The weird layout issue caused when tapping a username in the comments.
GIFs will no longer be automatically rendered as animated images anywhere in the app, except when opening the image viewer.
I want to give a bit more context about 2.
GIFs (and animated WebP images) have been the most common cause of crashes and UI freezes in Bean. The last couple of days have been particularly bad as this image of the Lemmy version of r/place has been shared.
This image is 12.4MB, animates for over 2 minutes, and (most importantly) is almost 3,000 frames. I can't even tell you exactly how many frames as both Preview and Photoshop froze on my Mac when trying to open the image.
The reason the number of frames is important, because a GIF is just a container for multiple images. Each frame is an individual image that needs to be decoded and rendered on the screen, and it turns out when there are a lot of them at 1000 x 1000px it is impossible to decode performantly.
Bean uses SDWebImage to download, cache, and render images behind the scenes. It's a fantastic library that is the de facto standard when working with remote images on iOS or macOS. Even with the progressiveLoad and scaleDownLargeImages options enabled, SDWebImage just cannot render certain images without iOS sounding the alarm and firing an OOM exception — especially when that image is 12.4MB and 3,000 frames.
At the moment, Bean will crash if you attempt to open this image. I have even tried working around this and rendering it in a web view, or using another library — FLAnimatedImage. Neither of these solutions worked and believe me, I'm not happy about that (seriously, I really hate GIFs now).
In the coming days, I'll be pushing another update that will check for the size of the image before deciding whether to animate it or not. When not animated, SDWebImage only decodes the first frame of a GIF which is no issue at all.
I know this isn't brilliant, as in the ideal world every image would be viewable within Bean, but it's the best solution I can think of to avoid a single image crashing the app.
Added the ability to create a post from community screens. This will be improved in upcoming builds with the ability to upload images and also select which community you wish to post to. Please test it in the meantime though.
Switched to using the large title style for the nav bar and added an option to the Display settings toggle it off.
Pulled out comments on user profiles.
Added an option for Full Screen Swipe to Go Back to Actions settings.
Added options to the Actions settings to hide floating action buttons.
Added an option for the comment line width.
Added an option to the Filtering settings to unbar NSFW images. For science.
Fixed the incorrect background colour on the Search screen.
Fixed some visual issues with the image gallery.
Fixed visual issue with long community names.
Fixed issue where sometimes the large title would not collapse correctly.
Fixed an issue that could cause the wrong account to load on the Account tab.
Fixed an issue that caused the count and vote not to show correctly on the single post view.
Fixed an issue that allowed you to tap through to your own profile from your profile screen.
The overlay is a bit confusing at the bottom of a thread and it’s hard to reach the upvote on the left.
[edit] bean is still my go to Lemmy client btw. Can’t wait for the upcoming releases. You’re a blast, Steve. Thanks a lot.
Thank you, I’m glad you’re enjoying Bean! It looks like this is a positioning but in themes with translucent tab and nav bars. I’ll look to fix it tomorrow but in the meantime if you use the Dusk theme it should solve it.
Can the app retain the sort and read options per community and the home view?
For an example, my home view would be set to hot and unread but for Bean community, new and all posts is my preference since unread would hide the megatread post.
Also, I don’t think pinned should be removed when filtering unread posts.
Man this app is already well ahead of all of the other Lemmy clients out there, especially witht eh latest update adding all of the imporvements to comments! Keep up the amazing work!
I’ve just pushed a build that will hopefully stop any slow down or crashes when scrolling. It still needs some optimisation but please let me know if you encounter any issues.
Added the ability to select a community from the post composer.
Added a FAB to the home screen to create a post.
Added the ability to mark a post as NSFW.
Added loading indicator when creating a post or comment.
Improved the quality of images uploaded. May need to reassess if servers deem them too large.
Wrapped the Markdown accessories in a scrollview for smaller devices and future buttons.
Shrunk the link preview if there’s no image found.
Removed the preview from the comment composer (it may come back, I’m still deciding if I like it or not).
