Looking for beta testers for my Tildes.net iOS app!
Happy Friday everyone! I'm making a post to see if anyone wants to beta test my Tildes.net iOS app Backtick.
Background
I've been wanting to create a Reddit app for quite a while, and just when I got started, the API change chaos happened. Thankfully, I remembered signing up for Tildes.net a few years ago and decided to pivot to make an app for this site instead! The app is still a work in progress, but I believe releasing early and getting as many eyes on it during development results in a better end product (and it's more fun for me đ).
Features
Here are the current features of Backtick:
- Light mode/dark mode
- Login to Tildes.net (suports 2FA)
- Front page feed with sorting support
- View, vote, and comment on posts
- Reply and vote on comments
- Collapse comments
- View notifications
- Full markdown rendering
- Text-to-speech for posts and comments
Here is a video demo of the app in its current state (updated for v1.8.1): https://youtube.com/shorts/iukQJyJbtw8?feature=share
I know there missing features, but as I mentioned before, I would love to get as many people in as early as possible to help shape Backtick's future.
Testing
If you're interested in testing the app as I continue to work on it during my free time you will need:
- An iOS 16 device
- TestFlight (Apple's testing app)
You can access the beta here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/gNH18NE9. If you have any issues please DM me your Apple ID email and I will send you an invite manually.
Thanks, everyone! Have a great weekend.
- Ash
Edit:
Getting some great feedback! I'll be tracking bugs and potential features here if anyone is curious: https://chatter-brick-3d3.notion.site/Backtick-Tracker-888150b641ae4c0ab39dc0345783bc50?pvs=4
Edit2:
I created the Discord server to help facilitate better collaboration with those who wish to be more involved. It will be a place for discussion around potential features, bugs, and general chat. I will still be taking in feedback via TestFlight and Tildes.net, so it's perfectly fine if you don't want to join.
Join here: https://discord.gg/aah7nkfpBY
Holy crap, you work fast, @wababa!
I use 2FA, so will have to wait for you to add support for that before I can join your beta, but I am looking forwards to getting to try it.
p.s. Just a small criticism of the app that I noticed from your video. The "post a comment" field is at the bottom of the comments' sections here on Tildes in order to encourage users to actually read the existing comments before making a new top-level one of their own.
Whereas having it at the top, like you do in your app, typically encourages people to make new top level comments before they have read any others, often leading to repeated questions, and far more low-effort noise. E.g. Have you ever sorted the comment sections on Reddit by 'New'? It isn't pretty. And it's especially annoying in "Help/Advice" type threads, since it creates far more work for all those trying to assist others, since they more frequently have to reply the same things over and over again, since nobody bothered to read the other threads before making a new top-level comment of their own.
So I humbly request, and also strongly encourage you to (pretty please) consider moving the 'post new comment' button in your app to the bottom of the comments section, like it is here on Tildes. I know it's slightly less convenient, but that is largely the point. :)
This kind of thing concerns me with all of the interest in third party apps. So much of Tildesâ design was deliberately chosen to support the cultural goals and philosophy of the site, gentle and proactive guidance. Comment box at the bottom, no inlining of images/video, reduced emphasis on usernames, no following/tagging of users, etc. All of that could go out the window with apps since they can make their own designs, and likely will do so with user convenience in mind as is typically desired, instead of the same carefully placed friction.
Obviously, I can only speak for myself, but I'm very keen on keeping Backtick in line with Tildes' design choices. Super grateful to have people like @cfabbro point out any violation and I will always welcome collaboration with Tildes collaborators and developers.
I 100% think your concerns are valid, but I'm optimistic that others will have a similar thought process because Tildes is such a welcoming and friendly community with clear core values.
Yeah, it's a definite worry of mine as well. But hopefully app developers can respect the conscious design decisions we have made, understand the reasoning behind them, and follow suit if we ask nicely. We shall see.
I like it this way. This perfect solution literally just fell into our laps. Deimos has no interest in working on this stuff, because there are far bigger fish to fry first in this pond, and sharks get dealt with before the minnows do. Well, great! He doesn't have to!
Let the web interface be as old.reddit.com is - this 'old fashioned' 1970s-era text based way of interacting with a tildes node. Every Tildes node will always have it as the default option unless their admins turn it off. Nobody is going to be hassling us about it - and that's a very very good thing. This makes it free to be perfected as the simple, clean, functional 'internet is serious business' faster-over-dialup-than-anyone interface. It remains the only supported official interface, at least until an API is done. Then there will be two official interfaces - one for web browsers, one for apps.
