As if by magic, just a few days after I started using my new phone and implored Google to introduce an official Android app for Blogger, they've done it. The app is free and available on the Market now. But is it any good?
The app loads quickly and has a very simple interface, which is a promising start. Multiple accounts are supported, which is nice, and if you ave several blogs on the same account then these can all be updated. This reveals the first flaw: the default blog is not necessarily the last one posted to, or the most frequently updated. Mine defaults to an old, forgotten blog, which is a shame.
Understandably, formatting options are minimal, but most people wouldn't want to get that fiddle anyhow. Even on my enormous HTC Desire HD, I'll be quite happy with plain text, with the ability to update the post and make it look fancy later.
Photos can be uploaded either from the gallery, or directly from the smartphone camera; this means liveblogging from an event or news situation is easy. It certainly means that photographing directly to Twitpic is no longer the sole option.
Labels (tags) are also enabled, and there's a nice GPS feature, so that the blogger's action can be automatically added: a nice.touch.
All of this is very nice, but the official app doesn't really do anything that Blogger-droid couldn't handle. What is really criminal is that there's so syncing with the Blower account. It seems that a post from a mobile will only appear in the main account once it has been published. This means that it's not.possible to write part of a post on the go and finish it offer home on a computer, or vice versa. As someone who tends to write fairly lengthy pieces over a period of time, this is extremely frustrating - t would be nice to have a piece of work in progress bubbling away, and add to it whenever. Have an idle five minutes. The sooner Blogger sort this out the better. Some sort of spellcheck woulda be welcome, although my HTC has this built in.
All in all, the Blogger Android app does the job well enough, although I will lol forward to improved versions providing further functionality. Incidentally, I wrote this post on my phone!
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