Well what's up with that Wazapp? It's clearly THE number-one-topic this week for many N9 users and we received several questions via Email, Twitter and Facebook about what happened to the May 1-release of the application.
So what's up now?
Last news Tarek Galal (the developer) published, were problems with the account manager and registration confirmation (via SMS). He said when testing the application, he found out about several bugs which made him decide to postpone the release. That is understandable and probably a better idea than releasing a very premature version which causes difficulties to users.
Imagine you would have the application on your phone but couldn't even finish the registration process... We all know what the result would be: A huge amount of questions or even complains from users - the developer certainly wants to protect himself from all that and us users from such issues. Agree? I hope so.
Stay calm and be patient
At this point we like to remember that Tarek Galal works by himself on this projects and does it in his free-time, having a full-time job next to it. There is no company behind it which tries to make any money or benefits from Wazapp. Galal doesn't owe us users anything, so please be appreciative for his amazing work.
Since about a two days the website of Wazapp says "Almost there"- but we can't say what that means... Some more hours, days?
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| Don't worry: Unlike this picture, Wazapp is in good hands |
So please, all impatient N9 users, relax and try to enjoy the last moments without that green icon on your phone. Tarek Galal is maybe a perfectionist and wants you to have the best experience with his application.
We heard many different reactions from people who can't wait for the release:
Most don't care about the delay and treat the developer with lot's of respect (like real role models, right?), unfortunately others are upset and even believe that Wazapp would be a "joke" - the funniest idea I heard, was that Nokia CEO Stephen Elop (who mainly works for his Windows Lumia phones) could have hijacked the developer and consequently his Wazapp project...
Don't be stressed out about the release, but stay up-to-date
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| Horrible scenario, isn't it? (Picture by ZogG @ talk.maemo.org) |
Don't worry, you won't miss Wazapp! If you are connected to the internet (what can be assumed if you read this article and use a Nokia N9) you really would have to try hard to NOT get informed about the availability of the application.
A draft of the article about the release has been ready since May 1 - and we'll try to inform you as fast as possible once you can download the app. Hey, we even got a matching, green background on our website to keep you reminded! Furthermore we were the first blog to talk about this project and certainly won't stop now.
In case you haven't yet, we suggest that you join us on Facebook, Twitter or simply subscribe to our newsfeed (or even news-email). The choice is yours.
So.... Happy waiting!
In case you are interested; here the developer's last, longer message about the delay posted at talk.maemo.org, the official discussion forum of the Maemo (MeeGo Harmattan) community.
"Hi, I just want to clarify something. Basically the only reason I set May 1 as a release date, wasn't because the app was ready to be released, actually I had tons of bugs and work to do to make it actually usable by public without sucking. The only reason I set that date as a target was to force myself to fix all those issues before May 1, because otherwise it would have taken me like another month to do so. And I did fix all the issues I intended to fix on time, and was fully aiming to release a beta at that date. However when it came to testing a real scenario that included registration (which I rarely test) more things came up causing the delay. One of the things for example is that whatsapp registration code via SMS for some reason takes ALOT of time to arrive (I requested one yesterday which hasn't arrived yet), which makes me think of adding voice request as a fallback registration method.
So yes maybe I shouldn't have announced May 1 as a release date unless I was sure about it, but if I haven't done so, it most probably would have been next month or something, while right now it should take only some hours of work to get it ready. But anyway I owe you an apology for not releasing it at that date and I hope no one is still mad at me
So yes maybe I shouldn't have announced May 1 as a release date unless I was sure about it, but if I haven't done so, it most probably would have been next month or something, while right now it should take only some hours of work to get it ready. But anyway I owe you an apology for not releasing it at that date and I hope no one is still mad at me"
- Tarek Galal, developer of Wazapp