Adding support for a ~music.* community playlist, or support for a ~tv.* channel, can just hoover up the content and show it to people in a much cleaner app or htpc interface. The API can in theory even do some backend work for this and deliver it to the apps as cleaned up, community curated content packages if you want to get fancy and make your app developers swoon with joy - this does not have to be an adversarial relationship. Aim to minimize the bandwidth needed and the number of requests needed, because that minimizes the hosting costs too. I think it should be rather obvious that apps and people using the web should interact with the site differently. Certain types of problems are harder or easier depending on which it is you are using. Choose the best tool for the job.
Boom, instant syndication. Anyone who remembers radd.it or reddit.tv can see where this is inevitably going, but those will be apps this time, not separate websites. People want the content, not necessarily the community. If I'm jogging and listening to ~music's content, I don't have a keyboard, and I am not reading your comments, and I don't care about your discussion thread. If the music blows my hair back, however, I might come back later from my computer. If the content is good, it'll drive people right back here, which is more users, more donations, and more development.
The app developers can do whatever they want to do and they can still charge money for their apps. It also means we're going to see a lot of different apps pop up, ~groups may even create their own apps to facilitate whatever it is they are doing in their own communities. Most sports fans would kill to get /r/nfl and all the team subs inside their own app that is also plugged into the entire online NFL universe by features unique to that app, wouldn't they? That's a good thing, it fosters innovation and experimentation. Apps will rise and fall, I predict there will be several - and some that, rather than interacting with a tildes node, will just syndicate the content from it. The vast, overwhelming majority of people are passive lurkers who never make a single comment, and they outnumber the rest of us 9:1 everywhere on the internet. That means lurkers have nine times more donation power than we do - never ever forget about the lurkers.
I think we can rely on app developers to make their money, and kick a bit back at Tildes now and then - and the community will remind them of it if they forget, as they always do. Then there's ten tildes nodes, then fifty, then a hundred, and the code is getting not just good but insanely great. Then we find out what strange dance gets this insidious internet-killing moderation problem under control once and for all.
After we know how that works, then it's time to think about this decentralization / federation craziness. The rest has to come first, because that's what needs to happen to make this useable. Tildes' non-profit structure and open source code are not theoretically 'as good as' a decentralized system would be safeguarding freedom, but they are better than any existing alternatives and any for-profit corporation. It'll do getting started. If Deimos suddenly turns into Spez we still have the source code, and so will all the app developers.
As for app developers designing apps that damage the discourse and set things back, there are some damn simple solutions to that too. I seriously doubt we'll be needing them until this place has millions of users. Let's not forget that the app developers are here and writing their apps because they get it - they aren't the enemy, they are the good guys, and the early bird app developers are the saints. I'm pretty confident that people who make good apps that respect the site are going to win out in the app ecosystem over those who don't - that's just good business.
So, we have code for a site - the Tildes codebase, linked at the bottom of every page - and we're waiting on app developers who can support multiple tildes nodes. Then we'll have a nice clean reddit/usenet/forum hybrid with its own app(s) that anyone can jump on. Then we'll have some strange network effects and it'll turn into usenet v3, run for 20 years, and evolve into v4 when we finally understand all the mistakes we don't know we are making right now designing v3. Good times.
Why do we really like this? Because it's not going to create one website with a hundred million users. It's more likely to create a million websites with a hundred users. They will still be loosely connected as one sort of entity by the apps, though. That'll be where the strangeness comes in. When you can basically get 'an app' for your WoW guild or company for a tiny setup/hosting cost that connects you in your pocket to every single person in those groups, watch out. Let's set the groups free from reddit, discord, and fifty nazi clones of reddit. Take back your internet. We're making it easy, it's fun, and you'll feel better.
Yeah, I've been thinking about meta again.
100% makes sense to me! I will work on moving the comment box to the bottom. Should have it updated by the end of the weekend :)
TYVM!!! I really do appreciate it. You're the best. And I really can't wait to give it a try myself when I can. :)
Hi @cfabrro! Just letting you know the newest TestFlight release has 2FA support
Oh, sweet! Thanks for the ping. I'll sign up tonight when I'm done playing Diablo. :)
Can't seem to login via iOS 16.6 (Developer Beta)
"Failed to Login. Please check username and password".
