Auto Respond Crashes

I've been getting emails and reviews saying that Auto Respond Free is crashing. I have not seen this myself, but it sounds like it is an issue. I have no idea if Auto Respond Pro is affected, but if you experience a crash please hit the "report" button and put details in the report about what you were doing to cause the crash. The reports that I have received point to internal OS code, not code in my app, so that makes it difficult to pinpoint.

I am going to look into this tonight and see if I can figure out what's going on, but I can't do much until I get out of work. Please let me know any details that you may know about these crashes, it will help me troubleshoot.

Auto Respond and Bluetooth

I received a request a few days ago for a feature that I never even thought of. I don't use Bluetooth, so I often forget about it, but this user wanted the option to toggle Auto Respond when the phone connects to a Bluetooth device.

I thought it was a great idea, so I tried it out. It was actually extremely easy to implement, and now I'm working on building in some extra options for it, similar to the options for docking the phone. It might be a bit before it's done though.

I am going to be releasing this feature and its options as beta first, play around with them for a while to ensure that they work, and then release it. If you would like to help test this new feature, you only need to do a couple things:

• join my Google Plus community (this is required from Google, not by me)
• https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103951105335573781027
• Sign up to receive beta builds
• Free: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.havens1515.autorespondfree
• Pro: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.havens1515.autorespond

As always, please let me know if you have any issues. If you run into a crash bug (even though I don't expect you to) make sure to hit the "report" button so that I can get detailed information about where the bug occurred in my code.

If you want to opt out of the beta builds at any time, for any reason, go to that same link and you can opt out. These links have been posted to my community as well. If you are running a beta build and want to return to a production build after opting out you will need to uninstall the app and reinstall it, or wait until a new production build is released. This also is true of any Android app and is a limitation posed by Google, not me.

Updates and extras

Auto Respond

I pushed some new releases of Auto Respond over the past week or so.

One of them was a fix for the incompatibility between Auto Respond and Google Hangouts when SMS is enabled in Hangouts. The SMS message was never getting to Auto Respond when Hangouts was enabled. Once I figured out how to get the message to Auto Respond properly, the messages were displaying in the wrong order (reply was displayed before the original received message) so I had to figure that out as well.

The other update was to change the look of the "Preset Messages" screen. I noticed that the way that that list of messages works is completely different than the way that the list of schedules works. The messages have a press to set, and a long-press to get to the options. The schedules had buttons for all of it. So I changed the messages screen to resemble the schedules screen.

I also updated the screenshots in the store listing. A lot of the previous shots were from my phone, which is rooted and ROMed, so there were things in the screenshot that are not possible to have on a stock ROM of any sort. I used an emulator in the SDK to take new screenshots that were from a stock system.



Business

Also, as you may have noticed, I changed the look of the blog a lot. During November I had the purple theme for epilepsy, prior to that I had a generic theme that I had modified slightly. I have changed the layout to reflect my latest logo, which is displayed at the top.

I am still doing a lot of work in the background, so unfortunately I haven't had a lot of time to work on existing products. I am working with a friend of mine to get some really cool stuff done, and I can't wait to be able to share some specifics with all of you; Unfortunately, it will probably be at least a few more months before I can really get into details. I am hoping to have a launch date around summer time, but that will depend on how much free time my friend and I have to work on all of this as well as how quickly some of the other necessary paperwork can be processed.

What would help immensely is some financial help. There is a link on the left to make a donation via paypal. If you have Auto Respond Free, it would help if you would purchase the Pro version. Not only will it help my financial burden, but you will get some really nice extra features as well. All of this money (donations and purchases) will go to supporting development and paying for some other costs that I am incurring right now for the project that I am working on. Also, word of mouth is the best advertising for anything. Please tell your friends about my apps, as I'm sure that a lot of people will like them, and leave some positive feedback in the Play Store listing. More positive feedback = more visibility and more downloads.


