New app Beta test

[VegTrug]

Just thought I’d start a thread for those of us testing the Beta version of the new MN app, to share initial impressions (as well as sharing feedback with MNHQ).

So far I love it! I love how light it is and that we don’t only have 4/5 dark backgrounds to choose from! I also like that we finally get to see the trending list. Will report back with further thoughts 🤓

I’m finding the font on this app fine, it’s actually a bit larger than the OG app.

In terms of display, I like how we can see the ‘bookmark’ icon when we bookmark, woikd also be nice if we can see the ‘👋🏽’ icon when we give thanks, as it’s not clear when we do it.

I agree with you on the display, I have ADHD and it was a huge gripe of mine with the mobile site as I found the app much more accessible and easy to use, and was very vocal about improving the app!

Also I notice I'm swiping a lot as I'm used to doing in the app (photo included) to react to things. But remembering that we need to click the 3 dots, which is more like the mobile site.

Swiping would be a god option, it's much easier and more 'app-like'.

@TinkerTiger I agree. Much easier to swipe.

Really like it. It’s not clunky. Love being able to search quickly

I have ADHD too! It does something to your visual processing which is why many of us find bionic reading so helpful, it’s that differentiation in text that makes it so much easier to read things.

Not expecting MN to implement bionic reading but I find that I can’t pick out information if it all blends in. It becomes like a mass of text. I need clear defined headers, text, bullets, sections etc or I just can’t read it. That along with the super bright background and tiny font (on my old eyes!!) is meaning I am having to strain to read it. I am also finding that I can’t scan down posts and pick out something interesting. It’s all a blur. Not a pleasant experience! I

Just logged into the beta test app and love, love, love it

Hi all!

Again, thank you so much for the continued feedback. We're taking note of everything and will look to make any changes we can 🙏

@CrazyAndSagittarius Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the background colour and the hierarchy of the text. @VegTrug is correct on the background, there isn't a way to change this at the moment. Did the background in the current app work well for you? If so, which colour did you use? Do you think you would be likely to use this new version if it had some kind of dark mode?

We'll also take a look at the hierarchy of the title and post on threads and the size of the text to make sure that's as accessible as possible.

Thanks so much @hopeishere for sharing those screenshots! It looks like that might be being dictated by the settings on your device. Do you have your text size increased generally across all apps?

Please do keep the feedback coming!

I’m having allllll kinds of issues now! Since installing the new update it’s really doing my head in. Randomly becoming unresponsive, losing place in the thread and list of threads and just being a general pain in the arse. I looked the initial version and only had a few crashes but since updating, it’s gone tits up if you’ll pardon me the term…. @AmeliaPMumsnet@JoMumsnet

@VegTrugThat sounds very frustrating for you. Absolutely none of the things I reported have been fixed at all 😂

I like the extra functionality that brings the app into line with the desktop, but I dislike the user interface (is that the correct technical term?).

Good, clear font, but only having white on black makes it very glaring and visually fatiguing.

Very spread out text, lots of gaps, very wasteful of space, reminds me of trying to browse on early internet phones: scroll-scroll-scroll to find anything. Not worth the bother.

Posting is the worst, because I can't see what I am typing. Why do 'posting as' and 'topic' remain visible?

Another moan: I'm not following topics, I have favourites that I want to flag up easily. I don't want a feed and I don't want an algorithm prioritising those topics. What I do want is the ability to choose them quickly, to read or to post. So it's annoying that 'following' does not mean that they come up top of the list when stating a thread, as they do on the original app.

And finally (for now 😉) I've tried to send feedback several times, but have no idea whether I've succeeded. There's nothing in my sent emails, no acknowledgment, and it doesn't thinks the screenshots are too large.

So many things I like:
• edit function (YAY!!!)
• previews (combined with above to save me from repeated gaffes!)
• voting

Things I DON’T like:
• unnecessary extra step when flipping the thread. I know which way up it is so it’s annoying to have to confirm which way up I want it!
• another thread flip one - don’t like the original post pinned when I flip to newest first. It takes up too much space and I already know what it says.
• would rather swipe than 3 dots
• it seems like there’s a lot of empty space on the page
• would like the op to be on a slightly darker background for greater differentiation
• would like it to default to a capital letter when hitting return to start a new paragraph/ point

They are generally minor niggles though compared to the annoyance of the slow loading speeds!

I have to say I’m not overly keen on the ‘Add your post’ box right across the bottom of the page. I much prefer the simple pen icon so I could see other options too!

Hi all,

@VegTrug I'm sorry to hear you've been having issues since the latest update! I've reached out to you in a PM to get some more information.

@Ljufr & @Aparecium Thanks so much for submitting feedback! I can see feedback from both of you in our system. We're working through everything as quickly as we can. We may not be able to get to all feedback during this beta period as we're also trying to get the beta out on Android as well, but we're going to work hard to address anything that's being raised repeatedly in the full public release.

@IReallyNeedThisToWork thank you also for all of your thorough feedback. I can see that you mentioned that the bits you listed were minor niggles compared to the annoyance of slow loading speeds. Do you mean that you're experiencing slow loading speeds in the beta app or are you comparing them to slow speeds in the current app?

@AmeliaPMumsnet sorry, wasn’t very clear! I’m finding the new app very slow I’m afraid. Had a few crashes too but have reported them.

@IReallyNeedThisToWork no problem! Thanks so much for clarifying. Have you had issues with it being slow since you first downloaded the beta or did the issues start in the last 24 hours or so? I'm asking because we released an update yesterday so I'm wondering if it might coincide with that.

Also, is the slowness happening generally from the moment you open the app? Or does it seem to be being triggered by a specific action or navigating somewhere specific?

Apologies for all the questions! Trying to collect as much information as possible so we can look into it

Happy Friday everyone!

We really appreciate you bearing with us whilst we work through the larger problems. We released an update on iOS this morning that should fix some of the crashes and errors you've been reporting. The latest version is now 45.0.2.

We really appreciate your patience whilst we work through some of these larger problems.

@IReallyNeedThisToWork please let me know if you're still experiencing slow loading speeding in this latest version 🙏

I've been testing for a week or so now. I like it. It seems quicker and I like the edit function. Is there still no night-time mode though?

@JoJothegerbil Thanks so much for helping us test. Dark mode isn't available at the moment but we have it down on our to-do list!

Don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further thoughts or feedback

This app is driving me nuts. It is so unpleasant to use.

Latest issue is that I can't post any pictures. They are always too large, apparently.

Another issue is that, if I come out of writing my post in order to check something in the thread before responding, I can't get back to what I'm writing.

Hi @Aparecium, I'm sorry that you're finding the new app unpleasant to use and you're having issues with images and posting.

I've just sent you a PM to get a bit more information, I'll then be able to take a look into it for you. Thank you!

When doing Advanced Search, you cannot select today’s date. To search for a thread that was active today, I had to search from yesterday to tomorrow.

I found a workaround.

if you go to different date and then back to today for both start and end you can get it to search for today’s posts.

Not exactly intuitive

I'm finding it quite annoying that opening a link to another thread within a thread opens it up in my web browser rather than in the app. I'm on iOS.

Same. I also find it annoying that posting on a thread, shoots you to the very end of the thread. So you lose your place.