I tried the same login on the website and it logs me in with no issues.
Same here but on 16.3. Could it be due to 2fa?
That could be a possibility! I also have 2FA enabled with Authy as the authenticator app.
Oof yeah that could be it. I havenât done any testing with 2FA đŹ
Disabled 2FA to test this out, definitely seems to be 2FA. Making this comment from App!
Works on iOS 17.0 beta with mfa.
(I know you said iOS 16, but I wanted to give it a try, and so far everything seems to be working perfectly!)
Awesome! Thanks for checking it out on iOS 17!
I think it's your solution. The 2FA may need some fixes.
Also, I use Bitwarden for my passwords, and the web site is not recognized, I have to search for the Tildes password and select it. It's not a real problem but it would be good if it can be automatically recognized.
I believe the way this works on iOS is that the app developer must verify domain ownership before they can suggest passwords - this prevents âWalls Fargo Bankâ from directly requesting your Wells Fargo password. So until Tildes has an OAuth token flow available I think this is impossible.
I donât have 2FA enabled and canât log in (iOS 16.5, iPhone 14)
Do you get the error if you copy paste your password into the login screen?
I do have a password manager. Password autofill, copy-paste, or manually typing it in doesnât work. I have special characters in my password, maybe thatâs the issue?
That is totally it. I'll have a fix for it in the next release!
Testing out a reply from the app now that special characters are fixed. Thanks!
I have just tried to log into the latest release and still get the failed to login error. I donât use 2fa and have special characters. I wonder if there is something further at issue with passwords - perhaps password length is an issue? I use a password manager and my password for the site is really long. I can log in fine on the website (obviously), but perhaps the length is causing an issue in the app?
Maybe I should just test it by changing my password.
Weird! I'll do some testing with long passwords in a bit to see if I find anything.
Failed as well, my password wasnât that long.
I'm guessing there are some symbols that need escaping. I'll have a fix in the next release but if you want to be able to log in now changing your password would be the best bet. Otherwise, the next release should be in a day or two!
Thanks
That might be my issue as well. I have a special character in mine, that might be throwing your strings for a loop.
Same, but I'm using iOS 16.5. And as others have speculated below I also have 2FA enabled which could be the problem.
Hi @McSquishin! Just letting you know the newest TestFlight release has 2FA support
I still cannot log in. The exact message I am getting is "Failed to login. Please check username and password." I know for sure that I am using the correct username and password. I have updated Backtick though Test Flight. It's showing that it's on version 1.1 (6)Edit: Please ignore the above. I closed out Test Flight and when I re-opened the app it showed another update was available. I'm now on 1.2 and have successfully logged in. Thanks for the fix friend, and sorry being dumb before.
All good glad to hear itâs working!
Excited to see this! Congrats on the beta release. Tildes deserves apps, and I'm very relieved reading through these comments that you have been completely receptive to feedback regarding how the app should follow the unstated rules "nudged" by Tildes' official website UI.
More apps with differing aesthetics and UX will be fantastic for us devs, as no app can ever satisfy 100% of people. Fewer complaints for each developer, as it's now possible to say "your request/complaint is satisfied by that other app which you may enjoy better."
It also makes my life easier as I can read the public feedback for your app, that I can use to adjust mine while it's still in closed development, and avoid having to hit a lot of those speedbumps along the way.
Thank you! Iâm VERY excited to help build a strong developer community around Tildes. Thereâs a lot of potential here to do some really cool and fun stuff, and helping each other along the way will only benefit everyone. So excited to see your app when itâs ready, would love to help out in any way possible đ
I love seeing app developers respect each other and help each other out. Thanks for both being awesome to each other!
Posting from the app! It is admittedly pretty barebones UI-wiseâŚ
I'm on the same page with you. While I like the simplistic design language, at first was confused with the posts. Title font being smaller than the body and lack of division between the post and the comments definitely made me take a second to understand what I was looking at.
On the other hand, text are easy to read. Definitely uses that space for ease of readability.
One interesting behaviour I noticed is that if you scroll down enough to reach the keyboard on reply screen, it will push the keyboard down at the same time scrolling your reply. Don't think I have ever seen this in an app before. My apologies If this is a default ios behaviour. Just wanted to add that as a feedback.
I feel the same way. I think there could be a better way to make a hierarchy of the different text in the app.
