New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 4.1)

V 4.1
- Added Russian translation. Thank you kojjii!

New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 4.0)

V 4.0
- Updated to Android 10+
- New: Average and total data on the history screen
- Tweak: Remaining tweak promoted to full setting (Pending/Used)
- New: Option to calculate accumulated data by setting the desired visible amount
- Improv: Accumulated data can be negative
- Improv: Accumulated data can be set while accumulated period is 0 (as offset data)
- New: Tweak: open android settings when clicking the widget button

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I almost forgot.

So yeah, this is an app that I made a long time ago, and that I had to stop developing because it required a permission that (I though) was no longer possible to obtain.

In order to get the data usage, originally you had to use a method that required the phone id. Getting that id required a phone permission, and that permission was not granted anymore for apps targeting Android 10 and up. The deprecation notice said to use an alternative, but I was never able to make it work. So I just kept the app at that working version, and never updated it.

Fast-forward a couple years, and I discovered that you could use the alternative, but only if you allowed ONLY android 10 and up, which meant that, by updating the app, existing phones could no longer use it (original: 7-9, new 10+). So I just kept avoiding updates.

Fast-forward a couple more years, I have now a new Android 12 phone, and Android 8 is now considered 'old'. So I implemented the change (which allowed me to remove the phone permission), and a couple others I always wanted to make (this is an app mainly for myself after all). Play Store is no longer displaying apps targeting versions older than 10, so this was perfectly the best moment to do so.

 

Hope it's help useful for someone, it was for me.

F-droid availability

Several of my apps are now available on F-droid! Links below:

• Average data usage widget --> Available now!
  
• Url checker --> Available now! 
  
• Simple Clipboard Editor --> Available now! 
• Custom Riddle Generator --> Available now!
• Adnihilation --> Available now!
• isUserAMonkey & isUserAGoat [curiosity] --> Available now!

New version of Average data usage widget (V 3.0)

V 3.0
- Configurable period length (any number of days or months).
- New tweak: advanced secondary bars
- Improved settings screen

IMPORTANT! This new update has a newer period management, which needs the starting day and the period length. After updating, the previous configuration will be automatically migrated to the new version, but you may want to check it just in case. 

Edit: a new beta was released that fixes the 'invalid first update after period changes' bug.

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At last! It wasn't easy, but not as hard as I expected at first. This new version allow you to choose any arbitrary period length! Now you can choose a daily period, a 21 days period, 28 days, or even 12 months period if you want (any positive days or months). In fact internally it can have any time, even hours or years, however for simplicity the user interface only allows days or month.

This new version uses a different approach: previously you only needed to specify the day of the change (for 1 month periods) and calculating the current percentage of the current period was almost instant, with just a saved parameter (the last month) to know when the period was changed. 

Now that you can specify an arbitrary length the app uses a different approach: it has a configurable 'start of the period' date that uses to know the percentage of the current period. But it also allows to know when the period changes, and does the update.

I've tried myself this new version for a few days and it seem to work fine, however I need real users to test under real conditions, so I hope at least someone in the beta is able to try it. 

As the notice in the changelog implies, this new method uses new configuration, and although there is special code to migrate it, it may fail in some cases so better check that it worked. This is also the reason why the version was increased to 3.0.

There are other minor modifications, like some internal cleanup, but also a new tweak (that may be the default in future versions) to show a better secondary progress bar indicator when you have accumulated data. Specifically (sp is the saved periods parameter):

[1,oo) = more than the current usage -> show full, unchanged
[0,1) = normal usage -> don't show, unchanged
[-sp+1,0) = saved data -> % in this range, previously was rounded to 100%
[-sp,-sp+1) = will be lost -> % in this range, unchanged
(-oo,-sp) = more than one period will be lost -> show nothing, previously was rounded to 100%

New version of Average data usage widget (V 2.4)

V 2.4

- Fixed incorrect accumulated after a period change
- New tweak: Hide bars
- New tweak: Hide labels
- Always show secondary progress while negative (-50% = -150%...)

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A very minor update, but with a fix for how the accumulated data was computed, which lead to incorrect values.

It also adds two new tweaks to hide either the bars or the texts in the normal widget (specially useful in the compressed version) and now the secondary progress is always shown rounded to the percentage (previously it was only shown when between -100 and 0). This is useful to check how many data you will lose on the next period, for example.

New version of Average data usage widget (V 2.3)

V 2.3
- Changed accumulate data checkbox to slider, to specify how many months it is accumulated (if was enabled it is now 1)

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A really small update, but with a new feature.

New version of Average data usage widget (V 2.2)

V 2.2
- Allow changing number of decimals data numbers show
- Allow showing data in GB instead of MB
- Make history screen react to tweaks too (keep bar at 100% tweak)

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I wanted to make more changes for this version (mainly the 'day/week period'), but I've been busy with other projects, so better publish this now and I'll make more changes in the future.

New version of Average data usage widget (V 2.1)

V 2.1
- Tweaks: experimental changes to modify properties of the widgets. Include common request such as white theme, widget with only data/date, keep bar at 100% and some more.

