2y ago

Avelon update! Custom fonts and text size, mark read on scroll, swipe to collapse threads, reply drafts, community icons and much more!

Hi guys! This update (version 1.0.2 build 12) brings more sweet features, including:

Custom font support
- Text size fully customizable!
Hide read posts
- Customizable per-feed or you can manually toggle it
Mark posts read on scroll
More swipe gestures:
- Collapse comment thread
- Mark post as read
Unfinished replies are now saved as drafts
Option to delete your embarassing comments
Body preview for text posts
More customization options:
- Community icons & user avatars
- Large vote buttons
- Account avatar in bottom tab
- Hide tab labels (super clean!)
- Number of lines to show for text posts
Download/share buttons in the image viewer
Ellipsis buttons for posts & comments
- Easily access common options
Reworked thread rendering system
Edited comments now has an edited icon
Profile pages now have avatar images
Aaaand of course a bunch of various UI improvements & bug fixes

Wanna check it out? Here's the link:

For you seasoned testers out there, I'd really like some feedback on any bugs you might find, especially for the mark-read-on-scroll and hide-read-posts feature, but of course everything else as well. Some of these systems were a bit tricky to get right, so I might have introduced a few new bugs here and there.

Hope you enjoy the update, and let me know what you think!

39 comments

The fact that both the top and bottom bar get hidden when you start scrolling has already gotten me interested and aboard.
Thank you for creating and sharing this app with hs!
- A beloved aspect from apollo that surprisingly not many other apps use
  
  And it works even better than in Apollo!

Hi Evgiz,
This is the best update yet for me.. loved the fact that you listened and updated every user feedback thoroughly..
A small suggestion though,
Currently the text size is adjustable only to the feeds..
The feed looks nice as a result, but once you go inside the feed the the text size is not adjustable and it feels very large in comparison.
Give us the option to chose a separate text size adjustment for post and comment section or make the current text size adjustment applicable to whole app..
And a small nitpick here, I feel the smoothness has got hit with the latest update.. The app stutters in most parts of the scrolling now.. 😅
Thanks mate, appreciate your hard work and time in creating this lovely app.
- My text is matching in both the feed and the post. Try checking you’re on the most recent TestFlight release?
  
  Hi brcl, thanks for the heads up..
  Just changed the font option in accessibility > per-app settings..
  Now the issue been resolved..
  I’m just loving this update evigz..
  Looking forward to what’s more lovely features to come ( greedy me 😅).
  Thanks again.

Hello! I’m trying out your update and I feel that this is the best yet. Great job!
I just noticed that the mark read on scroll doesn’t not work? And may I suggest you add a button to hide read posts?
Thank you!
- Woops, I screwed up. Check out the latest build (b13), should work there. There's already a button in the top right menu, could ofc do a separate one for this but I think that'd quickly get a bit too cluttered.
  
  Hey man! The ellipsis button just shows me either show read button and hide read button.
  So when I choose hide read, the posts I read gets hidden. But I can’t manually hide post cause if I press it again, it shows the hidden posts. I guess the “hiding” is done automatically?

This is my favourite app for Lemmy and I never hear it mentioned?!
- Thank you! I guess PR is not my greatest strength...

Hi. Thanks for the update!
My home page has become laggy after this update, especially when scrolling up near the top of the feed and when pulling to refresh.
I've also noticed that the preview in the font adjustment setting doesn't match what I get on the front page: the text on the front page is smaller.
This is running the latest build, 1.0.2 (14).
Update: The stuttering seems fixed in 1.0.2 (20)!
- Also notice the lag on the homepage near the top especially. Feels jittery when scrolling.
  
  The app was probably bit nervous due to all the new features. Mind testing if the latest build (b17) resolved the issue?

Hi,
[Bug] Top nav bar is completely covering the name of the community inside the community’s home page and not hiding properly on scroll.. this bug present since yesterday’s build and present in the latest (b14) build.
Now stuttering can be noticed systemwide.
- Afraid, I also noticed the stuttering introduced in the recent updates.
  
