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I remember looking at the discussion in the comments regarding the Stack Exchange Android application testing and there was a mention of Stack Remote and how it was not officially affiliated with Stack Exchange.

Later while perusing my profile, I found out that in the apps section, Stack Exchange actually helps suggest it: Apps section of profile

I'm just curious when Stack Exchange has released its actual Android application, will Stack Exchange still promote third-party Android applications?

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    Since when did Stack Exchange actively promote these third party applications? – Makoto Sep 3 '13 at 5:35
  • I changed the wording. promote is definitely not the right word but I guess I meant suggest. – aug Sep 3 '13 at 5:40
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I don't see a reason why not. Granted, chances are that we'll also suggest the official app, but we've always found it awesome when people build great stuff with (or without) our API, and we've always said so aloud.

I would rather not pull a twitter suddenly say "Oh, people are building cool things with our API? Great, let's destroy them all!"

Of course the mere fact that we control both sides of the pipe can give our own app a certain advantage (e.g. right now we're building the write-API alongside with the app, and thus have a pretty big head-start), and the simple fact that it's the official app tends to give you advantages as well.

But at the end of the day, we'd rather compete on merit; in other words, we'd prefer that people use our app because they like it, and not because we fail to acknowledge that there's a whole bunch of awesome apps and tools out there. After all, the developers of those apps are helping us as well, both by promoting our sites, and by helping to refine and improve the API.

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  • Thanks :) I was just curious. Looking forward to helping test it when I get an invite. – aug Sep 3 '13 at 6:03
  • right now we're building the write-API alongside with the app - is it possible that the write-API could be loosely documented and released as an alpha for others that would be interested in commenting/trying out such features? – Jon Clements Sep 3 '13 at 7:42
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    @JonClements At some point possibly, but I don't think we're there yet. There's just too much that can go wrong with a write API, so even for a semi-public alpha we need a fair amount of stability. And "loosely documented" is not an option either -- once we have programmatic write access to the sites, good documentation is vital. – balpha Sep 3 '13 at 7:54

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