90 votes

Three Cheers for Tildes (iOS version) is open for alpha testing on TestFlight

Posted by talklittle
Tags: apps, three cheers, ios, iphone, ipad, testing.alpha

TestFlight

TestFlight link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy

Three Cheers for Tildes is an unofficial mobile app for Tildes, originally announced on Tildes' 5th birthday. The original announcement answers some basic questions about the app.

iPhone and iPad support

The app supports iOS versions as early as iOS 12.4, which includes iPhone 5s and iPad Air 1st generation.

The app also sports an iPad dual-pane layout, similar to the tablet layout in the Android version.

30-second iPad demo: https://youtube.com/shorts/S0tT2qM-Wh8

Missing features

Like the Android app, the iOS app is still missing tons of features—hence "alpha". Alpha version 0.5 is currently good enough for light use, to help check on Tildes once or twice a day. You can log in, vote, and comment.

Notable missing features as of v0.5: Submitting topics; Markdown editor; In-app notifications; Comment labels; Sort options.

Android?

(Looking for the Android alpha? See the Android alpha testing announcement.)

Now that the iOS alpha version is out, I can look at adding missing features to both Android and iOS. Thanks for your patience if you've been using the Android app in the meantime.

32 comments

  1. [4]
    venn177
    Link
    I'm so ready for the push notifications. I need my parasocial dopamine hits. On the more serious side, is there any sort of intended roadmap, moving forward? Not necessarily a time frame, but what...

    Now that the iOS alpha version is out, I can look at adding missing features to both Android and iOS. Thanks for your patience if you've been using the Android app in the meantime.

    I'm so ready for the push notifications. I need my parasocial dopamine hits.

    On the more serious side, is there any sort of intended roadmap, moving forward? Not necessarily a time frame, but what features are coming in what order or anything like that.

    14 votes
    1. [2]
      talklittle
      Link Parent
      There's no public roadmap as my priorities often shift during development, and changing priorities midway is a great way to disappoint people. I will say that being able to see reply notifications...

      There's no public roadmap as my priorities often shift during development, and changing priorities midway is a great way to disappoint people.

      I will say that being able to see reply notifications (in-app, not push) is near the top of my todo list.

      Other than that, I always consider user requests and balance them with my own preferences. I never guarantee a request will be fulfilled but I do give them serious thought.

      22 votes
      1. thereticent
        Link Parent
        That's great to hear about reply notifications in the app. I use the Android version anyway, but I've noticed that I don't follow up on my own comments very well, which is tough for the...

        That's great to hear about reply notifications in the app. I use the Android version anyway, but I've noticed that I don't follow up on my own comments very well, which is tough for the conversational feel of the site. Awesome work, just like with RIF. Always my favorite social app frontends.

        8 votes
    2. danke
      Link Parent
      I think only poll notifications can be used right now, unless Deimos has exposed a push notification API that I haven't seen.

      I'm so ready for the push notifications.

      I think only poll notifications can be used right now, unless Deimos has exposed a push notification API that I haven't seen.

      4 votes
  2. talklittle
    Link
    Thank you so much for your feedback so far, everyone. I'm signing off and taking a break for a while today. The release process has been super exciting but equally exhausting. Please continue to...

    Thank you so much for your feedback so far, everyone. I'm signing off and taking a break for a while today. The release process has been super exciting but equally exhausting.

    Please continue to leave questions and feedback and I'll check on it soon.

    12 votes
  3. [3]
    SpruceWillis
    Link
    I use Three Cheers as my daily Tildes app. I don't comment a great deal so if I need to check if someone's replied to me it's easy enough to just track the comment down but getting notifications...

    I use Three Cheers as my daily Tildes app. I don't comment a great deal so if I need to check if someone's replied to me it's easy enough to just track the comment down but getting notifications in-app will be nice.

    Loved RiF and used it exclusively for years. The end of RiF was the end of Reddit for me so I'm glad to support your work through Tildes!

    9 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thank you for your support!

      Thank you for your support!

      6 votes
    2. ku-fan
      Link Parent
      Ditto for me. Glad to see Three Cheers grow for Tildes!

      The end of RiF was the end of Reddit for me

      Ditto for me. Glad to see Three Cheers grow for Tildes!

