v0.2.1+8

Alpha Release [v0.2.1+8]

Watch out! Theres another update incoming 🎉

Important: it is highly highly recommended to reinstall the app for the best (and least buggy) experience possible

This update includes some major things under the hood to allow Thunder's functionality to work even better and smoother than before. These under the hood changes will make it easier to implement further features in the future, so get excited for that. There's mainly a lot of quality of life changes, and features that have been suggested by the community many times!

As always, this is an alpha release, so do expect bugs to pop up here and there. Without further ado, here are the changes:

Major Additions

• The underlying lemmy API has been migrated to use lemmy_api_client (the same one that Liftoff uses!). This is to allow for faster development of features, and to hopefully make one unified dart lemmy api client
• The underlying lemmy API change is a large change, so there may be some bugs that come from that migration. If you notice any issues that were not previously there, make sure to create a GitHub issue for it so that it can be fixed ASAP
• Addition of adaptive icons for Android. This will hopefully make Thunder stick out less like a sore thumb on Android devices - contribution from @coslu
• There is a new icon for inbox mentions and replies to mark them as "read"
• Added default sort, and feed types to Settings - contribution from @JulianPaulus
• Added Material You themes for Android users! For iOS users, there will be a feature in the future to allow you to select from a list of pre-made themes/colours
• You can now swipe across the bottom navigation bar to bring up the side menu on the feed page - no more having to press the hamburger icon on the top left

QoL Improvements

• Settings has been re-organized to make it easier to find what you're looking for
• Adjusted the "mail" icon in the inbox to be more descriptive of what it does
• Adjusted some internal logic for fetching and caching images to bring better performance and less stuttering when scrolling through large amounts of images
• Adjusted the slide-to-dismiss image feature to be handled a bit better overall
• Tapping on a comment will now only collapse/hide the replies, and not the comment itself - contribution from @vbh
• Initial work on marking posts as read - when you tap on a post, it will be marked as read and the title/description will be greyed out to indicate that status
• There is now a setting to allow you to move the thumbnail icons to the right side
• There is now a setting to allow automatic light/dark mode depending on system settings
• Added an option in settings to open up all links in an external browser by default, without using the in-app browser
• Added ability to tap in on images within posts and comments
• Added a setting to disable swipe gestures on posts for those who prefer to not use them

Fixes and Misc

• Fixed issue with the sort type not being respected when refreshing a feed, or switching communities
• Fixed an issue where the comment upvote/downvote would not render properly
• Fixed an issue where the bottom navigation bar was black on Android devices
• Fixed an issue where Thunder would redirect you back to the feed page after pressing back in the Settings
• Fixed an issue where posts would only show a single image even if it contained multiple

And many more changes under the hood! Have a thunderous day :D

If you have gotten this far down, these are the general major plans for the next release (this could change, so its not a definitive list):

• Introduction of user profiles to allow you to see the posts, and perhaps other information for a given user. This also would include your own profile as well, to be able to see the posts you've created, anything you've saved, comments, etc
• Marking more things as read, and being able to filter out any posts that you have already seen
• Editing of posts and comments
• Better and more options for posting
• Media download for images
• Initial support for blocking communities (maybe)

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If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.

v0.2.1+7

Alpha Release [v0.2.1+7]

This is a hotfix for some initial issues with the v0.2.1+6 release.

• Fixes issue where commenting on a post was not functional
• Fixes issue where some image previews are not closable through swipe gesture - in this case, there is a button to manually close the preview

See https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/releases/tag/v0.2.1%2B6 for more information about the latest main release!

v0.2.1+6

Alpha Release [v0.2.1+6]

Hey look, its another update! 😅 This update includes a few major things, including a new OLED theme, introduction of a basic inbox to keep track of your replies, mentions, and private messages, improved accessibility, some sharing features, and much much more! As always, this is an alpha release, so do expect bugs to pop up here and there. Without further ado, here are the changes:

If you encounter any issues, it is highly recommended to reinstall the app if possible for the best (and hopefully less buggy) experience

Major Features

• There is now a new tab which shows you your inbox including mentions, replies, and private messages
  • Note: The inbox features do not automatically refresh when you're actively in the app. Relaunching the app, or navigating to the inbox will trigger a refresh of the information! Automatic refresh will happen in a future release
  • This is an entirely new feature, so there is only basic functionality at the moment - more features to come in a future release
  • You can toggle between showing all messages, or just unread messages
  • You can reply to mentions and replies. Replying to private messages is not available in this release
  • Tapping on a mention or a reply will open up the corresponding post
• External links now have more options! You can reload the page, open the link in an external browser, or share the link using your system's share dialog
• Improved accessibility labels for those using Talkback on Android or VoiceOver on iOS
• New compact post view, along with swipe gestures for posts to allow voting, and saving (replying directly by swiping on a post is not yet implemented)
• Improved image previews - you can now swipe down to dismiss an image
• New OLED black theme toggle in the settings, giving you even more darkness
• New about page within settings for links to GitHub and the lemmy community

QoL Improvements

• When in the post page, you now have extra options to reply and share the given post using your system's share dialog
• The FAB reply button now automatically hides when you are at the end of the comments to allow you to see the contents of those comments
• Improved GIF support - contribution from @MrAntonS
• Whitespace trimming for instances, in case you accidentally add an extra space at the beginning or end of the instance name
• When selecting an account from the profile page, the current account will now be highlighted
• Search now sorts by Active rather than the default provided by lemmy - contribution from @Benjamint22

Fixes and Misc

• Some fixes when creating new posts or comments, where the scrolling would behave in weird ways
• Fixed an issue where users were having issues logging on when trying to log in with passwords > 60 characters long
• Adjusted limit of subscriptions to fetch to be 50 for the meantime to fix some issues with subscriptions not showing on the sidebar

And many more changes under the hood!

