Connect for Lemmy App

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A community for the mobile app Connect for Lemmy.

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founded 2 years ago
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1
 
 

Hi,

If you've been on beta you've probably already seen some of this as I worked out bugs and other issues. But in general the top line is there's been some major re-architecture of the app which should let it feel even snappier and more performant than before. I've also added Image Gallery support, so now any post with multiple images in the body will auto-collapse into one image gallery. This is configurable in the settings if you prefer to see all of the images as well. I've also taken Horizontal swiping on posts out of 'Experimental' and it should handle pagination and backing-out more gracefully.

Galleries and video playback now work better and load in the right resolutions, images and thumbnails behave consistently, and animations feel smoother. I also made caching and performance improvements which should reduce stutters and stale content.

If you have any feature requests please let me know :)


TL;DR Changes (versions 287–301)

  • Media & galleries: added image galleries and video support in galleries; fixed uploaded images not showing, full-resolution image loading, tall-thumbnail aspect-ratio preservation, alt-text display, and various image preload/load timeouts and error-handling improvements.
  • Playback & UI: added video autoplay countdown animation, removed small image animation delays, improved community search relevance, adjusted image animation timing, and smoothed swipe-to-close behavior.
  • Caching & performance: fixed multiple comment/post caching issues (including edits showing cached content), introduced a setting to control max cache size, improved comment rendering performance, reduced memory leaks, and generally improved scroll feel and pagination.
  • Offline, federation & reliability: added offline fallback for community pages, federation detection for comments, enhanced error messages, fixed gray-screen and other stability issues, and reverted/adjusted settings storage to improve reliability.
  • Permissions, downloads & validation: improved Android permission handling for downloads, added file validation for downloaded images, and implemented download timeout and retry logic.
  • Misc UI & quality-of-life: added a bug report button, adjusted Export button placement, fixed bottom-sheet and external-link behaviors, made reply text selectable, fixed thumbnails not being clickable, and other small layout/typo fixes.

Full Changelog

Added:

  • Video support in galleries
  • Bug report button in settings overflow
  • Setting to control max cache size
  • Video autoplay countdown animation
  • Support for image galleries (post customization)
  • Offline fallback mode for community pages
  • Improved image error handling
  • Improved Android permission handling for downloads
  • Federation detection for comments (warning when not federated)
  • Enhanced error messages across the app
  • Post refresh now clears related caches (comments, scroll position, sort preferences)
  • File validation for downloaded images (format checks, size limits)
  • Download timeout & retry handling (improved)
  • Improved permission dialogs for denied storage access
  • Better logging for download/image debugging
  • Image dimension capping refactor (maintain aspect ratio for tall images)

Fixed:

  • Uploaded images not showing in Create Post
  • Image preloading hanging (added timeout)
  • Small delay when animating images
  • Images not loading in full resolution
  • Subscribed communities sometimes not loading
  • Edited posts showing cached content
  • Small memory leak when creating a comment
  • Text not selectable when replying
  • Bottom sheet compass button issue
  • Opening links in external browser issue
  • Comment caching problems on posts
  • Comment caching on certain posts
  • Post page being cut off by app bar
  • List view media/external browser issue
  • Quick changing post type in post page view
  • Spoiler font colour not following user text colour
  • Regression in spoiler color setting
  • Swipe-to-close post smoothness
  • Alt text displaying instead of post title
  • Android permission safety before downloading images
  • Export button placement
  • Incorrect DB usage in some flows
  • Settings storage revert/clarity ('s' or 'db' indicator)
  • Thumbnails in list view not clickable
  • App freeze when limiting thumbnail heights
  • Images in galleries showing thumbnails instead of fulls
  • Comments caching too much
  • Editing a post showing wrong community
  • Loading icon stuck when replying to comments
  • Tall thumbnails blurry (aspect ratio preservation)
  • Post refresh briefly showing "no comments" during loading
  • Drawer search Enter key not working
  • SocketException errors exposed to users in offline mode
  • Community header not showing in offline moderated list
  • Comment scrolling reliability (jump-to-comment retry)
  • Potential gray screen when loading post details

Improvements & Technical

  • Improved scroll feel (increased caching)
  • Performance improvements for comment rendering and video tracking
  • Improved app stability and data storage reliability
  • Enhanced test coverage and infrastructure (from adjacent versions)
  • Various small layout and typo fixes

Thank you everyone for all of the support and suggestions, please keep them coming and we'll continue to make Connect the best app for browsing Lemmy!

