A common reason to switch to Ubuntu Touch is to become less dependent on Google. On vivid, Dekko is a decent email client that can handle different email providers. Sadly, the app doesn't work on xenial and the developer @DanChapman has indicated that is is challenging (to say the least) to port Dekko to 16.04. Make no mistake here about my esteem for Dan, he has done, and as I understand it continue to make great things for the UT platform.

My goal with this thread is to make a call for a working xenial email client, which I think should be a core app (Dekko or something else). Being such an essential feature on a modern smartphone, I think a native email core app is necessary for UT and UBports to gain traction outside of a small group of enthusiasts.

Thanks to Rudi Timmermans and his Gmail app, I am able to use xenial as a daily driver. I am annoyed by Google, as are many people in this community, but for the time being Gmail (or google apps email) is my only option if I want to read emails on my UT phone.

I am not a developer myself, but I try to help out as much as I can testing things and filing bugs where appropriate. I would really like more people to chime in on this request and enable UT users to break free from Google as much as possible if they like.

All the devs that are working so hard to make Ubuntu Touch such a great mobile OS have my full respect and I understand that moving to 16.04 must be the number 1 priority right now. But, pretty please (with sugar on top), could we gather some clever brains to bring Dekko or some other general email app to Ubuntu Touch!?

@unisuperbox
I have a few questions:

1. It is getting longer between the 16.04 devel updates (at least on Turbo). Also, the Backlog Milestones are not seeing much action. Is it not just updated or are development resources used elsewhere?
2. When can we expect a new test version of Anbox? @mariogrip mentioned on the last Q&A that he has a new version with working mobile connectivity.
3. Developer interest to recompile apps for xenial seems limited at the moment. What kind of signals do you get from the dev community on this? Is it too difficult? Aren't there enough devs with xenial phones to test their apps? Other reasons?
4. I know there are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that we normal users can't see, but sometimes it is difficult to not get the impression that development has stalled somewhat. That is especially true when there is little or no action on Github and no devel updates for 16.04 for a while. Is this a matter of lack of resources to update forums, Telegram etc or just the fact that development is actually moving slower at times?
5. There was also talk about a new webbrowser app for xenial on the last Q&A, what is the status on this?

What are the future milestones of UBports? Have you moved the milestones from Github (empty since OTA-8) or aren't there any?

During the last Q&A, a question about how work is progressing with bluetooth was raised just at the end of the session, and it was therefore not addressed before the Q&A ended. The person asking said bluetooth issues appear to affect all devices in some way or another, so it should be rather critical for UBPorts and Ubuntu Touch.

I also want to know if there is any work done to improve bluetooth functionality, because as it stands now it is nearly unusable in Ubuntu Touch. If I am lucky, I can play music through bluetooth speakers (often with considerable stutter), and that is about it. Phone calls, Pebble smart watch won't work.

If the core team could shed some light on this, it would be appreciated.

Thanks

What is going to happen when the 16.04 backlog is empty? Will there be an RC channel or will you just continue working towards a stable OTA?

Yes, or at least similar. I haven't flashed my Pro 5 to UBports yet, but the behavior on the Canonical image is similar. Every reboot resets cellular to 2G only. I have to manually set it to 4G. Also toggling airplane mode on/off a few times can trigger the problem.

@Marathon2422
I can't agree more! Bluetooth has been unreliable ever since the launch of Ubuntu Touch. BLE devices never worked well and last time I tested with a BLE keyboard I couldn't bring the OSK back after disconnecting the KB. Car kits, as I stated above, has not worked for me since my Bq E4.5. While it connects fine, there is no audio or mic routed through the phone app. My Pebble Round watch connects, but the BT connection is not recognized by the Rockwork app.

Many smartphone users today, rely on bluetooth for handsfree phone callls, external speakers, smart watches, mice and keyboards, so I believe it is essential this works flawlessly in Ubuntu Touch too.

