Will there be any Android support for Skritter. Just curious. Thanks!

Skritter works on Android, but it doesn't work that well. You can use it by going directly to the Skritter site from your browser. The animation is choppy and input can sometimes be very laggy (but I believe this will vary from device to device). I had an Android device for the past two years and just switched to iPhone. Although I am not sure how good the iPhone app will be, it is my hope that it will run extremely smoothly and be a pleasure to use, as are most applications on iphone when compared to their Android counterparts.

Not a hard choice. The Skritter iphone app is fantastic, and many times better than the Android implementation, which as Wooden Frogs points out is particularly choppy. The iphone app also works offline.

Skritter works on Android, but not well. Skritter isn't yet available for iOS, but should work very well, and may be available as soon as the next month or two, though there's no release date set. All other things being equal, buying a mobile device with Skritter in mind, I would probably go for iOS, as much as it pains me to support Apple.

Having had an Iphone and an Android I'd never buy a Iphone again. The settings on skritter are nearly the only problem i have with my android, but they just updated it yesterday so its quite better. Also 1 out of 50 characters is missing a stroke in the end animation so its not perfect. Plus high end android phone are all superior hardware wise. Siri is about the only thing thats better at this point in time.

does android have chinese handwriting input/recognition ?

It really depends on three things.
1. If you need/want to Skritter while on the go right now.
If yes +1 for android.
2. If you are the type to suffer from buyers remorse.
If yes +1 for iDevice
3. How good your cell service is.
If good +1 for android if not availible get an iDevice.

@alxx
Yes you can just download any for free on the android market or by googling, sogou输入法 or baidu输入法 are one of the most popular ones among Chinese, there are plenty of options.

@ddapore99
It won't take too long before the iOS app is out so if you want to Skritter while on the go, in a few months an iDevice is better suited for that.
lol at nr.2

@FatDragon "All other things being equal" - if this was true, I would agree, but the problem is that I'm paying £10/month for my calls-and-texts-only phone now, and the £25-35/month it costs to get an iPhone means that all other things are not equal. I'm not sure what position anyone else is in, or if this is a factor in the US/China.

So @OP I think if you can easily afford the extra £100s that an iPhone contract would cost relative to an android phone, go for it, beacuse the Skritter app looks MUCH better. Just make sure you get a chance to try out both phones' other features before you buy one.

Also, a question @Byzanti or anyone else who has tried the iPhone app - how does it compare to using a tablet on a PC, in terms of being able to write naturally (objectively ignoring how shiny the new app is :P)?

Unfortunately, I'm stuck with an Android contract as well for the time being (Skritter is enough of a killer app to make me choose between one or the other.)

I think my solution is going to be to buy the cheapest iTouch that works acceptably, and go with that.

@Catherine - I　agree that an iPhone's service plan is going to be more expensive than a basic phone, but the same is true for an Android phone with the same sort of connection features, so service fees should be essentially the same between the two alternatives. All I meant by "all other things being equal", though, was that if one is only concerned about Skritter support as a differentiating factor between the iPhone and an Android phone, then the iPhone is probably the better choice.

I use a Photon 4G and never experienced any problems with Skritter. Maybe it's a problem with the non-dual core Androids?

Hi all,
I would like to bring up this topic again. After I saw the great promotion on the Skritter iphone app, I seriously consider going for Apple, just because of Skritter.

@Skritter-Team: Is there any plan to offer an Android version with similar features, i.e. offline-mode, those nice special effects for the strokes etc.?

We can't really say right now. Where we go next depends largely on how the iOS app goes. If iOS goes well and shows mobile to be a really good idea, then Android would be the next obvious big thing to work on (after site optimization and example sentence/sentence study), especially since flash isn't going to be supported on mobile in the future. And hopefully building an Android app would go faster, since we're more familiar with Java right off the bat and we'd already have experience writing code for mobile and know how to structure it. But that's an awful lot of 'ifs'. In any event, don't expect an Android app soon. The more it's asked for though, the more chance we'll do it though!

I now have both the android, and iphone, since i got the android last week, skrittering on it is fun and i have made more time this week than any previous week. i got Google Nexus as a gift, and its wonderfull. i hope that skritter team at least improve the site for mobile devices as much as possible. as for now it is very usable indeed. but can do with a little bit more improvement to get the full features not just the skrittering part

"The more it's asked for though, the more chance we'll do it though!"

