Android, being the most popular mobile operating system today, has millions of application that any person can download from the Play Store. Having such a huge variety of installable software on loads of different devices from dozens of manufacturers has its downsides, perhaps, like being more susceptible to crashes due to not being thoroughly tested on every single model that is available. Hardware differences aside, OEM-specific software implementations on top of the AOSP (Android Open Source Project) code may sometimes be the culprit because of manufacturers not strictly following Google's guidelines.
With that said, in today's report we are focusing on exactly what happens behind the scenes when an app crash occurs and the ways that you can help to get bugs flushed down the drain. Here is a short set of questions and answers explaining some of the key things you should be familiar with.
- Why do Android app crashes happen? - The simplest answer to this question is that crashes occur whenever there is an unexpected exit caused by an unhandled exception or signal.
- What are error messages? - In case of an exception, Android always stores logs containing the exact problem and when it happened.
- How crashlytics get collected? - Crashlytics (logs about a crash) are being stored locally on all Android devices, and if individual app developers bundle with their apps special software for monitoring such as Google's firebase, they can get those logs sent to them automatically. All of the data can be viewed from the Firebase Developer Console, including your device's model number, version of Android, and more.
- What to do when an app force closes? - Android displays warnings when an application force closes, or, in other words, errors out. You can reopen the particular app, or choose to send feedback and send logs manually.
Those are the most common things you have to know about app errors on Android. Providing proper logs and detailed device information is always needed for fixing device-specific issues, considering that you put into the equation the criteria that we mentioned in the intro. Also, if you are a beta tester for an app, you can send feedback regarding bugs of all sorts directly to its developer from the Play Store alone,
Source: Android Developers
