August 2021 Summaries

Monitoring in application performance management (APM) involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) such as launch times, UI hangs, and network performance to identify issues and assess the app's overall quality. However, monitoring alone is not enough, as it does not provide insight into what users are experiencing. APM also includes managing several components of app performance to prevent, diagnose, and correct quality issues. The main difference between APM and application performance management lies in their approach: monitoring is a reactive strategy, while management is proactive. A mobile APM tool should track metrics such as app launch times, UI hangs, network performance, Apdex scores, and app traces, providing granular breakdowns of reported metrics with filters and changes over time. To achieve comprehensive app quality, it's essential to complement an APM tool with other app-quality products, such as bug reporting, in-app chats, crash reporting, session replay, in-app surveys, and app ratings and reviews. Instabug provides a range of tools for mobile teams to maintain industry-leading apps with user-centric stability and performance monitoring.

Flutter is a popular cross-platform app framework developed by Google that has gained significant traction in the developer community, but still lags behind established platforms in terms of resources. Fortunately, the Flutter community's rapid growth has led to an increase in high-quality blogs, newsletters, and communities emerging daily, providing developers with valuable insights, tutorials, and tools to improve their skills and stay up-to-date with the latest developments. The post highlights a range of top Flutter resources, including blogs, newsletters, and communities, such as Flutter Awesome, flutter-dev blog, Flutter Community, Code With Andrea, Reso Coder, Flutter Developer Weekly, Flutter Tap, Flutter Digest, FlutterForce, official Google Groups, Gitter chat rooms, Discord channels, Reddit forums, Codemagic's Slack community, and Futter Buddies. Additionally, it mentions popular courses and tutorials, such as Ray Wenderlich, The Complete 2021 Flutter Development Bootcamp with Dart on Udemy, and Instabug for mobile app stability and performance monitoring. These resources are designed to help developers enhance their skills, learn from the community, and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving Flutter ecosystem.

Application Performance Management (APM) and Application Performance Monitoring are terms often used interchangeably, yet they encompass distinct aspects of app quality strategies. APM is a comprehensive approach that integrates monitoring as a crucial component, aiming to proactively manage and optimize application performance by diagnosing and correcting issues. In contrast, monitoring focuses on tracking key performance indicators to assess app quality and performance, often reacting to identified problems. While web APM solutions are well-established, the mobile APM sector is evolving, with tools like Luciq specializing in providing robust solutions tailored for mobile developers. Essential features of a mobile APM tool include tracking app launch times, UI hangs, network performance, Apdex scores, and app traces to identify root causes of performance issues. Luciq offers additional tools like bug reporting, crash reporting, session replay, in-app surveys, and app ratings to provide a comprehensive view of app performance and user experience, thus enhancing the app's stability and quality.

Flutter, Google's rapidly growing cross-platform app framework, lacks the extensive resources available to older platforms, but its expanding community has led to an increase in valuable blogs, newsletters, and communities. Key resources include Flutter Awesome, a hub for discovering and sharing community-created libraries and tools, and the flutter-dev blog on Medium, which provides official updates and insights. Notable blogs such as Code With Andrea and Reso Coder offer tutorials and tips from experts, while newsletters like Flutter Developer Weekly and Flutter Digest keep developers informed on the latest developments. The Flutter community is further supported by platforms like the flutter-dev Google Group, Gitter chat room, Discord channel, and subreddit, as well as Codemagic.io's Slack community and Flutter Buddies on Discord. Additionally, courses from Ray Wenderlich and Udemy, including The Complete 2021 Flutter Development Bootcamp with Dart, offer structured learning opportunities for both novices and experienced developers. These resources collectively empower developers to enhance their skills and remain updated on the latest in Flutter development.

The Instabug team organized a virtual event called "The Instabug Games" to bring together team members from Egypt and the USA, who were spread apart due to remote work. The event featured five rounds of competitive games and activities, such as word searches, tech industry logo quizzes, snakes and ladders, match-the-fact-to-a-colleague, and a final round where teams had to use acting skills to convey Instabug-related words. The team showed unique skills and talents, and the event allowed them to get to know each other better and have fun despite being apart. The PeopleOperations team served as moderators for the event, which helped break the work routine and emphasize the importance of having a fun culture where team members can develop themselves and enjoy their time together.

Luciq, a company with team members spread across Egypt and the USA, organized a virtual event called 'The Luciq Games' to foster connection and camaraderie among its geographically dispersed employees. This multi-round tournament included activities such as a word search, tech industry logo quiz, virtual snakes and ladders, and a creative final round where employees communicated Luciq-related words through acting, signs, or symbols. Despite the challenges of not meeting in person, the event successfully engaged employees with competitive spirit and friendly drama, enabling them to connect, break the routine, and embrace the company's core value of "Work hard, play hard." Participants appreciated the opportunity to interact with colleagues they hadn't met before, enhancing team cohesion and morale.

This update to APM (Application Performance Monitoring) for iOS and Android aims to provide a more comprehensive view of app performance by introducing hot app launches, which monitor the time it takes for an app to become responsive after being launched from background to foreground. Additionally, the SDK now captures request and response payload sizes automatically, allowing users to filter results based on these metrics in the trends and patterns section. Furthermore, custom network trace attributes can be added to provide more context about performance issues, enabling developers to identify problematic requests quickly and accurately.

The recent update to Luciq's Application Performance Monitoring (APM) for iOS and Android introduces features designed to enhance the understanding and optimization of app performance. Notably, the addition of "hot app launches" enables monitoring of app responsiveness when transitioning from background to foreground, a feature enabled by default from version 10.8.0. The update also includes automatic capture of payload sizes for network requests, allowing for filtering by size to identify and address slow or problematic requests efficiently. Users can now add custom network trace attributes for deeper performance insights. Together with Crash Reporting and Bug Reporting tools, these enhancements aim to improve app performance and provide a high-quality user experience.