Implement Developer -> User communication channel and tracking options

[MrApplejuice]

Firm message to my users: All of the tracking features will be disabled by default. I do not like tracking systems myself, I would disable them by default myself. Not being tracked is the killer feature of BabyBuddy and this android app. What I would like to do are these three things:

• Use PostHog as a message store to be able to broadcast important messages to users in case some bigger bug was discovered (not sure if this is possible in the first place)
• Add an option to "report application errors to PostHog for 7 days". Default = off! This would allow for easier debugging of application bugs without me creating custom test release each time. Someone can simply opt-in to the 7-day thing and I receive messages.
• Maybe ask for a ping-back right after the installation. Then I can count installs. As an open-source developer, this just makes me very happy to see "line go up" and getting the "line goes up" feedback is a bit hard with a project like this.

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Additional background

Issue #74 has shown me that not only a user -> developer channel is important, but a non-intrusive developer -> user channel also is valuable. If something big, like the total failure of the history components happens again, I get messages, but I cannot ask for help or send messages about the state of the bug fix or anything. Only a very limited number of people will find GitHub or have an account on here.

I was aiming to integrate PostHog for advanced debugging features and to maybe get a better impression of how many users are using the app in the first place. I somehow liked the PostHog project since I discovered it and it being open source and having the (potential) ability to self-host it, I like very much.

[OneCreek]

Like this mindset and reported 2 issues (one with a issue #77) via contact development already today. Very convenient:) Hope it helps making the app better:)

Regarding posthug: don't know it, but think it's still important to report/track issues via GitHub. So this would only be an additional information source like "contact developer" or something like " create log files".
Would this posthug be only for GitHub version or also GooglePlayStore?

[MrApplejuice]

Very convenient:) Hope it helps making the app better:)

Glad you like it. And very helpful for me! One insight, if you ever do app development in any regard: You need some form of feedback system. It is so so ear-deafening silent on my side. We use the app in our house as well, friends and family and specifically the bad Google Reviews are the only useful feedback that you otherwise get. And I am not trying to burn the bad/mediocre Google Reviewers here. The feedback they gave was actually very valuable! It allows steering the app somewhere where it is actually useful for someone other than me... but I also would like to collect that information in a more direct way somehow, so glad that at least you found this feature! 👍

but think it's still important to report/track issues via GitHub

That will not change at all. But, as mentioned before, it is really hard to get user-data to my side of the internet. So an opt-in error reporting system for PostHog would be a complementary communication system for me to see how well the app works.

So this would only be an additional information source like "contact developer" or something like " create log files". Would this posthug be only for GitHub version or also GooglePlayStore?

Both, GitHub version and Google Play. And yes, additional information.

About PostHog: I at first though it was a open source alternative to sentry.io, but I think that PostHog is more generic. When you login the first time though, it smells a lot more like "user profiling" than sentry.io. Just to give an impression of what I mean, here a screenshot of some of their dashboard templates:

That said, all of this is optional and not what I want to use it for! I experimented with it yesterday, and I understand the product a bit better now. The most interesting features are:

• feature flags: these can be bent to be very useful for getting the "broadcast message" to users going. Feature flag = "show broadcast message", payload = "message to all users"
• events: Tracking of actual issues the app has when communicating with the baby buddy server. And the optional "new app was installed message" is also an event, that would notify me when someone installs the app.

And in general, I trust an external service like PostHog to better deal with the (optional) data collection and indexing of events in all regards: them being able to actually do this, privacy standards, robustness of infrastructure etc. I am writing an Open Source Android app afterall, and I am not in the business of deploying infrastructure for this.

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Succeeded in creating a wall-of-text... sorry about that 🤣