Virgin Usage Meter - An end is a new beginning

The Virgin Usage Meter has always been my favourite app, it taught me a lot about Android Development, but even more so about people. Virgin Usage Meter started out as a small app I wrote for myself which was never intended for release, in fact it wasn't until I saw a thread on Whirlpool requesting somebody write one, 3 months later, that I started to entertain the idea of releasing the app. After a few beta tests by the kind people in the Whirlpool thread I released the app which, for an app on the play store at that time, became a quick success. Within the first few days I had 1000 active users shooting past my very low expectations and steady growth over three years saw me topping 92000. Even more remarkable was that the app never dropped lower than a 4.5 star rating, and had a 5 star rating for the first 18 months.

So what did it teach me about people? It taught me that a very small minority of people expect that every developer owes them 24/7 support, instant fixes and can be incredibly condescending and rude. Luckily and more importantly it taught me that a large majority of people are encouraging, extremely accommodating, will step in to defend you against the above small minority. Even with all the time I spent developing the app, it was the users who shaped it into the app it eventually turned out to be.

Retiring the app wasn't as tough a decision as I thought it might have been. Three years is a long time for a single person to maintain a hobby app, and VMA's constant plan and website changes meant a lot of late night bug fixes and updates. I also started to receive a larger proportion of demanding emails, of which many grew abusive and threatening if I didn't respond within a few hours. So when Virgin approached me to sell the app to them and help rebuild it into an official app with official APIs, I saw a win/win scenario for myself and users and jumped at the opportunity.

I am really very pleased with how My Account turned out, there's a lot of my app lurking in there but with the new API's it's much more reliable and the new polish has made it much easier to use better to look at. It's still early days for My Account and I know Virgin have some great ideas for the future, and I'm happy to still be a part of an app that helped to carve out my career as an Android developer.

Virgin Mobile Australia - My Account

Virgin Australia Usage Meter

Virgin Australia Usage Meter downloads your call and data usage directly from the Virgin website and displays it in either an application format or a home screen widget. It also contains optional notifications that warn you when you're approaching the end of your cycle or data/call limit.

The must have app for those running Android on the Virgin network.

Change Notes for 3.2.2:

• Fixed login issues

Current version 3.2.2

Alternate Mirror: Download Here

Troubleshooting Notes:

• The data from Virgin can be up to 48 hours behind. Although in my experience it's never been this far behind.
• Virgin can take up to to 48 hours to completely setup new accounts, until this time the app may not work.
• If you are receiving 0 days remaining and you have a new account, you may have to wait up until your first bill for this to be corrected. This is a problem with Virgins expiry date data.
• You cannot downgrade, to install a lower version you must fully uninstall and re-install.

Virgin Usage Meter Tops 10,000 Downloads

A little while ago I wrote an update saying that the Virgin Usage Meter had just broken the 1000 active users mark. Well now I'm ecstatic to say that it has just topped 10,000 total downloads, 10098 to be exact. This is a milestone I never imagined I'd reach let alone in the small time it has been on the market.

Now I know what you're saying, that's a very impressive number but it doesn't really indicate anything of substance. I understand, I mean what's the point of a million downloads if only 100 are actively using it? Well, with that in mind I proudly present the active user count...

75% of downloaders are active users which equates to 7574 active users.

Lets put that number in perspective, I hit 1000 active users in September 28th 2010, which is approximately 5 months ago. Since that time the active user base has grown around 650% in 5 months, that's 130% user base growth per month on average. Now that's some perspective.

Before I sign off I'd like to say the usual thank yous.

A big thank you to all the users, espeically those who stuck through the bugs. I'd also like to say a big thank you to Virgin Australia who have been more than understanding when it comes to my barrage of tweets.

Virgin Members Site Back Online

As most of you probably already know the Virgin Member's Site is back up and running. I would advise people to login to the members area and just make sure all your data is correct. There have been a few people who have missing call and data usage. If you find anything incorrect on your account it'd be great if you could give Virgin a call on their support line and report the problem. The quicker they know about these things the quicker they can fix them.

The other good news is that the app is in perfectly fine shape so I can keep on chugging away at the promised upgrades.

Virgin Members Site Down

As per the title, the Virgin members area is now down for maintenance. If all goes well it should be up on the 22nd around lunch time. Although I have some good news, I fired off a tweet to Virgin Support and they have informed me that it's mainly just a hardware upgrade so hopefully the Virgin Usage Meter shouldn't be effected when the servers come back online, which is great news as I can continue to concentrate on improvements rather than fixes.