Turned the fullscreen swipe off by default. I don’t like that it was changing the iOS animations due to the pan gesture handler, but the option still remains.
For the community selector, would it be possible to have it list your subscribed communities so you don’t have to search for them? Searching for communities using certain keywords yields a huge list of results that makes it slow to find the ones I subscribe to.
I’ve pushed an update to the way images are rendered tonight which I’m hoping will finally (finally), finally (FINALLY) fix the crashing issues caused by GIFs and animated webp images exhausting memory allocation.
I have noticed that it’s broken the full height images option (sorry about that) so I’ll be patching that back in tomorrow.
In the meantime, I’d you encounter any issues with GIFs, please let me know.
Yep, that’s on the list! I’m gonna get the post composer to a state where I’m happy and then go back over the long list of things like that, that I want to improve before v1 hits the store.
Yeah my initial implementation was a hot mess. I’ve re-written my scheduler and worker so it should be more reliable. You’ll need to turn notifications off and back on again to re-register and hopefully that will fix it.
this is my favourite Lemmy app so far, it feels great!
if I may add a couple bits of feedback:
would it be possible to select the position of the Skip Thread button? I understand that there can be at least 2 buttons down there, but it would be nice to have the flexibility.
swipe actions in comments are great though I feel they trigger rather easily when scrolling down a thread. not sure if others have mentioned this already but maybe reducing sensitivity so the action is more deliberate could improve the experience?
just noticed while typing this that the composer is having some scrolling issue with longer posts? I can't see past a specific point unless I hid the keyboard.
regardless, fantastic work! will there be a tip jar or some pricing model released soon? I'd love to support the app's development in some way
Since the last update, communities and comments haven’t been loading quite right. Always possible that it’s a .world problem, but I’m using Voyager right now without any apparent issue. I’ll try again in a couple hours and see if there are still issues.
Edit: I take it back. More exploring on Voyager reveals the same problems. Looks like it’s a .world issue.
Added an option to hide the inbox notification badge.
Added an option to hide the footer/actions on comments.
Moved bookmarks to the account screen.
Increased the size of the comment indicators.
Refresh the profile screen whenever it’s viewed.
Removed the large header from communities and inbox for consistency.
Fixed missing item separators on the profile view.
Fixed issue where tapping the search tab on the search screen crashed the app.
Note: *The inbox view will be improved tomorrow. It's currently not possible to tap through from there to posts/comments. I'll be fixing this and improving the view with information about what post is being replied to, as well as adding an empty state.
In the meantime, please let me know if you encounter any issues with the Inbox.*
Ok great thanks! On a positive note, it looks bloody lovely. I’m very impressed with the layout and UI.
A few suggestions that are on my wish list for any Lemmy app:
A darkish mode: white text on black can be quite jarring. I’d prefer a white on a dark grey option.
Swipe gestures: I’d like full page swipe to go back and turn off any comment swiping up/down vote gestures.
Communities need to be in alphabetical order
Search button, click on it, it should put the cursor into the search box so I can immediately start typing.
I’m sure the list of people’s wants/needs will be massive. Great job so far!!
Smaller update than anticipated this weekend because it was pride 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ and I was out celebrating with friends ❤️
This one is mainly bug fixes but there is a big change to how I'm handling multiple accounts. States are now persisted when accounts are changed. This means if you have a certain post open, switch accounts to browse on another instance, and then switch back — it will still be right where you left it.
Added state persistence between account switches.
Added press and hold on the account tab to open the account switcher.
Removed background on the card and post footer.
Removed background from featured posts on the single post view.
Featured post backgrounds are now based on the accent colour.
Made the entire card view tappable, not just the title.
Tidied up the card and single post views.
Fixed issues with bookmarking.
Fixed issues with sharing links.
Fixed issues with overlapping content in the post composer.
Changed search on the communities selector in the composer.
Fixed a visual glitch between the composer and community selector.
Keyboard can now be dismissed in the composer community selection screen.
Fixed an issue with scroll to top offsets.