Happy Holidays!

I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season, and I will continue to post updates as often as I can.




TL;DR: a few Auto Respond updates, lots of behind the scenes work, need some funds for future projects.

Status Updates

I know it's been a long time since I've posted anything, so here's some updates.


Auto Respond

I released an update a few weeks back to Auto Respond Pro which allows you to respond to numbers which are not in your contact list. I still haven't built this into AR Free, but it will be there.

I'm working on theming AR purple for epilepsy awareness month in November. For those of you who were around last year, you will probably remember that I changed the icon to purple last year, and donated all November proceeds to the Epilepsy Foundation. I am planning on doing the same this year, but I also want to theme the ENTIRE app in purple. It's a lot of work so I don't know if it'll be done in time, but I'm doing my best. I'm also working on changing the icon programmatically, so that I don't have to put out an update to change the launcher icon. If you have any experience with theming apps, feel free to reach out to me. I can use all the help I can get.

Today Auto Respond Pro got its 100th download! I know that doesn't sound like a lot compared to other apps, but it's something that I'm proud of anyway. The free version has over 2,000 downloads, so there's a little perspective of free vs. paid.


Super Secret Project

Some of you may recall that I'm working on a secret project, and have been for a while. A lot is happening with that too. I can't provide any specifics yet, but here's some generic updates.

It officially has a name now, which is not in use by any other tech companies or software companies that I came across. I've got some friends working on design work (an icon, logo, etc.) based on the current name. I did some database work, which is going to make the app REALLY flexible and easily updated without having to update the whole app. I've got the basic UI designed and we have a list of features that we want to include in the initial release, as well as a list of LOTS of ideas for future additions.

I've got someone working on a website for me, which will likely be a huge focus of this project. The website will be where people go for a lot of setup and some more functionality, but the app will be an essential part of making it all come together successfully. I'm supposed to have a meeting before the end of the week to discuss what exactly needs to be done with the website, and hopefully see some initial progress and design work.

This project has been my main focus over the past few months. I'm learning a lot in this process, and I've got a LOT of things planned for it. I can't wait to get the name legally set in stone, and get a base product setup so that it doesn't have to be kept so secretive. (I'm holding back all details because I don't want someone stealing my idea or my name.)

I've got a plan for monetizing the project, so that part is taken care of as well. I think the idea is unique enough, functional enough, and desirable enough that I can bring in some good clients once the idea is presented. The app and website will be 100% free for users, and money will be made from other clients. I'm sure that not knowing the premise behind the app this all sounds very vague, but there is a plan and it includes no cost to the end user.


General Updates

I have decided to officially re-brand as "Fifteen 15 Studios" instead of "1515 Studios". My design guys are working on some new designs for that as well. (If you would like to try your hand at designing a logo for me, it would be much appreciated. I want to get a bunch of designs to choose from.) I'm going to do some DBA paperwork to officially turn Fifteen 15 Studios into a company. I've got some legal documents written up (a non-compete and non-disclosure agreement) for anyone who joins in on the current project, but I need an official company name to associate with those documents.

The new name will be official once I decide on a logo design that I like, and obviously will be legally official once the DBA paperwork is completed. I have most of the logistics of the switch worked out already, and just need to put some of the technical aspects into place.

All-in-all, despite my lack of blog updates, there is a lot going on behind the scenes with me, my apps, and my soon to be company. I'm excited for things to come, and I hope that all of you are as well.

Out of Office

I will be "Out of the office" so to speak for the next week, so hopefully no bugs spring up in Auto Respond.

I've released a couple of updates this week, and so far I have not gotten any crashes or other bug reports from the latest version.

I will have no access to internet for most of the week, no access to a computer, and extremely limited access to cell service and/or text messaging. Therefore, I cannot make any changes/updates to my apps for the next week.

If you have problems with an app, please email me and I will respond ASAP when I return.

