Ebay android app issue

[deeeight]

So I have a phone running on an older 4.1 version of android, which apparently is not compatible with the latest version of the ebay app. And they also disabled the compatibility of the existing version which I had installed on my phone of the app, which had been operating fine in December. This isn't very convenient to me as a seller as I cannot monitor/control my listings while mobile unless apparently, I get a new phone. Something I do not need as my existing phone still does everything else I need of it to do, perfectly well.

Worse... I came to discover, that even though I have my google play store settings are set to NEVER auto-update my apps... my existing Ebay app was being commanded to update itself , and I only realized this because the internal storage space of my phone was too full for the update to occur. I would not have given Ebay permission to auto-update its app when I installed it, and find it very offensive that they would attempt to control the personal devices of their app users in that way.

[alixfr_0]

It seems to me that in this case the problem is in the application. This happens very often with most applications. The problem is that some developers spend little time developing the application and release applications or games with bugs. For example, I recently learned how to earn google play credit and bought one paid game for 20 bucks. This is a lot of money, but nevertheless there were about 150 bugs in total and over time I realized that my progress was not saved. Just imagine! 150 lags in a game for 20 bucks. In the end, I was told that it is so expensive because there is open source code. I'm just outraged!

[ypdc_dennis]

tyler@ebay 

[marnotom!]

While I can appreciate where you're coming from, I think it's only fair to point out that I also think it's unreasonable for an app developer to accommodate a seven and a half year-old mobile operating system, given the security issues associated with older OSs and how security is a big part of using eBay safely. 

I've used phones on the Windows Phone, Android and iOS platforms.  All my phones were working well enough for what I needed them to do but upgrading the OS or the hardware really opened my eyes up to what I was missing when using the older OS or device.

I'm really impressed that you've managed to get as much life as you have out of your current phone.  I'm assuming that the battery is removable and you've been able to replace it.  Most new phones, sadly, don't have that capacity and you're stuck replacing your phone when the battery is ready to call it quits.

Even Google's own Chrome app no longer supports Android 4.1.  This article could be a little less snottily written, but it does make some good points about the now not-so-widespread use of that version of Android and how important it is to stay current when using a mobile device:

https://www.slashgear.com/google-chrome-app-update-android-jelly-bean-08549068/

[kawartha-ephemera]

Unfortunately, android apps in general, not just ebay's,  started dropping support for android 4.1 two years ago. I doubt any of the major apps support it by now.

Like many others I continue to use my Blackberry z30 phone (2014 model) daily as there's not a thing wrong with it, still on the original battery even. The phone's BB android run-time is stuck on 4.1 so I'm in the same boat as the op ... cannot run most apps now. 

Fortunately, the browser has held up well, whenever I'm out and need to check up on an ebay matter I just open seller hub using the browser. Pinch and zoom is required for the seller facing pages, the buyer facing pages have mobile friendly versions so those render just fine without using the app.

As long as voice, text, email and browser continue to function normally I'm not buying a new phone. 

[tyler@ebay]

Hi @ypdc_dennis - thanks for the tag! 

I checked with mobile and the minimum Android OS the app supports is 5, so the app won't work on this OP's phone unfortunately. 

As @marnotom! points out, phasing out support for older OS versions is done out of an abundance of caution to head off potential security exploits. Thanks!