What I do feel is missing though is some margins and more whitespace around the edges. It all feels so cramped.
The pushing down of the keyboard is pretty standard iOS stuff.
That's good feedback, thanks @potatoes. I've been working on revamping the post page and text hierarchy is definitely part of it. I'll need to look back and be mindful of margins/whitespace to make things not feel cramped.
No worries @wababa! Iâd love to help out and offer some time if you need more thoughts and/or ideas about UI and UX. :-)
A bit⌠tbf tho, tildes itself is pretty minimal and focused already #^-^;#
Part of the reason I love it!
Yeah but what if Tildes decides to charge you 20 mil a year and then accuses you of trying to blackmail them?
Haha at least I know of someone to go to for advice đĽ˛
Version v1.3 has just been released! With v1.3 I am announcing that I've created a Discord server for Backtick. You can join here: https://discord.gg/aah7nkfpBY
I created the Discord server to help facilitate better collaboration with those who wish to be more involved. It will be a place for discussion around potential features, bugs, and general chat. I will still be taking in feedback via TestFlight and Tildes.net, so it's perfectly fine if you don't want to join.
What's new in v1.3?
Features
Bug Fixes
Just a heads up, the Discord link is expired.
From memory you can set a 7 day or unlimited expiry when creating an invite link.
The app is coming along nicely, great update today.
Oof thanks for pointing that out! Just updated the link here and will update it in the app as well.
Signed up, posting this comment through it :)
It definitely feels a little sparse so far (and no Markdown support will probably be annoying), but itâs enough of an app for me. Looking forward to seeing it develop!
Great point! I'll definitely look into adding Markdown support soon
I know where this is going! Sign me up.
Just curious how this works. Is there an official Tildes.net API that you're using? (And does it charge exorbitant fees? I kid, I kid.)
There is no official API. Itâs all HTML and back end stuff.
@Matt_Shatt is correct. It's doing a lot of HTML parsing in the background
Downloaded! Will let you know how it goes.
Replying from the app. Nice and simple! But will obviously need some basics:
Markdown
Topic navigation
User controls/settings
Awesome to hear you replied from the app :) Will work hard to get those features in soon!
Thank you!!
If I had an iOS device, I totally would beta test! Would defo be interested in testing an Android app when/if it comes around :)
âBacktickâ is a great name lmao.
One thing that I would like to mention/request/desperately plead for is that you try to make it compatible with as many old iOS versions as you possibly can. I use a jailbroken iPhone XS, and thus am locked on 14.3; you have no idea how many apps that totally should work on my version are restricted to iOS 15, 16, hell even 14.5! I know that itâs what I signed up for when I jailbroke my phone but it can be super annoying. I donât know anything about iOS development but I hope that youâre able to take compatibility into account :)
Thatâs a great point. Iâll do my best to make it as compatible as possible!
v1.6 has been released!
This release includes the following features:
Logged in, making a post!
Edit: Looking good, very light and fast.
A couple of wishes for the future:
I definitely plan on making the comment box at the bottom of the post page (moving to a different screen like how it is now isnât ideal). Gestures makes sense (Apollo was great at this)
Also, having the auto collapse feature that the web has wonât be too hard because of the way the app gathers data!
Oh good! That'll be awesome #^-^#
Does it work with 2FA?
I canât seem to log in.
Looks like 2FA doesn't work... sorry about that! I'll try to add it in ASAP
Happy to test that out once it's enabled.
Browsing while logged out works well though!
Awesome :) I'll let you know when 2FA is supported
Mind pinging me as well? Iâll be happy to start testing once that goes through. Excited to try it out!
Will do!
Hi @Rizzo! Just letting you know the newest TestFlight release has 2FA support
Updated. Thanks man!
Hi @JXM! Just letting you know the newest TestFlight release has 2FA support
Working great. I was able to log in no problem (posting from the app now).
Doesnât look like it supports 2FA right now.
Replying from the app đ pro tip for testers: tap and hold comments to reply đ
Thanks, it works đĽ¸
Confirmed!
Oh man I am on the app right now and am glad I read your comment!
Oof, I'm running on iOS 15.1 here for a jailbreak
Same here. Any way to lower the iOS version requirement?
Hey man, great work. Is it directly web scraping the posts?
I twiddled with an app and was struggling to display the nested comments properly, so good work. I really like it so far! I just thought I could share some ideas, as I don't think my app is going anywhere.