Added a link to posts on the Inbox and profile comments views. Still a WIP.
Content of comments is now hidden if removed by a moderator or deleted by author.
Added a link to the community on the Inbox and user profile comments.
Markdown editor is now reset when creating a post or comment.
I think the splash screen should only be a skeleton of the tab bar/nav bar. The icon might not fit the user chosen app icon, also it makes the app feel slower. Apple’s HIG also recommends the skeleton
images in the feed should have the full height (otherwise most memes and posts aren’t readable without a tab and dismiss)
I know HIG recommends the skeleton but I’ll have the same issue where that splash might not match theme chosen by the user and that’s even more jarring.
There’s a setting for this under Display > Full Height Images
Not sure if you are receiving the crash reports as I don’t see the usual Apple’s crash prompt but scrolling up and down in this mega thread a few time would crash the app.
Also, scrolling fast would show blank spots as well.
Added the ability to create "groups" on the Communities tab. This is a WIP and you cannot delete or edit yet. I'm also open to a better name for this feature!
Pushed the creation of SDAnimatedImage to a background thread to alleviate some of the UI blocking that was causing animations to stutter. I'm still not 100% happy with this and will be revisiting in the future.
Love the groups! Definitely helps when there are a bunch of similar communities and you want to browse all at once. One thing I noticed is they don’t seem to follow the correct “sort”. But I know you said it is WIP!
I find it a bit jarring that to close the gallery preview I have to swipe down - there’s no option to swipe up. This sort of goes against the UX since I want to continue scrolling down the page after looking at a photo. It always catches me out.
Hi there! Seems like the app theme doesn’t switch automatically when device theme switches between light/dark mode (when settings for theme is set to device theme).
Thank you! I’m aware of those bugs and I’ll add a compact comments view to the list. It is possible to turn off the footer there in the settings already.
Thanks :)
I saw that but turned them on again since there’s no other way to tell if a comment is upvoted or not (the upvote swipe doesn’t indicate on/off either)
Just wanted to say the swipe to vote features and the haptic feedback are perfect! I think you guys have it down better than any other Lemmy app at the moment!
Looking forward to future updates. I could see this one being my main for sure!
I noticed another visual issue with the latest version. This time with the comments. Seems part of the comment can get cut off. See image.
Overall, I’m loving the app more and more with each update. At this point, I can use it to lurk without any real issues. I only need to switch to post or to comment with a photo. There are a few “wishlist” features that I’d love to see. But you’re moving real fast!
I’m on the latest version of iOS 16, using an iPhone 12 Mini. Just a couple things I’ve noticed in the latest build:
I can upvote and downvote comments now, but there is a weird delay. I get the haptic feedback, but the vote does not appear until I start scrolling away.
When clicking on the text of a post in standard view, nothing happens. Might be nice to have that open up the post in the same way as if you clicked the title.
When I upvote/downvote a post with a link, and it makes it as “read.” Something odd happens. All of the preview text for the link disappears.
Those are the only new bugs I’ve noticed so far. Keep up the great work!
Thanks for the feedback! That last issue should now be resolved in the build I've just pushed out.
As for the others, I'm aware of the weird delay — it's currently only re-rendering the list when you scroll. I'm still working on comments so hopefully it won't be much longer until that's resolved.
Small visual bug with the latest version: the upvote/downvote/reply buttons of the last comment on a post can get hidden behind the menu bar at the bottom of the screen.
steve! loving the app so far man. couple questions -
will you be adding screen swipe to go forward at any point?
i’m having the same bug that another user mentioned where my saved/bookmarked posts aren’t showing up; it sounds like you aren’t able to reproduce this at this time but just wanted to give a heads up!
thanks again and looking forward to watching this all continue to grow!
tested this out a bit more, i saved a new post inside of bean and this post did in fact show up in bookmarks. it looks like any previously saved posts are what’s not showing up. i believe the post i saved before was via memmy. going to test it out by saving a post on lemmy on desktop tomorrow and see if the same result happens!
edit: tested out by saving a new post on memmy and checking bean; that post is showing up on bean in bookmarks. weird quirk but i think the solution might just be for users to re-save previously bookmarked content if it’s not populating in bean
This is really promising! Obviously missing some major features, but damn is it sexy. When we can comment and vote on comments, this might already be good enough to be my main Lemmy browser app. Great start!
