I was just shopping on Woot’s web site via a nice big readable computer browser on a 15" inch screen. I found something I wanted to buy only to be told I had to buy it via the stupid monotasking woot app on my 5" cell phone. WTF is up with that?
Why am I being forced to use a cell phone?
It’s because cellphones are the ticket to the soul and Big Tech knows this. Once they have you by the cellphone… you’re theirs! 
That’s so you’ll be more receptive the next time Woot tries to sell you a tablet with a 10-inch screen, which will run the Woot app without straining your eyes.
Well, forced isn’t entirely accurate but yes, if you want an item that is an Appsclusive, then you need to use our app. It’s our way to entice people to try it out. Mobile shopping is the wave of the future, don’t ya know.
I broke down and got the app when it became apparent that it increased my likelyhood of a BoC. (It worked, I got my first BoC the first time I tried with the app)
Yes, but oddly, the Woot App on 2013 Fire OS is not stable and shuts down to home screen. Down loaded again, and still similar. 2014 Fire OS seems more stable but still sometimes crashes abruptly. So it may be the coders are not aware some of the software calls are not supported in devices still sold on Woot and Amazon. PC browser no issues.
Just reporting back that the mobile app seems to not be optimized for browsing let alone sales while PC works reliably. Apps that crash do result in lost sales opportunities. I have read feedback to you of people who could not complete a transaction on the app so it is not isolated.
Am assuming knowing is better than assuming everything is fine when it is not.
Since the vast majority of people use current (or close to current) versions of iOS and Android, I’m guessing they focus on those instead of older, less used ones. It would obviously be ideal that the app would work in all environments but as operating systems get updated, so do the requirements devs have to meet to keep them functional. That can mean older ones get left behind, probably out of necessity.
I have an older Fire tablet that doesn’t get OS updates anymore. While it would be nice for updates to continue, I recognize it’s an older device and that means it will fall by the wayside like all older tech. It sucks but it’s the way things go.
If they are not supporting devices vended by the Mother Ship, that is really peculiar.
Is is good sales strategy to have company branded devices not supported with their own application?
My point is it costs sales on Woot AND it costs repeat sales of Fire OS devices.
If Woot had Amazon’s resources, then I would agree. But while Woot is owned by Amazon, they aren’t actually Amazon and have much fewer resources. They do the best they can, I think, though the app could definitely be better.
Hi there. Sorry for the late answer. I wanted to see what versions of Fire OS we support.
We support Fire OS v5 - v7
I’m not sure how that matches up to 2013 and 2014.
Thank you for checking. You again are doing the work other people should have done.
Fire OS 2013 is up to 4.5.5.4
Fire OS 2014 is up to 5.4.x
So you might want to feed back that there is a disconnect and it directly decimated any desire to buy Fire devices by those who have purchased more than 8 for extended family in past. It seems a basic lack of coordination by a development team that does not think to support Amazon based devices and did not think to test. It has unknowable lost of second sales that those developers will not be able to measure because very few will feedback. They just won’t buy and that will cap re-sales. I doubt that is intended.
But thank you for what you do daily.
We do try but the Fire tablet market is so small in comparison, it’s hard to justify development when your dev team is already stretched so thin. :\
But thanks for the feedback.
Yeah but these are $30-80 tablets that were released many years ago. I imagine most of these are discontinued by Amazon and you can only get them through reseller.
But I get your point, fire OS is frustrating. In general the amount of good apps it is pretty low, and then of course they don’t get updated and tweaked enough. I wonder if fire OS will ever just open up the Play store.
Amazon fire tablet market on Woot may be small due to malfunctions from incompatibility. So there is sample bias if people do not remain on to purchase items because THEY CAN’T STAY CONNECTED using the Woot App. Sorta major barrier!
Auto program shut down = completed sale loss = bad sales stat accuracy of intended vs. completed purchases
Amazon Fire marketing on Amazon has a strong commitment though reputation among those who then compare to stock android on their phones may result in buyer’s remorse.
The Android Fire Phone became ridiculed and was aborted after failed sales. People do want compatibility with apps. And it goes the other way as well. Further purchases logically depend on that as I am sure you can personally agree.
Thank you for looking into it and explaining the limitations. But I think they missed the corporate picture in coding choices made and testing for proof of functionality.
Point taken but iPads from the same era and Android devices from the same era do not crash. The ones I refer to are HDX - their top of line and STILL have better speed and resolution than current Fire tablets. The 2013 models, not even the 2014 are the ones sold on Woot. Amazon still offers developer assistance here.
The hardware is not the problem. Standard 5.1 android supports most apps.
If the tablet you have is on a supported OS as noted above, then give me some details and I’ll report the issue.
Device & version
OS & version
app version
Exactly what it does. Step-by-step is best so they can reproduce it.
Then maybe you should take this up with Amazon and not Woot. If Amazon is content with no longer updating the OS on their older tablets then that means security becomes an issue and the software itself is just outdated. When that happens, devs shouldn’t be expected to make sure their app is compatible with every version of every OS out there.
I remember someone here on the forums become very upset because their older Android phone didn’t support more than a few notifications displaying at a time and didn’t have the ability to expand a Pointless Push so they could see all of it. Instead of thinking their phone/OS was outdated, they just expected Woot to do things differently so their outdated OS would work with the pushes.
In an ideal world, all of the various devices and OS versions would play well together but they don’t. 2014 was seven years ago and that’s a lifetime when it comes to this stuff. I know how frustrating it is to have something I paid for become obsolete because it’s no longer supported. It sucks. But there are limits to what the Woot devs can do.
They are 2013 and 2014 editions of HDX tablets. They are supported on the app store here: Information on Amazon vended device, Fire OS version, and App API version all in these repositories of info:
For the 2013 versions - both 8.9" and 7", the Woot app shuts down abruptly. There are presumably calls to processes that are not supported in those versions. It may have to do with Javascript emulation vs HTML5 that may not be ideally supported. More than this reference to API 22 vs 19 and potential lack of HTML5 support in legacy devices, I cannot supply (I am an MD, not in IT but trying my best to help).
No. Coders need to support mothership and Woot sold devices. That is basic and they are losing sales. I am not going to waste more time on this. I have pointed at an opportunity. Lose sales if you all want. You will never know what did not sell due to this issue because the sale did not go through.
They will pizz-off customers from ever buying an Amazon Fire device again. But Amazon is not going to fix fundamentally flawed forks in Android because it is the basis of its ecosystem - and why knowledgeable buyers may swear off further purchases.
Furthermore, Google announced for 2022 it is implementing major changes to Android and Chrome that seem intentionally targeted at making Amazon apps and Windows 11 not able to upgrade from legacy or run new Android apps unless the developer ports versions separately to respective stores. I can tell you that has not happened already for 2 year old purchased apps. It resulted in many gamers abandoning Fire OS devices which already have a bad rep.
Woot isn’t Amazon. They don’t have the same resources as Amazon. Besides, the Woot web site works great via a mobile browser so it’s not like Fire users are totally out of luck.
Dev support for all kinds of apps has never been much of a priority for Amazon Appstore users, if they even have a version on Amazon’s store at all… Yes, it seems perfectly logical for Woot to support Amazon’s hardware but if Amazon stops supporting it, then it’s also logical that Woot would stop, too.
I got one of the WTF dollar Fire tablets knowing it’s an older device and that it wouldn’t be supported. I made that choice. I have other tablets of various brands that stopped receiving OS updates and are nothing more than paperweights now. Have you looked into whether you can flash the device with a custom ROM? I used to do that with an HP Touchpad until it became pointless to bother. If the hardware is still good, then there might be unofficial support for it out there.