Edit:

I have some good news and bad news, the bad news is that the techs over at Virgin are having trouble with the server upgrades and as of yet the servers are still down. I have been told they came online briefly for a short period of time, which luckily was long enough for Strafer333 to confirm over twitter that the Usage Meter still works after the upgrade. Hopefully the servers will come back online soon.

A Little Teaser

There hasn't been as many updates to the Virgin Usage Meter as I would have liked in the last few months. With a new job and a few other projects I've been pressed for time. Well no more, I'm wiping the agenda list so I can put some good hard hours into bring some much needed improvements to the Virgin Usage Meter.

So what is it you can expect in the next couple of months? Well here is a small list of the most important ones.

• New 2 x 1 customizable widget with 3 different views
• Auto updating that is no longer be tied to the widget
• Historical usage statistics
• Better prepaid support
• Multiple account support
• Rollover account support
• A few other bits a pieces

I can't promise you'll see all the above in the next release but they will appear throughout the next three or four updates.

Virgin System Upgrade

Virgin has notified users via it's members page that it will be doing a systems upgrade from the 19th of February 2011 to the 21st of February 2011. Some of you will recall that Virgin had scheduled the system upgrade for a little under a month ago but was delayed for unknown reasons. Obviously the Virgin Usage Meter won't work during this time. What is worse is that I don't know exactly what a "systems upgrade" for Virgin intails. If it is a website upgrade it's almost certain that my app will no longer work and I will need to release a fix. Depending on how much the webpage changes it could take a day to release a fix to a couple of weeks if they use delayed ajax calls.

I will be releasing an update for the app which will warn people of this and to avoid a market rating plummet I will be removing it from the market over the upgrade period. I hate to do this as it feels like I've left people in the lurch but the alternative is a 1 star rating that will be next to impossible to get back.

I appreciate your patience over this period and I want you all to know that I will be working hard to get a fix up as soon as I possibly can. I will amend and comment on this post when I have any further information on the upgrade itself or the progress on an app fix.

Virgin Prepaid Connection Problem Update

Thanks to help from an extremely helpful Whirlpooler named Saeko, I have managed to track down a few bugs and find a work around to the connection problems that were plaguing Virgin prepaid users. The Virgin Usage Meter should now work for prepaid accounts once again. If this is not the case please let me know by either comment or email.

Thank you for all of your understanding and patience.

I repeat, the Virgin Usage Meter is working for prepaid accounts once again!

Virgin Prepaid Connection Problem

Virgin is currently having HTTPS connection issues with prepaid accounts that are using the VirginInternet APN. Due to the Virgin Usage Meter using HTTPS for security, it it's not currently working for prepaid accounts. In some cases it could also be causing phones to freeze.

Until further notice it's recommended that you remove the widget and not refresh the data if you have a prepaid account.

I will update this post as more information comes in.

Update: 12/11/2010

It doesn't look like Virgin will be able to fix this quickly, so I'm looking into a work around. It will take some time so please bare with me I'm working as fast as I can.

Over 1000 Active Virgin Usage Meter Installations

After checking the Android Developer Console I was surprised to see that Virgin Usage Meter now has over 1000 active installations. It has come a long way since it was a simple app with an awful red background and yellow usage bars. I remember how surprised I was when it first hit 100 active downloads and now it's 10 times that. While it's not the millions of active downloads some apps out there get it's definitely many more than I expected.

Virgin Usage Meter Bug Submission

I've been writing a lot of bug replies lately, and most of them are pretty much carbon copies of each other describing what information I need in order to diagnose the problem.

In order to speed up the turn around of bug submissions I think it will be more efficient if I list some details here on describing what I need. That way I get all the information I need up front.

Things to include in your email:

• A description of the bug

For postpaid accounts

• A copy of your Bill Preview page (Save file as HTML)
• A copy of your Mobile Internet Usage page (Save file as HTML)

For prepaid accounts

• A copy of your Mobile Internet Usage page (Save file as HTML)
• A copy of your Recharge History page (Save file as HTML)

Important: All data sent to me is private and confidential and will destroyed at the earliest time possible. Please note that I cannot extract passwords from any of the above files and will not abuse or share any of the data I receive.

Virgin Usage Meter Update

This is just a quick update to let you all know that the new theme is finished and pretty much ready to go. The changes were unfortunately much deeper than expected so much of the code base has undergone considerable change. Hopefully I will get the update onto the market by Friday, unless any new bugs arise.