New FordPass app? Not sure how I feel.

[RickMachE]

If they're going to keep a picture of the car front and center, on the home screen, I'd at least like to have a nice, clear picture.

Mine match the colors of my vehicles. I was so excited, I might have peed myself.

I hadn't even noticed it was fuzzy. Maybe I need new glasses?

Sponsored

 

[thecodingart]

Mine does not have that at the bottom. Could be because I do not use my phone as a key?

The “new” app experience is currently being rolled out. Not everyone will get it at once unfortunately.

 

[thecodingart]

It looks nice, but does it work any better? Because the current app is pretty awful. Any action takes 10-30 seconds and are pretty prone to just failing.

Ford have truly mastered the art of turd polishing.

Performance and functionality have been prioritized almost everything else in this version of the application. Under the hood, it’s a completely different beastie in comparison to the old app/experience.


Mind you, there may be some form of “turd polishing” where hardware and software limitations of the vehicle itself are trying to be covered, but as far as the application goes, this is potentially a form of alchemical transformation into gold (comparatively).

 

[thecodingart]

long way to go to really be useful. seems geared to a 3rd grader.

Streamlining a design language is a good thing, but there is definitely room for improvement on making this a bit more geared towards savvy users.

Design language goes a long way, and it’s not easy in any sense.

Tesla (with their application) have done a wonderful job at striking a balance with complexity. Tesla also had the luxury of building an infrastructure from day 1 to support that experience.

 

[Rohan]

The “new” app experience is currently being rolled out. Not everyone will get it at once unfortunately.

Is it currently being rolled out on both Android & iOS?

 

[thecodingart]

Yup. I’ll be one of those people. While I actually like how the new FP incorporates most of the functionality we all want, I do have a problem with stupid design.

Let me explain why this is dumb, and why it is not just cosmetic:

The front “Vehicle” page should NOT BE SCROLLABLE. IT SHOULD BE ONE FIXED PAGE. Why? Because we use this app as a fob.

Can you scroll a fob? No. And it would be a big MESS if you could, because of how we use fobs: we expect to pull something out of our pocket and for the buttons to STAY IN ONE PLACE. Because we are often using it while we are preoccupied with other tasks. Walking to the car, juggling items, etc.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tried to use FP on the fly and the damned button I want moves because I didn’t hold my finger perfectly steady and it was interpreted as a swipe. DUMB.

And it would be EASY to have one fixed page if @Ford Motor Company didn’t WASTE SO MUCH SPACE.

So, for example, A THIRD of the page is occupied by a totally useless car graphic. Then there is a button for Location… which when tapped gives you two small lines of text that would have been smaller to just insert those in lieu of the big clipart button.

Then there is a weird “Settings” button which should be a gear symbol fixed to the bottom ribbon.

Make those changes, and the Vehicle page would be cleaner, simpler, and fixed in place.

Mmm, this might be a bit more narrow minded commentary. Personally, I think you’ll find a lot buying into commentary on wasted space on the Home Screen (myself included).

With that being said, having no scrolling or a fixed size on a Home Screen while accounting for ADA compliance (accessibility for users) is an entirely different topic. The user base is much broader than people think and the design language has to support that.

If someone wants to max out the text size on their screen, you’ll most definitely end up scrolling regardless.

 

[thecodingart]

Is it currently being rolled out on both Android & iOS?

I can’t quite comment to much regarding the rollout plan but can say I doubt anyone’s being left in the dark.

 

[su-ch+mache]

@Ford Motor Company or those who know, when will Europe receive the new FordPass version. We also would like to be the guinea pigs once in awhile and test new stuff. Certainly you sell more MME in North America, but don't keep us out side. We like to contribute improving the software.

 

[thecodingart]

@Ford Motor Company or those who know, when will Europe receive the new FordPass version. We also would like to be the guinea pigs once in awhile and test new stuff. Certainly you sell more MME in North America, but don't keep us out side. We like to contribute improving the software.

I’m sure you guys will come in a wave. The EU has regulations making things a tidbit more “fun” regulatory wise.

 

[su-ch+mache]

a beta version would be ok at first.

 

[sean7512]

Does anyone know the technologies in the app for the current and new one? I am curious if they are native (Swift/Kotlin) or something like Ionic/ReactNative or just a plain wrapped web app. If native, I wonder on the iOS side if its UIKit or SwiftUI. I guess I could inspect the .ipa file on my computer and try to find out, but curious if anyone knows off hand?

 

[thecodingart]

Does anyone know the technologies in the app for the current and new one? I am curious if they are native (Swift/Kotlin) or something like Ionic/ReactNative or just a plain wrapped web app. If native, I wonder on the iOS side if its UIKit or SwiftUI. I guess I could inspect the .ipa file on my computer and try to find out, but curious if anyone knows off hand?

This is mostly public knowledge that can fairly easily be extracted (as many application audits do) from the binary.

This iteration of the application focused heavily on performance/speed and experience. If you want those things and prioritize them, you always have a full native application -- this isn't a question.

The new application took every opportunity to use the latest and greatest technologies and prides it self in architecture patterns making it very state driven and as accurate as it "can" be.

With that statement placed aside, as a personal commentary, I can't say enough negative commentary over hybrid/web solutions and competitor apps that notably perform worse because of said poor technical decisions. From an engineering, customer, and platform perspective.

 

[sean7512]

This is mostly public knowledge that can fairly easily be extracted (as many application audits do) from the binary.

This iteration of the application focused heavily on performance/speed and experience. If you want those things and prioritize them, you always have a full native application -- this isn't a question.

The new application took every opportunity to use the latest and greatest technologies and prides it self in architecture patterns making it very state driven and as accurate as it "can" be.

With that statement placed aside, as a personal commentary, I can't say enough negative commentary over hybrid/web solutions and competitor apps that notably perform worse because of said poor technical decisions. From an engineering, customer, and platform perspective.

Excellent, I was really hoping it would be state driven native. As a mobile dev since 2008, its very important to me and I absolutely hate all of the fads that have come and gone through the years as the "next big thing" that never pans out...

 

[thecodingart]

Excellent, I was really hoping it would be state driven native. As a mobile dev since 2008, its very important to me and I absolutely hate all of the fads that have come and gone through the years as the "next big thing" that never pans out...

No it doesn't. Flutter being the latest detrimental "trend".

 

[sean7512]

No it doesn't. Flutter being the latest detrimental "trend".

Hah, a junior dev came to me last November giving me a demo of Flutter and how its the best thing ever made, mh-mmm suuuuuure PhoneGap and Xamarin would like a word

Sponsored