The Use of Cross-Platform Frameworks for Google Play Store Apps

In this paper, we describe the harnessing and analyses of a large sample (n = 661705) of Android apps and associated metadata available on the Google Play Store. The analyses and scrutiny are in the context of cross-platform mobile development, as we report on the technologies used to develop apps for the Android ecosystem. Specifically, we quantify the use of 13 technical frameworks for cross-platform development, identify their distribution across Google Play Store categories, present an overview of framework usage from 2008 to 2019, app file size (.apk size), and lastly discuss our findings in the context of current industry trends and directions. Our findings indicate that cross-platform apps account for approximately 15% (n = 99304) of the dataset, and that all overarching development approaches are present

Why Do People Adopt, or Reject, Smartphone Password Managers?

People use weak passwords for a variety of reasons, the most prescient of these being memory load and inconvenience. The motivation to choose weak passwords is even more compelling on Smartphones because entering complex passwords is particularly time consuming and arduous on small devices. Many of the memory- and inconvenience-related issues can be ameliorated by using a password manager app. Such an app can generate, remember and automatically supply passwords to websites and other apps on the phone. Given this potential, it is unfortunate that these applications have not enjoyed widespread adoption. We carried out a study to find out why this was so, to investigate factors that impeded or encouraged password manager adoption. We found that a number of factors mediated during all three phases of adoption: searching, deciding and trialling. The study’s findings will help us to market these tools more effectively in order to encourage future adoption of password managers

Caveats in Eliciting Mobile App Requirements

Factors such as app stores or platform choices heavily affect functional and non-functional mobile app requirements. We surveyed 45 companies and interviewed ten experts to explore how factors that impact mobile app requirements are understood by requirements engineers in the mobile app industry. We observed a lack of knowledge in several areas. For instance, we observed that all practitioners were aware of data privacy concerns, however, they did not know that certain third-party libraries, usage aggregators, or advertising libraries also occasionally leak sensitive user data. Similarly, certain functional requirements may not be implementable in the absence of a third-party library that is either banned from an app store for policy violations or lacks features, for instance, missing desired features in ARKit library for iOS made practitioners turn to Android. We conclude that requirements engineers should have adequate technical experience with mobile app development as well as sufficient knowledge in areas such as privacy, security and law, in order to make informed decisions during requirements elicitation.Comment: The 24th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2020

Recolha, extração e classificação de opiniões sobre aplicações lúdicas para saúde e bem-estar

Nowadays, mobile apps are part of the life of anyone who owns a smartphone. With technological evolution, new apps come with new features, which brings a greater demand from users when using an application. Moreover, at a time when health and well-being are a priority, more and more apps provide a better user experience, not only in terms of health monitoring but also a pleasant experience in terms of entertainment and well-being. However, there are still some limitations regarding user experience and usability. What can best translate user satisfaction and experience are application reviews. Therefore, to have a perception of the most relevant aspects of the current applications, a collection of reviews and respective classifications was performed. This thesis aims to develop a system that allows the presentation of the most relevant aspects of a given health and wellness application after collecting the reviews and later extracting the aspects and classifying them. In the reviews collection task, two Python libraries, one for the Google Play Store and one for the App Store, provide methods for extracting data about an application. For the extraction and classification of aspects, the LCF-ATEPC model was chosen given its performance in aspects-based sentiment analysis studies.Atualmente, as aplicações móveis fazem parte da vida de qualquer pessoa que possua um smartphone. Com a evolução tecnológica, novas aplicações surgem com novas funcionalidades, o que traz uma maior exigência por parte dos utilizadores quando usam uma aplicação. Numa altura em que a saúde e bem-estar são uma prioridade, existem cada vez mais aplicações com o intuito de providenciar uma melhor experiência ao utilizador, não só a nível de monitorização de saúde, mas também de uma experiência agradável em termos de entertenimento e bem estar. Contudo, existem ainda algumas limitações no que toca à experiência e usabilidade do utilizador. O que melhor pode traduzir a satisfação e experiência do utilizador são as reviews das aplicações. Assim sendo, para ter uma perceção dos aspetos mais relevantes das atuais aplicações, foi feita uma recolha das reviews e respetivas classificações. O objetivo desta tese consiste no desenvolvimento de um sistema que permita apresentar os aspetos mais relevantes de uma determinada aplicação de saúde e bem estar, após a recolha das reviews e posterior extração dos aspetos e classificação dos mesmos. No processo de recolha de reviews, foram usadas duas bibliotecas em Python, uma relativa à Google Play Store e outra à App Store, que providenciam métodos para extrair dados relativamente a uma aplicação. Para a extração e classificação dos aspetos, o modelo LCF-ATEPC foi o escolhido dada a sua performance em estudos de análise de sentimento baseada em aspectos.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic