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My original plans were to put up this post after the last update was released which ended up being v0.1.17 due to a random bunch of bugs caught during tests.

However, since Google is taking over 21 hours to approve my changes I've decided to not wait and just put this post out now. I had a great title in mind for v0.1.17 too. It was going to be "Update You" because it contained a bunch of settings users can change plus gave users the option to use Material You, but oh well.

The current plan for this update is to finish up adding some settings I had in mind and wrap settings up for now (there will be a lot more settings to add later on). The main settings to add are options to configure the look of comments and posts on the post screen (note that the previous update which is still in review added configuring posts on the post list screen).

If anyone has some killer setting they want me to add before I wrap this up, let me know in the comments.

Changes so far:

• Lemmy servers are really struggling after the massive migration of users from Reddit. I'm bumping minimum wait times for some operations in the app for the time being in hopes of increasing usability. I may reduce these numbers later when/if the server performance is improved.
• Added the settings to adjust text size for both posts in the post screen (not the post list screen) and comments.
• Fix a bug where the communities pane will permanently show a spinner if no account is signed in
• Added the new sort orders for posts
• Improve experience. If comments fail to load but the post loads then the post will be shown, with an error in the comments section.
• Add more error messages for specific types of errors.
• Fixed a bug where the history tab UI will not refresh when history items are removed.
• Added account inboxes

Update

Normally I would do a release here to finish off the settings screen for now but since the app is still in review on Google's side I literally cannot do a release. So I will move to the next item on the road map: Account/User stuff.

Update 2

A lot of low level changes being worked on. As more screens are added, UI patterns within the app is becoming more and more critical. It's also critical these patterns are designed well at the beginning so that they do not need to be rewritten later on. This work is critical to the inbox screens I am working on as they will behave very similarly to the community page as you will see.

Update 3

Need to get better at providing updates.

The update is I'm still working on "Inboxes". The feature just ended up being a lot more than originally assumed. It almost feels like I'm building another app due to how many sub features are involved in this. I will try to get a release out by the end of the day but understand that this is a stretch goal. There is a lot of work to be done here.

There are a lot of complexities with managing an inbox with the API that lemmy provides. These complexities result in hundreds of edge cases, each requiring special attention. My current strategy with inboxes is to deprioritize private message support. They will still be supported by inboxes, they just will... suck (lemmy's website doesn't do a great job either so that's my excuse). This will allow me to get inboxes out faster.

Update 4

v0.1.20 is out to beta but there are some minor issues that I'm unhappy with. I will be doing a fast follow up release. Also thank you so much to everyone who gave super quick feedback on the release. The main changes are:

• Revert adding borders to all cards
• Increase title padding of compat layout
• I got carried away with how frequently to invalidate the inbox that now the cache is pretty much useless. Dialed that back a bit so inbox should feel less terrible to use. It will still start free on each app launch just to avoid the dreaded outdated inbox.
• Fixed some margin/padding issues
• Fixed a bug where content in the context card in the message screen in the inbox section (that's a mouthful) will not load after the card is collapsed and expanded again.

This update is focused on improving the quality of the app and implementing some configurability for the app (I'm not Apple ;)).

Changes so far:

• Added the ability to add images to posts or comments (this post was made using Summit!)
• Fixed a bug where you couldnt select text from the comment you are replying to.
• Add automatic content detection specifically for images (I will need to add it for other file types in the future). This means posts that link to an image should automatically show up as images. Previously the app relied on Lemmy to tell it when something was an image.
• Fix a rare crash
• Add card and compact layouts
• Add settings screen
• Add setting to adjust post font size
• Add setting to put the image on the left or right
• Add ability to block a user/community from a post. Will add ability to block a user from a comment in the next release. This release is big enough as is.
• Fixed a bug where pressing back while in the community browser would not work

Update

I'm working on something huge. I'll waiting until I'm close to completing it before announcing it just so I don't give users false hope.

Update 2

Sneak peak: https://youtube.com/shorts/yitAj2kqZlU?feature=share

Update 3

Update should be ready soon. Preparing for release now...

Update 4

Found some bugs during testing. Will be bumping it another version.

Update 5

Submitted another release.

Update 6

Had to update again. I noticed a bug where you couldn't edit comments. Apparently this has been broken for a while.

Update 7

App has been in review for 18 hours. At the point I can't really give an estimate of how long an update will take to go live. I can only hope it will go live soon.

Update 8

App has been in review for 3 days now. I think at this point it's easy to assume that this update has somehow triggered Google to manually review my app. Hopefully this won't take too long. From searching online there are horror stories of this taking up to a month during the pandemic. It seems to usually take at most a week otherwise.

Going to kick this version off with some cache improvements to smooth out the experience. Then I will move on to other features on the roadmap.

Changes so far (may be regularly updated):

• Cache user subscriptions. User subscriptions will continue to refresh on app load, however a cache will always be shown.
• Fix a bug where "set as home" will not work if the user is already on the home "tab". (Fun fact, the app treats each community on the left pane as a "tab". Each tab actually has it's own history).
• Change the behavior of the home button. If the home button is tapped when you are at the top of page 1 of a community page and you are not on your home page then you will be taken to your home page.
• Added the ability to create, edit or delete posts.

Update

Going to roll this out to beta. I will roll out to release tomorrow morning. Good night!

The next few items on the roadmap are all kind of small. I'm just going to try to knock as many of them down as I can before the next release!

Progress so far:

• Added support for clicking Lemmy links. Clicking on Lemmy links from within the app should open them within the app.
• When navigating back from post screen -> post feed, the post will be highlighted briefly to show where you were looking last on the screen.
• Added double press back to exit
• Tapping back from "Saved" or "History" screen will move to the "Home" screen instead of existing the app.
• Fixed a bug where tapping a post would cause it to appear 3 times in your history
• Fixed a bug where sentences are not auto capitalized in the comment editor
• Added swipe to go back gesture for the post screen.
• Refresh score of comment/post after vote is submitted to the server
• Added layout where the content for posts is on the right hand side to make it easier for people browsing with larger phones

Update

I was initially going to get a release out tonight but swipe to go back literally took all night to implement (if swipe to go back wasn't such an intuitive gesture I would probably have just stopped implementing it). I have work tomorrow so unfortunately I will not be able to make a release today. I'll aim for a release tomorrow morning. Gnight!

Update2

A release early today is looking impossible. I'm super swamped at work and I noticed some bugs in the app during testing, so I would be unhappy with the state of the app had I released it right now. The release is going to have to wait until after work.

Update3

Release will be ready soon. ~1 hour?

Update4

Adding swipe to go back added so many bugs. Found some more testing the release. It should finally be ready now though... Releasing now. Should be live in the play store in a couple of hours.

Update5

Found a bad bug while the release was getting reviewed. Will have to bump to 0.1.11.