For more details on what I will be doing for the following week, check out this post on my personal blog:
http://havens1515.blogspot.com/2013/08/20-years-at-camp-eagr.html

Pirates Avast!

Apparently Auto Respond has become popular enough for people to start pirating it. I know this partly because they're pirating an old, buggy version.

The version that is being pirated was released back in late February, and was replaced less than 2 weeks later with a much more stable version. Even though that version is 5 months old now, it's still topping the charts on my list of what version people are using on Google Analytics. Yet, there are 0 copies of it still out there according to my developer console. There's only 1 explanation for that... pirates!

Some of these pirates even have enough balls to click the "needs improvement" link in the app (which sends me an email with information about the app version they are running, the Android version they are running, and their phone make and model) and then tell me that my app is crashing, or has other problems. My response to that from now on (to users running this version) will be "buy my app instead of stealing it and you won't have any issues!"

All of that being said, I've gone on a hunt to find the source of this illegally distributed file. So far my hunt has been fruitless, but if you find my pro app out there in the deep dark corners of the interwebs being offered for free PLEASE LET ME KNOW! It might just be called "Auto Respond" and not "Auto Respond Pro" as it is now, but if it doesn't specifically state "Auto Respond Free" it's the pro app.

I don't make a lot of money from my apps, and I don't think I'm asking an unreasonable amount for the app (in fact, until recently it was as low as I could possibly go... $.99) so please help me find and stop this.

Auto Respond 1.3.5.1

Like most people that I talk to, I do a lot of thinking while in the shower and driving. (Obviously, not both at once...) and this morning, before getting into the shower, I was thinking about some code in the latest update.

My mind went through this kind of process... " I put this there, and that there, and.... wait a second... that means that if the user edits the schedule, without opening the custom response list, the list could potentially be overwritten with blank data."

So I tried it. I opened a test schedule that I had setup, edited the list to contain a name, hit "OK" to save the schedule, then edited the schedule again, without opening the custom response settings, clicked "OK" again, and when I edited the schedule for the third and final time, my list was gone.

A few cuts and pastes of code later... the issue is fixed. And all because my mind often wanders off into my code.

So if you have setup a Do Not Respond list or a Custom Response list inside of a schedule, update the app to the latest version first, then check your lists to see if they are still there. If they're not there, recreate them and they should be safe from here on out. (As long as you update first.)

Sorry for the bug, but I figure I caught it early enough that it probably didn't effect too many people.

(As per usual, it may be an hour or so before the update is live in the Play Store.)

Auto Respond 1.3.5

It has been published. Auto Respond 1.3.5 is being pushed to the Play Store right now. Not as a beta, as a release version.

Here's the full change log:

(Pro)

• Fixed a crash when changing promote message
• Added custom response list to schedules
• Added do not respond list to individual schedules
• Trim leading and trailing spaces before joining messages in custom responses
• Change Screen title from "New Schedule" to "Edit Schedule" when editing a schedule

(Common)

• Fixed a bug toggling promotion message in Android 4.0+
• Fixed rare crash due to notification system
• Fixed potential crash when responding to phone calls
• Fixed multiple issues in the dock menu
• Added Data backup/restore to Google Account
• Change Screen title from "New Message" to "Edit Message" when editing a message
• Removed some unused code

Yeah, that's a lot. Lots of bugs fixed, a few additions for both free and pro users, some small aesthetic changes... a little bit of everything.

The update should be available in a couple hours via the Play Store.

New Auto Respond Beta

I've published the new Auto Respond Beta to the Play Store.

