In Short
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Who Are They
How Bugfender Helped Them
Case Study - Marvin Kickner
Logging for launch: Bugfender and AppSearch
Android Launchers have a patchy reputation to put it mildly. Performance lag, battery drain, all those sneaky bugs… launchers are supposed to be all speed and simplicity but they often serve up the exact opposite.
Step up to the stage Marvin Kickner. He’s created AppSearch, a smart, customisable launcher. Shipped in February 2006, it’s already had over 1,700 reviews with an average rating of 4.9. One reviewer calls it “the king of all app launchers.” Another describes the customization and control as “insane”.
And behind all this slack adaptability, Bugfender’s logging away.
As the sole developer, Marvin relies on high application quality and efficient diagnosis of production issues. By integrating Bugfender, he has gained deeper visibility into device logs and production behavior, enabling faster diagnosis and improved app reliability.
“I’m thrilled with Bugfender,” Marvin says. “I don’t have to worry about a thing. AppSearch is a modern app, and speed is particularly vital. Bugfender is so important.”
Quick overview and tech stack
AppSearch is available on Android and focuses on delivering a fast, efficient user experience, allowing users to launch apps using T9-style search, package name search, and a built-in calculator feature.
Customization is the app’s main point of difference. Users can tailor everything related to the search panel (layout, colors, icons or behaviors). But the real shining light is the speed provided by the advanced searching methods, enabling users to deploy shortcuts (aliases), fuzzy matching and all kinds of other tips to get to their apps faster.
On the tech stack, Marvin says: “The app is only available for Android, so of course I also work with Android Studio on my Linux PC. The programming language used is Kotlin, in my opinion one of the most beautiful and best languages in the world. It was also important for me to use the new UI framework, Jetpack Compose.
“Under the hood, I also work with classic Java serialization, as this is much faster than parsing JSON. I use my own code, and my own libraries… apart from Bugfender!”
The debugging challenge
Marvin could have gone with all kinds of other debugging tools. The Google Play console even offers its own crash reporting feature.
But here’s the thing.
Not all bugs are captured through standard crash reports. Some issues appear only on certain devices or in production environments, making them difficult to reproduce during development or testing.
Without detailed access to device logs from users, diagnosing these problems and drilling down to the root can be time-consuming. Sometimes impossible.
What’s more, AppSearch is all about smooth, scalable UX. If users wanted a sticky experience, they’d just use their default app launcher, right?
So Marvin needs back stories, not black boxes. He needs to know everything that happened in the lead up to every crash, so he can do more than just fix the problem.
He can build better next time.
Enter Bugfender
Bugfender is designed not just for logging, but for control. Here are the attributes which (we hope!) made us a good fit for AppSearch.
- The platform allows Marvin to access device logs from production environments, giving him direct insight into what happens on real user devices.
- Marvin doesn’t just get the cliff-edge crash data, he gets the entire journey that led up to it, so he can go back and analyse play by play. The crash might have been caused not in the immediate lead-up but by a dodgy bit of code way back in the chain.
- Marvin can zoom into specific user devices and territories in the Bugfender dashboard.
- And best of all, he gets a round-the-clock logging solution. Just because a device isn’t crashing doesn’t mean it’s in a perfect runtime state. Marvin gets to see all the little glitches and snarl-ups that make a massive difference to the UX.
One of the things Marvin particularly likes is the speed. Bugfender offers extremely fast integration and minimal setup effort—an important advantage for independent developers managing projects alone.
“The best thing about Bugfender is it just works,” Marvin says. “It’s super quick to set up and the integration is so fast.
“I have a small bug in my app, but it is not displayed by Google. Bugfender gives me more control, so I can ensure better quality.”
The implementation
Bugfender was integrated into the Android application using its SDK. The implementation was lightweight and required minimal setup.
Because the application is written in Kotlin, Marvin also created custom Kotlin extension functions to simplify logging and integrate Bugfender naturally into his development workflow.
The impact
The consistency of AppSearch’s customer reviews demonstrates the efficiency of the back-end. And without wishing to brag, Bugfender has played a part.
Using Bugfender, Marvin has achieved:
- Improved visibility into real-world app behavior
- Faster identification of issues not captured by traditional crash reporting
- Greater confidence in application quality
- Simplified logging workflow with Kotlin extensions
Marvin is so impressed that he’s taking Bugfender into other workspaces with him.
“I’ve built Bugfender as a small private developer, but I also use Bugfender in the company where I work. There we use Bugfender for 2 iOS apps and 3 Android apps. I love it, and it makes sense to use it wherever I can. I couldn’t be more impressed!”
