Question

Does OS have a mobile app ?

Answer 1

Last time I heard, the admins and webmasters were working on an OpenStudy app, but had some difficulties fitting such a large app on a phone. I mean, they can do it, but currently it'll run slow and be unreliable. I'm not sure if they're still working on the project.

Answer 2

Oh i see,

I searched for an app in the Play store but did not find it :)


Hope the work on it soon and make it possible.


Thanks for the response Anime guy.

Answer 3

Chow, and any time.

Answer 4

@Compassionate I am curious how the app would be slow and so big? If the data is stored externally in a database, all the mobile app would really need to do is be able to pull the information from the server. Either that or they could just make a mobile version of their site that confines it to the smaller space. I honestly don't see how it could be big, slow, and unreliable.

Answer 5

According to the admins, OpenStudy is a big site that has many things to load in order to work properly. The coding used for the site isn't anything special, but the coding put into the site to make it function is completely original. Because of the original coding + many features, live feed, interaction, equation editors and the draw option, OpenStudy has many actions to perform. The average phone doesn't have the capacity to load so many objects and still run properly.

Answer 6

@Compassionate Understandable if certain features, such as drawing, were left out. I still don't see how anything else you said would be that bad. Where did the admins say this?
"Live feed" and "interaction" really wouldn't cause a phone app to slow down. Not sure about an equation editor, but besides the editor and the drawing---nothing you have said would really make a phone be that bad. The only thing that would slow it down is sending and retrieving data over a phone connection. Can you link to admin comments that you got this information from? I would like to see where you've been reading it.

Answer 7

Well,I usually open the site in my browser and it works good.

Answer 8

I cannot link the admin who commented on this. However, the admin's name is @ShadowFiend

I'm not programmer, I just go by what they say.

Answer 9

@hba thats what I would assume.

Answer 10

Mobile Browser to be exact. *

Answer 11

Not entirely right. If we just packaged up the web version as an app, which is the easy way out, it would be relatively slow, just like it is in a mobile browser. Building a full-on native app would take too long, however, which is why we're not pursuing that option.

Answer 12

Thanks for replying :) Sorry to pester, I just wanted to have you speak for yourself, rather than someone who does not know anything about programming try to speak for you.

Is it slow because of the connection that one would have through their phone(assuming they are not connected wirelessly)? Considering you could use a separate CSS layout specifically for mobile browsers, would you be able to reduce to load on the browser significantly or would it still be harsh?

Answer 13

We'd have to do significant rewrites to create a stripped-down CSS for mobile. Right now we just target mobile and style it slightly differently based on the existing stylesheets, but the full download still has to take place.

Really, the site is a bit heavy at the moment altogether. There's a lot of dynamicity and a lot of data flying back and forth constantly that updates the UI, so it's not just connection speed that's slowing things down. Mobile doesn't treat that quite as well, and we try to cut down on some of those aspects in the mobile version now, but really getting it right would require a lot of time that we unfortunately don't have at the moment.