Sky has admitted its Sky Go app rollout for Android devices has “fall short of expectations” of its customers, but has promised it will be addressing the issue immediately.
Currently, the use of the Sky Go app on Android devices is very limited, with only a selection of devices able to use the app, and 10-inch tablets not supported at all.
After a high volume of criticism about the issues, Alun Webber, Managing Director of Product Design and Development on Sky Go, issued a statement on the Sky User forum.
Android compatibility for devices has been rolled out slowly to selected devices, something which Sky is blaming on Android 2.2 Gingerbread, the OS used to develop the app.
“Sky Go was launched on Android in February 2012, but was developed on older versions of Android (2.2 & 2.3) that did not support tablets. Our priorities immediately after launch were to amend the service such that it worked with the ICS release (achieved April 2012), and to launch VOD (June 2012), bringing it in line with the iOS application.”
There is no support at all for Android tablets over 7-inches, something that hasn’t been addressed since the app was launched for Google’s mobile OS in 2012.
“In late summer 2012, we faced the choice of rewriting the application to either take advantage of the capabilities of ICS (and Jelly Bean) to enable applications to scale for different screen sizes, or focus on delivering ‘downloads’ to Android at the same time as iOS.”
Since January this year Android updates were launched at the same time as for iOS. This decision has left many Android users out in the cold, but Webber says Sky is working on a resolution for the issue.
“This leaves the support of large screen Android tablets as the highest priority remaining issue to address,” explained Webber. “We believe we have an interim solution for this issue and we are seeking to make this available to the testing teams within the next 4-5 weeks.”
“[We will be} confirming within 2 weeks our timetable for enabling access to Sky Go on the highest volume of Android tablets,” promised Webber.
“[We will also be] ensuring we are well prepared for the next major Android OS release later this year and thereby ensuring customers do not suffer from the same delays as previous releases in terms of having Sky Go supported on the new OS.”
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