At the moment the upvote/and downvote swipe colours match those on the buttons and does change for some themes. The reply colour does need attention as the bookmark one does use the accent.
I’ll give it some attention when I get 5 minutes or am working on new themes.
It seems none of the links at Trending Communities are working for me. Do you know if it’s an issue with how they do their links, or something that can be adjusted on Bean?
I’d prefer it to be there. Just for ease of navigation more than anything. It seems to make more sense like if I am in communities, then in a post, I’d have to tap or swipe back twice to access my inbox or search? Or what if I’m down a rabbit hole of communities, I’d need to swipe all the way back rather than just being able to click home.
Don’t know if I’m being really dumb, but I can’t find any way to post to a community. I can reply to comments, but not actually make a post.
Also, the search tab has no search box, but is just an empty page with the word “Search” and no way to actually search for anything.
Hi, so far seems great! I’d like to request some new features, but won’t do that now, so I’ll focus on something I found while scrolling, it flickers sometimes. I’m on iOS, scrolling through beehaw with the default app settings
Are you able to let me know which device you're using? Are you using the compact or card view for posts? Is it slow rendering of the rows or flickering of thumbnails?
Hi, sorry for the late answer. I’m using an iPhone 14 (the regular one), and card views. I’ll test with another instance to check if this also happens there 🙂
Hi, I’ll give you one then: Auto-hide the top bar and the bottom navigation on scrolling, that will give a more full screen (maybe immersive is the right word) experience while using your app 🙂
I love the look of this app! I’ve been trying all of them, and have so far kept going back to Memmy. But this one has the potential to take over! I will be watching with great interest!
A third option for “view” in the main page would be great. Right now we either have the full view with a larger photo and article preview, or a really condensed one with the thumbnail on the left and a headline.
Not sure what it would look like, but maybe something in between the 2?
Also, a full BLACK/Dark mode would be great. Right now, some of the app still has a grayer UI in some spots.
Hello. Me again. I’m on the latest build, I believe. A couple more notes and thoughts.
-Love the ability to hide read posts. But is it possible to disable the feature inside communities? In other words, they would be hidden on the main feed, but if you click into a specific community, your read posts would not be hidden.
-Long community names seem to cause a visual issue. See image.
Hi again, thanks for your work, the app is getting better on each release. I found something else: the voting bar on the last comment is being hidden by the bottom navigation bar, so I can’t vote or comment on it:
This looks like it uses the standard search API but allows you to define an instance you’d like to search. I think I could integrate a similar feature but I’d like to allow folks to explore other instances without having an account there too
I have the theme set to “automatic” but the app doesn’t switch from light mode or to dark mode unless it’s forced closed and re-opened. Most other apps seem to switch as soon as you open them, even if they haven’t been force closed and closed by iOS.
As for the other, I'll see what's being returned from the API. I wonder if the listing of posts returns something different to the single post endpoint.
And, not to bombard you, but there seems to be an issue with replies showing up. I know there are a few replies to my comment shown in the image, but they’re not appearing in Bean. It seems to be a problem in posts with a lot of comments, at least as far as I can tell.
I'm having problems with the communities tab in the most recent release. Entries are sometimes getting duplicated or showing out of order, and I'm experiencing stuttering and slow loading. The app is slow to respond if I try to navigate away from the communities tab- sometimes taking several clicks or seconds to respond- while responsiveness in other tabs is normal. The battery usage has also been noticeably higher than before. I'm on an iPhone 11 pro, 16.5.1.
The duplication seemed to continue the longer I stayed in the tab and would cause jumping to other areas without any input on my part.
Duplicate entries are clickable links that lead to the correct communities.
