Do not show new features screen if there are no new features

corona-warn-app / cwa-wishlist

Central repository to collect community feature requests and improvements. The CWA development ends on May 31, 2023. You still can warn other users until April 30, 2023. More information:

https://coronawarn.app/en/faq/#ramp_down

Apache License 2.0

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Do not show new features screen if there are no new features #842

Closed Ein-Tim closed 1 year ago

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

Current Implementation

Currently it is implemented that the "New Features" splash screen after a minor app update is shown, although the release does not contain any new features but only bug fixes (see e.g. https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/pull/4707).

Suggested Enhancement

Do not show the new features screen if there are no new features in an app release.

Expected Benefits

From a users perspective, showing a screen which tells me that nothing has changed does not have any value. It is not a helpful information and I can't do anything with the information that bugs have been fixed.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

@dsarkar / @larswmh

As this item is relevant for version 2.26, please mirror it to JIRA soon.

MikeMcC399 commented 1 year ago

@Ein-Tim

There is a merged Android PR https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/pull/5353 related to this request.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

@MikeMcC399 This PR is good, as it prevents the splash screen being shown if I update from 2.24.1 to 2.24.2. However, I was talking about the fact that I will see a splash screen when updating form version 2.25.0 to 2.26.0 with the information that nothing has changed. This does not make sense.

MikeMcC399 commented 1 year ago

@Ein-Tim

Sorry that I misunderstood your request.

You're referring to the (currently unmerged) iOS PR https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/pull/4707

iOS New Features 2.26.x

Is there an equivalent PR for Android? I could not find one.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

Is there an equivalent PR for Android? I could not find one.

I don't think so. At least it is not included in https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-android/releases/tag/v2.26.0-rc.0.

MikeMcC399 commented 1 year ago

@Ein-Tim

I would be fine if Android implemented the same message as the pending iOS PR (https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/pull/4707) if there are no new features.

In the past, new releases have always had new features, so if there is a release with no new feature I think that the app should say so instead of staying silent.

I realise there are different views on this: Some people would like no information at all. You would like an information screen only if there are new features. I would like an information screen for every minor version release (not patch release) whether or not there are new features.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

In the past, new releases have always had new features, so if there is a release with no new feature I think that the app should say so instead of staying silent.

Interesting. Could you explain why you'd like this information? How do you benefit from the information that nothing has changed?

MikeMcC399 commented 1 year ago

@Ein-Tim

This is just my personal preference. It also corresponds to the Project Office decision, as you will know from https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-app-ios/pull/4707#issuecomment-1203817217.

It will be interesting to hear if there are other opinions about this.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

@MikeMcC399 Okay, understood! :)

I will feel free and ping a few other community members to see what they think: @fynngodau, @ndegendogo, @vaubaehn what do you think?

ndegendogo commented 1 year ago

I am a software developer. I am aware that every new version can bring changes / improvements / bugfixes / or, if I am unlucky, it can even introduce new bugs 👹👹

So I don't mind seeing a splash screen for a new release, even when there are no new features. Actually, I would remove the last sentence if the menu "New functions" is empty.

Especially when I am suffering from a bug and waiting for a fix that is promised for the next version, then this splash screen has definitively a value for me.

Note that a non-developer user might see this differently and might indeed be confused.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

@ndegendogo

Thanks for your input!

@GisoSchroederSAP Who is responsible to mirror issues to JIRA in August? Will this be done by you or someone from SAP/TSI?

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

Ok, seems like this won't be considered. Closing

GisoSchroederSAP commented 1 year ago

Thanks for the discussion here, folks. We also had an internal evaluation whether or not to show the screen. The simple explanation is: Whenever we bring a new release, that is for a reason - something changed: be it a new function or a bug fix, or just a change in text or UI. To stay with good old practice of documentation, we allow ouselves to document the background of every new release.

Is it crucial for the users? Probably not. As we see in the discussion above, there are pro's and con's
Is it crucial for placing the CWA on the market? Probably not, if no new functions can be offered.
Are there legal, compliance or political requirements forcing us to bring up this "new features" screen? Not of my knowledge, it is just a decision made by our team to stay transparent.

So, instead of going to implement a conditional screen, we just go forward with the screen either documenting new features, give a brief statement about bugfixes or changes.

Ein-Tim commented 1 year ago

@GisoSchroederSAP

Thank you for the clarification!

Joke here

> To stay with good old practice of documentation, we allow ouselves to document the background of every new release. I guess that's also why the documentation repo is absolutely up to date, right? SCNR 😉