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This was like a epiphany, after another user asked for white theme.
A lot of users have asked for minor changes, settings, to modify some properties of the widgets (one even asked something so simple I just made a custom version for them, the change was just a single word).
The problem with all these changes is that in order to let the user set them or not, I need to test them properly, add the setting in the configuration screen, change descriptions or other settings, check that it doesn't break other configuration, etc. This is still so much work for me and my free time, so I had decided just not doing it.

But then I remember something, some apps I use or have used contains a list of 'experimental' settings, a set of checkboxes that you can turn on/off to tweak different aspects of the apps, with a big warning 'These are experimental changes, use with care'. (think for example the 'flags' in google chrome or the about:config in firefox)

That was perfect. I had a list of minor changes that could be made, which maybe don't work in specific combinations, and which may change with future versions.

In about 2 hours I had a lot of requests already available and programmed in a very easy way that will allow to add/remove with ease, and even convert existing tweaks into full features in the future. I also even implemented a check in case a combination of them breaks the app, in which case all will be disabled. I know this seems a bit 'lazy', I could add the settings properly, but as I said I don't have the time to test everything so I prefer to give this 'experimental changes' instead of nothing.

Let's see how useful it is, and perhaps in the future I'll add more 'tweaks' (or you can submit your own, the code is available on github!)

New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 2.0)

A friend asked: "can you somehow show the usage on each day?" and then this happened.

It turns out that it is in fact possible to check the usage on an arbitrary interval, and with a bit of calendar magic you can display a list with the usage on each day.
This list is a bit raw, and not sure if very useful, but as usual, it was fun.

However the main reason for the update wasn't this (in fact I started that after the previous version but never finished it).
The new feature is the ability to configure an 'accumulate' data, where the unused data on a period/month is accumulated for the next period. It requires manual setting for the first time, and probably tweaking it each period (it is automatically updated, but android isn't very precise with the data usage). It will only need to be set once each month, so nothing big.

Hope it is useful! (it is for me, :P ) And also I set the version to 2.0, because now there is a main screen instead of the main+settings unique activity from before.

Current status: stable


V 2.0
- History activity: you can view the usage on each day of the period. Button from the main widget opens this.
- Accumulate option. Enable this if your provider saves the unused data for the next period.
- New main screen, separated options to secondary one.
- Small tweaks for the size and view of the widgets.

New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 1.5)

Two small suggestions from users.

Current status: stable.

V 1.5
- Smaller 'average usage' bar (the top one)
- Compact mode when the progress widget size is too small

New stable version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 1.4)

It's good to be back. This is a small update I wanted to make since a while. Now the progress bars widget display how much your usage is when >100% instead of simply stopping at 100. Android widgets are one of the worst elements to work with, and the control the developer has over them is incredibly limited (this is the reason I didn't implement themes yet) and although I wanted to make it better this is all I can do until I find a better way. Still not so bad, I'm happy with the result.

You may also noticed that I didn't published a post about a beta version first. The truth is that I did published a beta (it is useful because the developer console tests the versions on real devices for incompatibilities and displays errors and issues that some devices could have) but since there are no beta testers I opted not to post about it this time. The application file is the same too so it would be a copy/paste without extra info. No big changes so it shouldn't break anything.

Anyway, here is the changelog:

V 1.4
- Increased precision of the progress bars
- When the usage is >100%, the progress bar shows how much instead of stop at 100.

Important notice about Average Data Usage Widget

In the new version (V 1.3) due to the inclusion of a new widget I changed internal code related to how the existing widget works.
I made a mistake and changed what shouldn't be changed [for experts: the widget provider] and due to this all existing widgets need to be updated manually (remove any previous widget and add a new one, no settings are lost).
Note: not updating and waiting for the next version won't solve the issue, you will need to update the widget anyway. Only widgets added on version 1.3 or up are valid now.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused, at least now I'm aware of what not to do, so I hope not to make this mistake again in the future.
Thank

New stable version of Average Data Usage Widget (1.3)

V 1.3
-Fixed negative numbers when 'first day' is set different to 1.
-[BETA] New widget: Rate. Shows the rate between the bars. Try to keep it slightly below 1.

New beta version of Average Data Usage Widget (1.3 beta1)

Thanks to those who reported the bug and suggested the new layout! :D
White/Black themes are on my todo list, but that will take some time.

V 1.3
-Fixed negative numbers when 'first day' is set different to 1.
-[BETA] New widget: Rate. Shows the rate between the bars. Try to keep it slightly below 1.

New stable version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 1.2)

V 1.2
-Fixed a bug when using the 'use alternate conversion' checkbox. If you had crashes before try now (you may need to reinstall).
-Changed locale to US (numbers are shown with periods).

New stable version of Average Data Usage Widget (1.1)

List of changes:
V 1.1
-Click on the usage numbers (left of widget) to show the date where your current usage matches the average usage.

New beta version of Average Data Usage Widget (1.1 beta 1)

List of changes:
V 1.1 (beta 1)
-Click on the usage numbers (left of widget) to show the date where your current usage matches the average usage.