Review of Freetrade for Android šŸ˜Ž (Feedback & Testing)

I felt that it would be best to keep this separate from the Updates channel :smiley:

Hereā€™s my review of the first beta version of the Freetrade app on Android :sunglasses: Itā€™ll cover the usual stuff, experience of setting up, look & feel of the app, features & bugs (though, I canā€™t say that Iā€™ve found (m)any bugs :smiley:) Letā€™s get to it, shall we :wink:

Setup:

After the initial ā€œpink screen of deathā€ on the version I had, everything was spot on :joy: (itā€™s no big deal, it just took a relaunch of the app)

Rooted Devices

A small aside, I do have a constant issue with my Pixel 3XL running Android Q ā€¦ There arenā€™t many people who will be stuck in this situation but I do know how to work around it for now so hopefully nobody at Freetrade reads this or patches the app to stop my workaround :innocent::pray:

Iā€™d already spotted the Beta button on the Play Store :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: however, there was another update after the message granting me access though, so I guess I didnā€™t save myself too much time :yum:

After getting myself to the latest version (teardown to come), I was able to begin the setup of my account :boom:

I went through the setup, itā€™s the usual affair: Name, Address, DOB, NI, agreement that Iā€™m not a US citizen, etc. but after all of that I did get stuck on the purple screen above :eyes: I was worried that something had gone wrong but I gave the app a force close / relaunch and I was in :sunglasses:


Using the app:

Iā€™d say itā€™s a pretty clean app! I like the relatively minimalist design :smiley:
Unfortunately, itā€™s not possible to screenshot the ā€˜lock screenā€™ (PIN entry screen) but it looks nice and itā€™s got a responsive keypad (miles better than some banking apps!)

Iā€™ve got a very empty account at the moment :sweat_smile: Iā€™m sure itā€™ll look lovely once itā€™s got some activity :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: but for now, hereā€™s a completely vanilla look at the app :grin:

Iā€™ve not found any bugs yet!! Which is amazing for a brand new release :heart: (it feels very odd not using :hot_coral_heart: :rofl:) Give me time thoughā€¦ Iā€™ll find some :wink:


Suggestions:

Despite being bug-free, for now, Iā€™ve definitely got some suggestions that I need to put out there :smiley:

  • On the ā€œDiscoveryā€ page there needs to be a quick scroll bar :pray: Search is handy when you know what youā€™re looking for but if you just want to ā€˜browseā€™ then using a fast scroll bar on the side (like Google Photos & the Contacts app) would be fantastic :boom:

  • Iā€™m sure Iā€™m not the first to say it :speak_no_evil: but fingerprint unlock would be lovely :yum: That or making the lock optional like Monzo do :slight_smile: If somebody manages to get through my phoneā€™s lockscreen then theyā€™re not going to have any difficulty breaking a 4-digit PIN on Freetrade, are they? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

  • The Top-Up screen should have an FAQ / Info button right on the page to give users an indication of how long a topup will take :money_with_wings: - I had no idea how long my initial top-up would take to show up and when I finally found the full FAQ (Portfolio ā†’ Account ā†’ FAQ :grimacing:) I couldnā€™t even search ā€œtopupā€ I had to search ā€œtop upā€ :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:. Only then did I find out that topups would be processed during work-hours :smiley:

  • Removing the ā€œrootā€ checksā€¦ My phoneā€™s not rooted but I see an annoying yellow on purple screen alerting me to my ā€œinsecureā€ phone :roll_eyes: Itā€™s not rooted and itā€™s secure enough for everything else to run :slight_smile: let users have the freedom to do as they wish without forcing them to use Magisk to use the fantastic Freetrade app :innocent:


Wrap Up:

I like the app so far, once I start trading Iā€™ll follow this post up :sunglasses: if I find any bugs, Iā€™ll be sure to shout the Freetrade team and probably mention them on the forum (if theyā€™re significant enough :yum:)

Hereā€™s to many years of Freetrading :tada:

Thanks so much for allowing me to be a part of the initial beta rollout :heart:

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Great post :slight_smile: welcome to the freetrade partay :tada:

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Excellent review. 1 more sleep I hope for meā€¦

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Hey Marcus, it is certainly interesting to see the early Android release feedback, which is something some of the community members have been waiting for years! :sweat_smile:

@stephen has proposed this idea and I understand this reply probably encompasses the scrolling bar. Considering how popular the ā€œDiscovery Searchā€ idea is and the fact that it is already on the Roadmap make me believe that these are already on Freetradeā€™s radar, so hopefully will see this sooner than later :wink:

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Interesting to see there are only 12,075 users behind you. I wonder how accurate this is or what this number is made up of. I believe everyone that had downloaded the Android app was sitting in position 0 along with you, so thatā€™s an unknown number of users, but that must be the number of users that havenā€™t downloaded either iOS or Android app (assuming, because I donā€™t think the waitlist distinguished between operating systems). Are you able to see your user number in the Android beta that would give us an idea of current user count? The waitlist got up to 60k I believe, so interested to know where we stand after iOS onboarding was opened fully.

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I second these.

Wonder if itā€™s a compliance thing?

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Unlikely. Monzo doesnā€™t do it - if anything itā€™ll be an over enthusiastic interpretation of a regulation that doesnā€™t actually mean what people think it means. But that feels quite unlike Freetrade, tbh.

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Well said. Apps from Degiro, Revolut, HSBC and so on all work without issue for me on LineageOS ā€“ heck, even HL runs like a dream nowadays, so I hope Freetradeā€™s no different. Thanks for the heads up on Magisk!

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Iā€™m not super well versed on rooting or unlocking bootloaders, but I have a Xiaomi Mi A2 Lite on Pie which I unlocked the bootloader to get the Camera2 API enabled to install gCam hahaā€¦ I had an issue with NowTV two weeks ago, would I have similar issues with Freetrade as it stands?

How did you get it working??

Working brilliantly my end. Even got a notification on my linked smart watch that my bank deposit arrived. :ok_hand:

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I agree. :sunglasses:

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Bias detected :stuck_out_tongue:

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As an iOS user really excited and happy to see Android users join us at last.

Happy trading everyone!

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Iā€™m still waiting for the opportunity to test it :frowning_face: just hope the Android Q issue is sorted soon but will be keeping an eye out :eyes:

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Itā€™s both working and looking great here.

One thing to note, when entering the numerical amount to invest, then moving down to change the order type to basic, the ā€˜pop upā€™ to make this change is hidden behind the keyboard (since itā€™s still open from entering a value). Itā€™s a small detail, and maybe due to my phoneā€™s settings, it doesnā€™t affect functionality as the keyboard can be manually minimised to then select the order type.

All in all Iā€™m hugely impressed. Congratulations all, and have fun tonight!

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Iā€™m glad thatā€™s working for you :grinning:

We will look into the issue with the pop up and keyboard, thanks for letting us know!

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Are you adding more people to the Android app today?

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The app looks amazing you guys, I had a minor issue with it crashing upon signing up but everything else looks fab!

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Great to hear :grinning:

Please do in-app message us about your crashing issue, as weā€™d love to fix that.

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