Change Log:

1.3.5 b1:
(Pro)

• Fixed a crash when changing promote message
• Added custom response list to schedules
• Trim leading and trailing spaces before joining messages in custom responses

(Common)

• Fixed a bug toggling promotion message in Android 4.0+
• Fixed potential crash when responding to phone calls
• Fixed multiple issues in the dock menu
• Added Data backup/restore to Google Account
• Removed some unused code

1.3.5 b0:
(Pro)

• Added do not respond list to individual schedules

(Common)

• Change Screen title from "New Schedule" to "Edit Schedule" when editing a schedule
• Change Screen title from "New Message" to "Edit Message" when editing a message

It may be an hour or 2 before it shows up in the Play Store, and in order to use the beta you'll need to join my G+ community. If you aren't in it already, you can join the community here: 

https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103951105335573781027

Then go here to sign up for the beta releases of Auto Respond: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.havens1515.autorespond

The latest beta is just labeled 1.3.5, not 1.3.5 b1. That's because if no bugs are found, this version will be promoted to a release version. I've done a fair amount of testing, so there should be no glaring bugs.

Auto Respond Free will be released after testing with Pro is done. (The changes for Free have already been made.)

Auto Respond Progress

I'm finding out that doing things properly isn't always easy...

I've got the "Do not respond" (DNR) lists per schedule working, so I'm working on "Custom Response" lists. As with the initial building of this feature, it's not easy. But I also just realized something else that I neglected to do with the DNR list... I have to erase all of these settings when you delete a schedule! Otherwise, they may be wrongfully applied to a newly created schedule. I'm fairly sure nobody has actually downloaded my beta yet, so nobody should be affected by this little misstep.

On the other hand, Google has made app data backup and restore REALLY easy... as long as you use SharedPreferences... which I do!

So I've implemented app data backup/restore in both versions of Auto Respond. No, there is not a release version yet with these changes. I haven't even actually released a beta version with these changes... I'm hoping to do that in a couple days when the custom responses per schedule are finished.

Also, I've found and fixed A LOT of bugs. Many of which were hidden in the Dock menu, some in the Promote menu, and a rare crash bug when responding to phone calls.

Bottom line - with any luck there will be an updated Auto Respond in a few days, with some new features for pro users, backup for everyone, and fixes for everyone!

Squishing bugs, adding features

Over the past few days, I've been spending what little free time that I have (basically any time that I'm awake and not at work) working on Auto Respond.

I've found a few bugs, one of which I think I introduced in the latest beta, so you shouldn't have to worry about that one. The others are all in the Dock menu.

For those of you on Android 4.0+, you may notice that after opening the dock menu and starting to scroll, some of your settings change. Amazingly this is not a bug caused by me. It's actually a bug caused by a flaw in the Android OS which happens when you have consecutive settings screens, and one ore more of them have a switch preference. To my surprise, someone on Stack Overflow found a fix - and I implemented it. (If you are a coder and don't know what Stack Overflow is, find out. If you're not a coder, it probably doesn't matter to you.)

For all versions of Android, the "Get current message" and "Preset messages" buttons for the dock message options were not working. Again, this has been fixed.

None of these changes have been released in any version, because before releasing my next beta I want to finish what I've started with data backup. Yes, that's right... backing up the settings, messages, schedules, and whatever else may be included in Auto Respond. This will be available to free and pro users, and it will be using Google's new backup service which puts the data in your Google account. That means that if you get a new phone you can just re-install the app and have all of your data back.

Also, I'm working on adding custom responses to each schedule in the Pro version. The custom responses was a lot of work to implement initially (which is why it's a pro-only feature) and we'll see how much work it takes to implement it per-schedule. I know I can do it, but it may take some time.

So there you have it. A lot going on in the way of changes and fixes in Auto Respond. The new version will hopefully be out in a week or so, depending on how quickly I can work.

Auto Respond 1.3.5 Beta

I just published a new beta version of Auto Respond. If you want to check it out, you need to join my Google+ community. (Unfortunately this is Google's restriction, not mine.) This beta only applies to the Pro version, none of the major changes affect any of the capabilities of the free version

The community can be found here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103951105335573781027

There is a sign up for the beta testing in a post in the community.

