Submitted 20 hours ago by kennedy@lemmy.dbzer0.com to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/pictrs/image/b3bc09d2-8217-4c1c-9c87-29e5b804468d.webp
why do i need to update the app so i can see changes. Whats the point of a change log then? I have auto updates off cause it a hassle to revert back to an earlier version if I dont like the changes. I know for a fact the ig update is for their new stupid map feature and AI shit. I will not update unless it stops working completely. Is it so hard to say what specific bug was fixed and what exactly do you mean by performance.
Patch notes:
OMG, thank you! Until now I thought I was the only person to be fucking annoyed by this shit.
We are here. Dozens of us!
The meal planning app that I use got bought out by Samsung and they did this. Put a load of ads in and then advertised a “+” version that got rid of ads. The ads were just advertising the “+” feature. 12 months later they said they were going to remove the ads for everyone.
Hey, Chime? You can work on your creative writing when the changelog is done.
Also, it seems to have been written by an arrogant 19 year old. Everyone knows what a cornucopia is.
Almost sounds like ai slop changelog lol
I find it deeply offensive that an app could suggest I may not know the word “cornucopia.” I wouldn’t give a shit if it was the only app I could use to pay my bills; if it at any point suggested that I didn’t know a word as common as “cornucopia,” I would delete it immediately, leave a 0 star review, and post the offense to a community like this.
And just to be clear, the bar for how uncommon a word would have to be in order for it not be offensive is way higher than cornu-fucking-copia.
“Terpsichorean.” That’s a word I wouldn’t be offended if they thought I didn’t know it. Or maybe “legerdemain.” I know both of those words, but I wouldn’t be offended if an app assumed I didn’t.
That was the most upsetting of all of the examples. How condescening (GoOgLe iT). What an ass.
Even Google does the same with almost every app like Maps, Files, Chrome.
Who the hell uses Google Files for anything but a bad file picker?
People who use defaults, what do you mean?
That’s an example I gave. I use Solid Explorer.
Google does a lot of A/B testing, so listing new changes may be pointless as the new features may be available only to select few.
Also developers have no incentive to document changes. It’s a hassle to compile a list of changes since last release, and people don’t read the Changelog for every release, especially with auto updates on.
I’d be great if they could at least use an LLM to compile the Changelog
You dont need an llm, and it doesn’t need to be a developer. Devs are more than capable of writing down words that a human can understand, and if the project is big there will be a manager who has the context to provide a short summary.
However all of that requires company effort.
This sort of shit ought to be banned.
“We’re updating the segmentation logic of our A/B test infrastructure to downgrade its respect for the CloudFlare score when deciding whether or not to mark a session as coming from a bot. This was skewing the data on several of our start screen UI experiments, particularly within APAC data.”
Sometimes, you really don’t want to hear it ;D
Actually, I do. But more importantly, I should have the option
We made our interface SUCK! Can you change it back? NO!
FUCK YOU
We improved our tracking algorithms to more accurately monitor your every move.
We found an unpatched microphone exploit that let’s us listen in on all of your conversations.
Ahow many updates receives an app, is now considered a “good” metric somehow now. So now if dependabot pushes a PR, it’s a new release on the app stores (of course without testing)
The algorithms on the app stores now consider the app “active” and push the app “up” in ranking
There was a certain billionaire bragging about his app getting 3 vibe-coded updates a day while the competition “only” got 3 a week
So, they can’t write a real change log. What can they write? “Dependabot updated leftpad from 1.1.3.2 to 1.1.3.3” “untested: updated Gradle from 8.14.2 to 8.14.3” “200mb update to change a comma in the Hungarian translation”
just trust us bro, no spyware in here, bro.
For apps with generic update messages that also have source control and changelogs available: check to see how often the updates are just a manifest version bump and nothing more. Way greater than zero.
Most version revs for apps are just to reset review count and bury negative reviews with “review of an older version”.
It’s all gamification of walled gardens. Walled gardens that need to die.
Is that an iOS thing? On Android versions don’t reset reviews, and there is no “review of older version” message.
I would rather no change log than the LLM generated fall thing… that was a waste of time to read.
