Android market gets even better: AppBrain V5!

Hello everyone!

We just pushed out version 5.0 of our AppBrain Android app. This major update offers a details page for every app. It loads very quickly after tapping an app within AppBrain, and allows you to view all interesting information before deciding to go to the market to download an app. It not only shows the familiar thumbs-up thumbs-down reviews from the website (and allows you to post your own!), but also has a tab with the related apps of an app as shown in the two screenshots on the side. Very useful if you’re shopping around for an app and want to know what other similar apps are out there!

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http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http://blog.appbrain.com/2010/11/android-market-gets-even-better.html&layout=button_count&show_faces=false&width=80;&action=like&font&colorscheme=light&height=25The new app page also allows you to really easily share apps with friends directly from your phone. The share button lets you share the app you’re viewing through any sharing app that’s installed on your phone, for instance Facebook or Gmail.


In addition to the app page, we’ve also integrated the Fast Web Installer with the AppBrain app itself. It can be enabled from the preferences. Apart from directly installing apps from the web, the fast web installer is active in the app, such that AppBrain can install or update apps from without going through the market.

We’re sorry to report that Google has disabled the Fast Web Installer functionality in the latest update of the Android Market. Google is pushing out this update to all devices now, so we don’t know how long the fast web installer will still be relevant. (You can uninstall updates of the market to make fast web installer work again, but it seems the update keeps reinstalling automatically).

Fortunately, we have developed the “Fast Sync Widget”. This is a simple 1x1 widget which allows you to sync your phone to AppBrain directly from your phone’s desktop.

When there is a change detected, you’re taken to the Manage-my-apps screen automatically, and from there it’s convenient to batch install and uninstall the things you selected on the web and new app updates. In case there are no changes, there’s just a message saying that. You can also directly start a search for an app from the widget.


We hope you like the changes, and we’ll talk a bit more about the other features soon!

Mathijs for the AppBrain team