Fairphone and Communication

Yes we do know:

I think that is pretty much the case. The two OSs are not so different that it takes double the time to maintain them. Fairphone fixes bugs and integrates security fixes. As soon as they get approved by Google the new FP OS is released and the process to integrate them into FP Open begins.

That’s not an option if they want to keep Googles official support. Without it we can say goodbye to Android 6+ and to monthly security updates.

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Some statements about the progress would be welcome. This is everything but transparent. No clear statements about software and hardware. What is being worked on? What about spare parts? We are left completely in the dark.

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Fairphone is still quite a small company and they have to prioritize the time their employees spend on certain things. Right now I’m sure it’s more important to spend time on Android 6 than to write a blog post about how they are working on Android 6.
As soon as they have something to announce I’m sure they’ll do it.

About the spare parts: They’ll hopefully be available again soon. AFAIK they are currently waiting for a shipment.

No, I don’t. All I know that they have made an announcement that they will releasing it “in a few months”. But, they have also said the FP1 update would come in September. So I don’t know at all what they are currently working on. If I knew that everyone were actually bus gettin the Marshmallow update ready and that is the reason they don’t fix serious Lollipop problems, I’d be more lenient. However, I have no real idea what is actually been worked on with what priority. And without internal insight neither do you :slight_smile:.

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I can assure you that Fairphone would never announce something to happen “in the next few months” if they were not already busy working on it.
Yes for the FP1 update they missed the deadline they set for themselves but they communicated the reasons quite clearly.

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Writing some posts would reduce the support queue.
I don’t mean, that they should write posts all the time, but the one or other information
would be welcome. Maybe once a week.

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It seems like we have a recurring problem: many threads end up with people saying that they are loosing patience with Fairphone. At the beginning, most of the people complaining were not active users of the forum, but more and more active users begin to be angrier or at least more sceptical. As always, it seems like a better communication could help. This thread is important and I really think that we need more feedback from Fairphone. It doesn’t need to be every day and it doesn’t need to be an official blog: some posts on the forum or an occasional chat could really help. Simple stuff:

  • when are you hoping to release Marshmallow? (not a binding date, just a time-frame)
  • where are we on the known issues and bugs? Which ones could be corrected soon? Which ones are too much time-consuming and should wait for Marshmallow? Which ones are hopeless?
  • what is Fairphone’s policy regarding supported OS like Sailfish?
  • what about the spare parts?
    etc.

We know it’s not easy. We know Fairphone is still a quite small company. We know things won’t be perfect at once. But give us some milestones! I don’t mind waiting for improvements and I don’t mind some bugs, but I’m afraid of all the messages of people loosing patience and people saying that they cannot or won’t recommend Fairphone.
Fairphone needs a good community, a base with users who won’t return the phone for some stupid bugs, who will support the project. If you loose this base, then you’ll need to sell a perfect product, because other users won’t be as patient.

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This has been answered as I quoted above.

These answers would indeed be nice and there are plans to introduce a bug tracker which will answer them once Marshmallow is released.

@Douwe posted 4 times in the corresponding thread.

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this is absolutely ok, but in this case this would be “fair” to make an official statement:

“Dear community, we are focusing on Anroid 6 so we will not fixing bugs on the Android 5.1 Base. Wait until Android 6 came out.!”

But so like it is now is also the wrong way: We have a bug, which is known since 7 Software Releases (7 Month!) but not a single statement about somebody will fix this bug. Be it in Android 5 or Android 6.

Tell me, what should i and the other FP2 owners do, who are also annoyed with the battery-drain-bug ?

Should we wait and hope? Should we buy another phone and forget Fairphone 2?

Simply ignoring and not answering is the wrong way. Apple can make it, Samsung or Google can make.
But when Fairphone will go the same way - they would lose a big part of the community.
Fairphone 2 is great phone, but it has much more problems out of the box comparing with another Android devices.

When cheaper android Devices with the same SoC like OnePlus X can work stable without any problems with battery or proximity sensor, than Fairphone 2 could also be stable out of the box. When the Devs sit down and first fix the most important bugs.

AFAIK nobody had ever released a truly modular phone. Fairphone were the first and it’s only natural that other phones work more stable.

