We asked, you told us: Here's how many of you bother reading app changelogs

Apps are constantly adding new features or fixing ongoing issues and bugs. All of this updated information is added to an app’s changelog in the Google Play Store to help users understand what’s going on with their favorite apps. However, these changelogs are sometimes very generic and don’t provide detailed information. That can be frustrating and offputting, forcing one to ignore them completely. So we conducted a poll asking our readers if they bother reading the “What’s New” section of an app. Here’s how they voted.

Do you read app changelogs on the Google Play Store?

Results

Our survey received over 1,500 votes and shows that most of our readers like going through app changelogs on the Google Play Store. 54% of the respondents voted to say that they check app changelogs all the time.

Meanwhile, 34% of the surveyed readers opt to read app changelogs only when they see an update notification for an app.

12% of the voters said they never bother reading app changelogs.

Your comments

Chris_Peter: I used to read them, but now most of the time devs don’t put what they even changed. It’s often an empty box or meaningless bs like “we’re constantly improving our service for you something something somethig. That pisses me off.

Martin Pollard: Facebook and Google are probably a couple of the worst offenders. After seeing the umpteenth “Google Pixel phones can now something something gazpacho,” I just ignored whatever BS Google has to say about their app updates (and Facebook’s various apps are always “information not provided,” so pffft on that).

Paul: Yep, I still read them but this is annoying.

DBS: Why? So that I can read “bug fixed and improvements” over and over and over and over and over again?
I have better things to do. The only time I pay attention to changelogs is if I’m waiting for a specific feature or fix.

roaduardo: I don’t auto-update apps for this reason. At least on Android. For key apps that I’m really locked into that version’s stability and features, I read about the update first and then I read the comments on that update to see if anyone’s noticed something important that the devs removed. This has happened several times in my experience. The devs will remove some key features many users have come to depend on. So I don’t update that app anymore. Not until the following updates fix what they broke. Nova Launcher is a great example. What they’re doing now? No thanks. I’ll stick to an older version that’s much better than what they have now.

duckofdeath: I read them if I’m actively waiting for a fix to an issue.

KRB: I’ll skim them. I won’t waste time delving into them too much, but I figure it’s the least I can do as the developer worked hard and should be acknowledged for it. Even shot a developer of a gallery app I use a positive note when he was crying over the work he does and whether it’s worth his effort to make a app change log as he was on the fence about it. I wasn’t the only one who shot him a positive note either… And sometimes they’re genuinely informative. Would’ve never had learned that my music player gained the ability to cast to my Chromecast (one of the first to gain that ability I think). Now my 80’s era stereo which still rocks, it sits in the corner collecting dust because I just cast to my Chromecast. Television displays art work and rocks itself!