# Beta testing the Android mobile app

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [September 14, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165 "2016-09-14T22:27:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 1

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### Author: ![sam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/sam/32/102149_2.png) [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/1 "2016-09-14T22:27:35Z")

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We have been testing [our iOS app](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-ios-mobile-app/49662) for a few weeks with great success and are happy to open up **Android** for beta testing!

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/1/f/1f9405e01bd18af5c7f7635d95a2cf77b4198ba6.png)

I am going to keep a list of known issues updated in this post, so be sure to check the first post in this topic prior to reporting stuff.

### How it works and what it does.

The Android app is an **open source** react native application. The vast majority of the code is shared between our iOS app and it. Source code lives at: [GitHub - discourse/DiscourseMobile: Discourse Mobile · GitHub](https://github.com/discourse/discoursemobile)

The app takes care of keeping track of unread/new counts and notifications counts across multiple Discourse sites.

For sites we host you also get “push notifications” for every notification you get.

For the Android port we needed to implement a native library for public/private encryption, custom internal implementation of push notifications and a native library for [chrome custom tab](https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs)

### Known issues

- Android has [no concept of application badge](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17565307/how-to-display-count-of-notifications-in-app-launcher-icon) it is a shame to miss out on this feature but unclear on how we can implement it, feedback on how welcome

- When you login via Google/Facebook the auth flow is interrupted, you must close site and reopen to reconnect.

- Unlike iOS, Android really dislikes lots of discrete notifications, instead it expects 1 notification per app that is updated, we will redesign. At the moment notifications are out of control.

- Background fetch is not yet implemented, this means there is no fallback on Android for push notifications on sites we do not host. We plan to address this somehow.

- The app **normalizes** on Chrome stable for all browsing. If you do not have Chrome stable installed you can not use the app. Chrome beta and canary are not supported. Built in browser or custom browsers are not supported. This is entirely by design and a great normalizer.

Big thanks to @joffrey\_jaffeux for lots of the work on the app and you all for testing.

Please reply to the topic if you would like to beta test and I will send out an invite!

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_[View the full topic](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165)._