Hmm... I could definitely take you up on that. I'm good at asking for something I want again and again and again until I get it. Just ask my mother; the run-ups to Christmas when I was a child must have been murder.

But I'm inclined to think you're not being completely literal, and that full-on whiny ten-year-old might not be the best approach. My current plan is to ask for it now (request follows) and renew that request quarterly.

I HEREBY REQUEST A NATIVE ANDROID APP. DATE OF NEXT REQUEST: APRIL 6, 2012.

Note: I reserve the right to make all manner of disparaging remarks about Apple's closed development model, up to and including comparisons to Hitler. Such remarks should not be construed as additional unscheduled Android app requests.

hehe, i also wouldl like to have the application in the Android, by the look of it i am going to give up the iphone

You could also just buy an iPod Touch for around $199 and stick with whatever you have, whether smartphone or POT. I realize that means carrying two devices around with you.

With a native Android you have to worry about each manufacturers customizations. Different manufacturers alter the UI to differentiate their phones from those of competitors.

Then there are the various releases with the latest, Android 4.0.x, being slowly adopted.

I'm not Anti-android, but one should be aware that one has to worry about an Android phone running a particular app. One should check to be sure an app you want to use runs well on your particular phone.

Hello Dennis,

yes, I agree, these are disadvantages of Android compared to the optimized combination of hardware+OS of Apple devices.

Nevertheless, I think if Skritter wants to reach as many users as possible, Android would be the way to go. I am no fanboy of none of the both. As a matter of fact, I still do not own a smartphone/tablet, but keep playing with the thought for one year already.
I think, at the moment there are many great apps available for iOS (sometimes exclusively, it seems), but if we can believe what analysts say, and looking at the sales figure, Samsung and other Android-using manufacturers already outnumber Apple many times... And in any case, Android devices are / can be much cheaper than apple devices.
For these reason I really wonder if it would not be more reasonable to focus on Android.
Nevertheless, as it seems right now, I gonna buy some Apple device, because I really want to have that offline-Skritter with special effects etc. and so I have no other choice :)

@Scott: I think the mobile version is definetely the way to go... just from watching the trailer I already think it's much more fun to skritter in the train/subway etc. where you have nothing to do anyway, than sitting at your desktop PC with the Wacom+pen on your table/knees and waisting the precious free time at home. :o)

I'm surprised how many mention going for an iPhone just for Skritter - I'm not going for Skritter until I can use it on my Android device..

+1 for Skritter on Android

@ Android User - excluding a vocal minority of Android and iPhone evangelists, many people purchasing smart phones have relatively uniform needs that nearly all smartphones meet with sufficient quality - music/video playback, internet browsing, email, and typical phone services. Nearly all the OS iterations have a nearly identical UI beside the most trivial cosmetic differences.

Given that many people in the US and Europe receive their smart phones "free" (fully subsidized with a contract), it shouldn't be surprising that the main factor in choosing between the two "universes" is the cream on top of those necessities - the respective App Store and Android Market. If a [non-philosophically constrained] consumer is definitely getting a smartphone for the basic features and additionally would love to Skritter, why not let that be the deciding factor between the two platforms? It might even save them $100 on a Wacom tablet, making the difference between Android and iPhone non-trivial.

There are of course many reasons why Android is superior, and why iPhone is superior; those reasons are irrelevant to most consumers. Perhaps what you should be more surprised by is that people who otherwise wouldn't buy a smartphone, period, are willing to do so just for Skritter-on-the-go.

@icebear I totally agree. I was in the position you mention - I had been happy without a smartphone, but Skritter finally tipped the balance and I started to look for an Android phone that would run the Skritter web app well, despite the iOs app looking much better, as an iPhone was out of my budget. However, someone gave me a second hand 3GS and now I'm looking forward to being able to use the app.

The main thing I learned is that without the politics of the Android/iPhone debate, and when things like cost are taken out of the equation, looking only at the everyday use of the phones: I see absolutely no difference for the average non-dev user: except the Skritter app.

Get an iPhone.

With regards to differences, there are differences for every day users. Give an iphone and an android phone to 60-80 y/o's and who are still using the device in 1 month time.