iOS in Xojo is in the process of moving in the direction where Android is moving in their development. The move from iOS to Mobile classes was a huge work, which delayed things.
Let’s wait for r2, which may fix a lot of bugs.
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It’s been years since we have been getting this “previews”, all they accomplish is raise the expectation that something is comming out soon and it doesn’t, repeate that year after year.
Isn’t this how things have happened in pretty much every release they have done in recent years? It’s Xojo’s job to prove us wrong not the other way around.
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In keeping with an analogy in another part of the thread, I see the first Android release as a welcome “baby step”.
While it may not be as feature rich or bug free as we like, it will get it to where more people can try things and reports bugs or help prioritize what features get implemented sooner rather than later (by virtue of the point system in feedback).
So I for one am glad to see more progress on this front as it suggests to me that things are moving along. It is hard to have the next release until the first release is released.
We all have our pet peeves and priorities. But isn’t that what the point system is designed to do to help us raise our collective voices?
I’m still doing almost all my mobile work in other tools, but I’d love to eventually do new mobile projects in Xojo and ultimately transition some existing projects where I can leverage existing Xojo code from desktop projects and maintain that code in one place.
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feature rich
my demands
direct qr / barcode reader and fast camera shots without os between.
gps / location.
support for android 8.x+
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Xojo Inc. is a small team, but last time I looked in Feedback, Android was request #1.
And they put quite a lot of resources into that one. Impressive engagement.
The first version will be limited in scope to get it out the door. But once that is done, I expect iOS and Android to get developed forwards together.
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It is all about expectations and the needs. Most likely it is often the “best” to use native tools for whatever you are doing. Big problem, you need to learn the technology or you have to hire or buy the knowledge.
For mobile, you can almost forget it in a business context until Android is on the market, as many decision-makers and / or their users might use it. And a decision-maker using Android will probably not even think about investing any money into iOS, even if all of the employees are on iOS ;-). So for me, even if Android will not be full of features at the beginning, it is the prerequisite to even start thinking about “selling” mobile solutions. But those solutions will anyways only be kind of mobile add-ons for web or desktop apps. So I for instance will already be happy if I have rudimentary features on it.
Rudimentary features kills any project, basic features are acceptable. Using the camera and decoding “bar codes / QR” are basic for years now. Printing “Hello World” on screen is rudimentary but just make people to find another solution instead.
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Well, OK, but for the project I have in mind, I personally don’t need either of these.
A limited feature set might get me over the line if the price is low enough.
But if it arrives with 5 working controls AND a silly price, I wont bother.
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The market don’t care about what ONE person wants. The market is the collective feeling of a large group of people analyzing and comparing options, and then creating discrimination and labels like “this is toy language” if not cautiously designed and executed.
True, but it is still up to individual business requirements what is rudimentary and what not.
True, and one would think that this is basic in any factory. Not so much in Germany, where often any device with a camera is forbidden in a production plant it they are using proprietary hardware or mobile devices under MDM tools, where I doubt you will get something Xojo-ish installed on it :-). For instance, I would not have a single customer who needs QR or camera features, but of course, others have. But you need to start somewhere.
True, and those are either gone, masochistic, or didn’t have a big need for Android (like me). But for those thinking of complimentary add-on apps for mobile for their main product, it comes in handy if they can do that with Xojo w/o learning something completely new. That was always my thoughts when we first learned that Xojo wants to go for iOS, Android. I never expected it to be “as good” as the native development tools, but good enough to get a few add-ons realized. iOS surprised me, as a few have realized some pretty decent apps.
Let me put it differently, I have no need (nor a real interest) to learn Kotlin and Android Studio. It will no pay my bills, nor do I need a private app on the Google Store. But if I can re-use knowledge and code from Xojo, why not giving it a try?
Does it come late? Not at all, it comes very late and the biggest issue for me is that the features available on iOS and Android will be far too different. Because with my customers, mobile needs both iOS and Android. Only offering iOS will not make my business partners happy and vice-versa. I have evidence for that when I developed a few apps with Swift: everyone moaning (but not willing to pay much, apps are free, aren’t they?) that Android is missing.
I could reply explaining further your PR discourse Jeannot, but would go deeper into details that won’t help Xojo, so I’ll refrain. Today, no one needs to learn multiple languages and tools as you say to achieve much, much, much more than a rudimentary tool with a rudimentary library could. So, I insist, be basic, not rudimentary.
f you have a contract (or something to do right now), you will not wait, but take a released tool to do the work.
And when Android will be released, you will take the right tool for the job you have to release.
Everything else is just guessng (or betting) on what the future can be.
Xojo bet is they will sold copies of Mobile to people.
Only time will tell what the market will do.
After August, the AAB bundles will substitute APK Packages as the file format for the apps.
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So, months later… any progress?
It’s number one on the roadmap… oh no sorry it was bumped down to number five a short time after that blog post was written…
I think we can safely say Android has come with significant challenges they weren’t expecting…
You missed the newsletter where they announced that things are coming to end soon.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see an Android beta below the Christmas tree.
I found the newsletter:
As we announced last month, Android is feature complete and currently in internal testing. We can’t wait to get it in your hands, stay tuned for an announcement very soon when it goes into pre-release testing!
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As we state in the big warning box on the Roadmap, the Roadmap indicates the order in which we expect things to be released. Just because some items were ready (and moved up on the list) before Android does not mean that Android was off schedule.
I mentioned last month that Android was feature complete and we have been doing internal testing and fixing bugs. I think you can expect a pre-release of it soon 
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I can’t wait to be able to see and use it!
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For my business, I require iOS, Android, and Web.
The possibility of handling a single code is urgent for me. That is why I am betting on XOJO for my business.
I see that there is a lot of expectation in the launch of XOJO Android. Some people do not see it with good eyes, as they have expressed in this forum.
I very much agree with what Douglas Handy writes.
I can’t wait to be able to see and use it!
XOJO Android will be very welcome!
I hope it supports large formats as well, as Tablets and Chromebooks, beyond Phones. ChromeOS Android apps are essentially a landscaped Android app, windowed, and able to be resized live. Probably we won’t see this at 1.0. If I do recall correctly, they have set expectations for phones in this first release.