Feem
FeePerfect AG is happy to announce the release of Feem v5, our latest iteration of our popular offline file transfer software. While Feem v4 worked perfectly for many years, it was imperative we launch Feem v5 to satisfy increasing demands on our software, and recent privacy-focused changes in all major operating systems.
Why Feem v5?
Feem v4 was our most stable release for many years now, and users enjoyed using it quite often. So why fix what wasn’t broken?
We knew at the back of our minds that we will have to update our aging technology stack at one point, but we weren’t prepared for the heavy blow we would receive from Google when Google started rejecting apps from the Play Store which were still based on older Android SDKs. You can read more about this here: https://developer.android.com/google/play/requirements/target-sdk. Google Play was our main distribution channel for the Feem app, and we needed to act fast.
Difficult launch.
Our first launch for Feem v5 on Android was a disaster. We were still experimenting with the new Android APIs we were now forced to use, and made a lot of mistakes along the way. The new Android APIs were quite difficult to use compared to older Android APIs, and were quite restrictive (under the guise of increased consumer privacy). The new Android APIs made it extremely difficult to reproduce some of the features we already had working for us in Feem v4, and users kept comparing the instability of Feem v5 to the stability they previously enjoyed in the previous Feem v4. There were multiple times we felt discouraged from the onslaught of negative reviews and felt like giving up. But we remembered why we started building Feem in the first place, and honestly found no other viable alternative worth passing the mantle to. So we pressed on, day in day out for months, amidst lots of personal challenges, until we finally had a stable version of Feem v5 for Android.
We also built Feem v5 for iOS, Windows and MacOS. All of which had very significant changes since Feem v4 was launched.
We now feel confident enough to replace all instances of Feem v4 to Feem v5, and will push the upgrade to as many users as we can. No software is perfect, and there will be bugs to uncover as more users upgrade from Feem v4 to Feem v5. We commit to detecting and fixing those bugs as quickly as we can.
Feem v5 vs Feem v4?
Here are some major differences between Feem v4 and Feem v5.
Notable Features.
- Feem v5 now supports SD Cards on Android. Feem v4 couldn’t files on SD Cards on modern Android phones.
- Feem v5 now maintains folder structure when transferring folders for free! This was a paid feature in Feem v4.
- Feem v5 follows new privacy requirements of modern operating systems. Feem v4 could no longer work well in recent versions of Android, iOS, and MacOS.
- Feem v5 sports a more modern UI for easier file selection and transfer. Feem v4’s UI was already getting dated and needed replacement.
- Feem v5 shows more thumbnail previews backed by the operating system, including previews for images, videos, PDFs, text files … Feem v4 could only show image previews.
- Both Feem v4 and Feem v5 support Wi-Fi Direct within Feem. But Feem v5 now goes a step further to support scanning of Wi-Fi credentials using QR codes. You had to type those manually in Feem v4.
Distribution
- For better download safety and automatic support for updates, Feem v5’s distribution strategy is now focused around releasing updates in the idiomatic stores of the major operating systems. Feem is now available on the Apple App Store, the Mac AppStore, the Microsoft Store, and on Google Play. Feem v4 was not available on the Mac AppStore.
Licensing
- Feem v5 now supports a single license for all platforms, removing the confusion faced in Feem v4’s licensing scheme. In Feem v4, Apple users had to purchase a separate license for Feem since Apple didn’t want us to have access to the emails of our own customers. We’ve redesigned Feem v5 to follow Apple’s guideline that allowed us to reuse the same Feem license even on iOS devices.
- You can now control devices linked to your license on the newly launched online Feem Device Manager (https://manager.feem.io)
- We now accept Stripe as payment for Feem Pro licenses.
The road ahead?
While we’ve accomplished the Herculian task of releasing Feem v5 on all major platforms in such short notice, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. Most notably, we intend to release Feem v5 for Linux by the end of the first quarter of 2024. Once that’s done, we will release a new roadmap for Feem.
Our goal has remained the same since day one. To make Feem the most popular way to transfer files offline between your device. Your continuous support and feedback will help us achieve that goal.
Happy New Year 2024.