Hi. I wrote a similar thing yesterday, but I figured I would make it a bit more visible by writing a separate forum post about this. A few days ago, a Roger update was released that consumed a lot of battery on people's iPhones. Luckily, yesterday the 2nd an update was released that fixed that issue, so that's the great part. My concern is that the Roger team has been acting in ways that I'm not sure I like, and I'm hoping they'll see this and lift the cone of silence if you will, and respond directly. It used to be that sending them an email got a pretty quick result back, but the last couple times I emailed them I got back no response whatsoever. I've also been informed by several people that Roger no longer has a beta team, and just pushes the latest fixes to the app store. I think after the update a few days ago that the Roger team should seriously reconsider this decision. I truly believe that if they had beta testers, the battery issue of a few days ago could've been completely avoided, and people wouldn't have had to use iPhones with draining batteries for as long as it took the update to be released. Believe me, there are many people on here including myself who would love to be beta testers, and make things better if possible. I also find it interesting that, in the release notes of yesterday's app update, absolutely no mention of the battery issue was made. It fixed the issue for sure, but I would think it would've put forth some good will to the users if a mention was made that it was fixed. They did post to their twitter account, but not everyone's on twitter. Lastly, my concern is about pushing new features. By that I mean if Roger introduces a new feature, we are constantly hounded every time we open the app. Case in point the new talk heads feature. Roger now has a widget in iOS 10 that allows you to talk to people right from the lock screen. First you have to add the widget to your list of widgets, and then move it to the top of the list. If you don't, a little message inviting you to try the talk heads feature is displayed every single time the app is opened, and the only way to get rid of it is to add the widget, and move it to the top of the list. Well, what if people have no interest in using the widget? Maybe they just want to open the app and use it without being reminded that this feature is available? I'm all for new features, but maybe only remind us once, like on the first launch of the app after an update, and then every subsequent launch, just bring up the app, even if we haven't added the widget and moved it to the top of the list. I guess alls i'm saying is that i'd like to see the team be a little more responsive to its user base in the same way it used to. I knew that if I emailed the Roger team i'd get a polite, prompt response. Now of course, it's entirely possible that my emails never made it, but i'd sure like to think they did. So i'll turn it over to you folks and hopefully the Roger team will respond with some ideas as to how we can make things a bit better. I absolutely love Roger, it's a supurb app and I believe if they were to make these changes, it could be even better. I just want Roger to be the very best it can be. Thanks for reading!
Comments
totally agreed
Totally agreed with this post. I also got an email from the roger team with emoticons in it. As a company that seaks to be professional, this is something that should be avoided at all costs. Writing emails with lots of emoji in them can possibly make the person seem like an immature, unprofessional person. one would think that, given the fact that the Roger team is a software company (albeit a small one), they would at least try to be professional about things like this.
Also, disbanding the beta team was a big, big mistake on their part. I would love to know why the hell they thought this was a good idea in the first place.
It's too bad
It's too bad that Roger has stopped the beta testing team. I am getting quite tired of opening Roger just to get the notification about continuing the conversation outside the app. I hope that Roger does do something about this soon. I agree with toonhead, that notification only needs to appear once. Not several times.
THere is a way
there is a way to fix that for a short while. jsut enable the widget even if you don't use it. I had to do that.
Thanks, guys
Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm always a bit nervous when I post stuff like this. This app can do even more than it does now and i'd like to regain some of that interaction we had with the Roger team. Rarely does an app developer show so much interest and things were going beautifully. I'm not sure if someone or something pissed them off, but i'd like to make things better, if I can.
I stopped using the app.
Hi there folks,
After running the app for a while I discovered it to be one hell of a Data hog, as well as a huge drain on the battery. First, I turned off cellular data use, only use it on Wi-Fi. Then, we had the disastrous battery eating update, which made me stop using the app at all.
I refuse to use an app with a developer that does not return your feedback in any way, shape or form.
Getting rid of your beta testing team, is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of in my life, and I am use to South African politicians.
So, for now I do not even have Roger installed on either my iPad or my phone.
Good luck to those of you who plan on keeping using the app, I do not find myself with in your ranks.
Just a thought.
Hello,
Just a thought. Perhaps the dev for Roger no longer comes by Applevis. BUT, they may still be subscribed to the original Roger topic where they seemed to always reply. Have you tried posting this in that thread and hopefully it will end up in the dev’s inbox? Sorry, I never really followed the Roger topic but noticed the dev seemed to always post in there.
Good luck.
I thought of that, but...
I thought of that idea, but I felt this was very very important and didn't want my concerns to be in their, 2 or 3 pages deep in the conversation. I know Roger has a lot of users and I feel like this needs to be seen.
Emailing them?
