Playground Forums

Hi, I'm John a 70YO wannabe piano player.

I have been doing some lessons for the past 2 years but unfortunately with the COVID the past 15 month the lessons have been on line so I thought I better see what else is available.

One of my granddaughters has done some lesson here from what I understand and so I had a look.

To my HORROR and surprise the Android platform is not supported by Playground? Apple stuff is a no no for me and I don't want my Windows laptop near my keyboard.

There was an Android version of the app early on. Sadly, the Android platform is so scattered it was impossible to support, some Android devices failed to run at all, others were so slow as to be unusable, and only a few actually worked well enough (not that any were actually great). Android has come a long way since then, so I expect the Playground Folks will try again once the new "3rd Gen" (or which ever generation it is) is running on the other platforms.

The challenge with Android is there is no way short of buying a very new High End Tablet to have a hope of running a MIDI program in "real time" - or at least that was how it was a few years ago. Maybe it is better now, and maybe the new platform will run on Android better than the previous build environment.

Hey Folks,

Just bought a sub, really like the look of this app and the balance between education and entertainment seems to be on the money.

I am also in the club that will never invest in Apple and while I'm not surprised the platform gets a better deal, to not have an Android app in 2021 is pretty crazy.

If any mods read this, can I suggest just supporting some of the higher selling tablets and go from there? No one in the android community will be in shock if you provide partial support only.

Hey BJD - welcome to the club.

I agree would be great if they had an Android version of the app but as @sw1tch73ch pointed out, they tried but it did not work out. Also his comments on the Android platform are right on the mark. Writing software that accesses the hardware or communicates with another device is very difficult.

I do not know if things have gotten better since then, but I'll find out early next year when I do a POC for a Android+MIDI app. As far a Playground Sessions on Android goes, I am guessing it will be years before we see that but you never know.

PGS is a very small company and they do accept suggestions. You can send them an email:

support@playgroundsessions.com

or if you are Facebook user, there is a Playground Sessions group you can join. That group is where they spend most of their time. You won't see them posting on these boards or any announcements or things like that.

They have a YouTube channel as well with hundreds of instructional videos.

Good luck with the app I think you will really enjoy it.

I haven't heard anything lately but they said early on that the new multiplatform version (released for iPad and iPhone so far) will be available on Android as well.

David Sides recently confirmed on Facebook that an Android version will follow the Mac and Windows releases of the new app that is now available for iPad and iPhone. No time frame given.