Overlay on Android based devices

MiraCheck CoPilot Q&A
1

Hi,

How does overlay work on modern android based devices?
I’m using IFLY GPS and I’d like to be able to overlay a checklist in a similar way to how it is demoed in your videos with IOS. The change log claims feature parity, so I’m assuming it’s possible (and I know it’s possible in android as the features is known as ‘Draw On Top’).
I have tried it in split screen mode, that’s not particular useful, as you lose a lot of screen real estate.

Thanks,

  • Simon
2

Sorry. That is not a feature supported on Android. In theory it could work if the device manufacturer supports it. Apple has made that a feature as part of their multitasking push. There is nothing we can do as developers to have an app overlay another app unless the manufacturer supports. Our app is designed to work at any resolution so it potentially would work if the manufacturer does support.

3
4

That feature is meant more to display a pretty minimal view on top of an app, than a full blown application. What Apple has done with its multitasking support at the OS level where secondary apps become first-class citizens for both split-screen and overlay is what I am talking about. For example, when you slide-out an app on iOS, it has a mechanism to slide to left side or right side or easily slide off and back on screen. It also has a mechanism to overlay or change to split screen and back. In the past for Android it seems like different manufacturers like Samsung would offer some level of split-screen support, but I had not seen overlay and each manufacturer did it differently. It does seem like Android now has something called picture-in-picture that may act similar to overlay in iOS. Our Android app was on an earlier version of the Android SDK that didn’t support, but we have recently upgraded it to there is now potential to support.

That said, there would still be a lot of effort, especially testing to pull off for Android given the plethora of devices they have. The reality is over 9 of 10 users that use MiraCheck are on iOS devices and similar to why a company as successful as ForeFlight has never supported Android. If it is made pretty easy to support and “just works” it is something we may support in the future, but no guarantees.

5

ok, thanks for the feedback.

It would be valuable for you to clearly note differences in features between your platforms on your site. That would help perspective uses better evaluate the application. It is a good app, hence why I purchased a subscription.

  • Si
6

We will publish on the website…

The Android version of MiraCheck has a few things that are not supported compared to the iOS version:

  • Talk to Mira - voice recognition - offline voice recognition on Android for the speed we need to support proves to be very challenging, although we are exploring.
  • Support for Primary and Secondary voices for text-to-speech - currently it uses the default voice of the device.
  • Multitasking and Overlay support - this is OS specific and proved very challenging with the plethora of Android devices.
  • Apple Watch integration