1357099 - Need to link to release notes in app update descriptions (or copy them in there)

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Firefox for iOS :: General, enhancement)

Description

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

It's pretty terrible that so many apps push very large updates with "improvements" and no other detail.

It shows a terrible disregard for people's bandwidth (most of the world pay as they go) and takes users for granted by assuming they don't need or want to know what's in the software they've chosen.

In our latest Firefox iOS update, we've done this by only including the text:

"This update contains stability improvements and bug fixes."

For future releases, can we link to detailed release notes?

If we don't have detailed release notes, then can we link to the Bugzilla/Github list of changes?

Thanks!

Comment 1

[Aaron Train [:aaronmt]]

Who manages app-store descriptions? Stefan?

Comment 2

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Thanks Aaron, will ni? to Stefan!

Comment 3

[Stefan Arentz | :st3fan | ⏰ EST | he/him]

App Store content is ultimately owned by marketing.

I can explain what we currently do:

- For major releases we write a more complete story in the What's New section on the App Store. You can see that for the just released 12.0.

- For minor bug fix releases we simply re-use the major release description. Our minor releases usually do not contain user facing changes that we can talk about. And we want new users who download a minor update as their first install not to see "bug fixes" but instead read about what is new in 12.0.

For upgraded users we also open a tab with the SUMO page that shows in much more detail what is new. Those pages include lots of copy and usually screenshots or even movies.

I am going to close this because I don't think there is anything actionable on this currently.

Comment 4

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

Hi Stefan! To clarify, are you saying that the originally reported bug of release notes saying only "This update contains stability improvements and bug fixes." is fixed?

It sounds that way from reading your comment, but I want to be sure I understand correctly.