Here is the full change log:

• Added do not respond list to individual schedules
• Change Screen title from "New Schedule" to "Edit Schedule" when editing a schedule
• Change Screen title from "New Message" to "Edit Message" when editing a message

I know that last one affects the free version, but it's a very minor change.

The next step is to add the "custom response list" to individual schedules yet. Now that I have the "do not respond list" per schedule, I should be able to bang out individual responses fairly quickly.

News

A bunch of random stuff in this one...


Auto Respond

First, I've released a few new versions of Auto Respond since my last post. All just bug fixes. I released another one this morning for Pro users, which fixes a FC when deleting a schedule. If you have received this FC, the schedule was still deleted properly but it closed while trying to update the view.

A few weeks ago I added another stat to keep track of in Auto Respond. Each time it sends a message, Analytics tallies it. In the first 7 days of June, Auto Respond has sent 53 messages! That's an average of almost 8 messages per day! I found that to be a pretty cool statistic. (especially since some people still have older versions installed that don't send that information, so the number could potentially be higher.)


Countdown Widget

If you follow me on Google+, or other social media, you may have noticed that I posted last night about a Beta version of my Countdown Widget app. A few updates about that:

1. The app STILL has not been actually published to the Play Store. I'm not sure why this one is taking so long, but after reading through some stuff in the developer's console, it says it could take up to 24-hours to become live. Which means that it could be as late as 11pm Eastern Time tonight. (8pm for you West coasters.)
1. EDIT: It's live now! But it only shows up in the Play Store AFTER becoming a tester! (As there is no publicly available version right now)
2. While reading through that documentation, I also noticed that all of my testers have to be in either a Google Group, or a Google+ Community to use the link and get the Beta. I created a community a while back, and right now it only has 4 users (including me.) If you would like to use the Countdown Widget Beta (and future app betas) join my community! (Again, this is a restriction put forth by Google, not me.) https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/103951105335573781027

Right now the app is fairly basic... put in a title and a date, and you get a widget which shows how many days until your event. There are also options to put a specific time with that date, and options to display hours left instead of days left, or display hours left when less than a certain amount of hours are left.

In the future I'm going to add a lot more options, like changing background color and transparency (right now it's black with 50% transparency,) possibly changing text size and color, rearranging the data that is displayed, and more designs and sizes of widgets.

The widget is resizable now if you have an Android version or a home screen launcher that supports it (I think resizing widgets was added in 3.0, but certain 2.x launchers may support it) but there is only 1 design. I have plans for more designs that will default to larger sizes.

Tic Tac Toe

I said before that I am going to build Google Games features into Tic Tac Toe... and I still plan on doing that. However, I still have not had the time to do that. I am working on a lot of stuff right now, and even the things mentioned above have had minimal work done. I've had Countdown Widget almost working for a while, and just finished up some last minute things over the past couple days.

Auto Respond crash bug

I've found a crash bug when using the status widget. It was an easy fix, but I can't compile an apk at work. I will push an update when I get home. 

Auto Respond 1.3.4

I just published Auto Respond 1.3.4. Most of you are probably asleep (or will be by the time it's available) but it'll be ready for you in the AM. Here's the change log:

• Fixed a crash in Dock menu when clicking settings name instead of switch (4.0+)
• Moved "help" to the bottom of the menu
• Reload all widgets on reboot
• Changed error message in "Do not Respond" settings to be more clear

The crash in the Dock menu has actually been around for a while, but I just now figured out what was causing it. All changes apply to both the free and pro version.

Google Games!!!

It's there! In my Developer Console... "Google Play Games Services"!

I can't wait to play around with it, and network up my Tic Tac Toe game, and hopefully finish up Euchre soon, and get that networked.

I have some achievement ideas for Tic Tac Toe as well. I know, there's not a whole lot you can do with achievements in Tic Tac Toe, but I found some things. I've also got achievements already built into the existing Windows version of my Euchre game, so those will be coming over to Android, and I may add a few more. I may also categorize them a little differently than they are right now... we'll have to see.

