Zdravel 1.4.2: taking a store review apart, point by point
A detailed review of Zdravel appeared on RuStore. It was not pleasant to read — and it was fair: the person described exactly the scenarios we should have checked before release. We went through every point, fixed it, and shipped 1.4.2. Here is what was wrong, what changed, and how we tested it.
"The Save button overlaps the system buttons, and tapping it minimises the app"
What was wrong. The app stretched its window across the whole screen using the legacy FLAG_LAYOUT_NO_LIMITS flag plus translucent system bars, but never applied system insets itself. On phones with button navigation the bottom button of the form ended up right under the system buttons: the tap went to "Home" and the app was minimised. That is literally what "the button overlaps the system buttons" meant.
What we did. Moved to proper edge-to-edge, removed the translucent bars from the theme and distributed system insets across every screen, so content never slides under the navigation bar.
How we tested it. We took an Honor running Android 10 with three-button navigation — the same class of device as the reviewer's. The Save button now ends above the system bar, a tap works on the first try, and the app stays in the foreground.
"Rotating the screen loses all the settings"
What was wrong. On rotation the form was recreated and re-initialised. The drug name, dosage, intake frequency, dates and times were lost, and an open menu closed.
What we did. The create wizard initialises once, and every field is written to state as you type. The edit form loads by the already-loaded identifier, and the open menu is kept as saved state.
How we tested it. On a real device: filled in the form, rotated to landscape and back — name, dosage, schedule and menu are all intact. Blood pressure values and pulse survive rotation too.
"We could not get it to work at all"
What was wrong. Two reasons, and both are on us.
First: a medication could not be saved unless the user had granted notification permission. So someone who declined the permission got an app whose main scenario did not work.
Second: a course with an end date was considered active only on its start date, so reminders were never scheduled and the intake went missing.
What we did. A medication is now always saved. If notifications are disabled, the app says so honestly on the home screen and offers a button that opens notification settings. A course with an end date is active for its whole period, from the start date through the end date inclusive.
"There is no help section"
Fair point: there were no instructions at all. 1.4.2 adds a Help section with ten topics: how to add a medication, why notification permission matters, what to check when reminders do not arrive, how taking from a notification works, intake history, the blood pressure and pulse diary, data export, behaviour after a reboot, and where your data is stored.
Next to it there is About: the version, the privacy policy, a support contact, and a "Show the hints again" button if you skipped the onboarding and want it back.
The Help section contains buttons that lead straight to system settings: "Open battery settings" and "Allow autostart". The second one matters a lot on Honor, Huawei and Xiaomi devices.
Why autostart is a separate story
On aggressive firmware builds the system does not let an app start itself after a phone reboot, so reminders are not restored until you open the app manually. And opening the EMUI autostart manager directly is not possible for a third-party app: Huawei protects that entry point with a system permission. So we did this: the button tries to open the manufacturer's autostart manager, and if the system refuses, it shows written instructions with the exact paths for Honor and Huawei, Xiaomi and Samsung.
On stock Android (a Pixel, for example) autostart is not needed: the schedule restores itself after a reboot. We verified both cases.
Small things we found while testing on a real device
While going through the reviewer's scenarios we found three more issues. They were not in the review, but they looked bad:
A white flash on launch. In dark mode the app opened with a white screen for about a second. It now shows a branded launch screen with the app icon, and the system bars take its colour.
The "+" button overlapped text on empty screens — the home screen and the blood pressure diary. Spacing is fixed, captions no longer run under the button.
Validation messages were hardcoded in Russian. As a result the English build showed Russian error messages. All texts moved to resources — the English interface is fully English now.
How we tested
We ran the build on an Honor (Android 10, EMUI, three-button navigation), on a Pixel and on Android 15–16 emulators. Scenarios: creating a medication, editing it, rotating the screen, rebooting the phone, a reminder actually firing, the blood pressure diary, the Help section, battery settings and autostart.
What's next
We keep working through reviews: if something does not work, write to support (the contact is in the About section) or leave a review in the store. Detailed reviews like this one are hard to read, but they show exactly what to check in the next release.
Thank you for taking the time to write.