Google+Plus - The Windows Phone 8.1 app for all things Google+

[TheMasterPT]

I have previously posted about the Windows 8.1 version of this app back in January. I explained that after that version, I could very well port it into Windows Phone 8.1 since the grounding reasons for me to create the original app were applicable in mobile too: there wasn't a compelling and truly native Google+ experience in Windows Phone. Well, fast forward less than a month, and I have completed and launched Google+Plus for Windows Phone 8.1. There's not much to talk here, i.e. it's almost an exact replica of the Windows 8.1 version (inline video streaming, custom theme color, saving pictures, etc.) but tailored for the phone form-factor.

Screenshots (as shown in the store app):

















The Store link is here.

Thank you.

 

[Jazmac]

Cool.

 

[stevemind]

Tried it but keeps crashing upon signing in! L630

 

[Big Papa Smurf]

Tried it but keeps crashing upon signing in! L630

Same issue on 1520.3. As soon s I try to sign in, crashes. Don't use G+ but I'm all for supporting W/WP8+ so I downloaded it. Seems like a good idea. Will know more when issues fixed.

 

[Petar Liovic]

There is no communities

 

[anon(9057135)]

Takes forever to load post.....

 

[vEEP pEEP]

Gratz TheMasterPT !!!!

I love when a WP developer does this stuff!

Oddly, now that I have a WP I use Google less and less. If fact now it is a nightmare managing my Google Drive docs and my OneDrive docs...

However - thanks for doing this! I will check it out!

 

[kankariaco]

Keeps crashing on Lumia 920. Unable to Sign-in.

Seems like a great effort from the screenshots, though.

 

[TheMasterPT]

Good afternoon.

I am very sorry for the trouble you have been having using my app.

The ultimate fact is that I simply cannot crash the app in any of the scenarios that people have been providing (here and in other places too): splash screen, logging in or any process which makes the app lose focus. I use the least specced simulators (512Mb) and my real device too, a Lumia 1320, which is not high-end in any way as I'm sure you know.

I did manage to optimize the app last week since there was a memory leak causing it to crash within just a few navigations (around 10 or 15 depending on the number of items in activity lists). I have fixed that and you should be able to extend your experience using the app much longer (technically the memory leak still exists if you use the app for a LONG time). Part of that optimization was the complete removal of maps (the MapControl has a lot of problems if added dynamically), so I'm sorry for that.

I will also try to take a closer look at the live tile, something which starts in the home page (and not login page) and could be the source of the problem; I will possibly disable the live tile at least to see if things improve from then on.

Thank you.

 

[TheMasterPT]

Good afternoon.

When I first launched the app, the crashes that you talked about were confirmed by the DevCenter, i.e. in the crash reports I could clearly see that indeed the app was generating a lot of crashes (more than 1.5k in just 10 days).

As I told you before, I made an update to the app that consciously addressed memory leaks (that in the end led to crashes) but not the crashes themselves / directly. That update was launched on the 23rd of February. Ever since that date, the crash count dropped immediately from hundreds to tens and later to very few and even 0 everyday, up until now. I am making this post at this very moment and not sooner because I have been monitoring this value in the last two weeks.

I understand that some people may have ceased to use the app when experimenting the first version and that may have led to less app usage and consequently a lower number of crashes, but the coincidence of the release and the major drop in crashes cannot be denied.

Because of that, along with some recent reports of a good experience when using the app, I believe that the worst crashes are now over and everyone who used the app at the beginning should give it a shot again.

Still, I will continue to enhance the memory usage of the app (which is still not optimal) and create new features, as difficult as it may seem (because of the limited API).

I am sorry if the issues still persist for some users.

Thank you.

 

[JoHam]

nice, will try it on my devices!

 

[mastercoin]

THANK YOU friend 4 your DEDICATED efforts to keep google open!!!!

 

[TheMasterPT]

Good evening.

Unfortunately this app has been the target of a "Content Infringement Complaint" by someone from Google (just the Windows Phone counterpart). Following is my reply to this claim:

I have unpublished Google+Plus from the Windows Phone store.

There won?t be any more steps taken from me, due to the following reasons:

• I have ceased producing new apps or updating my current ones due to an extremely awful effort / income relationship of my apps in both stores, i.e. I have worked too hard to produce extremely well-crafted apps (my apps are the absolute best of their kind, i.e. Flickr, LinkedIn and Google+ IMHO) and have an income that can be laughed about (I am just a spare time developer, i.e. I have an unrelated full-time job)
• Google+Plus is a declining app in Windows 8.1 thanks to the Microsoft?s store algorithm that placed it extremely far away in the typical attention span of any user searching for Google+ apps. Before this change, it was my most successful app, having reached 50.000 in only a handful of months (it was featured in the first page of results, as it should, given its quality)
• I just don't have the time, patience or interest to fight copyright infringements. I believe that Microsoft should be the one protecting developers from that and not forcing them to name ?Green Left? (random phrase not infringing Google) an app that is about Google+ (this is of course an attitude influenced by the first point)
• In Windows Phone I never had many usage and success overall, so the blow in any Windows Phone app is not so significant, albeit Google+Plus being the single best Google+ app available in the mobile OS (IMHO)

I hope you get better with Windows 10, not for me (because I?m moving away from development in general anyway) but to other fine developers out there.

I'm sorry everyone.

Thank you.

 

[Laura Knotek]

I'll close the thread, since the app is no longer available.