Month: November 2018

As usual I am looking at the issues coming in after a release and am preparing the first patch that will go out.  I am addressing all of the crashes I have seen come in as well as improvements to connectivity based on user feedback. Expect to see 3.2 next week along with the new sounds functionality.  

If you are tired of Monal using the default notification sound, iOS 3.2 will make you happy. 

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I am not finished with a working UI for OMEMO so I will not include it in the next iOS and Mac releases.  It will continue in the beta channels but the next App Store releases will not include it. There are some stability and UI/UX overhauls that I would like to get into production asap and would prefer not blocking fixes on a new feature. 

Upon first launch users are now shown a simple introduction to XMPP.   I thought about what the purpose of this screen was and decided explaining XMPP was a better than  trying to present features of Monal (something better suited for a what’s new screen).  Some apps use this as a means of on boarding, explaining what each feature does before asking permission. Monal is a chat app, you get notifications, I think everyone expects that, so seeing a prompt for notifications doesn’t need further explanation. 

Instead you see the story of Peter rabbit as he enters and escapes Mr McGregor’s garden.  

We have all had this happen. You login to a new app and then are presented with a blank screen and no idea  what to do. The next step is usually to uninstall the app.  It’s not something I gave much thought to in Monal the past decade because I made certain assumptions about the people using the app.  In particular, I assumed that someone who installed something called “an XMPP client” would know their way around a new app that used familiar terminology from the desktop XMPP clients of yore.  This thought process was also a reason why I never had welcome screens.  In the interest of making things easier I’ve decided to add an easy welcome screen and some empty state screens.  There isn’t a lot of value here for the technically inclined but for many others uses what is otherwise dead space as a place to educate and possibly delight.

Some of the new empty state screens are below. 

The last Mac beta I uploaded yesterday will crash if you select a contact. Please re-download as I have fixed the binary. 

There are new iOS and Mac betas. This is trying to address some of the roster synch issues people have pointed out.  I have further tweaked the ui on iOS including the background toggle in settings. 

There was a bug that came up recently about Monal disconnecting in Mojave when backgrounded which really confused me.  It seems a feature added to OSX in Mavericks called App Nap that suspends apps to save battery life might be the culprit.  I am putting out a new Mac beta today Bonus: With improved dark mode support, better dark mode correct fonts and icons. 

There is new Mac beta. I have tried to fix the dark mode visibility as well as some possible networking issues. 

There is a new iOS beta. Testflight users should update or grab it from the beta  link to the side.