Three Cheers for Tildes: App updates and feedback (September 2024) — Version 1.1 adds an in-app YouTube player
This topic is for the Three Cheers for Tildes mobile app.
I'll summarize the major updates at the start of each similar topic, so people can read the updates and then hit Ignore if they don't care about more frequent updates and user feedback.
Recently:
Three Cheers version 1.1 is out for Android and iOS! (Sep 14, 2024)
- Added an in-app YouTube player
- Added 2 settings related to YouTube and autoplay
- Tweaked the labels dialog UI
- (Android) Fixed Back button navigation in the WebView
- (iOS) Fixed UI bug commenting on a deeply nested comment
Some technical details: The YouTube player uses the YouTube IFrame Player API using the Android and iOS wrapper libraries. They are both open source and I was able to submit some improvement patches to them.
Regarding release schedule: Prior to version 1.0 of the app, I was working (a little too) hard on the app and putting out monthly megathreads. These days I'm allocating my time differently, so topics won't be monthly. Please continue to feel free to reach out, whether posting in the megathread even if months old, or emailing me using the contact info on the app store pages, or using iOS TestFlight feedback functionality.
Huge thank you to the few people who have set up a recurring donation in the app. From a worker perspective, it's still a tiny tiny amount if comparing with an actual wage developing apps, but luckily for my users, I'm not trying to make a wage from this app, and plan to continue developing it at my own pace. That does mean that updates will be somewhat unpredictable though.
Previous topic: May 2024
Where to get it
Android version on Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes
Or sideloadable APK at https://www.talklittle.com/three-cheers/
iOS version on the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/three-cheers-for-tildes/id6470950557
Join TestFlight for iOS beta testing: https://testflight.apple.com/join/mpVk1qIy
Just saying thank you for all your hard work. Happy to be a decade+ user of RiF and a continuing user of TCfT.
Thank you for your kind words and ongoing support!
Many, MANY thanks for all your work.
I'm curious, is there any roadmap for saving drafts of posts? It was extremely useful in RIF!
Thanks for the feedback. I'll bump up the priority of Drafts based on the comments here. I can't give an ETA on when it will be finished though.
Plus one for this!
Another vote, it's so easy to lose a draft if I'm trying to add a source or a quote or something or get pulled away by work or life.
I think everyone here knows Tildes will never be large enough for you to make a living developing this app. Thank you again for this amazing service. At this point, if you just keep the app functioning I'm happy and any added features are just a pleasant bonus. Take as long as you want or need.
Re: YouTube player
Does that mean it can skip ads? YouTube has become nearly unusable due to ads
Also thank you :)
It probably doesn't, but I can help you out with that.
While YouTube (and parent Google) have been fairly aggressive in their participation of the ads / ad-blocker arms race, there are still solutions that pretty comprehensively work to block ads.
I use a combination of 2 methods: the uBlock Origin add-on for my browser, and AdGuard DNS as my manually set DNS server.
Lots of people know about uBlock Origin, so I'm not going to cover it much here - it's a good ad-blocking browser extension.
Adguard DNS is a DNS server that maintains constantly updated filter lists that it intentionally fails to resolve. Their public DNS addresses:
Default servers
AdGuard DNS will block ads and trackers.
IPv4:
94.140.14.14
94.140.15.15
IPv6:
2a10:50c0::ad1:ff
2a10:50c0::ad2:ff
These have proven highly effective for me, including with ads from YouTube, except in the instances where I experienced time being one of the people 'ghost enrolled' in a test batch of next-gen ad serving (I had a short time where the ads were embedded in the video stream directly and came from either a non-blocked IP address or directly from YouTube servers, not sure which). Except for that time being used as an unwilling test subject, I don't see ads on YouTube anymore.
EDIT: shoot, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking about this being for mobile and not desktop even though this was at root a discussion of a Tildes app - my bad. u/gary is correct that DNS blocking does not appear to be effective on mobile.
DNS-based ad blockers don't work against YouTube (at least on mobile), but uBlock Origin certainly does.
u/chocobean, if you're on iOS, the Safari extension "Vinegar" works for me, but you would have to use YouTube in Safari to get that benefit. I also find that Vinegar does not consistently work on macOS Safari, so YMMV.
My apologies, for some reason I completely overlooked the mobile context. You are quite correct about DNS blocking not stopping the YouTube app from serving adds - I've tried that and to my frustration it did not work on my Android phone.
Vanced (while it was alive) and, on an on/off basis, ReVanced have worked for me to watch YouTube on Android without ads. It's been a while since I tried using it, so I don't know if it works currently (back to that tech arms race of ad-circumvention and anti-circumvention).
I'm not yet on iOS, boo. I've never had an apple product before and I'm somewhat following with interest to see if I can buy a used/cheap EU phone for Canadian use in a few years once they've gotten more consumee rights things built in. This is the second time in the same day I've had to wrestle with a cheaper older Samsung phone....the device can't use eSims for the upcoming portion of my trip :'(
But thank you, I will keep that tip in mind if I switch phones :)
FYI, I believe the restriction is on the Apple ID location, not the device purchase location. Definitely look it up to confirm though. If I am right, you can buy any iPhone as long as you can get an EU Apple account. I don’t know what that entails but likely a VPN.
Also I have used an eSIM extensively while traveling. Yeah, it’s awesome. Thanks Apple for pushing the adoption of that, and I am glad Android manufacturers are starting to get on board.
Thank you for the details, l_one :) I'll try that when it get home to my desktop next month and may ping you for help if I can't figure it out
It super sucks that google has been serving a ridiculous amount of ads in ALL of their products: restaurant/store icons on their mobile map app, PHOTO ads in the email app. Unacceptable. I'm trying to migrate away from them slowly and always happy to learn more ways to do so.
I'm trying Magic Earth navigation for the first time today, going to a city location on a route I've driven once and vaguely know the city. See how it goes.
The other user is correct—YouTube can still serve ads.
For YouTube Premium subscribers your best bet is to select the "External app" option for the new "YouTube player" setting, so you can use Premium features in the YouTube app.
Up until the 1.0 release, I was one of those “the website is fine!” longtime Tildes users who didn’t really understand the appeal of an app.
But then I downloaded it and ended up using Three Cheers, daily, for months. You won me over with your amazing work, talklittle!
I get it now. 😁
I still think the website is great too though! Deimos did an incredible job with it. Ultimately, I love that we have options.
Thank you kfwyre! I've always enjoyed your posts and it makes me happy that something I made could bring you some enjoyment as well. It's all thanks to you and the handful of other long time Tildesians that kept the site going even through quieter periods.
And yeah the website is incredible and I continue to use it every day too.
Is there a trick to logging in? When I paste my 2FA code, I just get a spinner that stays forever. (Android user here.)
Thank you for the bug report. I've pushed out a hotfix version 1.1.1 to fix 2FA login. Should hopefully be available on the Play Store in a few hours. (The sideloadable APK is available now.)
Details: The HTTP request was failing due to some under-the-hood changes in v1.1.0 related to HTTP response handling, and the 2FA response not having a Content-Type header.
Thanks! Working great now. Glad I can get rid of the PWA!
It's a wonderful app, thanks for making it and maintaining it so well. It's hard to give you constructive feedback for me because so far it has done everything so well. If I experience a bug, I'll let you know for sure!
Thank you for continuing to update and improve this app! Rif was a daily part of my life and now it's TCfT. I enjoyed the donation animation! Cheers
Thanks for all your hard work on both the iOS and Android versions of these apps. Loving using both of them! Recently got an Android tablet myself and I am very grateful for the tablet specific UI, it works great!