Just a thought but send them an email? If you're concerned keep emailing them until you get a response. If everyone is so dissatisfied with things, I'd email until my hands fall off. Note, I am pretty sure the battery issue has been fixed. That ok button dialog when it starts, whatever click it, keep going iwth life. Just my uncaffinated thoughts.
same for me
Hi, after reading this post, I have removed Roger from my phone. I had 2 groups that I've created, but after the update, no one has ever got on their to talk, and I've removed the app from my phone for now until they fix it. I also emailed them and never got a responce back. so now, I'm SOL (So out of luck). Now the only apps I use are Zello, and Vorail. anyways, back to this topic regarding roger. yes, they no longer have a beta team, but hopefully they will get their act together.
emails
I've done that. No response. None. Zero. Not very good.
remember, ...
Like I said in the original post, I emailed them twice, not once but twice, folks! 2 times! with no response. They probably don't care anymore for some reason, but I have to try. I just have this thing where if someone doesn't respond to me I find other ways of contacting. I'm not even sure if they hang out here anymore.
i totally agree
I've had similar issues. I have an iPhone 6 plus and I was having quite a lot of problems with Rodger.
Firstly, as stated above, the annoying alerts to do things when I opened the app. I added and then moved the widget to the top just to get rid of the annoying box that pops up. I don't even use it but then I don't really use my today screen that much anyway.
As I said above, I have an iPhone 6 plus and I find Rodger to be incredibly slow to open. It takes at least 10 or more seconds. This maybe just because of my older phone, but all other apps open much quicker. I am running iOS 10 as well.
Another problem is the notifications. It's mainly been fixed now but for a time when iOS 10 was released some notifications weren't coming through.
I emailed the Rodger team and got a response within about 3 to 4 days. They simply said an update was coming out later that day and that it would fix most of my issues. However, there seems to be little improvement and as many people have said it only served to make the battery usage with Rodger a problem too.
I said in my email that I used to love Rodger and think it was a great app but this issues are beginning to become annoying. In my opinion, the app has definitely gone down hill. I just how it gets back on track because it used to be something I used daily.
Looks like it might be back to the WhatsApp voice messages for me,, even if they do have bad sound, at least there reliable.
beta testing
I also used to be a beta tester of Rodger on test flight. As was stated above, they now just send the latest release to the appstore. This is very disappointing. I know there are many people who would like to test Rodger and make sure everything's working for others when it's officially released. I really don't think the way it's being done now is the right way.
They also pulled the chat on slack where a lot of voiceover feedback was submitted. They had a great set of beta testers with test flight who would then report anything on slack to the Rodger team who were always active on their. It's a real shame all of that's stopped.
If they don't care...
If they don't care, why are they bothering to release updates to the app? seems a little counterintuitive if you ask me. Why work on something you don't care bout it, much less actually *want* to make it better for all users who use the app or service or whatever?
I agree, back to square 1
Hi, I totally agree with the previous poster. I mite go back to skype. I also emailed them twice and got no answer what so ever. I'm better off using skype, Zello, Etc. Looks like it's back to square 1. I hope that they do not discontinue the roger app. In other words, take the app down from the app store like they did with Cord. It was a grate app for awhile, but now it's going all down hill for all of us.
i wouldn't say it's going downhill
Ok, I need to stop everyone here for just a second and say that i'm not going to allow this to become a "Roger sucks" thread. That's not the spirit in which I wrote this. We want the Roger team to explain what's going on if possible, and some of you are doing everything to keep them away from the thread. Why if I read some of the comments here i'd stay away too. Some of this is understandable about how some people have removed the app due to the battery issues. The good news is that the bug has been fixed and the app works exactly as it should. I want to be as clear as I can here. I, personally do not believe Roger sucks. If you guys want to think so that's your own thing but I don't think it does. I just want to have a little dialogue with them and have them explain why they've gone completely silent. I don't know if having this thread up here will even help, but it's the best thing I can do after emailing them twice and not receiving any response. Perhaps i'll email them again and see, like I was saying before it is entirely possible that my email never reached them. I just don't want to ruin a good conversation that could result. i'm trying to be nice here, but firm in telling them that we would love to help make the app as good as it can be and we'll help if they're interested.
I would love for the issues to be fixed
In my opinion, I don't think Roger sucks, I just feel that they don't seem to be responding as well to problems that I am finding with the app I E battery issues and loading times. I emailed them and they said the issues would be fixed but then I find that they aren't. I have emailed them again. all I'm trying to say is that I used to love using it but now because they're not responding as well and in my case not fixing the bugs it's getting more difficult to use. Maybe I chose the wrong wording when I said it's going downhill but I just meant that it's definitely not as good as it was before. I really hope that we can get this app back on track because I think it's a great concept and it used to work really well. I would love to help in any way and personally feel that I wouldn't like to lose this app like we have done with others in the past, it has a lot of potential and was already on the way to being a great app .
have you tried the latest update
Have you tried the latest update, released this last Sunday? I can tell you for sure that the issues with the battery have absolutely been fixed, before I had to plug my phone in constantly but since the update I haven't had to plug it in and charge it hardly at all. So, if you haven't updated, please do and let us know how it goes. It's a great app. It really is. I've never found such great sound from an app. it's accessible, and it does precisely what it's supposed to do, it just needs a few tweaks so it runs even more smoothly than it does now.