The issue seems worse the more communities I'm subscribed to. I'll attach screenshots from the account with the most subscriptions, but other accounts show only one or two duplicates and my account with the fewest subscriptions didn't have any issues. I unsubscribed from a few on this account and am no longer seeing duplicate entries but am still experiencing the slow loading/high battery usage.
Unrelated but certain subscriptions are missing from the tab, notably [email protected]. This community shows up under my communities in other apps I'm testing, but not in Bean; maybe because the display name starts with a / and the other apps are sorting by the actual link?
Sure, I tried deleting and reinstalling and was not able to reproduce the duplication issue, though the slow loading/page jumping around/lack of responsiveness is still present.
Out of curiosity I tried subscribing to a new community and the bug reappeared, though not as bad this time:
I tried reinstalling again and the bug still persisted. I then unsubscribed from a community bringing my subscription count to 200 and that seems to have resolved the duplicate entries for now.
I also wanted to test if I can block users, but no menu shows when I press the three dots in the top right in user profiles (the settings button on my profile works).
Blocking is on the list; just getting some of the bigger features sorted but it'll be there for 1.0. The visual glitch is the translucent bar disappearing. It looks a little weird with no image banner so I might see about changing it so it fades in and out sooner.
Full height image preview seems to have stopped working in latest build. I’m seeing clipped images even with the option toggled on. Worked fine in previous build. This post is one example:
Running into a bug where images don’t load in the feed (seemingly random) but load fine when post is opened. This is one example of a post that showed a blank image icon until clicked
I know some instances like .world were having issues with thumbnail generation so this may be related. That being said, today’s build changes the way images are rendered in the background so please let me know if you see this frequently and I’ll investigate more.
I’m encountering a really weird problem while testing out the image upload. When I compose my reply, it looks as if everything is fine. However, my comment is repeatedly getting published to the wrong post once it actually goes through. I went ahead and deleted the comments once I noticed but I’m including a screenshot of the post it got published to. It looks like one of @infinite_zero’s test images also ended up on that post?
I thought it might have been a reloading issue after switching accounts (from lemm.ee since the image uploads are restricted to 100kb) so I tried again and made sure to refresh and navigate back to this community/thread before trying to reply. However the reply continued to go to that other post even after doing so. I’ve switched to the web to upload the images and make this comment.
Hopefully that makes sense but let me know if there’s anything I can clarify. I’m really excited about this app so far!
I also replied to this comment from two accounts to see if there's a difference if it's a reply to a comment vs a reply to a post
Very strange. So I'm not able to reproduce the problem consistently and it's also happening with text comments? I did notice some additional weird behavior:
After switching accounts and returning to view the thread, all of the replies have disappeared and all of the community content is missing. Pulling down to refresh the content doesn't help but navigating away and back via the community tab several times restores the content.
Oh wow, that is really weird. I’d presumed it was the ID of the post somehow ended up the same but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I wonder if because it’s a Kbin post I’d that makes any difference.
Does writing a text comment here cause the same issue or was it just image uploads?
Fixed a bug that caused the app to crash if metadata could not be fetched.
GIFs are no longer animated in the list view and only within the ImageViewer. This was causing a massive memory issue that crashed not only Bean but also Springboard.
Since I didn’t get the previous build via TestFlight, I’ve got a request on one of the changes from that one: Can we get some haptic feedback for the press and hold pop up account changer? For some reason, it feels like it should be there to me.
Small issue. But I have sound effects turned on in settings. When I upvote something there is an audio tone. However, when I put my phone into silent mode via the switch on the side of the iPhone, I still get an audio tone when I upvote something.
I turned off sound effects for now, but I think the app audio settings should be overridden by the phone settings (silent mode in this instance).
It looks like the changes I made for the share extension have broken it in app! Either share from your browser using the extension or I’ll push a fix later today.
Can the card view be the default view when the app first starts? So much of the content is visual and the compact view doesn’t do that any favors. Even in the card view some images are clipped more than I’d like. Tapping each post as you scroll by certainly is taxing.