Bring Solo to the Browser & Desktop!

+1 on the desktop environment. Won’t be switching until this is addressed. 

👍

Hey StrataGeek​, 

Thanks for taking the time to share all of that, really appreciate it.

It’s great to hear how you’ve been making things work across different setups, and I know other Solo mates will find your experience helpful as well.

We’ll keep this thread updated and post here as soon as we’ve got any news to share.

Thanks again,
Hannah

I had considered Android emulators to se if that would work, but see it wouldn’t work (thanks), and so I’ve played with it in two native ways on Apple ecosystem to get at least keyboard and mouse operation...

iPhone mirroring to an Apple Silicon (ARM) Mac – the keyboard and mouse attached to the Mac allow you to operate the phone within the phone mirroring window. This was good when out and about last night with both devices, and made entry of historical data a lot better/easier, including Copying and Pasting between iPhone apps via key commands.

iPad running the Solo app (as a phone-sized app window) – because I’ve got such an old iPhone, there was a little more content shown on the iPad screen, so between that and just having the keyboard and mouse at home connected directly to the iPad already, when at home I would use that for entry.

My day to day usage once I get the current financial year in is likely to be OK on the phone screen generally, but it’s good to know if I need it, I can use other methods.

I haven’t bothered connecting mouse and keyboard directly to the phone as where they are (at home) I will probably use the iPad if I want to use them, and when I’m out and about, I don’t want to take my keyboard an mouse, so will use the iPhone mirroring on the Mac or use the iPhone itself.

I still see a use for large screen viewing through native iPad, web, or desktop, though – esp. EOFY.

Sean

Brilliant :) 

End of financial year is fast approaching. You probably can't accelerate development much, but I would think it a golden opportunity to get it done as this is an ideal time for people like me who want to migrate. 

Thanks for sharing, Hannah. 

Hey CCCMikey2​, Ahh yes, actually that's a really good suggestion. We sometimes use a similar setup ourselves for demos. It isn't something we'd officially support, but if you can get it working, there's certainly no harm in giving it a go.

Now, I promise it is coming! I don't have a date I can share just yet, but I have seen snippets of what it looks like and it's looking pretty good so far. 🙂

Two of our main priorities at the moment are Quotes and Browser, so both are getting plenty of attention from the team.

Thanks,
Hannah

Thanks for your reply Han :) 

I forgot to mention that those with premium phones may also be able to use a USB-C to HDMI adapter (or even a docking station) to put their phone onto a bigger screen. My phone is too low end for that. It will still be a portrait image though as the UI is mobile-centric. 

Anyway, hoping you can implement a desktop version one day - or perhaps for development simplicity a web version using a similar QR code or symbol authentication method as used by the major popular online messaging services. 

Hey CCCMikey2​, 

Thanks for looking into this.

Unfortunately, we do know that running Solo through emulators or virtual environments isn't currently supported. Because Solo has access to banking and payment features, we don't allow jailbroken or otherwise unsecured devices, which is most likely what's causing these environments to be blocked.

I can definitely see the appeal of a desktop option, though, and I appreciate you sharing the workarounds you've tested. I'll make sure the feedback is passed on to the team.

I've tried it with Bluestacks, Waydroid and Android Studio. Unfortunately it's blocked on all - likely because it has access to bank accounts and detects these as 'unlocked' devices.

Best workaround appears to be a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and adb or Rustdesk as the viewer. (it crashes when using adb keyboard.)

Keeping a dedicated old phone listening on Rustdesk might be the safest workaround for now, but hopefully they bring a desktop version of sorts. I just hope they don't raise the price too much in the process. 

Even rounding it out to be better for iPads (where it currently displays as an iPhone app layout) would be handy – bigger screens, better navigation and keyboard support, etc.

The developers ticking the box which allows it to work on Apple Silicon Macs might be a shortcut for at least some desktop support.

Browser access would be amazing - so much easier to enter information.

I understand it might be seen as competing with the fuller products, but it's severely limited in the mobile-only version for data handling (especially at the start).