I 100% agree that proper changelog should be provided, but to defend devs a litte, the play store changelog character limit makes it almost useless for anything but very small changes.
Though doing funny haha in the changelog is so dumb, they should be like “this changelog field can’t handle the changes, please see the changelog inside the app”
Could the Play Store changelog contain a link to the official changelog then?
please see the changelog inside the app
Is the hope that, after updating and checking the changelog and deciding that updating is NOT for you because of some idiotic breaking-change, you just hop in the time machine and prevent yourself from updating ?
I mean, realistically it’s not possible to keep using an older version anyway. After a month or two it might stop working due to backend changes, unless it’s truly an offline app like a calculator, then maybe it will only break after a longer period.
So your choice is update or uninstall.
“We are hard at work making discord work better for you”
While being completely locked away inside proprietary app.
“performance improvements and bug fixes”
… which is also almost verbatim what it says at the bottom of the “good” example…
chime: a PM asked an AI to write this after the only dev that knew how to do this quit
Discord: The PM was frustrated with the devs not summarizing this release crap that no one cares about anyway and hid it behind a link ah that’s so much cleaner now.
Instagram: fuck you
Modern mobile app development almost always releases features gradually behind feature flags, so changelogging things is not necessarily practical to do.
Why not? Put “added feature XY, staged rollout in the coming X days” in the changelog.
Certainly better to know that there is a new feature and you might get it now or some time later, than some nonsense like “nothing says fall like financial progress”
Well, you might be inclined to not roll the feature out at all, depending on the results you see from the rollout/an A/B-test. Also, having it written out with a date in the changelog binds you to that date, unless you want the embarrassment of not shipping on a promised time. Maintaining a changelog for very large app development organizations is also a pretty damn hard task, trying to coordinate whatever all teams are releasing in a particular build.
I agree that getting cute with the changelog messages is a bit stale. Might as well not add anything at that point.
changelogs should be legally mandated on app stores
“Mariah thawing”
That’s grim
She needs to be defrosted from her summer stasis in time to sing about Christmas.
Though in all seriousness, it’s sad to think that enough people saw that AI slop of an update summary and thought, “Yep, that sounds better than anything I could’ve come up with.”
I think a lot of times they don’t want you to know what’s been updated. For instance, pointing out all the bugs you’re fixing might make your app look like it’s always full of bugs. Or the security fix might draw attention to issues that exist for currently outdated apps.
Not saying it’s a good reason, but maybe that’s their thought process.
A developer here, I usually list user - facing changes in the Changelog.
Even if the changes are not listed, general “bug fixes and performance improvements” is a worthwhile update too. These updates can contain fixes to annoying UX glitches, or really speed up the app, if a new faster API endpoint was added to the backend, and app change is needed to make use of it. You will also get security updates, to the app and its bundled libraries which is important nowadays.
Youtube also does this. Basically it says "To see list of changes, look in the app guide" or something like that; no morons, I want to know what you changed BEFORE updating.
Isn’t Chime a predatory lending app?
i dont know if they do lending but the banking side of it is convenient enough. I use it to send/recieve money to my parents cash app is too complicated for them, i dont use it as my bank account.
This happens when the developers are incompetent. The app should probably be avoided as the people making it have no clue what they are doing.
Because there a very strict character limit on the Google Play store side for update messages. So if it’s a bigger update, all I can do is put a summary of the changelog there.
It least Instagram straight up doesn't give a changelog, rather than letting you read dumb exposition that tells you nothing. (Thats still crap tho)
That sucks
I just want the changelog…
I am sure you can automate that in your ci cd thingy
Also happens with some apps on fdroid. “Update available” - click to see, nothing there
I asked this on the Motorola sub when i first got my phone and no one gives a shit.
The changelog was always something like “various bugfixes and stability updates”. removed, what did you do?
Hey I think your instance censored your post in case that’s unpalatable to ya
(Prob was a word I personally never use heh but the removal is grating anyways, oddly enough)
I know and it’s annoying that I can’t say female dog
balance8873@lemmy.myserv.one 48 minutes ago
The obvious answer is there’s no human at the helm recording changes, it’s just the next build. You’ll take it and you’ll like it.