Snap in openstore: not a big fan

pparent

Hello,

I just wanted to share that I'm not a big fan of snaps in the open-store, especially how it is currently done.

Most snap apps are not currently usable on a phone screen ( scaling problem, no OSK, no integration with contentHUB, no integration with URLdispatcher, interface designed exclusively for desktop, ect...)

I think it can be a bit confusing to list them for newcomers especially because:

Some snap apps, that are not usable at all on a phone screen, often get higher in the search results than some apps developed specifically for Ubuntu Touch, that have multiple positive reviews, and match completely the search terms. Sometimes there really are a lot of snap apps, I think this can mislead completely a newcomer to test a bunch of non-working snap apps, instead of testing working apps developed specifically for UT.
There is a mention of "Snap application" but this is a small text that does not allow to distinguish rapidly and visually.

Overall I think it makes things more messy and harder to find an app that works for your need. I think overall it might give to a newcomer the image of a mostly non-functional apps store.

Example:

You type "pdf" many snaps unusable on a phone are displayed before "Annotate" or "Document Viewer"
You type "Whatsapp" many snap unusable on a phone are displayed before "Whatsnew"

kugiigi

@pparent Yeah, some of us has raised this already. It's okay to have snaps in the OpenStore but it should be opt-in and the distinction should be more obvious.
It's good that you mentioned search too, it should prioritize click apps over snaps especially those that aren't webapps.

projectmoon

@kugiigi @pparent I think snaps should be turned on by default, but only ones verified to work properly with Ubuntu Touch. Then a setting to turn on showing results from all snaps, if user desires. Of course, this requires someone to go curate snaps.... So in the mean time, maybe changing how the results are displayed + opt-in setting is better.

kugiigi

@projectmoon That's the thing. I think this was implemented way too early. It's not ready. Sure if there's a way to know which ones work in UT, that would be better but that's not the case right now. Also, I don't think anything there actually works in UT with the keyboard. That should be the minimum requirement.

I think at the moment, it does more harm to the experience than be useful. Some snaps also install background processes and some users might try them then find out it's not working but forgets to uninstall them. There's a chance that background process would drain your battery unknowingly.

nbdynl

@kugiigi Atleast the next update will probably fix the apps being on top of clicks, unless it has more negative reviews.

but yea this probably needs a lot of mir2, osk and content-hub integration before it is any useful, wiith exception from a few apps.

777X

I agree.

I tried the LocalSend snap and while it worked pretty okay on my FP5 (managed to send photo's from it to my PC), it was a pain to use simply because the window and area is too damn small.

kugiigi

@777X Wait you got it working? I can't even install it now
Also sending from UT wasn't possible because the file picker won't show. I only was able to send to UT when I installed it some time ago

arubislander

@kugiigi said:

@pparent Yeah, some of us has raised this already.

Could find an issue so I created one. Feel free to pitch in.

777X

@kugiigi Yeah, I did and it actually worked!

well, worked.... I had to press really really precise.

nbdynl

@777X yea i am using localsend now and then, its a nice clean application if it works xD