  Worked a lot on optimization for the newest build (b17), mind checking if its better on your device now?

Really impressed with this update. It feels super smooth now, the gestures seem to be working extremely well, the text size is great! Great job all the way around! I’ll let you know if I stumble across any bugs.
Haven’t tested pull to refresh on iOS 17 yet, will let you know if that’s fixed…
Edit: pull to refresh is not fixed on iOS 17 yet. Thanks for all the great updates in this release!

I must say, I love your new update. Almost perfect and very smooth! Keep it up, you’re doing great!
I hope you consider giving us the option to turn on a floating hide button though. But that’s ok, current option works, it’s just that I need a few taps more to hide read posts.
- Just added a hide-posts-above gesture that might just scratch the same itch. Not gonna add any floating buttons for now, but it's on my potential-future-features list

Is this project open source by any chance?

I noticed that swipe back from anywhere disables not just swipe right, but also swipe left gestures. Is there any chance that we will be able to use swipe right from anywhere to go back, and still and to use the two left gestures for voting etc?
Wonderful app btw.
- Hah nevermind, found an elegant solution for this. Works in the newest build!
  
  Yay! Thanks. This just made your app my favorite.
- Thanks, glad you like it! I'd like this feature too, but it requires quite a bit of work so I'm gonna prioritize other things for now

Looking forward to trying this out properly.
I’m a little confused by the ‘mark read on scroll’ feature. If I scroll there isn’t anything obvious to tell me that the post has been marked as read (the title doesn’t dim for example). Is that correct? To then see read posts again I need to tap the three dots in the top right hand corner and select the option. Again is that correct? If so do you plan to add a show / hide floating button to make that a little easier to use?
Either way another great update to play with.

I love the clean UI, reading is really easy on the eyes.
Pull to refresh is still not working for me tho, also the front page looks a bit weird after this update; some posts are off-set to the left and not swipeable to vote.
- Dang, that's an issue with long community/usernames I believe, will fix. Thanks!
  
  Can you take a look at !dach@feddit.de
  Posts and even the community header are waaaaaay off-set 😅
  
  That’s fixed now, pull to refresh also works now for me. Thanks.

If I may, I would like to ask about the future of the app. I’m currently testing a couple of lemmy apps and for example Bean app is already testing some Pro features for a monthly subscription.
What’s the plan for Avalon? One-time purchase? Subscription model? Free software?
- Yeah of course. I mentioned this briefly in my first post, but haven't discussed it a lot. I don't have a concrete plan for these things atm, so I'd also be happy to hear what people think would be best.
  For now I'm thinking free app with an option to donate to support the development. I really like Lemmy and hope to see it grow, so I wanna take part in that by creating a great app that encourages people to contribute and join in on conversations like these. I really enjoy the development process too, it's super encouraging to get so much feedback from people here.
  After the initial version I'll consider some kind of pro version for additional nice-to-have features. No idea what these could be, but I'm thinking perhaps themes or some other more advanced features. It takes a lot of time to develop an app like this (I don't expect it to be any kind of profitable really, it's just a time-consuming hobby of mine), but I'll have to be honest and say I'd be happy to get something back for the time put in. Like a few pizza nights would be cool.
  Another thing I've considered is burnout. I've experienced burnout a few times before, and getting something in return can definitely help remedy that. I think it'd be a strong motivator to keep working on highly requested- and niche features that the more "hardcore" Avelon users would appreciate. And again - if people have thoughts about what they think would be best, I'm happy to discuss the topic further!
  
  Currently I pay for Ivory (iOS app for Mastodon) since I think it has a great design, features and reasonable price, so if anyone can provide a similar experience (basically anything I felt is “worth it” without being too expensive) I’m more than willing to pay.
  I personally prefer one-time purchases but also understand the subscription model appeal for developers. It’s just that if it looks too expensive to me (like I think the newly Sync for Android is proposing) I’m gonna pass on it.
  Basically, if you hit that sweet spot you get my money lol.

39 comments