      4 votes
  4. [2]
    Prairie_Skies
    Link
    Awesome! I used your previous app (RIF) and loved it (seriously it was the best IMO) so really excited for this 🙂 Thanks for all your work talklittle!

    Awesome!

    I used your previous app (RIF) and loved it (seriously it was the best IMO) so really excited for this 🙂

    Thanks for all your work talklittle!

    8 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you and many others made it over to Tildes and hopefully stick around. I like the community and website enough to inspire me to build my first iOS app around it.

      Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you and many others made it over to Tildes and hopefully stick around. I like the community and website enough to inspire me to build my first iOS app around it.

      8 votes
  5. [2]
    gpl
    Link
    Commenting from the app — it is lovely so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes as things get fleshed out! I really love the icon as well, thought I would mention that.

    Commenting from the app — it is lovely so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes as things get fleshed out! I really love the icon as well, thought I would mention that.

    7 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thank you for trying the app. I suppose I'm proud of the icon. :) Your comment makes me happy, and relieved.

      Thank you for trying the app. I suppose I'm proud of the icon. :) Your comment makes me happy, and relieved.

      5 votes
  6. [5]
    talklittle
    Link
    Hey everyone, quick update: Three Cheers v0.5.4 has been uploaded to TestFlight and fixes comments getting cut off, and some other UI bugs. Fixed comments getting cut off Fixed bugs tapping links...

    Hey everyone, quick update: Three Cheers v0.5.4 has been uploaded to TestFlight and fixes comments getting cut off, and some other UI bugs.

    • Fixed comments getting cut off
    • Fixed bugs tapping links in HTML tables
    • Renamed "Prefer Safari over WebView" to "Prefer external browser", since not everyone uses Safari as their browser. This also matches the wording on Android.

    Also the login bug is fixed as of v0.5.3 (thanks again to @earlsweatshirt for providing the solution, and @moocow1452 for reporting the bug).

    Thank you all for providing bug reports and feedback through TestFlight. It's been really helpful to pinpoint the high priority issues quickly.

    After v0.5.4 I'm hoping to slow down the frequency of updates, and work on new features instead. Of course if more major bugs appear I'll fix them first though.

    Hope you all have a great weekend.

    6 votes
    1. [3]
      cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      Oh, nice. I've been really sick for the last 12 days (COVID) so I haven't been around much and likely missed a lot of goings on here at Tildes in that time, this included. I've signed up for the...

      Oh, nice. I've been really sick for the last 12 days (COVID) so I haven't been around much and likely missed a lot of goings on here at Tildes in that time, this included. I've signed up for the TestFlight now though, and I'm looking forward to testing it out! Awesome job, thanks for your continued work on the apps, and congrats on this milestone, @talklittle! :)

      5 votes
      1. [2]
        talklittle
        Link Parent
        Sorry to hear you were sick. Hope you're feeling better. Tildes needs you! :P

        Sorry to hear you were sick. Hope you're feeling better. Tildes needs you! :P

        1 vote
        1. cfabbro
          Link Parent
          Still a bit sick, but it's mostly just congestion now, so I'm doing much better. Thanks. :)

          Still a bit sick, but it's mostly just congestion now, so I'm doing much better. Thanks. :)

          3 votes
    2. moocow1452
      Link Parent
      Big thank you, it works great now. Love the twin column layout on iPad.

      Big thank you, it works great now. Love the twin column layout on iPad.

      2 votes
  7. doug3465
    Link
    Nice! Big accomplishment for Tildes. The browser version has always been more than satisfactory -- super quick and smooth, but will try this out.

    Nice! Big accomplishment for Tildes. The browser version has always been more than satisfactory -- super quick and smooth, but will try this out.

    5 votes
  8. [2]
    pear
    Link
    Just ran into a nasty little layout bug on the iPad version: See here

    Just ran into a nasty little layout bug on the iPad version: See here

    3 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thanks for the iPad bug report. I've run into that before and added a patch, but evidently wasn't enough. Could you please tell me your iPad model (e.g. iPad Air 3rd Gen)? And are you running...

      Thanks for the iPad bug report. I've run into that before and added a patch, but evidently wasn't enough. Could you please tell me your iPad model (e.g. iPad Air 3rd Gen)? And are you running iPadOS 17, or 15, or 12?

