Paperpile for iOS and Android private beta (closed)

Beta testing
#1

Update - Get the Apps here

All apps are ready to use. We still call it beta because we are still working on the documentation and do some more polishing. Stay tuned for the official announcement early this fall.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the private beta. :blush:

How to take part

To sign up, please reach out to us via chat or email (support@paperpile.com) specifying whether you’d like to test the iOS or Android version.

We’ve invited all users who participated in the very first beta tests a while ago and also everyone who requested access here on the forum.

Our goal is to invite all of you as soon as possible and turn this into a public beta.

Feedback

The main purpose of this beta is to collect feedback and find bugs.

Please post all problems, suggestions, experiences with the app here on the forum.

What’s in the beta?

  • Access your library on your mobile device
    • View all your references and PDFs on phones and tablets
    • Navigate quickly using folders, labels and stars
    • Search for specific references
  • Organize your library
    • Add references to folders and labels (via toolbar button or swipe left gesture)
    • Manage folders and labels (create, rename, change color, remove)
  • Add references and PDFs to your library
    • Add references and PDFs with the “Share via Paperpile” button on any mobile browser
    • Download PDFs for references automatically directly in the app.
    • Browse manually for PDFs and import them to your library.
  • Read and annotate PDFs
    • Read your papers in a fast PDF viewer optimized for mobile devices
    • Add comments
    • Highlight and underline text in multiple colors
    • Mark-up figures and tables with arrows, rectangles and oval shapes
    • Add text directly to the PDF
    • Draw and write anything on your PDF with the pencil tool
    • Full support for the Apple Pencil
    • Works together with our new PDF annotator for the web (also in beta)
  • Sync and Offline
    • Automatically sync all your data and PDF annotations across devices
    • Access all your references when offline
    • Choose which PDFs you store on your device
    • Set folders or labels as “offline” to download all PDFs automatically to your device
    • Clear PDF files from your device to save space.

Roadmap: What’s next?

  • Background download of files
  • Share articles from your mobile browser and import to Paperpile
  • Search online databases and import references and PDFs directly from the app
  • Finalize design and user interface including dark mode
  • Add remaining features from web to mobile

Known issues

  • Download of PDFs only works when app is active. If you set folders or labels with many PDFs as “offline” this can block the app for a while. We suggest to open PDFs individually and only set selected folders/labels as “offline”
  • Shared folders are not supported
  • Design is not final and the main list in particular on phones and for non-article/non-book references may still look a bit weird.

Latest Updates

8/6/2018

  • Fixed a bug that made sync fail when a reference was “auto-updated” in the webapp.
  • No other major problems were reported, so we keep inviting new users until we hit a showstopper :slight_smile:

8/7/2018

  • Avoid app crash when file download fails.
  • Fixed problem with folder/label dialog not showing check marks correctly

9/5/2018

  • Improved file downloads:
    – Downloads start faster
    – Download multiple files at once
    – Finish downloads also when the app is not active
    – Android: Show download progress notifications and keep downloads running even with the app closed
    – Android: Fix issue that caused a crash in the PDF editor on older versions of Android.
  • Improved rendering performance of the main list
  • Improved overall performance for libraries with many labels or folders.

2/25/2019

  • Add “Share with Paperpile” option to add references and associated PDFs from any mobile browser.
  • Add customizations for PDF viewer (page layout and transitions, scroll direction, dark theme).
  • Open PDFs on the last viewed page
  • Keep screen active when viewing PDFs (Android).
  • Fix issue with annotations when screen was rotated (Android).
  • Many more small improvements to the PDF viewer.
  • Improve speed and stability of file downloads.
  • General stability updates and many bug fixes throughout the app.

9/5/2019

  • New design of the app (work in progress and still rough but the final design including dark mode is on its way :crossed_fingers:)
  • New design and improvements of the “Share with Paperpile” dialog
  • Improved accuracy of automatic PDF downloads
  • Added automatic PDF downloads in the main app
  • Added “Browse for PDF” feature to the main app and the “Share with Paperpile” dialog
  • Replaced sync button with “Pull to refresh” (usually not needed as sync is automatic)
  • New placement and design of file sync progress (less obtrusive by default but with more details if needed)
  • Various performance improvements (up to 25% faster in certain situations on Android).

12/2/2019

  • Quick acess to recently opened papers in “Recent” screen
  • EZProxy support for off-campus file downloads
  • Star, unstar, trash, untrash and delete references
  • Faster opening of PDFs with many annotations (iOS)
  • Fix some stuck notification during PDF download (Android)
  • Fixed incorrectly displayed file size for some files
  • Attempt to fix crash when accessing “On your device” (feedback welcome!)
  • Allow adding labels and folders to references in search results
  • Many more tweaks and bug fixes

27/2/2020

  • New start screens and illustrations.
  • Improvements to the main list (author abbreviations, search keyword highlights,
).
  • New design of details view including list with complete reference information.
  • Many more user interface tweaks and improvements.
  • Performance and stability improvements for the “Share with Paperpile” feature.
  • Various fixes and improvements to PDF editor and annotation sync.
  • Android: reduced app size by one third.
  • Fixed ‘On your device’ crash.
13 Likes
iOS private beta 1 (old)
Android private beta (old)
Android app feedback: Thanks and SD storage support
#2
#3

Are users of the first beta signed up automatically or do we also have to fill in the form?