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If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.

v0.2.1-prerelease+5

If anyone sees this update notification, please ignore it as it is a pre-release version, and not fully ready yet.

This pre-release version is to test the following issue: #52

v0.2.1+5

Alpha Release [v0.2.1+5]

Watch out, new update incoming! This update includes a few major things, including the ability to create posts, and comments at a basic level! In addition to that, theres been a few more tweaks and quality of life changes. As always, this is an alpha release, so do expect bugs to pop up here and there. Without further ado, here are the changes:

Note on version releases:

Now that Thunder is also released on TestFlight, the naming conventions for version releases will be changed to keep both iOS and Android versions on the same format. The new format will be v0.2.1-x where x indicates the build version (e.g., v0.2.1+5, v0.2.1+6, ...)

• The reasoning for this is that versioning on Apple only allows for numerical values (and such, -alpha is ignored on iOS devices but not on Android devices)
• The second reasoning is to allow for faster releases sooner on TestFlight, without needing to submit a new version to be reviewed every time which hinders the release cycle. Hopefully this makes sense, and let me know if you have any feedback regarding this change.

If you encounter any issues, it is highly recommended to reinstall the app if possible for the best (and hopefully less buggy) experience

Major Features

• You can now create posts when you are viewing a specific community. This is a new feature, so you may experience some bugs. Feedback is always appreciated to improve the experience!
• You can also now reply directly to a post, or reply to a specific comment. To reply to a specific comment, you need to swipe left on a comment to bring up the modal
• NSFW blur has been included in this release thanks to the contribution from @guigs4!
• Tapping on a community link in a post or comment should now redirect you to that community within the app - no more browser opening to view that community that someone linked in a post/comment
• Sentry was added in the last release to allow for automatic error reporting when something happens.
  • This is now an opt-in feature. When you first start up the app, a notification will ask you whether or not you want to enable Sentry error reporting. You can always opt-out or opt back in if you choose in the Settings

QoL Improvements

• Added a settings option to enable or disable to in-app update notification
• Added the instance name to various parts of the app to distinguish communities across instances
• When visiting a community, you can now see some basic information about the community, including the instance, number of subscribers, and number of people online
• Searching is improved to show you even more results for communities
• Improvements to logging in experience, removing extra spaces or lines from the username/password fields - contribution from @MrAntonS

Fixes and Misc

• Fixed issue where settings would not be respected after an app relaunch
• Fixed an issue with link previews not showing up properly
• Added fastlane config for Android - contribution from @IzzySoft

And many more changes under the hood!

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If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.

v0.2.0-alpha

Alpha Release [v0.2.0-alpha]

Hey everyone, I would just like to say thanks for all the support so far on Thunder! Although it's still in the early stages, it has gained a lot of traction over the past few days and it has been incredible to see the community engaged in discussions, and suggesting ideas for future releases. For those who are unaware, there is an official lemmy community here: https://lemmy.world/c/thunder_app

Since the last update, there have been a lot of changes (both under the hood, and also new features) which I will be releasing as a new alpha version here. As always, this is an alpha release, so do expect bugs to pop up here and there. Without further ado, here are the changes:

As there are a lot of under-the-hood changes, it is highly recommended to reinstall the app if possible for the best (and hopefully less buggy) experience

Major Features

• Comments can now be voted on, and saved through swipe gestures (similar to Apollo for those who have used it in the past)
  • Note: feedback on actions (voting/saving) for comments and posts may have a slight delay depending on the instance's responsiveness (e.g., it may take a few seconds for the action to update)
• There is now support for multiple account logins, and the ability to switch between the accounts
  • In the account page, there is a button on the top right that will allow you to add more accounts, or switch between accounts
• Theres a new option which allows you to toggle between dark/light themes from the Settings page
• There is now an in-app notification which will alert you whenever there is a new release on GitHub (yet to be fully tested)

QoL Improvements

• You can tap on a community's name in the feed, or when you're inside a post to see the community's feed
• When viewing a community, you can quickly subscribe or unsubscribe from that community
• Tapping on an image in the feed or within a post should bring up a fullscreen image for you to zoom in/out
• When you are not logged in, the voting actions on posts and comments will be hidden from view
• When logging into your account, you should now be able to use your system's password manager to fill out the username and password fields
• Some haptic feedback has been added for actions!

Fixes and Misc

• Theres now a splash screen on app startup - no more glaring white page when you load the app!
• Fixed a bug where refreshing a feed or selecting a sort option would send you back to the Local feed

And many more changes under the hood!

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Please note that iOS users will need to install the ipa through AltStore as there is no TestFlight set up at this point.

If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.

v0.1.1-alpha

Alpha Release [v0.1.1-alpha]

• Hopefully fixes issue with missing internet permissions on Android release builds
• Minor optimizations to load times
• Tabs now keep their state when switching between them
• Minor bug-fixes

Please note that iOS users will need to install the ipa through AltStore as there is no TestFlight set up at this point.

There is a lemmy community for this here! https://lemmy.world/c/thunder_app

If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.

v0.1.0-alpha

Initial Alpha Release [v0.1.0-alpha]

With this, includes some basic features including:

• Browse communities
• Search communities within instance
• Authenticate with a single account
• Voting and saving posts
• Basic settings

Please note that iOS users will need to install the ipa through AltStore as there is no TestFlight set up at this point.

If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.