Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (December 2023)
I'll start posting a recurring topic for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app. This first one's a little early, but I wanted it to coincide with the Android v0.6.0 release.
A recurring megathread will make it easier for people to hit Ignore on each one if they want, without feeling like they're missing out on bigger announcements surrounding the app.
I'll make an effort to summarize the previous month's updates at the start of each topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates or user feedback.
Recently:
iOS hotfix v0.7.2: Fixed another Notifications crash, and fixed crash inserting emoji in reply
iOS hotfix v0.7.1: Fixed crash in Notifications tab
Android and iOS v0.7.0 (Dec 27, 2023)
- Added a markdown formatting bar when composing a comment
- Edit comments after posting them
- View markdown of other users' comments
- (Android) New setting: Quit confirmation
- Fixed comment reply preview bugs
- Fixed bugs viewing direct linked comments
- Fixed numbered list bug
- Fixed rate limit error message
- Fixed crashes and UI bugs
iOS v0.6.0 (Dec 11, 2023)
- In-app notifications of comment replies
- Added buttons to mark notifications read
- Highlight and jump to linked comments
Android v0.6.1 (Nov 30, 2023)
- Added buttons to mark notifications read
- Fixed crash tapping links in notifications
- Fixed notifications UI bugs
Android v0.6.0 (Nov 26, 2023)
- In-app notifications of comment replies
- Highlight and jump to linked comments
- Fixed tapping titles in ~music to open comments
Known bug: You can't manually mark notifications as read. I overlooked this because I have the "Automatically mark all notifications read when you view the Unread Notifications page" setting enabled on the website settings. I'll fix this soon.
Also the iOS version is still getting feedback on TestFlight after its November 1 release—thanks everyone for trying the app and giving feedback. The Android app will tend to get features sooner than iOS; I expect it to continue this way in general, just because I'm more familiar with Android development.
Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes
iOS version on TestFlight: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy
What kind of feedback would be most valuable to you right now?
My guess would be that you're not really looking for feature requests, but I may be wrong.
Hmm, that's a great question. Thanks for asking. I've been mulling it over, waffling a bit, and to be really honest, I'd have to agree with what you said—I don't really have the bandwidth to take big feature requests right now. There are plenty of missing features I need to work on.
That said, it's a feedback thread. I don't want to outright discourage feature requests; otherwise what's the point of the thread? I guess I'm saying, if there's something people want, go ahead and post it. It helps me prioritize, and lets everyone know when everyone's on the same page. Just keep in mind I have a ton of work to do and might not get around to the request, and it might be forgotten, and I apologize in advance if that happens.
Great work as always.
I'm sure you have your own priorities for the app but there are 2 features I would love to see.
being able to save a draft of your comment before posting. I used it a ton on RIF and it helps with the core philosophy of the site of having thought out discussion, and is a feature that you can't get by just going to the site.
the ability to use the labels, it's an awesome part of tildes that app users are missing out on.
Labels are definitely a priority to add to the app.
Drafts are also on my todo list. Thanks for the suggestions.
I appreciate your participation on Tildes and also with the bug reports. (I believe the disappearing comments refresh bug is fixed; I haven't heard any more reports of it.) Thanks for the feedback!
One bug to add would be that hyperlinks from within the notifications area ends up crashing the app or reverts back to the main page
Thanks for the bug report. I see the hyperlinks crash in notifications. Will fix.
Update: Fixed in v0.6.1.
Being able to see reply notifications (or even just having an indicator that there were unread notifications) was the one big thing the app was missing at release, so I'm incredibly happy to see that included!
I think the biggest feature of the app that I've come to love is being able to double-tap to vote on posts/comments. It's such a small thing, but it's something I found myself trying to do while using Tildes in a browser (to apply a lable or check for replies). It's something that wouldn't make sense for Deimos to implement at a site-wide level but feels so intuitive in a mobile app, and it's these little features—things that I don't even know I want, yet!—that I'm most looking forward to seeing come to the app.
I'm sure you already have a list of all the features of the site that you're still missing, but as far as the next feature that should be added, it's probably a toss-up between labels or viewing user profiles. Labels seem more beneficial to Tildes by improving user contributions via the app, but I could see an argument being made for adding the latter, first, as well.
Thanks for the comment my friend!
I think we're on the same page, as we often are, regarding labels and profiles as being very high priority.
Version 0.7 for Android and iOS (Dec 27, 2023)
The Android update is available now on Google Play, while the iOS version has been submitted to TestFlight for review and
will take a day or twohas been approved!Three cheers for View Markdown! Nine cheers for a markdown bar with the expandable summary/details thing! Twenty-seven cheers for @talklittle!
Hey! I loved RiF and am enjoying Three cheers so far. Is there a time line for adding profile checks (like clicking on my own profile to see my posted comments?) or the ability to submit links to communities? Or are those features already there and I'm just missing them?
Viewing profiles is high priority. Submitting links is important of course, but will come later. I encourage users to check the mobile site too, which works great and covers the missing functionality.
You're the bomb and I love you
Thanks so much, I am getting closer to using 3 Cheers as the primary way I access tildes. It's possible some features have snuck in when I wasn't looking so let me know if I'm the problem here, but here's what I'm looking for as the project develops!
So yeah, I super appreciate your work and this is not a list of demands so much as my part helping you figure out most requested features for the future. I was a RiF user til it died and you're great.