Links:

-kuroneko

2
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: When you edit a post, you don't see the edit reflected after it's been submitted and need to refresh the post.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Edit a post
  2. Submit the new edited post
  3. Once submitted Connect will show the original cached version and requires a manual refresh of the post to show the current content

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.301 (301)
  • Platform: android
  • OS Version: BP3A.250905.014

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isNotificationEnabled: 1 (default: 0)
  • commentDividers: 0 (default: 1)
  • isCommentActionsReversed: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysOpenInDefaultBrowser: true (default: false)
  • shouldDisplayTitleAbove: true (default: false)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • isEdgetoEdge: false (default: true)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldUseHighRefresh: false (default: true)
  • shouldLimitCardImages: true (default: false)
  • commentTextStyle: bodySmall (default: bodyMedium)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleSmall (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 2 (default: 0)
  • enableCommentNavigator: false (default: true)
  • isDoubleTapToLike: true (default: false)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • showFullVotes: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • shouldInstanceBlockIncludeUsers: false (default: true)
  • shouldHighlightNewComments: true (default: false)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postListingType=All&hint=All (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • defaultCommentSort: Top (default: Hot)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • swipeActionsComment: [upvote, upvote, downvote] (default: [upvote, save, reply])
  • postActions: [comment, save, share, none] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • swipeActionsPost: [hide, none, none] (default: [upvote, save, hide])
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldResolveOpenGraph: true (default: false)
  • shouldDimBrightBackgrounds: false (default: true)
  • shouldForceBlackImageBackground: false (default: true)
  • theme: amoled (default: system)
  • textSizeMultiplier: 0.875 (default: 1.0)
3
4
submitted 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) by sirxdaemon@lemmy.ca to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: If posts are marked read, either by viewing the post or its image, and then you change the sort setting, this will reset the post back to unread.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. View a post
  2. Change the sort setting

EDIT: Some posts keep their read status but if you view your feed, view some posts, and then change the sort setting, most of not all of those recently viewed posts will be marked unread.

Test


Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.301 (301)
  • Platform: android
  • OS Version: BP3A.250905.014

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isNotificationEnabled: 1 (default: 0)
  • commentDividers: 0 (default: 1)
  • isCommentActionsReversed: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysOpenInDefaultBrowser: true (default: false)
  • shouldDisplayTitleAbove: true (default: false)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • isEdgetoEdge: false (default: true)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldUseHighRefresh: false (default: true)
  • shouldLimitCardImages: true (default: false)
  • commentTextStyle: bodySmall (default: bodyMedium)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleSmall (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 2 (default: 0)
  • enableCommentNavigator: false (default: true)
  • isDoubleTapToLike: true (default: false)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • showFullVotes: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • shouldInstanceBlockIncludeUsers: false (default: true)
  • shouldHighlightNewComments: true (default: false)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postListingType=All&hint=All (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • defaultCommentSort: Top (default: Hot)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • swipeActionsComment: [upvote, upvote, downvote] (default: [upvote, save, reply])
  • postActions: [comment, save, share, none] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • swipeActionsPost: [hide, none, none] (default: [upvote, save, hide])
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldResolveOpenGraph: true (default: false)
  • shouldDimBrightBackgrounds: false (default: true)
  • shouldForceBlackImageBackground: false (default: true)
  • theme: amoled (default: system)
  • textSizeMultiplier: 0.875 (default: 1.0)
4
5
5
submitted 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) by Valmond@lemmy.world to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Edit: The button was "under" the phone UI, which explains the problem. Carefully clicking makes it "function". The app insta crashes at every image download though, like it did a while back, so it's the same old bug. Im on xiaomi hyper os.

Popup after saving an image (the image gets saved! But then this garassed you until you hit "OK" and the app restarts)

Not relevant any more:

~~When trying to save images, everything is as usual, except the image isn't saved, and the "image saved" popup doesn't show up.

The bug feels like the download button just doesn't do anything.~~

Cheers and congratulations on the new version!

6
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: Images are loaded at extremely low resolution.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Find a post with an image, preferably with text.
  2. Touch it to open it full screen to see the details or read the text.
  3. Observe the meagre amount of pixels (see example above).
  4. Squint to try to read the text.
  5. Fail due to pixel insufficiency.
  6. Despair.
  7. Touch “open external” to open the post on the browser (https://mander.xyz/post/43475080 for the attached example).
  8. Open the image in the browser.
  9. Marvel at the difference in resolution compared to the one opened in the app.

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.298 (298)
  • Platform: android
  • OS Version: SKQ1.220303.001 test-keys

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldUseHighRefresh: false (default: true)
  • shouldShowPageNumbers: true (default: false)
  • mediaSecondaryAction: download (default: none)
  • isVolumeNavigationEnabled: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • shouldHighlightNewComments: true (default: false)
  • nsfwView: show (default: blur)
  • applyNsfwInCommunities: false (default: true)
  • cardType: fullwidth (default: card)
  • postActions: [comment, save] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldResolveOpenGraph: true (default: false)
  • shouldDimBrightBackgrounds: false (default: true)
  • shouldForceBlackImageBackground: false (default: true)
  • maxCacheSizeGB: 1 (default: 2)
7
4
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by GenesisClimber@lemmy.ca to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

The first couple of times this happened, i thought it was just my phone acting wonky. But after having seen it now multiple times today and under similar conditions, figure it's the app.

If I hide a post, the screen will not scroll up or down; it locks to what was on there aside from an empty space where the post was. I either have to re-load the screen (whether it's a Frontpage, local, all or mutl-community, same issue). I haven't changed any settings in months.

Anyone experiencing similar?

8
 
 

I turned off "Preload Images" and my feed hasn't hung since. There is still a tiny bit of wait time while the next group of posts gets cached in the feed (maybe < 1 second) and this is usually when post pre-loading would fail and hang the feed completely.

If for whatever reason, if an image can't be preloaded it'll hang the feed? Maybe if a post gets deleted on one instance and, because fediverse, it may still be listed by my home instance? A failed cross-instance image load does sound like an interesting theory for root cause.

9
4
Community picker (infosec.pub)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by i_am_not_a_robot@feddit.uk to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: This might be more of an improvement request. The community picker on the new post page I quite often have problems with - it doesn't always find the community I'm looking for.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Search for "climate"
  2. Struggle to find climate@slrpnk.net
  3. Try again searching for climate -
  4. Now it shows up, might be searching on the full name only?

Additional bug. I attached a picture here ^^^ but it isn't showing up.

Additional bug 2: The post caching is still a bit aggressive, as my edits aren't showing up after I make them either!


Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.298 (298)
  • Platform: android
  • OS Version: V2UI35.43-12-4

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isSwipeEnabled: false (default: true)
  • isNotificationEnabled: 2 (default: 0)
  • isCommentBarAlwaysShowing: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysOpenInDefaultBrowser: true (default: false)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldUseHighRefresh: false (default: true)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleLarge (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 3 (default: 0)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • isDraftsEnabled: false (default: true)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • shouldHighlightNewComments: true (default: false)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postListingType=Subscribed&hint=Frontpage (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • applyNsfwInCommunities: false (default: true)
  • postActions: [comment, save] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldResolveOpenGraph: true (default: false)
  • shouldLoadAllComments: true (default: false)
10
 
 

There are some communities that don't show up in the suggestion lower bar when typing. As a result, if I try to post in, say, anime @ ani.social via a "share" link on android, I can't continue because there's no community to tap on in the suggestion field.

It would be nice if you could attempt to post manually in a community manually typed in if it appears to be a community@site.domain format and wait for a post timeout before giving the warning that an invalid community is selected.

Unless I'm missing something, of course, that's always a possibility.

11
 
 

Seems like I'm just zooming in the thumbnail when I click an image

12
 
 
  1. (Regression, I think.) Strike through markdown broken when used in combination with exclamation point (maybe with other special characters too?) Also affects large blocks text that is marked with a strike through

~~Strike~~

~~Strike! ~~

  1. Cannot select text from comment that you are replying to

  2. Selecting text on your comment is appended with multiple spaces if there is no punctuation.

  • to reproduce: create post or reply, press and hold the last word of the sentence with no ending punctuation
  1. Text selection can become "sticky". (Unknown cause) Moving cursor around on a comment in progress results in the text selection bar that cannot be turned off. Connect restart is required.

  2. Post cache is not always refreshed after edit. Requires Connect restart to see changes made to a post. (Post text is where the caching issue is, not generally comments.)

13
 
 

Have tried collapsing and restarting, won't load.

Thanks for getting open externally working again. Great app!

14
 
 

When I use the Open Externally option it no longer works on any post. No matter what post and no matter what community, it just returns the error No External link to open.

15
4
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by Fuckswearwords@lemmy.world to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Have been having the video tearing issue again. It's visible on this post https://sopuli.xyz/post/37617265

Maybe it's related to my phone's resolution which is kind of odd. It's 1080x2448. Tearing isn't happening on my other phones.

You can look in my post history for a screenshot if you don't know what I mean.

This combined with "open externally" not working has made the app kind of useless cause I basically can't see any videos posted on Lemmy.

Anyway thanks in advance for having a look.

16
 
 

This app is really nice but recently my profile infro browser (compass at the bottom of the screen, next to inbox) will only summon an empty panel. Trying to log out or switch user with the upper right context menu is completely unresponsive.

I'm actively trying to find a work around, will update if I can find it.

17
 
 

In v1.296s, some posts will not load comments, that loaded fine when first accessing it. You need to refresh the post for the comments to load again. This consistently happens with a lower comment count. Posts with over 50 comments will load properly every time. Not sure of the exact number but those with under two dozen or so will not load comments when you view it a second time.

EDIT: Okay so that number is 40. 39 it won't load. 40 will.

18
10
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by sirxdaemon@lemmy.ca to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Wasn't Connect supposed to automatically trim the image cache if it reached a certain size? Something like 5GB should be plenty, I think.

19
 
 

Single pull-down refresh breaks post alignment.

~~Multiple pull-down actions may cause the offset of the post to slowly creep up and I under the post menu and almost off the top of the screen. OR, when the post is opened, the post will load with proper alignment and then shift itself up.

This seems to happen within the first few actions on opening Connect and it may self-resolve if the post is opened again, but not always.~~

Edit: ~~There is something wrong with that specific post in the screenshots. Other posts work fine, that one does not.~~ Its happening on this post now too.

Post is fully scrolled down, post title gets covered:

Menu will self-hide and you can see how far up the post has been aligned: ~~

20
 
 

So I'm on card view until list view and the download images bug is fixed and I come across this video post that also includes photos. The gallery option collapsed the photos but I'm not sure how to access the gallery? I'm normally on list view so maybe someone who uses card view can clue me in.

21
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Votes not updating (pawb.social)
submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by Kolanaki@pawb.social to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Just noticed that the votes on posts/comments are not always updating and just showing the default +1/-0 from when they are posted, even when other apps and interfaces show a change.

22
 
 

When opening an image and bringing up the popup window at the bottom, the alt text in it is actually the post title, not the alt text.

23
 
 

The old bug where spoiler text appears blank in light mode appears to be back. Probably it's rendering the text as white on white rather than respecting the theme settings.

ExampleI can't read this part in light mode at all.

24
 
 

25
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submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by sirxdaemon@lemmy.ca to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

First noticed these two in 293 but they remain in 295s. I'm on list view and tapping on any image in my feed brings a pop-up to download the image. This includes posts that have a thumbnail as well as image posts. Also the change view selection in the overflow menu on my feed doesn't work.

EDIT: For those experiencing the image download issue, switching to card view resolves it. You can't do it through the overflow menu so you need to go into Settings, tap on Post Customizations and change it in there.

EDIT2: If you're on v296 and still prefer list view, turning off the setting that open links in the external browser will fix the pictures issue. Hopefully both options can coexist again in a future update.

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