I used to be
I used to be on the slack channel
Roger get back on track!
Wehn I said email...
Get it through your head. Email Monday, Tuesday, wednesday, every day: until you get a response. Why? Let's be blunt, some of yall ain't got nothin but time on your hands. Others' the more we piss them off faster they respond. Graphic, violent, sure fine, just stop bitching and do something. f you don't like it, fine ignore my advice. no problem lol.
The update
I've had the update since Sunday and yep all the battery issues have been fixed just fine. still some lag with loading times but it's gotten better and it may just be down to me having an older phone. The main thing for me is being able to contact the rodger team and help them develop the app further. The beta testing platform used to be great for that but we can still email, which i usually do if there's any problem. Just don't why they pulled the beta program myself
I have done this
Siobhan, I have done this. No response what so ever. None. Zero. Not a word.
For the record, I'm also not saying roger sucks. I'm just saying that if they don't seem to give a damn, why are they working on the app? If I didn't care about something and felt it wasn't worth my time to do it, I'd let the user base know as kindly as possible, but this not listening to user feedback is not good for any business. doesn't matter if it's a bank, tech company, game dev, whatever. Listen to feeback. It's good for you.
Can someone please post their
Can someone please post their email for us? I notice something odd today with the update. I was listening to conversations when all the sudden it switched to the earpeace. Anyone else notice this?
contact info for Roger
Hi. The email address that's posted on their website is hello@rogertalk.com. if you're on twitter, their username is HelloRoger
It appears they haven't given up on Testflight after all.
I just noticed there is a new Roger build on Testflight, so it appears they may not have given up on it after all.
Roger Beta
I am on the Roger beta testing team. So they do have one, but I've noticed they tend to not test every update before they put it out. A beta just came out today and it said to fix a lot of iOS 10 bugs. So we'll see what happens.
This is encouraging news!
I'm glad you guys spoke up, because a lot of us weren't lucky enough to be on the beta team. It's good to know they're working on the iOS 10 bugs. It doesn't address every single one of my concerns but this is good enough for now. We'll see what happens in subsequent releases.
beta
the update is good news. It's great to see there still working on the app and hopefully taking feedback.
Just a question on the beta testing now, do any beta releases just go to the updates section in the appstore now they don't use testflight? If I remember correctly this is what they said they were going to do.
New procedure for contacting Roger support.
Hi everyone,
I discovered that if you go to settings, under the feedback and help heading, there is a button that says email us at hello@rogertalk.com. Double-tap this button to start your email message. Certain information, such as your Roger app version and iOS version are automatically inserted into the email. I got a response to my inquiry about using Roger with Siri within 5 minutes. Also, in Roger's help documentation, it states that bug reports and issues should be reported via email, while feedback and suggestions should be communicated using the talk with us button in settings. I hope this helps. I too love Roger. In fact, I wish more of my friends used Roger, so that I wouldn't have to have so many messaging apps to communicate with all of my friends, as it seems like I have an app for each group of my friends. :-)
Have you guys
Have you guys gotten the bug where you get the alert to enable the widget, but can't find the thing in the today view? Very annoying. Apparently they removed the widget, but the message still pops up. Blah.
yes indeed
Yes indeed, the Roger Widget doesn't seem to be available anymore. so I guess we're going to have to take that extra step of clicking that ok button until a new version is released. I know, #FirstWorldProblems and all that. but it still is kind of annoying to have to take that extra step when we shouldn't have to.
VoiceOver is very sluggish.
Hello everyone,
VoiceOver is verry sluggish for me in the Roger app. This doesn't happen for me on any other app. I am using an iPhone 6. Could you please fix this issue?
Your right. I too...
@HilaryReed Your right. I too love roger. In fact, I'm in this christian group called living word followship. It's a group that is hosted by Sean and Tod Ray. They are the owners to the group. If you want ferther information, Contact me through Roger.
I too love roger, their
I too love roger, their twitter is for announcements only which is fine. You can get hold of them through email. Which reminds me I need to do said action to ask if they can start to implement the hooke audio interface api as they agreed to look into this 6 months ago but the api wasn't yet released.
Take care.
I emailed them yesterday and...
@ke7zum I just returned to roger after a long hiatus. It's great to know that they have the search feature working again. I emailed them yesterday and hopefully I will get a reply from them soon. update: I just figured out that the email is only used for buggs and issues. guess I will talk through them through the "talk with us" button in the settings screen. oops? my bad.