Why Are Android Apps So Crash-Prone?

So you’ve launched your app, and now people are actually using it — congratulations! Unless you are a coding superhero, you’ll certainly have a few bugs, and even if you somehow wrote perfect code - quirks with Android itself can introduce unexpected crashes.

In this talk, we’ll discuss some of the reasons why Android apps in particular are so crash-prone, some of the common causes behind crashes, and how you can build a strategy and process to manage crashes and avoid 1-star ratings - and even get your crash inbox to zero!

Transcript

1. WHY ARE ANDROID APPS SO CRASH-PRONE?
2. JAMES SMITH loopj loopj
4. android-async-http http://loopj.com/android-async-http
5. CONGRATS ON LAUNCHING! …NOW WHAT?
6. > 400,000 APPS IN THE PLAY STORE HAVE NEVER BEEN DOWNLOADED
7. < 0.1% OF APPS HAVE 50,000 OR MORE DOWNLOADS
8. CRASHES MATTER
9. YOUR APP WILL LIVE OR DIE BASED ON ITS QUALITY — CUSTOMERS HAVE A CHOICE
10. 80 - 90% OF APPS ARE USED ONCE THEN DELETED
11. 84% OF USERS ABANDON AFTER TWO CRASHES
12. WHY ARE ANDROID APPS SO CRASHY?
13. THE CLIENT-SIDE IS THE WILD WEST
14. 1. FRAGMENTED HARDWARE 2. ROOTED PHONES 3. MULTIPLE ANDROID VERSIONS 4. VENDOR MODIFICATIONS 5. MULTIPLE APP VERSIONS LIVE 6. OUT OF MEMORY ERRORS
15. 1. FRAGMENTED HARDWARE
16. <uses-feature> https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ manifest/uses-feature-element.html#hw-features DETECT FEATURES PRE-DOWNLOAD
17. DETECT FEATURES AT RUNTIME import android.content.pm.PackageManager; PackageManager pm = context.getPackageManager(); if (pm.hasSystemFeature(PackageManager.FEATURE_CAMERA)) { // Use the camera }
18. 2. ROOTED PHONES
19. DETECT ROOTED DEVICES https://blog.netspi.com/android- root-detection-techniques/
20. 3. MULTIPLE ANDROID VERSIONS
21. TRACK ANDROID PENETRATION https://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html
22. FOLLOW GOOGLE BEST-PRACTICES https://developer.android.com/training/ basics/supporting-devices/platforms.html <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" ... > <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" android:targetSdkVersion="15" /> ... </manifest>
23. 4. VENDOR MODIFICATIONS
24. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
25. 5. MULTIPLE APP VERSIONS LIVE
26. VERSION YOUR APIS
27. 6. OUT OF MEMORY ERRORS
28. java.lang.OutOfMemoryError at android.graphics.Bitmap.nativeCreate(Bitmap.java:-2) at android.graphics.Bitmap.createBitmap(Bitmap.java:689) at com.squareup.ui.SignView.createSignatureBitmap(SignView.java:121)
29. USE LEAK CANARY https://github.com/square/leakcanary
30. YOU AREN’T ALONE
31. AVERAGE CRASH RATE BETWEEN 4% - 7%
32. CHECK OUT BUGSNAG TO HELP YOU FIND + FIX THESE CRASHES!
33. THANK YOU!
34. QUESTIONS? @loopj • come and say hi at our booth - we’ll give you 2 months free • https://speakerdeck.com/loopj/