To support visiting communities, maybe you could make the ~community tag clickable. You could then load a new view with the tildes url and just append that community name on the end.
Some things to note from my discoveries while scraping tildes:
When inside a community, none of the posts will show that ~community tag. I added a fallback to my script, where if a post was missing that tag, it would grab it from the top of the page. It is a div with the classname "site-header-context"
I notice the app doesn't support tags just yet. Tags are tricky. Here is how I parsed the tag elements using beautiful soup 4 and python3.
*throw it into chatgpt and convert it to swift perhaps
Things I would like to see added (coming from Apollo):
Swipe from the side action (like upvoting a comment by swiping it left
I would like to be able to see my own profile
I would like to be able to load a post from URL (inside safari, share, open in "app name")
Thanks for the suggestions and tip! All these features are now on the to-do list.
Just downloaded and started testing it today. So far so good. I think have a "Jump to Top" button in threads & on the front page would be nice. Also, having a setting (like on the Tildes website) that automatically collapses previously read comments would be a nice feature to have. Other than that, like how simple it is so far and look forward to seeing how it progresses!
Thanks for testing! Great suggestions, I've added them to the to-do list.
I am also posting from the app. Mirroring other comments: it is quite early in the dev process but it is certainly functional. Nice to see some work being done on an app so early.
Commenting from the app right now, letâs see if this works.
Works!
Of course. Thanks for doing the work!
I just submitted some feedback for your through TestFlite. Looks like some weird functionality came up with the latest update:
When I click a post, I have to click âbackâ 3 times to get to home page
One post, the one about another developer making an app, just loads blank even though it is well-populated.
Cheers!
Looks like a good amount of people are experiencing the "back" multiple times errors. I'm actively investigating!
I am experiencing the same issue.
However, I am having troubles with reproducing it.
Iâve got test flight and a background in UX/UI and QA testing! And Iâve got an old-ass phone! Iâd love to pitch in for testing!
Edited: I have an iPod touch as well if you want some REAL edge cases
Sweet!
Happy to help! Iâm loving backtickâs dark display. Thanks for your hard work~
I just wanna say thank you for making this app sooo quickly I love it
â¤ď¸
Iâm sure you are already planning on this, but there should be able to refresh the comments in a topic without going back and tapping on the topic again.
Added to the todo list!
I really like the simplicity of the UI. Logging in, viewing posts and replying all worked just fine for me. Keep up the good work, looking forward to seeing how it evolves!
Great to hear itâs working!
Installed, I will let you know how it goes :)
I like it so far.
I would love if I could hide or "ignore" a thread within the app.
Is there a way to set a time frame for viewing recent posts like on the site?
Thereâs no time frame option right now, but itâs definitely something I will work on soon!
voted and replied from backtick! Fire app
I like the idea of this app so far! A minor nitpick/UI issue that I want to address is that when scrolling, text on the page goes behind the clock, battery indicator, etc. A simple fix for this would be to add a black bar behind these icons so the text doesn't overlap.
Thatâs a great suggestion, thank you! Should be quick to implement
Thanks yourself for making this app! It reminds me of Apollo from a design perspective. Obviously there are some missing key features (to be expected as the app is in beta) but I've seen that you've already mentioned these other comments.
I'm excited to see how the app develops :)
I noticed a bug/unintended effect that you might want to consider fixing (if possible).
When you receive a reply that makes use of Expandable sections, the text inside the expandable section appears as plaintext in your inbox.
This is a problem as people generally use this feature to hide spoilers.
There is a similar issue on the base site with expandible sections too. But there is a bug report for it already on Gitlab: https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/issues/749
No idea if fixing it on the base site would fix it on this app too though.
Whatever is implemented to solve the issue according to that ticket wouldn't solve the issue in the app, but I assume the same solution (probably with some modifications, but the general thought process behind the solution) could be applied to the app.
Thanks for linking that though, I'm sure it will be helpful for the developer to know about.
Good catch. The markdown engine Iâm using probably doesnât support it. Definitely will need to fix!
Yeah based on what I read in the gitlab ticket another user replied with, itâs probably easier said than done.
Ah I see, thanks for pointing it out! Iâm pretty confident that the web fixing this issue wonât fix the appâs issue. I have plans to write my own markdown engine thatâs compatible with Tildesâs format which should cover this case.
