Oh hey look, its another release around the corner! This release adds in OLED dark mode, initial inbox features, better accessibility, compact mode, and improvements to a whole bunch of things too long to post here.
Obligatory message: If there are any developers out there who want to contribute to this project, that would be greatly appreciated!
Update: A hotfix has been released to fix some initial issues with the release: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/releases/tag/v0.2.1%2B7
To see the full details of this release, check out the GitHub release announcement: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/releases/tag/v0.2.1%2B6
For those on TestFlight, the update should automatically install on your device. For those who obtained the app through IzzyOnDroid, that update should eventually reach your devices!
There is also a discussion page here for any general discussions about this release if anyone is interested: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/discussions/67
It has been incredible to see all the community support and feedback from the last release! Let’s continue this and make Thunder an even better experience :D
Thunder is quickly becoming my favorite Lemmy app, absolutely great job so far.
A few suggestions/wishlist items for me:
Is it possible to make it so when you swipe to the right on the bottom bar, it can open the side menu? Right now, especially on large screen phones, having to click the top left corner is very difficult one handed.
I would also love to have an option to click to collapse the text in a main post (the one submitted by the original poster).
One more minor thing, the icon on Android looks pretty bad, at least on a Pixel. A Material You icon (that changes with the system theme) would be amazing, but I would be happy with an icon that used the circle system theme instead of a square icon inside a white circle. Material You theming for the entire app would be even better.
Overall this app is phenomenal, I’m super excited to see how it progresses. I’m also happy to buy a premium version/donate, so know there are people out here that will happily pay for you to continue development.
Hey, thanks for all the feedback! I’m glad you’re enjoying it 😁
Is it possible to make it so when you swipe to the right on the bottom bar, it can open the side menu
Right now, you can swipe right from the feed view to open up the sidebar! No need to tap on the hamburger icon
I would also love to have an option to click to collapse the text in a main post (the one submitted by the original poster).
I think that’s a good idea! If you don’t mind, feel free to create a issue on GitHub for it to be tracked! It’s a bit difficult for me to keep track of all the suggestions on here 😅
One more minor thing, the icon on Android looks pretty bad, at least on a Pixel.
This is actually hopefully coming in the next release! Someone kindly contributed to fixing icons on Android as I don’t have a physical Android device to test on
Overall this app is phenomenal, I’m super excited to see how it progresses. I’m also happy to buy a premium version/donate
Thankyou!! For now, I wont accept any donations because I want to make sure I can create and deliver something that is fully featured and good to use first! This initially started as a personal project of mine and it continues to be (although I have spent a lot more time over the past week organizing things and fixing things since Thunder blew up so much 😅)
Sorry if I’m missing something obvious, but I can’t figure out how to get the side menu to pop out unless I press the hamburger menu. If i slide from the center left edge, it upvotes a post in the feed. If I slide in from the edge of the left of the screen, it uses the back button gesture and exits the app. If I slide from the menu at the bottom, nothing happens at all. This is on a Pixel 7 with gesture navigation - maybe it works with button navigation, but it does not seem to work with gestures enabled.
Update: I have added a gesture for the bottom nav bar to open and close the side menu when you swipe left/right!
Compact mode is amazing! That was the one thing keeping me on Jerboa. Thank you for your efforts!
Does commenting on posts work? I’m having trouble seeing them show up after submitting
Edit: replying to comments seems to work, but replying to posts doesn’t for me :(
Does commenting on posts work? I’m having trouble seeing them show up after submitting
Hmm, do you mean commenting on posts from the feed, or when you enter the actual post page and attempt to comment?
Commenting from the post in the feed is currently not implemented yet. However, you should be able to comment on the post when you’re in the post itself
When I’m in the post and I tap the floating action button to make a new top-level comment, pressing the submit button closes the comment modal but doesn’t seem to do anything else.
When replying to a comment, it refreshes and shows the new comment correctly
Don’t mind this reply - I’m just doing some testing right now to get a fix for this out ASAP
Can you try the release I just published to see if its fixed? https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/releases/tag/v0.2.1%2B7
It works!! Thank you for the super speedy fix!
Phew okay, thats good to hear hahaha
Seeing as you edited your comment. How did you do that? I can’t get an edit option to appear
This is a test reply to the main post from Thunder!
The compact mode is fantastic and the accessibility is already top notch. This may very well be the most screen reader accessible lemmy app. If not its in the top 1% for sure.
Is there a way to sort the feed by Top Hour/Day/Week/Month etc?
Also, would it be possible to have an option to open all non-image/video links externally? eg. articles and GitHub links would probably be best handled in the user’s browser (I’m not sure how persistent the in-app browser’s cookies are, so privacy-wise it feels like leaving a permanent trail behind)
Love the app, great work so far!
Edit: An extra thing; comments that you’ve upvoted in past viewings don’t seem to be highlighted orange (especially noticeable for comments you’ve submitted, since they’re automatically upvoted)
There’s no option to sort by top for now, but it should be fairly easy to add in. If you could create an issue on GitHub for this, that would be great!
Also, would it be possible to have an option to open all non-image/video links externally?
Definitely possible to add in a setting to just open links in external browser automatically. Please create a issue for that one as well on GitHub!
