The following is in the context of installable apps on mobile devices and personal computers.
There are essentially two types of updates I have observed that vendors keep on providing us hungry users with:
- Updates that enhance features in the app, or address critical issues, and come with a respectable description of the changes brought in.
- Updates that make no sense at all other than "Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements". That's it, this is all that is mentioned.
While it does make sense to provide feature enhancements and address issues, following are two queries I am looking for answers to:
How often should version updates be released? This applies especially when all that is being going to be mentioned is "Bug Fixes and Performance Improvements." In fact looking at so many updates with exactly the same statement also makes me wonder if the app developer(s) knew about these problems all along or were those bugs really new ones that the developers kept coming across.
Should developers indicate more than just Bug fixes and Performance Improvements in their updates? This "bugs" me a lot, especially also when I find no notable difference in the updated app as compared to the last one. Anyone else also feel the same?
My initial take on the above two points has to do not only with showing off one's tech prowess and addressing real issues, but also to consider overall user experience while providing any updates. While "bugs" must definitely be squashed and gotten rid of, should not the user be made more aware of what was fixed and how would it help enrich the user's experience?
Below are images of WhatsApp providing frequent updates with the same static description. I use WhatsApp way too much, and like it too, and am not trying to target this app, but this struck me as a perfect example to highlight the point I am trying to make.
Apart from just being an annoyance, I really do not know if I should keep on upgrading these kind of apps and add to the SSD/Flash Drive Write Cycles. So, are SSD write cycles relevant these days?
Then again, are there any industry best practices which state the order and manner in which bug fixes should be rolled out, in case there are more number of bugs that can be handled per given time frame?
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