Bean

Hi again, your app is getting better and better on each release, thanks! Today I would like to report:

Build 2023.07.20.22.51 is currently rolling out to TestFlight users.

Changelog

• Added font size options to the Display settings.
• Added OpenDyslexic as a font choice.
• Added a setting to turn off haptic feedback.
• Added the ability to upvote and downvote comments.
• Added the ability to reply to a comment.
• Added the ability to pull to refresh on an individual post.
• Added options to show avatar and OP / Admin badges on comments.
• Fixed keyboard not showing automatically when adding a new comment.

Incredible work on the app.

Here are a few things I noticed:

• swiping media away is sticky and doesn’t carry momentum.
• collapsing comments doesn’t seem to work (apologies if this hasn’t been implemented yet)

A couple more fixes are incoming:

1. The weird layout issue caused when tapping a username in the comments.
2. GIFs will no longer be automatically rendered as animated images anywhere in the app, except when opening the image viewer.

I want to give a bit more context about 2.

GIFs (and animated WebP images) have been the most common cause of crashes and UI freezes in Bean. The last couple of days have been particularly bad as this image of the Lemmy version of r/place has been shared.

This image is 12.4MB, animates for over 2 minutes, and (most importantly) is almost 3,000 frames. I can't even tell you exactly how many frames as both Preview and Photoshop froze on my Mac when trying to open the image.

The reason the number of frames is important, because a GIF is just a container for multiple images. Each frame is an individual image that needs to be decoded and rendered on the screen, and it turns out when there are a lot of them at 1000 x 1000px it is impossible to decode performantly.

Bean uses SDWebImage to download, cache, and render images behind the scenes. It's a fantastic library that is the de facto standard when working with remote images on iOS or macOS. Even with the progressiveLoad and scaleDownLargeImages options enabled, SDWebImage just cannot render certain images without iOS sounding the alarm and firing an OOM exception — especially when that image is 12.4MB and 3,000 frames.

At the moment, Bean will crash if you attempt to open this image. I have even tried working around this and rendering it in a web view, or using another library — FLAnimatedImage. Neither of these solutions worked and believe me, I'm not happy about that (seriously, I really hate GIFs now).

In the coming days, I'll be pushing another update that will check for the size of the image before deciding whether to animate it or not. When not animated, SDWebImage only decodes the first frame of a GIF which is no issue at all.

I know this isn't brilliant, as in the ideal world every image would be viewable within Bean, but it's the best solution I can think of to avoid a single image crashing the app.

Changes: July 25th

build 2023.07.26.00.32

• Added the ability to create a post from community screens. This will be improved in upcoming builds with the ability to upload images and also select which community you wish to post to. Please test it in the meantime though.
• Switched to using the large title style for the nav bar and added an option to the Display settings toggle it off.
• Pulled out comments on user profiles.
• Added an option for Full Screen Swipe to Go Back to Actions settings.
• Added options to the Actions settings to hide floating action buttons.
• Added an option for the comment line width.
• Added an option to the Filtering settings to unbar NSFW images. For science.
• Fixed the incorrect background colour on the Search screen.
• Fixed some visual issues with the image gallery.
• Fixed visual issue with long community names.
• Fixed issue where sometimes the large title would not collapse correctly.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wrong account to load on the Account tab.
• Fixed an issue that caused the count and vote not to show correctly on the single post view.
• Fixed an issue that allowed you to tap through to your own profile from your profile screen.

Changelog August 2nd

Build 2023.08.02.01.29

• Added Toebean icon pack designed by my friend Noah (Instagram)
• Improved GIF -> JPEG representation rendering to only do it on animated GIFs.
• Fixed cut off text on Markdown lists.
• Fixed bookmarking.
• Added a loading indicator when navigating to a federated community.
• A toast is now show if a community cannot be loaded.
• Added a basic empty state to the inbox.
• Added the ability to block or unblock a community.
• Added a notice when a community is blocked and the ability to view it anyway.
• The image viewer can now be dismissed by swiping up.
• Added loading indicators for images.
• Fixed post title not showing on comments in the user profile.

The hacker theme looks so amazing. Thank you so much. Let me know if there is a link to donate. Would be more than happy to do so

I’ve just pushed a build that will hopefully stop any slow down or crashes when scrolling. It still needs some optimisation but please let me know if you encounter any issues.

Today’s big change (aside from earlier’s network rewrite) is image uploads and a redesigned post composer.

It’s going to be hitting TestFlight in a few minutes so please let me know what you think when you’ve had a chance to try it 😄

The overlay is a bit confusing at the bottom of a thread and it’s hard to reach the upvote on the left. [edit] bean is still my go to Lemmy client btw. Can’t wait for the upcoming releases. You’re a blast, Steve. Thanks a lot.