Compact mode is so goooood. This is seriously one of the best looking Lemmy apps by far :)
- I wouldn’t mind if the bottom nav bar slid offscreen as I scrolled through my feed - a few other apps do this which I do like. It slides back in usually if you scroll back up a little
- would love some up/down arrows to navigate through parent threads in comment view (bonus points if holding down the up arrow brings you back to the top of the post!)
- it would be cool if we could select the accent color of the app (currently seems to be purple?) - some other apps offer the option for this to pull the system accent color on Android which is pretty neat!
- I noticed that images on my feed autoplay if they’re animated, and I think if possible it would be cool to have a toggle to not have these autoplay? Personal preference, but also probably a good place to save data
- I’d mentioned it in another post, but eventually would love the option to have thumbnails on the right side in compact mode
- one small tweak I’d suggest coming from jerboa - they color the community name on a post to help it stand out a bit from the title and instance and other info (I think with the accent color?)
- a feature request coming from Boost for Reddit - in that app you can long-press the community name on a post in-feed for a popup menu in which you can quickly block/hide that entire community from your feed, without clicking through to that community. Huge time saver!
Sorry for the wall of text, but hope there’s some helpful/constructive stuff in there. Thanks for building such an awesome experience here!
EDIT: added some screenshots to explain a few points above. I’d also consider moving account view/account switcher into the side panel (some other reddit/lemmy apps do this as well), while keeping home/search/notifications/settings in the nav bar, since one may be less likely to need immediate access to that menu?
Oh wow, thanks for taking all the time to write the feedback! I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far. More feedback is always better than less 😄
It would be awesome if you could create these points into issues on GitHub, so that it can be tracked and discussed about within the community
Becoming my favorite lemmy app! Thank You
test comment. test edit. More test edits.
Best iOS app for Lemmy! I‘m testflighting Thunder, Liftoff, Memmy und Mlem and your app is working best for me. With the new version I can finally see most of my subscriptions on the side pane, thank you! Loving the community search and the option to subscribe immediately. The + next to a community should change after adding some community, but this is really minor stuff.
Do you have any plans to implement something like multi-communities/community groups or similar? That‘d be awesome!
Wow. Thanks for putting an inbox here. And for making buttons labeled for voiceover. This and Mlem are my favorites so far. Keep up the great work! 😊
Slowly getting there 😅There’s still a whole bunch of improvements to be made to the inbox feature!
For sure. But this update, especially, seems to be really great. :)
Really loving Thunder so far! Truly a very smooth user experience.
I have been getting a few crashes though when scrolling through or navigating around a little too quickly. Is there any easy way to pull debug logs to help diagnose the problem?
Also it looks like when returning from a full-screen image the cached content in the feed tries to refresh, which is probably contributing to the above problem!
Still amazing work and I’m continuing to enjoy using it very much!
Unfortunately there’s not really a debug log at the moment - I would have to take a look to see how I could implement that if possible.
I think one main issue that might be causing the crashes is if there are too many images or media being loaded at a time in the background. This can cause lag spikes to occur, or it can just take up a lot of memory in the background which slows things down and cause a potential crash. This issue will take a bit of time to solve, but I’ll see if theres better ways to handle large amount of media/processing in the background
I love the app, but wish you would add a feature to save the images when opening them
I just figured out how to swipe for up/down vote. Can’t say I care for it. Buttons?
Buttons for actions is definitively something I want to introduce for those who prefer that! It also enables better accessibility so it’s a double win-win there
This will hopefully come in the near future l
Thank you so much, the app looks great and works well with lemmy.ml
With Lemmy.world I have an 400 error, I guess because they are still running .17.4 instead of .18?
Oh no, do you have any more information about the 400 error? If you do, that might help me determine the root cause.
Thunder should be working for 0.17.x versions with initial support for 0.18.x versions!
Nevermind, it was me (changed password and forgot to update it).
This version looks great!
I just found this app and it’s really good. My favourite so far!
I also like how the upvoting/replying works with the swiping. It took me a while to figure out I have to tap the bar the username is in to collapse the comment and its replies. However, one thing that I really like in these kinds of apps is being able to tap the contents of a comment to collapse it’s children but not the comment itself (so basically the same kind of functionality except I’d still be able to see/read the parent comment).
I have a question. I found the app through that post that lists the known Lemmy apps, but I see it’s currently only available on GitHub. When the app is finished (as I understand it this is a prerelease version, but correct me if I’m wrong!), will it be available on the Play store as well? I’m just asking because I’d love for the app to automatically update (or notify me when an update is available) when a new update is released. Or is that already possible from within the app itself?
Thanks for your hard work on this great app. I’m really enjoying it so far!
Hey, I’m glad you found your way here and I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far!
The point about tapping the comment itself to hide the replies but not the comment itself is actually completed and will be coming in the next release!
As for releasing on the Play store, there are currently no plans to do that in near future since there’s still a lot of work to be done 😅 However, there are actually in-app notifications when I push a new release on GitHub! You can also get it through IzzyOnDroid and it should update automatically (if I’m not mistaken)
Hopefully, that answers your questions! Have fun exploring the app, and feedback is always welcomed here :D
Thanks so much for your reply! It’s great to hear that that feature is coming in the next release.
Understandable that there’s still lots of work to be done. It’s good to hear that there’s an in-app notification when a new update is released. I was worried I might miss our on new updates if I forget to check the GitHub page. I also subscribed to this community to stay up to date. :)