In any case, I'm REALLY excited to get coding, there's just one problem... I don't have much time this week because I'm moving this week/weekend :-(

So most of the work won't even get started until next week. I've first got to read through the documentation and see how to use the API and all of that stuff, so it might be a couple weeks before any actual progress gets made. We'll see how difficult it is, hopefully I can get some good work knocked out in a little time.

New app?

Today has been one of those days that my mind has been wandering.... and wandering to good places. This is the result of one of those wanderings.

I've been using a countdown widget app for quite some time now, and recently the developer updated the app and completely ruined it in my opinion. I have not downloaded the most recent update because it looks terrible, and there are a bunch of negative reviews about how transparency was removed, and it overall did not look good. So I kept the old version, so that I could keep my widget as-is.

So suddenly I started thinking... I could make an app like this. And it wouldn't really take too long. I've got the gist of widgets now, I've done a count-down type of code with the schedules, and I can add in a TON of customization from what I have learned doing both Auto Respond and Tic Tac Toe.

So here it is... some ideas for my countdown widget app:

• Information
• Name/Title of event
• Date (optional? - only time - repeat daily)
• Option - Time
• Either date or time would be required if date becomes optional
• Option - Show hours instead of days 
• Option - Show hours when less than X days left
• Look and feel
• Selectable color/image for background
• Selectable transparency for background
• Text
• Selectable color for all text
• All text same color checkbox
• Customizable text order
• Text1 - Name
• Text2 - Date
• Text3 - Days/hours remaining
• Stock images (to come later)
• Selectable size in setup? (? = not sure if this is possible in the setup screen)
• 1x1
• 2x1
• 2x2 with picture background
• 3x3 (?) with picture on side (? = I'd have to play with sizes for this one, to see what works best)
• Show preview of widget as changes are made
• Option - Remove widget automatically when countdown reaches 0
• Option - notification/alarm when countdown reaches 0
• alert sound
• alert vibrate

These are the notes I've made for myself so far. Any other ideas you can think of for a countdown widget? 

It's a simple idea but, as you have probably noticed in my other apps, I like options and customization! :-)

Google Games is coming!

For those of you who don't know, Google I/O starts on Wednesday!

There has been a LOT of speculation as to what will be announced at I/O, but there have been some things that have been pretty much confirmed, and right now, Google Games is one of them.

Android Police (AP) did one of their famous teardowns of some new a new Google Play Services app, and found a TON of references to Google Games, and even some working pieces!
http://www.androidpolice.com/2013/05/11/google-play-games-leaks-out-in-all-its-glory-ahead-of-google-io-hello-cloud-game-saves-apk-teardown/

Reading this got my mind rolling with ideas for Tic Tac Toe and Euchre. New achievements all over the place, new ways to get people connected, new ways to get more people playing, and new ways to have more fun with the games that I've already created! (Or in Euchre's case, mostly created)

Since none of this has been officially released (or even officially announced) I can't really start working on these things yet. But you can be assured that I will be working on it soon! (Well, once things get settled down in my personal life. Check out my personal blog for details on that.)

Auto Respond 1.3.3.1

Sorry for the bugs... I created a new function that was similar to an existing function. I copy and pasted the code, but what I didn't realize is that the trigger had to be opposite on the new function.

This created all sorts of havoc. I found a few other things when I got home that needed to be changed to allow the new function to work properly.

It should all be fixed now though. The new version has been published, and should be available in a couple hours when Google's servers sync.

Auto Respond 1.3.3 Bug

Sorry guys, but there is a bug in 1.3.3 that causes schedules and some other things to not work properly! I stupidly got some logic reversed, and broke some things.

It is a quick and easy fix... I've already fixed the bug in the code.. but I do not have a compiler on my work computer, so I can't release an update until I get home! I'll be home in about 2 hours, and I'll release the new build ASAP!