Can the app retain the sort and read options per community and the home view?

For an example, my home view would be set to hot and unread but for Bean community, new and all posts is my preference since unread would hide the megatread post.

Also, I don’t think pinned should be removed when filtering unread posts.

Thanks!

Literally the only thing keeping me from going with this app instead of Memmy, is being able to sort by top 3, 6 and 12 hours. It’s so smooth.

Changelog August 6th

Build 2023.08.06.22.41

• Added the ability to sort comments.
• Added a default comment sort to the Filtering settings.
• New theme: Midnight
• New theme: Forest
• New theme: Hacker
• New font: Futura
• New font: Menlo
• Fixed correct font styles not loading in the markdown editor.
• Fixed http:// and https:// links automatically being detected.
• Updated dependencies including SDWebImage. Should solve some crashing images with WebP and SVG parsing.
• Stopped reloading Inbox on focus as it seemed to be causing some glitches. Will reassess later.

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Push notifications are now also functioning as expected. Please test and let me know if you encounter issues.

One feature I consider necessary: op of a post should have a different color name or a badge next to their name in the comments.

Dunno what magic you’re using but this app feels really good.

Keep up the great work, this is a great start to potentially being the best Lemmy app.

Man this app is already well ahead of all of the other Lemmy clients out there, especially witht eh latest update adding all of the imporvements to comments! Keep up the amazing work!

Tap to collapse comments is no longer working for me.

Changes: July 23rd

Build 2023.07.23.01.28

• Added comment themes.
• Added the ability to collapse comment threads.
• Added swipe actions for comments.
• Added a new button to skip to the next to-level thread.
• Fixed some minor UI issues on the comments screen.

Not sure if you are receiving the crash reports as I don’t see the usual Apple’s crash prompt but scrolling up and down in this mega thread a few time would crash the app.

Also, scrolling fast would show blank spots as well.

I find it a bit jarring that to close the gallery preview I have to swipe down - there’s no option to swipe up. This sort of goes against the UX since I want to continue scrolling down the page after looking at a photo. It always catches me out.

Search is now available in the latest build. Please let me know if you encounter any issues.

I noticed another visual issue with the latest version. This time with the comments. Seems part of the comment can get cut off. See image.

Overall, I’m loving the app more and more with each update. At this point, I can use it to lurk without any real issues. I only need to switch to post or to comment with a photo. There are a few “wishlist” features that I’d love to see. But you’re moving real fast!

Just wanted to say the swipe to vote features and the haptic feedback are perfect! I think you guys have it down better than any other Lemmy app at the moment!

Looking forward to future updates. I could see this one being my main for sure!

I’m on the latest version of iOS 16, using an iPhone 12 Mini. Just a couple things I’ve noticed in the latest build:

• I can upvote and downvote comments now, but there is a weird delay. I get the haptic feedback, but the vote does not appear until I start scrolling away.

• When clicking on the text of a post in standard view, nothing happens. Might be nice to have that open up the post in the same way as if you clicked the title.

• When I upvote/downvote a post with a link, and it makes it as “read.” Something odd happens. All of the preview text for the link disappears.

Those are the only new bugs I’ve noticed so far. Keep up the great work!

In terms of colours, maybe a darker blue akin to iOS’ default would be nice

Changes: July 24th

Build: 2023.07.24.23.14

• Added the Inbox.
• Added posts, communities, users, and URL search.
• Added option to hide tab bar titles.
• Added an option to hide the inbox notification badge.
• Added an option to hide the footer/actions on comments.
• Moved bookmarks to the account screen.
• Increased the size of the comment indicators.
• Refresh the profile screen whenever it’s viewed.
• Removed the large header from communities and inbox for consistency.
• Fixed missing item separators on the profile view.
• Fixed issue where tapping the search tab on the search screen crashed the app.

Note: *The inbox view will be improved tomorrow. It's currently not possible to tap through from there to posts/comments. I'll be fixing this and improving the view with information about what post is being replied to, as well as adding an empty state.

In the meantime, please let me know if you encounter any issues with the Inbox.*

Hi, here’s a short feedback:

1. A more compact view for the timeline: Mlem does it perfectly!
2. Look and feel has a slight edge over all other apps I am testing - I didn’t I didn’t miss any on iOS!
3. Disappearing bottom bar is not good, but the idea is nice if instead of disappearing, it would minimize a la Safari address bar.
4. Jump to alphabet letter in the community list - maybe tapping the letter brings up an alphabet grid?
5. Icons are golden! Clean and funny.

Good job and bring it on!

Yes the keyboard appears now. Thank you :)