Bitcoin Forum

Are there any plans to update the Electrum Android App?

I don't mean to sound overly critical, but it is pretty bad :( I had read such good things about Electrum, as it seems a lot of people really like the desktop client. I'm fairly "mobile" so would prefer a mobile wallet for my Android device, so I thought I'd jump into Electrum using the Android app... that was a fairly bad idea. The app takes forever to do anything when you open it for the first time. There are graphical glitches when you start scrolling some of the menus. The onscreen keyboard for doing the seed and pin stuff is just terrible. Despite PIN being on, it never seems to ask for one unless I want to change the PIN. I can close the app, remove it from memory etc but when I open it again, I get the Electrum splash screen and then straight into my wallet... no PIN required!!?!  :-\

I assume that a lot of these issues are because the android app appears to be a "port" of the desktop version... and not a custom written Android app... is that correct?

Why not use mycelium? The whole point of using electrum on android was that it was the first wallet working on android to have deterministically derived keys. Mycelium added that and is currently probably the most popular android wallet - I see no reason not to use it instead of electrum.

i am agree with you, since i dont use electrum. even i am new with mycelium, but i suggest you use mycelium, the dev do update in some regular time, last update if i am not wrong is last week or soo, i am sorry i do not remember.

Ah, OK. Thank you very much for the quick responses.

I actually have Mycelium installed. I am only relatively new to the Bitcoin scene, so have been test driving a wide variety of wallets. Started with Xapo, Blockchain.info etc... then read/investigated/learned how "unsafe" web wallets are (without private keys etc) and decided to investigate desktop and mobile wallets. Decided against a desktop wallet because I'd prefer the convenience of mobility etc

Installed Mycelium and it seems OK... has 1 or 2 little things that I think would make it a lot better (PIN required when foregrounding app like most internet banking apps etc, the ability to generate extra addresses manually so I can hand out a different address to everyone that I want to receive money from without waiting for an incoming transaction to generate the next address etc.

SO I have been looking to see if there were any other Android clients worth considering... I was considering starting a "What is the best Android wallet?" thread... because I couldn't seem to find much specific to Android on here...

Now I'm beginning to think you've just answered that for me ;)

Thanks again

I think mycelium does everything that is needed by the average bitcoin user and then some. Just make sure you properly back it up - write the seed down and keep it in a safe place.

Afaik there is an option in mycelium to secure it with a PIN. You can set to ask a PIN upon starting the app or just when spendin the balance.
As forthe question which wallet is best to use, there is a similar thread here:  https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1529378.0

Yes, you can secure Mycelium with a PIN... my problem with it is that unless you remember to shutdown the app properly, ie. you just press the home button for instance, if someone picks up your phone, goes to recent apps and selects Mycelium, it will open right back up to where you left it!!?!  :o

Most of the internet banking apps I've ever used, have a feature whereby if the app is backgrounded for a certain period of time (say 2 or 3 minutes), then when the app is brought to the foreground, it requires the PIN to be re-entered. This enables you to still switch back and forth between apps for the purposes of checking/copying payment info (accounts and amounts etc) while you are actively using the app... but if it sits idle for an extended period it relocks itself.

Mycelium never does this, unless the app is totally removed from memory by the Android app management and/or you use the back button to back all the way out of the app everytime.

Also, that thread focusses more on desktop/web wallets and doesn't specifically cover Android... hence why I was going to ask. Anyway, this is starting to get off "Electrum" so I'll ask my query in the top level Alternative clients board.