If you’ve wanted to use Skritter on your Android device since time immemorial, then rejoice, for your wait ends today! An open-source, HTML5-based, Android-compatible Skritter client has just opened its doors for alpha testing. Read on for details.
We (Scott, George, and Nick) have always had our hands full maintaining the Skritter Flash and iOS versions, so when y’all asked politely / encouragingly / desperately / incredulously for an Android app, we started looking for a champion hero to face the challenge. So when longtime Skritterer Josh McFarland reached out to us in May about making an Android version, we gave him our source code and put the might of the Skritter API at his disposal.
History of Skritter Clients
Fueled by 土豆丝 and 咖喱饭, Josh retreated into his Beijing coding lair for seven months, emerging today with his cross-browser, cross-platform, open-source, Android-compatible, HTML5-based Skritter client alpha preview. Now, you can use it to study, but it’s not finished yet–Josh needs your help to test it and give him feedback. You can use the Skritter forum, the GitHub issues, or email him directly at josh@skritter.com. In particular, it works on the Android devices he has tested so far, but it may not work on yours yet, so try it out and let him know.
Try it now at html5.skritter.com and send Josh feedback!
You should use the latest Chrome Beta for Android, as it works much better than other mobile browsers. You can also test it with a desktop browser. It doesn’t work in iOS yet (but that’s what the iOS app is for). Eventually, this will include all major Skritter features running on Android, Blackberry, iOS, and Windows. Known issues are on GitHub, but the two big ones so far are needing the latest mobile Chrome Beta and optimizing performance.
We’re excited about being able to finally bring Skritter to Android and other platforms. As you may have seen, George, Scott, and Nick recently launched CodeCombat, a multiplayer programming game for learning to code, and as interest in that game has exploded, they’ve been focused away from Skritter, leaving it to the trustworthy hands of Jake, Evan, Jeremy, and Josh to keep Skritter moving forward.
In other news, the long-awaited Skritter iOS app 2.4.0 update has today made it through its six-week app review journey. In addition to bugfixes, tons of new sounds, and text-to-speech, we’re pleased to offer auto-renewable subscriptions. Apple has now allowed us to match the renewable subscriptions we use on the website in the App Store, so look for the more-convenient renewable 1-, 6-, and 12-month subscriptions, or save big on the non-renewing 24-month subscription.