Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Mint.com comes to Android tablets with optimized app

By Rachel King | February 1, 2012, 6:00am PST

Summary: Mint.com finally reaches out to Android tablet users with a new app.

Mint.com is bringing its personal finance management platform to Android tablets.

Touted as 100 percent native and optimized for tablets running Android 3.0 Honeycomb and higher, this specially optimized version was designed to take advantage of widescreen real estate and format on Android tablets.

Thus, that means that Android tablets running anything less than 3.0 can’t take advantage of this — although there is a Kindle Fire version of the app already in existence.

However, when an Android tablet running version 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is released, Mint reps assure that this app will be ready and waiting.

There aren’t so many changes to functionality and features seen on other mobile versions of Mint, with the exception of a few items: reordered balances, smoother animations developed in collaboration with Google engineers, and a top action bar that fits in with Honeycomb’s existing feel and UI.

Mobile product manager for Mint.com, Brian Tan, explained while demoing the new app that developers have been taking what they learned from the iPad version and applied it it here.

“While some folks see that the app is very similar to the iPad app, a lot of care has been taken to ensure it has an Android feel,” said Tan.

If you’re doing your taxes and looking for a way to start managing your finances better going forward, Mint is an option to consider as it’s really simple to use, from inputting your financial accounts to creating personal budgets. (The only downside comes when you get email reminders about an upcoming bill or a finance charge. Those are helpful and necessary, but sometimes depressing.)

Mint already has several other free mobile apps available for iOS devices and Android smartphones, aside from its desktop browser interface.