IIRC Tildes uses GitHub Flavored Markdown, but with some of the HTML support disabled, and with some other modifications (e.g. ~group, @user, /u/user, /r/subreddit, etc), and various minor fixes (E.g. ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ). So if you can find a parser for GFM, that may save you some time instead of having to develop one totally from scratch.
Also probably worth checking out:
https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/blob/master/tildes/tildes/lib/markdown.py
Thanks for the info! The
ALLOWED_HTML_TAGSand how they are used in that file will be super helpful. The biggest hurdle has been finding a solid package that can convert HTML to Markdown in Swift since all the parsing is done on device (iOS handles Markdown a lot better than HTML). I've been using this but it just isn't complete enough to work with Tildes. Rather than fight it I'm just going to make my own custom one đ¤ˇA bit rough around the edges, but otherwise pretty slick! I imagine thisâll work out to be a great app.
Iâve tried poking at SwiftUI (assuming youâre using that) before, kind of got somewhere but it was ultimately a pain to make anything too big. Hopefully targeting iOS over macOS will keep you from running into that wall too.
Sent from my iPhone
v1.5 just submitted for review!
New features:
Bug fixes:
I like the app a lot! I'm going to do some more testing, but I have two initial thoughts:
Keep up the great work!
Definitely something I look forward to adding. My dream would be some kind of free marketplace where users can share their own custom themes with other users. Probably will take some time though.
I will be working on a fix for this that should be released in the coming weeks!
v1.8 is now out!
I've made some improvements to the notification page, most notably selecting a notification sends you directly to the post and scrolls to the comment. I also fixed a bug that was causing content to spill over into the top safe area (the place where the time and battery icons are).
July 18th 2023 Update:
View a demo of it here: https://youtube.com/shorts/orL9ZsaEA0I?feature=share
Neat feature, but doesnât work well if the phone language isnât set to English. In my case I have a french man butchering the entirety of the post đ Could you force it to use english voice since Tildes is english-only?
Couple other things that bug me:
Keep up the good work đŞ
Oh man I didn't even think of that... I believe there is a way to force the language. I'll update the app once I figure it out!
The intent is to have the hamburger menu have more navigation items than just "Feed" and "Settings" since I'm opting to not use a TabView. Hopefully it'll make more sense once there are additional items there!
Great call out, I will fix this asap!
There was a bit of a discussion around this in my discord server where some people mentioned that they would rather not have an animation. I think eventually I'm going to make it a toggle-able thing.
Definitely a worthwhile optimization. I'll look into this!
Yeah I really need to get this done. There are some threads that take a while to load so a loading animation is crucial.
Thanks for all the feedback! I really appreciate it đ
It still warms my heart to see app makers helping each other. đŤĄ
Posting from the app.
Thank you! Itâs great and I hope it doesnât evolve too much :)
Swiping down accidentally on my comment deleted it before I could hit submit. Maybe consider keeping it as a draft?
Minimal UI is better than I expected by focusing on the content. Voice reader works really well as a result, but the accent youâve chosen is jarring for me personally. Could you use the device setting instead?
The comment button is still at the top of the page until the rest of the content loads. Might be an idea to defer the button loading until after the content.
Thanks again!
Agree 100%. My plan is to redo the text editor so it supports Markdown editing. While I'm at it drafts will be added too.
This one is tricky. I have to force it to use the default Siri voice because people with phones set to different languages get presented with some wonky text-to-speech. In the end I might just generate the voice off-device and use a better speech synthesis service.
This will be improved once I release a loading state.
Thanks for all the feedback!
Hi there, I've installed it a week or so ago, but it still shows all the topics, not just the ones that I am actually subscribed to. I've given it ample time to refresh, so not sure what's going on?
Other than that, great work!
That's a missing feature! Right now the feed doesn't respect the user's subscriptions. I'll work on implementing that soon.
Oh no rush, thought I was doing something wrong. Thanks for the prompt reply. :-)
August 21st 2023 Update:
(Finally) profile view! See it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/HFo_efzkTf0
it shows me your profile rather than mine when I click on profile in the menu. Is this something hardcoded during testing? :)
LOL oops! Iâll update that right now
Seems fixed! Posting from Backtick now :)
I would love to try this!
Maybe Iâm just old I donât know but can someone please explain the need to have social media sites and forums as dedicated apps on mobile? I just use the desktop versions on the go with no issues so I never understood it.
the basics are working well on 17.0dev
Looking great so far. Iâll report back with any issues.