The same goes for communication: These guys are not gods, they are human beings and are neither perfect, nor can they work all around the clock.

I don’t think that’s true. Only the GMS-reliant people would be screwed (having to install Google Apps after every update like with FP1). :grin:

Stefan, i think, the problems, which we have atm, have nothing to do with the modularity of the FP2.
From the technical point of view Fairphone 2 is working on the same HW as One Plus X.
With one difference: OnePlus X has 3GB RAM, better Display (OLED) but worser WiFi Chip than the FP2.
How the comoponents are conected to each other, with flex-cables or pogo pins has nothing to do with the buggy software. Of course the 4 guys at Fairphone can not give the same quality of software like Samsung Galaxy with their hunderts of developers.
But they can hear and communicate with the community. The community help the Fairphone Developers with Field Testing and Bugfixing. This are jobs which we do for free for the Fairphone. Because we love Fairphone. We love the idea, we love the movement and we love the phone.

But getting a bit of love back is not to much: Just one answer. Just one post. I think, this should be possible also with small Fairphone resources.

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Thank you @paulakreuzer!
Well, I was more forwarding questions read on the forum than asking the questions, as examples of official communications one could await. All of this doesn’t bother me that much, it’s more that I’m concerned about reading complaints from people who are great Fairphone supports.
I think that you have just confirmed that you do an excellent job on the forum. The problem is that most of the relevant information comes from you (or another moderator), and not as an official communication. And as you often answer on the forum: this is a community-based forum, this isn’t part of your job.
I find it very helpful when @Douwe gives direct answers, it often helps to shorten long discussions and supputations. I know that he has a difficult job dealing with the communication between Fairphone and the users of the forum, but it would be great to read him more often (and with clear milestones).

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It’s not only about the pogo pins. The internal design is completely different as they tried to avoid glue and soldering wherever possible.

Also I’m sure that not each and every part (let aside OLED, WiFi Chip and RAM) is the same. There are other components too (from what I have learnt in the last years being part of the community about how smartphones work :wink: ), first and foremost the closed source modem. Who knows which pitfalls the devs have to deal with…

The internal modular design is a very good thing. I would say it was the most important criteria, why i bought FP2.
But the SoC Qualcomm 801 including the closed Source LTE Modem is a very common part which is found in many other phones. And this phones are working more or less without problems.

As a computer and electronics specialist i can’t imagine, that the glue- and flex-cable- less design of the Fairphone 2 is responsible for so many bugs and problems. Also the closed source modem, power management and sensor-Firmware is normaly working without problems on other devices, which are also based on the Qualcomm 801. With the same sensors and same LTE Modem.

Fairphone is on the right way, releasing the software updates every month, its very good, but this software updates need first bring the software base to a stable level and afterwards they can work on features and cosmetics.

Also communication with the community is something what should be better.
We have a very good documented list of the known bugs

My question is, when and how this bugs will be fixed?
I understand, that a fixed timeline wouldn’t be possible, but maybe a small statement:

“Guys: we investigate this issue, we are working on it.”

And short comment or answer on this list is not so much work, but will solve many support tickets (or postpone it). It would also prevent more posts about bugs and would cause less angry customers…

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OK, wow, the last time, the official software issue report was updated, was 2 month ago.

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This is a given. If it’s on the list then Fairphone is aware of the issue and are investigating it.

What’s missing is more information like: this is bug top priority, that bug is low priority, for this bug we don’t have enough info yet and that bug can’t be fixed by Fairphone but is a third party bug.
The planned bug tracker will hopefully bring that info.

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We are not impatient, we knew that all when we ordered the device. And I think, FP has a
flood of support issues to be answered.
I think, most of the FP users read this forum, even when they are not registered. And when
their questions are officially answered here or in the blog, the support questions will be reduced.
For example nobody knows exactly about spare parts. An official post, waiting for shipping,
or expect parts in the next 5 months because of heavy problems, would be ok. So not every
single user would contact the support with these questions.
And a little post about the software progress would also be welcome. And that isn’t too much
to ask for. And I did not make it to follow the dev progress in the source repo.

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It’s nice that you care about the support team, but actually they are not swamped anymore since October (first reply times less than 48 hours).

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@Mase, this might be interesting to you:

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