Why developers don’t explain every last bug fix in release notes
I’ve seen a lot of frustration by smartphone users when app release notes are vague about what’s actually being updated. We’ve all seen the dreaded “bug fixes and performance enhancements”. We fall in love with our apps, love to see updates, but developers aren’t spending the time to explain every last nuanced update. What’s up with that? Power users thrive on this information. So why don’t developers detail the entire set of changes?
As a power user, I feel this frustration too. I really do want to know what is being updated. There may be a particular annoying bug that I’m waiting to get fixed. Maybe it’s a new feature that I might not know about otherwise. But as a developer, I have a second set of concerns that sometimes conflicts with what users want. So here’s why developers don’t (always) explain every last bug fix in release notes:
Time
Often, release notes are an afterthought...