On a side note is there any way you can color code the thread response indicator instead of just having the grey bars?
For sure! That would be a good improvement.
Just installed on my iPhone 13. Am I doing it wrong, or is there some gesture or something Iâm missing to load the next page of posts after I scroll to the bottom?
That is expected as the app only loads the front page for now. Iâm planning to increase its capabilities around this soon!
Good to know, thanks.
Oh this looks nice so far, great effort.. Now to debate myself on whether I should upgrade to iOS16 just for this
Are you open to expanding support for older iOS versions? Would really like to help test this, but unfortunately my iPhone is limited to iOS 15.
Iâm not opposed to it! The code has some iOS 16 features that would need to be replaced which is why it isnât available on iOS <16 yet. Iâll most likely look more into it once more features are built out though since that would be an optimization which I typically save for later on in projects.
what a shame, I would test it but im still on ios 14.3 for jailbreak related reasons. guess I'll be sticking to pc for the time being, which I don't necessarily mind, I go on my pc way more than I go on my phone.
The Discord invite is invalid now.
One feature request: Use a tab navigator with the tabs (with icons) at the bottom instead of them being at the top. Take a look at Apollo for iOS (old screenshots at this point, probably) to see a good example.
Have you tried Surfboard? It has a tab bar and a very Apollo-like feel to it
Thanks for the feedback! Also, I just updated the Discord links. It shouldnât expire now.
I joined the beta! really neat app. will post with any feedback as I go on.
Great! Thank you đ
August 28th 2023 Update:
Replying from the app running iOS 17 Beta 1. No issues so far! Would love if the app supported the theme options of the website and also if there were swipe options for replies and voting.
Great ideas! Theming would be really cool and fun to implement but probably will come after all the feature work. Swipe options are definitely top priority
One more suggestion to âstealâ from Apollo, a button to quickly navigate vertically within threads between parent comments. That button was a godsend!
Oh yes, I love that feature on Apollo
Canât log in because of 2FA. can you reply if/when you add support for it?
Will do!
Hi @millions! Just letting you know the newest TestFlight release has 2FA support
Signed up - very snappy. Feedback: The add comment box should probably allow us to view the post or comment we are applying to.
Added to the list!
Sometimes when I swipe back to the homepage it can take two or three attempts? Seems to keep showing the post again.
I have a fix! Should be released sometime today or tomorrow.
Out of curiosity, would you be willing to open source this project and get some support from the community? Itâs awesome to see an app like this in the works!
That's a great question! Right now I don't have any plans to open source for a few reasons:
This all being said, I may change my mind in the future, especially once it matures a bit. I could even see a scenario where I open source the code but don't accept pull requests so people have the ability to peak at how everything works. But for now I'm going to keep it closed source, though I'm very willing share details about how things work if asked!
Nice app. Could you fix or add an option to put âpost commentâ nearer to the top?
Thanks @the9tail! Originally the "post comment" button was at the top, but due to this (which I 100% agree with), it is at the bottom of the post page on purpose. Hope that makes sense!
I can see the point - but isnât it ultimately just a user preference?
If you wanna post, all you are doing is scrambling to the bottom by repeatedly swiping. It doesnât change user behaviour if thatâs their goal.
If the button at bottom was the default because of this discussion, totally understand but shouldnât people have a choice?
Also, if you donât have the option and someone else makes an app that does, isnât it unnecessary competition on a almost moot point?
I could see a future where something like this is customizable, although that's not of high priority right now (there's plenty of basic functionality that needs to be done first). I also would need to spend some more time pondering if that's something I want because I still side with Tildes's design choice in this case.
This is not a concern to me. Backtick is a side project that I'm releasing for pleasure, so if someone uses a different app because of this that doesn't bother me.
sign me up! but any way you can make it accessible to ios15.0?
I have it in my plans to make it iOS 15 compatible! It may take some time though.
cool! btw pretty much anyone still on ios15->15.4 has something called trollstore which lets us install any .ipa straight on the device.
Sorry, the iPhone is the work phone, the play phone is Android. Sign me up when the Android app is available for testing, please!
Well, this is a nice start.
(posted from backtick)
From my understanding, the RIF dev is working on a Tildes app for Android!
Ah thats awesome. I wish the Apollo dev did something similar.
I wish I had Android dev skills! Sorry!!
Never a bad time to learn Flutter!