I used to use a lot of Google stuff (search, docs, G+, etc). Have binned all Google products now—save for blue moon searches.
Yes, and the much-too-soon release of Windows Scrivener 3 beta versions (barely alpha versions in reality) was a massive disaster.
Agreed. So much grief and bashing in Windows comments section. But mercifully with the release that has stopped.
I desperately need this on my Android device - seems the only time I ever get to write these days is if I’m stuck waiting for a family member in some waiting room somewhere..
I don’t know if it is just me, but… last we heard from someone official, the project is dead.
This post from an unknown user you’re referring to dates back to July 2013. What about this statement from the boss (July 2017):
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Ah. Better.
Perhaps it’d be an idea to lock this here thread all together then.
P.S. That unknown user has moderator privileges and LL’s logo for a personal icon…
From my limited understanding “system” is a dummy user that inherits posts of deserted accounts, in order that threads don’t become incomprehensible because of deleted posts.
Might be wrong, though.
Ok well, whatever it is, it is uselessly confusing imo.
(Else, I would have thought it’d be a generic any of the moderators could use for discretion or whatever.)
Ladies and gentlemen, Android not dead. (At least I corrected that part. 
)
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Times have changed since 2013.
If I was to design a new multi-platform software nowadays, I’d make it a webapp. That way I’d get native Win/Mac/Linux versions with Electron, a browser-based cloud version, and could make primitive “webview-only” apps for ios and android. I could even offer the desktop apps in an online (cloud) and offline flavour or have them sync with the cloud (like Apple Mail/Numbers/etc. do).
It’d be one development effort for all platforms, with only some minimal platform-dependent tweaks for the installable apps.
Just my $.50 (inflation adjusted).
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Sadly not much use in the deep tunnels of the London Underground because there is no Internet access down there. Access on stations is patchy and depends how crowd the platform is as you need to move around to find the 1cm where a connection can be made.
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If the webapp is well made, it can provide many functions offline. The webbrowser offers persistent storage that can be used to keep documents available offline and sync them when an internet connection is available again.
And most text editing functions would run purely in the browser, the server would just act as storage medium. But you probably wouldn’t be able to use such things as compiling, changing global settings, snapshots and such stuff.
And that’s just the webbrowser version. If an installable app is involved, it can do plenty of additional stuff. Although I don’t think the node.js backend (which would be used by the desktop apps and on the server) would run on mobile devices, so adding server-side functionality there would be extra coding effort.
I know, there aren’t many websites that offer an offline mode nowadays. It never got that popular. The only one I can think of is the Kindle reader, but I haven’t checked if that functionality is still there after the last update (the one that started forcing that horrible font in everything that’s not a free sample…).
If Kindle Cloud Reader is some kind of a reference implementation, that would explain the lack of general success. And this damned thing has (for the most part) one job, and one job only. Displaying text.
I understand your line of thinking and in an ideal world there would be (easy to achieve) platform parity, rock solid cloud sync AND 100% offline storage, etc. But the technology isn’t just ready. Maybe for less complex apps like Google Docs it’s sufficient.
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I would never use such an online app. I don’t want my stuff in the cloud if I can help it.
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I believe this is correct. There are a number of people who were members of L&L staff in 2013 but no longer are. Probably the referenced post belonged to one of those people.
Posts from dead non-staff accounts are handled slightly differently and will not have the “admin” shield icon.
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I don’t speak for Keith, but I believe he has previously explained that “only some minimal platform-dependent tweaks” is a fantasy for applications as complex as Scrivener, and that he is uninterested in web apps for a variety of reasons.
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Just so everyone’s aware…
Hi - Android users are very important to us, and we are carrying out work behind the scenes to make this happen. (Source)
That’s a comment under one of Scrivener’s Instagram posts on 27 August this year.
There’s a post somewhere about Scrivener 4 being a major rewrite. Perhaps S4, if built from the ground up, will start with cross-platform compatibility as a fundamental tenet: Scrivener was originally developed for macOS (January 2007), before iOS (June 2007), cloud storage, and syncing were issues that programmers had to consider.
A lot of apps that have since been coded in the age of iOS, Android, cloud storage, etc already offer ‘full’ cross-platform compatibility, unlike the gaps that exist in Scrivener for macOS, iOS, and Windows; and support multiple syncing platforms, not just Dropbox. Scrivener has a lot of catching up to do in a lot of areas: good to have opportunities.
We know that Android users spend a lot less on apps than iOS users do, so presumably an app that has a single code source would be more viable going forward rather than making a version of Scrivener that is coded purely for Android. Would enough people actually buy an Android-only app to cover the cost of development and support? Are there enough potential users in the areas of the world where Android is popular? (Presumably L&L knows where its productive markets are.) Would L&L launch an Android version of S3 if a revamped S4 really is now the focus?
On top of that, there are already (more) powerful cross-platform writing apps that are free for personal use. Wonder how many Android users would pay for Scrivener when they can already have other apps for free. Or perhaps Scrivener will also be a free app with some form of revenue-making add-ons available for users who need increased functionality. Again, how many Android users will actually pay for a writing app or for a service offered by a writing app, especially when other apps and core services are free?
Scrivener for Android has been talked about for over a decade. Unless a revamped cross-platform Android-friendly S4 is right around the corner, I think Scrivener for Android is likely to be in gestation for a (long) while yet.
That’s wonderful news. Can you name one?
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It is now nearing the end of 2022 and still no app. I don’t have iOS so I am not sure how things are going, but it has been years since this convo began and I would love it if I could work on my projects from my phone, especially when I am out and about and a random idea comes.
I have no plans of ever buying anything from Apple, so would love to have a Scrivener app for Android!