The city police is out on a bug hunt. The Bangalore City Police (BCP) is now asking for assistance from the city’s app developers after a section of iPhone users complained of not being able to use apps on their phones.
Bugs in some apps for the iOS platform have resulted in several users uninstalling the app or not being able to use them at all.
“We have three apps which have seen plenty of downloads on Google Play as well as the Apple App Store. But many users have reported problems with the (recently launched) Suraksha-Bengaluru City Police App, when they use it on their iPhones,” said Praveen Sood, City Police Commissioner.
According to him, there have been nearly 10,000 downloads of the app from the Apple store, but around 7,000 users have chosen to uninstall it. “There are issues with receiving the one-time password (OTP) as well as other bugs that are spoiling the user experience. We have not been able to determine what is wrong with the design,” he said.
On Sunday, another app, FindMyPoliceStation, which helps citizens locate their jurisdictional police station based on their GPS location, was launched. However, this is only for Android users currently. “We are having trouble with the app submission to Apple’s App Store. If someone can come forward and help us get this app running on iOS, it would be helpful,” Mr. Sood said.
Developers say that it is much easier to get an app on Google Play Store rather than on the Apple App Store. “Getting an application accepted by Apple usually takes a week. They also have a lot of restrictions on what tasks the app can perform. For example, a screen recorder app will not be accepted,” said Rohit Singh, an app developer.
Many a thumbs up for BCP’s social media posts
The latest in the series of meme-based tweets and posts by the Bangalore City Police features screenshots of the popular Netflix series Narcos that chronicles the life of notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. A tweet by the @BlrCityPolice handle three days ago with the underlying threat to ‘visit’ drug sellers in the city and images of Escobar from the series caught the eye of Netflix India which airs the series.
This led to an exchange between the two on Twitter where @NetflixIndia said Murphy and Pena (two of the detectives who bring down Escobar in the series) might want to work for BCP. This prompted a tongue-in-cheek reply from BCP who responded with another famous meme saying ‘we got this’ and said they would call if they needed help.
The exchange had Twitterati in splits. “This is a great way to reach out to the public and assure them that BCP is keeping up with recent trends. I can’t wait to see which TV series they use next in their campaign,” said Rakesh M., a resident of Indiranagar who follows BCP on Twitter.