Want to find out how Bugfender can optimize your project? Reach out to us and we can gladly set up a call.
Logging for launch: Bugfender and AppSearch
Android Launchers have a patchy reputation to put it mildly. Performance lag, battery drain, all those sneaky bugs… launchers are supposed to be all speed and simplicity but they often serve up the exact opposite.
Step up to the stage Marvin Kickner. He’s created AppSearch, a smart, customisable launcher. Shipped in February 2006, it’s already had over 1,700 reviews with an average rating of 4.9. One reviewer calls it “the king of all app launchers.” Another describes the customization and control as “insane”.
And behind all this slack adaptability, Bugfender’s logging away.
As the sole developer, Marvin relies on high application quality and efficient diagnosis of production issues. By integrating Bugfender, he has gained deeper visibility into device logs and production behavior, enabling faster diagnosis and improved app reliability.
“I’m thrilled with Bugfender,” Marvin says. “I don’t have to worry about a thing. AppSearch is a modern app, and speed is particularly vital. Bugfender is so important.”
Quick overview and tech stack
AppSearch is available on Android and focuses on delivering a fast, efficient user experience, allowing users to launch apps using T9-style search, package name search, and a built-in calculator feature.
Customization is the app’s main point of difference. Users can tailor everything related to the search panel (layout, colors, icons or behaviors). But the real shining light is the speed provided by the advanced searching methods, enabling users to deploy shortcuts (aliases), fuzzy matching and all kinds of other tips to get to their apps faster.
On the tech stack, Marvin says: “The app is only available for Android, so of course I also work with Android Studio on my Linux PC. The programming language used is Kotlin, in my opinion one of the most beautiful and best languages in the world. It was also important for me to use the new UI framework, Jetpack Compose.
“Under the hood, I also work with classic Java serialization, as this is much faster than parsing JSON. I use my own code, and my own libraries… apart from Bugfender!”
The debugging challenge
Marvin could have gone with all kinds of other debugging tools. The Google Play console even offers its own crash reporting feature.
But here’s the thing.
Not all bugs are captured through standard crash reports. Some issues appear only on certain devices or in production environments, making them difficult to reproduce during development or testing.
Without detailed access to device logs from users, diagnosing these problems and drilling down to the root can be time-consuming. Sometimes impossible.
What’s more, AppSearch is all about smooth, scalable UX. If users wanted a sticky experience, they’d just use their default app launcher, right?
So Marvin needs back stories, not black boxes. He needs to know everything that happened in the lead up to every crash, so he can do more than just fix the problem.
He can build better next time.
Enter Bugfender
Bugfender is designed not just for logging, but for control. Here are the attributes which (we hope!) made us a good fit for AppSearch.
- The platform allows Marvin to access device logs from production environments, giving him direct insight into what happens on real user devices.
- Marvin doesn’t just get the cliff-edge crash data, he gets the entire journey that led up to it, so he can go back and analyse play by play. The crash might have been caused not in the immediate lead-up but by a dodgy bit of code way back in the chain.
- Marvin can zoom into specific user devices and territories in the Bugfender dashboard.
- And best of all, he gets a round-the-clock logging solution. Just because a device isn’t crashing doesn’t mean it’s in a perfect runtime state. Marvin gets to see all the little glitches and snarl-ups that make a massive difference to the UX.
One of the things Marvin particularly likes is the speed. Bugfender offers extremely fast integration and minimal setup effort—an important advantage for independent developers managing projects alone.
“The best thing about Bugfender is it just works,” Marvin says. “It’s super quick to set up and the integration is so fast.
“I have a small bug in my app, but it is not displayed by Google. Bugfender gives me more control, so I can ensure better quality.”
The implementation
Bugfender was integrated into the Android application using its SDK. The implementation was lightweight and required minimal setup.
Because the application is written in Kotlin, Marvin also created custom Kotlin extension functions to simplify logging and integrate Bugfender naturally into his development workflow.
The impact
The consistency of AppSearch’s customer reviews demonstrates the efficiency of the back-end. And without wishing to brag, Bugfender has played a part.
Using Bugfender, Marvin has achieved:
- Improved visibility into real-world app behavior
- Faster identification of issues not captured by traditional crash reporting
- Greater confidence in application quality
- Simplified logging workflow with Kotlin extensions
Marvin is so impressed that he’s taking Bugfender into other workspaces with him.
“I’ve built Bugfender as a small private developer, but I also use Bugfender in the company where I work. There we use Bugfender for 2 iOS apps and 3 Android apps. I love it, and it makes sense to use it wherever I can. I couldn’t be more impressed!”
Want to find out how Bugfender can optimize your project? Reach out to us and we can gladly set up a call.
