this post, as shown in this screenshot.
  <https://i.postimg.cc/CL0CYF32/solitaire01.jpg> 324 free/ad-free apps
 What did I do wrong (given that over 300 similar apps seems like a lot)?

You used App Finder, rather than just use the Play Store search, which is what I did on my cellphone. What is interesting about the Play Store search is that even if you use "solitaire klondike free no ads" or similar wording you get lots of results. It's only when you look at the one and two star reviews you find they're *not* ad free at all! For example, you'll find many reviews complaining that the incidence of ads for that app have increased with the latest update. To do that, though, you'll have to look at "all reviews", and change from "relevance" to "most recent".
What is really strange is if you look at <https://play.google.com/store/search?q=solitaire+no+ads+free+offline&c=apps> in your PC's browser (I've no idea what a cellphone browser shows), you'll find only four hits. Now change the search to <https://play.google.com/store/search?q=solitaire%20klondike%20no%20ads%20free%20offline&c=apps>. In other words add another limitation by using "klondike" as a required search term. Mysteriously, you'll now find 30 hits!

BTW, the number two app, ranked by the default sort, was the one you're
using by "Potato Jam" so you picked a good app it seems.

Yes, I've always appreciated its simple interface. What I don't like is the way that it automatically hides the android system buttons even when working correctly, and I've not found a way (other than by using the app's menu) to get them back.
The F-Droid alternative I've installed has a few more solitaire games, including "Freecell" which I first played on a Windows NT4 PC around 30 years ago!
--
Jeff