Best,
Markus

#4

Hey Markus,
No if you have already signed up you don’t need to sign up again.

1 Like
#5

Hi Stefan,

Long time user and big fan of Paperpile. I filled in the form for the old iOS beta but never got an invitation. Would be thrilled to try out the new beta.

Best
A

#6

Very cool, thanks! (I both filled in the forms and requested access in the old thread). Would be nice if you from time to time can give an update on invite status, so that we don’t flood you with impatient questions. :wink:
Thanks!

#7

I just received the invitation and had a quick look at the beta on iOS (iPad). The app looks good and all the basic functionalities are there, so I am generally very satisfied. Good job !

Some suggestions:

  1. I like the reading/annotating paper view, and it will probably replace my current PDF app. (PDF Viewer Pro) I wish we could go « full screen » by tapping on the paper content, such that the top gray bar appears/disappears. If possible, while keeping the annotation toolbar on the side so as to annotate while we read. Secondly, having tabs for all reccently opened papers would be awesome and allow us to quickly switch from one paper to another. An alternative would to allow opening and editing papers in other apps.

  2. (Edit: just saw this is possible with folders, just not with started papers.) Downloading starred papers would be a great functionality and allow us to keep all unread papers on mobile. I am not sure how difficult this would be though.

Let me know if I can be of any more help. I’ll probably keep posting as I use the app more.

2 Likes
#8

In my excitement to try the new beta I filled out the form again. I was on the first beta and would love to be on this one, too–will having filled out the form a second time put me at the back of the line?

-Chet

#9

Trying to focus on those aspects that were highlighted as in need of testing and which I could test (I don’t have an Apple Pencil). Other than the app occasionally crashing (I assume you get reports when this happens?) here are my observations:

  • Faster and more robust data synchronization.
    • This is working well for me so far.
  • Changes are synced automatically across all devices and the webapp.
    • On re-launch was asked to sync two files totalling 80 MB, even though I only have one paper downloaded (which is 41.35 MB)?
  • Manage labels and folders (create, move, delete, color)
    • Was able to assign and create labels.
    • Labels are not properly sorted. First letter sorting is fine, but among each letter the sort seems random. So lables starting “language” (i.e. language ideology, language rights, etc.) are not all together in the right order.
    • Creating a label currently requires leaving the assign lable screen and going to the sidebar, then going back.
    • No way to search for a label, or show only those labels assigned to the current item when assigning labels.
    • Suggestion: show recently used labels at top!
  • Set labels or folders as “offline” and automatically download all PDFs in those “offline” labels and folders to your device.
    • Haven’t tested
  • Organize references in labels and folder via toolbar or swipe-left gesture.
    • Works.
  • Many improvements to the PDF Viewer and Annotator
    • Initial tests seem fine.
    • Would like the ability to export annotations to another app.
  • PDF annotations are synced in real-time with our beta PDF annotator on the web.
    • Does not seem to be working. None of my iOS highlights showed up in the beta PDF annotator.
2 Likes
#10

Thanks Kerim, that’s very detailed and useful feedback. We will first concentrate on actually making sure everything works and then will break out specific feature requests in other threads where we can track and discuss those (we have quite a few ideas on how we can improve labels overlapping with your suggestions)

We had a short outage of the new beta servers from about 6-7am CEST this morning. Can you verify that if you open a PDF on mobile and in the beta web annotator they don’t sync up?

Thanks again!

#11

The highlights I made earlier now show up, but when I tried to make a new highlight on my phone it didn’t show up on the web version of the PDF annotator. I then tried doing a manual sync of my library using the button on the top right, but an error message came up on the bottom of the screen saying “error syncing your library.”

#12

We have had a look in your logs there is indeed a sync error. We only saw this once during our own testing and could not reproduce. Also no other user currently has this error.

Sorry about that we will look into that.

1 Like
#13

Hi,

I’ve just started using the desktop version of paperpile and really like it. I was hoping there would be an Android version for my tablet and glad to come across this.

Is it still possible to get the beta version for Android?

Cheers

#14

I requested an invite in the previous thread but never received one. Would love to try this out now. Thanks.

#15

We’ve identified the problem, could reproduce it and just pushed and update (it’s server side, so you don’t need to install a new version).

#16

Yes, the error seems to be gone!

1 Like
#17

Hi Stefan,

I love Paperpile, and have been using for 3 years now! I filled in the form for the old iOS beta and was told that this release was coming soon. I just got the new iPad + Apple pencil (for grad school, yay!) and would love to try this new beta out and give feedback.

Best,
Lucy

#18

Hi,
When do you expect to add users to this beta that were a part of the previous beta? I can’t even log into the current app


1 Like
#19

Users of the previous beta are being invited progressively, so that we can fix any issues that may occur before they affect a larger number of users.

#20

Hello. I signed up for the original beta, and filled in the form for the new beta, but I haven’t received any invite yet. It would be great to test the new beta. Thanks!