Any news on the calendar and clock apps, that keep crashing in xenial?

@stefano
C'mon @mariogrip , feed the hungry testers :-D!

@rocky58 That is my problem too, Pro5 connects fine with car kit, but no audio.

@hummlbach
I really like your update to the calendar app. Any chance we will see it in the OpenStore anytime soon?

Working fine on OPO 15.04, but not on Pro 5 with 16.04. Brings up the account screen on the latter, but can't choose or input an account. Only local notes work.

@unisuperbox
I am aware of this dilemma and I try to be as humble as I can in my request, but maybe if we raise the awareness of this issue we could attract more developer interest. If I had the developer skills, I think I would feel pressed to help out in some way. Unfortunately i don't possess those skills.

Some people have suggested to not read emails on the phone. It is a compelling thought, but for some of us mobile access to email is important to fulfill our jobs.

I don't have a thought out solution for this, but would it be possible to use some of the monetary contributions to UBports for this purpose?

@dobey I respect the challenges and the limited developer resources in the project. Yes, I have filed bluetooth bugs (e.g. https://github.com/ubports/ubuntu-touch/issues/766) and I may very well file additional ones going forward.

I was merely requesting an update on where we stand with regards to bluetooth and Ubuntu Touch. To my knowledge, bluetooth works with Android on all the devices supported by UBPorts, while it mostly doesn't work in UT regardless of device. Bluetooth functionality is something that nearly everyone expects in a modern smartphone and therefore I would appreciate an update on the current status and potential roadmap to iron out the issues.

I am fully aware that there are other critical issues that need attention, and I don't even know if bluetooth is top 10 of issues that the core team is working on.

A little update is all I am asking at this point.

@lakotaubp
Your response was a little too quick, this thread is about 16.04, not 15.04. I have already switched to xenial on my Pro 5 and was sharing my experience so far. uVolman is not available for xenial yet.

@dobey Please allow users to request information without labelling it as complaints. You circle the forum and TG groups enough to know that I am not a person who is disrespectful or condescending to developers of UT. I am a long term user of UT (since 2013), I have had it as a daily driver most of the time since then and I am fully aware that there are sacrifices to this approach. I have supported the project from the very beginning, I am a monthly supporter as a patreon to this project and have supported the community by filing numerous bug reports over the years, not just bluetooth. To dismiss a request for information on something that is clearly a concern of many (and I am not talking about one specific bug here as you imply) is neither disrespectful nor condescending.

I know that you too put a lot of time and effort into this community and I appreciate that you are always around answering users questions. If you want to be a "gatekeeper" for the core devs, fine, but please don't imply that I and others requesting information about critical functions in a smartphone are just complaining. We all want to make UT great, and many of us try to contribute in ways that we can. With all due respect, I don't think you should be the judge of what best suits the community or the development. Let us keep an open discussion and bring this forward together.

And yes, I use an Android phone as a second device.

While I am at it, I also post links to a couple of vidz showing the Pro 5 performance compared to OPO (albeit with the older vivid).
https://youtu.be/c3-Y397v5XE
https://youtu.be/_USe3kKhd74

After further testing of anbox and several different apps I have found that some apps that claim that they require Google Play Services run anyway. Also, some apps that don't rely on Google services run, but are unable to detect the wifi connection in UT. To turn on wifi in the android settings doesn't work, as it reverts back to "off" every time.

@Flohack
I can confirm now that camera and gps works - awesome!

My no. 1 on this list would be reliable connectivity without the current hit and (mostly) miss for bluetooth, but also that I can trust that my wifi connection is active as reported by the status indicator.

No 2: Browser and webapp engine that can handle most modern websites

No 3: Fully working camera and GPS on OPO

No 4: Battery life - it has gone really poor on my OPO lately

My most important wishes, but I also want to thank all developers who work hard to not only keeping this important project alive, but also improve the user experience with every update. Great job!!!