Editing comments and the other suggestions are on my todo list. Thanks for the feedback!
How viable would a theme engine be?
One of my favorite features of Reddit Sync pre-Material You redesign was its themability. And those themes were easily shared as comments (see r/redditsyncthemes, Here's an example)
edit: verbosity
FYI, Tildes already has a theme engine and several built-in themes for it... with Love Dark among them:
https://tildes.net/settings/theme_previews
But yeah, how easily that system can be translated to the various third-party apps is another story.
Just dropping in to give huge appreciation to Talklittle for making me feel at home again. I left Reddit the day RiF went dark and was lost until today. I'm excited to join this community and see it grow.
Big fan of the app, so thanks a ton for taking the time to develop it for everyone! Only main feedback I have is asking for a toggle on the "Are you sure you want to exit" message. Not sure the difficulty of that, but it's always one of the first things I turn off in apps.
Awesome update! Having replies to my posts in the app is a gamechanger. I'll be using it a lot more now.
Thank you! Believe me, I was disappointed it took so long for me to implement notifications. But it's been important to me, for my own professional development, to gain some solid iOS experience. In fact that was one of the main reasons I started a Tildes app in the first place. So unfortunately for my Android users, that was something I wasn't really going to compromise on; adding more features to the Android app while neglecting my iOS learning.
Hopefully features come at a more reasonable pace now that both apps have begun alpha testing.
It was one of the main reasons I wasn't using the app. I logged into the website and found out I had missed many replies!!
I've been using the app daily, and haven't run into any issues.
I only joined tildes shortly before three cheers came out so my tildes experience has been more colored by three cheers than the website, but the only 'critical' feature I've missed is a search bar. It's one of the few (or only) things I've had to open the website in order to use.
I just installed the app so can't really give any usage feedback, but it would be great if it used my system theme (Material You) instead of a hardcoded white theme.
Edit: I also can't figure out how to change the sorting mode (eg. top by votes/new activity). Is this currently unsupported?
Theming might come some day as I know a lot of people like that, but I can't give an ETA on that right now.
Changing sorting mode is also on my todo list and relatively high priority. Thanks for the suggestions.
Thank you! By the way, do you have any plans to open source the app once it is released?
No plans to open source the app; I posted some reasons on the original announcement in April.
Before he responds, it's an alpha release, so there are functions that are currently unsupported.
@talklittle, I am enjoying the app. Thanks very much for your work.
When you get around to it, the private messaging function is one I use from time to time and it would be convenient to not need to move to my desktop for that and to have it available while traveling.
Thanks for the feedback. Private messages are on the todo list for sure.
If you scroll up, it should bring up 3 icons at the bottom, a house, person and gear. The gear has settings for black background and system default style. It may help you
Hmmm, I can't figure out how to edit, but I definitely agree with the sort options, or at least know how it sorts by default.
"system default style" just changes between light and dark mode depending on my system settings though, it doesn't use system theme colors
I’ve always been a browser user for forums, Reddit, tildes, etc. But this I’m going to try. I love the time you’ve put into it, so I’ll try to give you feedback on the iOS version when I’ve used it for a while. Thanks for doing all this work, really awesome.
Thank you for the update, the app is already great and I think it mimics Tildes' UX very well in terms of design philosophy, simplicity etc. The updates make it even better. Thanks for your work on it.
That said I cannot find the option to search threads. The only search option is to search for a group but unless I've missed it there isn't a broader search option whereby I could find a thread based on a search term. Is there one? If not, are you planning to add it at some stage?
Search functions are missing from the app currently. I do plan to add those at some point. Thanks for the feedback.
For iOS folks: Three Cheers (iOS) v0.6.0 is now on TestFlight, adding in-app notifications of comment replies!
All right, excited for the notifications, especially with jumping to linked comments. I'm curious if that will work better than in the full site!
My only problem is that I've kept a message from you unread for a couple months while I try to figure out why the hell I can't get virtual tildes to work!
Took me a few moments to remember what this was. The virtual machine Tildes dev environment right? It'd be great if someone could update the setup to get it working on Windows. I guess nobody's been looking into it though unfortunately.
Yep, that's it. It apparently used to be possible but it must have stopped working at some point 4+ years ago based on some stuff on GitLab.
Do you think it would be easier for me with a straight Linux machine rather than using virtualization?
Was going to write some stuff but said "screw it" and fixed the issue instead:
Edit 2: Found a proper fix. Don't run as administrator; that's bad and shouldn't be required.
https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/merge_requests/153
Old bad solution
https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes/-/merge_requests/152Make sure your VM is stopped (
vagrant halt)and then apply that Vagrantfile patchand then while running Windows command prompt as Administrator run:vagrant up --provisionEdit: Apparently a patch is unnecessary; symlinks may be enabled by default, as long as running as Administrator.
I made the switch from iOS to Android last week and have slowly been getting my apps in order. This is the one I'm going with for tildes!
This update fixes the main thing I've been missing, very happy. The one thing that's still annoying me is that it I can't seem to get it to open youtube links in the YouTube app, it always redirects them to m.youtube in the internal browser. (On Android)
Is the app supposed to be opening links in the associated default app (e.g. YT) or is that TBD?
On Android: if you change the Browser type setting to External browser, then links will open in the respective default external app.
If you're talking about individual settings per URL domain (like RIF had), then it's TBD.
It was the former I was looking for, thanks.