      1 vote
  9. [5]
    moocow1452
    Link
    I’m not able to login, may be similar to Backtick’s special character in password bug?

    I’m not able to login, may be similar to Backtick’s special character in password bug?

    2 votes
    1. [4]
      talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thanks for the bug report. Version 0.5.1 fixes a bug with special characters in passwords.

      Thanks for the bug report. Version 0.5.1 fixes a bug with special characters in passwords.

      2 votes
      1. [3]
        moocow1452
        Link Parent
        Still not cutting it for me. My password does contain a plus character, could that be throwing something?

        Still not cutting it for me. My password does contain a plus character, could that be throwing something?

        3 votes
        1. [2]
          earlsweatshirt
          (edited )
          Link Parent
          Hi @talklittle 👋 Congrats on your release. I faced some similar annoyances with password escaping. If it can be helpful to you, here’s the relevant code for how I escape the body for that request...

          Hi @talklittle 👋

          Congrats on your release. I faced some similar annoyances with password escaping.

          If it can be helpful to you, here’s the relevant code for how I escape the body for that request in Surfboard:

          let body = ["username": username, "password": password, "csrf_token": csrf]

request.httpBody = body.map { key, value in
    "\(key.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)!)=\(value.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .alphanumerics)!)"
}.joined(separator: "&").data(using: .utf8)

          Cheers !

          EDIT: Meant to reply to the parent comment here, apologies for the ping.

          13 votes
          1. talklittle
            Link Parent
            That was painful! Huge THANK YOU to you @earlsweatshirt for the solution. Very gracious of you to help me out. Fist bump. @moocow1452 sorry for the runaround but I think it should work now in...

            That was painful! Huge THANK YOU to you @earlsweatshirt for the solution. Very gracious of you to help me out. Fist bump.

            @moocow1452 sorry for the runaround but I think it should work now in v0.5.2. Thank you for your patience and for the hint about what characters in particular to test.

            My code looks like this now:

            var urlComponents = URLComponents()
urlComponents.percentEncodedQueryItems = entries.map({ (key, value) in
    URLQueryItem(name: key.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .urlQueryAllowed)!,
                 value: value?.addingPercentEncoding(withAllowedCharacters: .alphanumerics))
})
request.httpBody = urlComponents.percentEncodedQuery!.data(using: .utf8)

            Whereas the broken version had:

            urlComponents.queryItems = entries.map({ (key, value) in
    URLQueryItem(name: key, value: value)
})

            Which was automatically adding some percent encoding when I accessed urlComponents.percentEncodedQuery but not enough.

            10 votes
  10. [2]
    fineboi
    Link
    Would love to see links open up in the app vs opening up in the default web app

    Would love to see links open up in the app vs opening up in the default web app

    2 votes
    1. talklittle
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      You can open webpages in-app by going to the Settings tab at the bottom, and then turning off "Prefer Safari over WebView". Edit: As of v0.5.4 this setting has been renamed to "Prefer external...

      You can open webpages in-app by going to the Settings tab at the bottom, and then turning off "Prefer Safari over WebView".

      Edit: As of v0.5.4 this setting has been renamed to "Prefer external browser".

      6 votes
  11. [2]
    CptBluebear
    Link
    Just as smooth of an experience as the Android app. I always did miss an iOS equivalent of RiF so this is pretty great.

    Just as smooth of an experience as the Android app. I always did miss an iOS equivalent of RiF so this is pretty great.

    2 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      Thank you for trying both the iOS and Android apps. I appreciate your support.

      Thank you for trying both the iOS and Android apps. I appreciate your support.

      2 votes
  12. [2]
    millions
    Link
    Can you add the option to hide vote counts?

    Can you add the option to hide vote counts?

    2 votes
    1. talklittle
      Link Parent
      I added this under possible future to-dos in my private notes, thanks for the suggestion.

      Can you add the option to hide vote counts?

      I added this under possible future to-dos in my private notes, thanks for the suggestion.

      2 votes
  13. win8linux
    Link
    Yes finally, an iOS client that considers older versions! Been waiting for something like this to be made ever since clients started being made.

    Yes finally, an iOS client that considers older versions! Been waiting for something like this to be made ever since clients started being made.

    1 vote