Re: Are Playstore app updates tested before release?

Jeff Layman, 2024-07-10 10:05:

I've been playing Solitaire Klondike ad free on my Xiaomi Redmi Note 10
for almost 3 years. It's an old app and there have been no updates until
today, when one came through (for compatibility with Android 13 IIRC).
I've been on 13 for some time, but thought it might be worth updating
the app in case other changes had been made. So against my better
judgement I installed the update.

[...]

I can't believe that this update was properly tested before release,
unless for some reason it's only my phone it doesn't like.

Apps can just be published without any test at all. Google only checks
for known malicious elements with automated tests and blocks apps which
are considedered to be harmful.

But testing with real devices and different Android versions is still
the responsibility of the publisher. You may just have bad luck since
Xiaomi also implements their own UI including changing the behaviour of
the graphics output (e.g. custom "dark mode" even for apps which do not
support that etc.). Maybe this causes some problems with that game.

You can report this to the publisher - maybe they will provide an update
to fix this. However if no one ever reports issues like this, they will
never get fixed.

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de