Hey guys. Sorry for ignoring this thread for so long and that the exisiting beta is broken.
In case that’s in doubt we are fully committed to our mobile apps. It just takes time.
The current beta used a temporary one-way sync so we could share and test some aspects of the app early while we are working on the actual two-way sync that runs on a complete new set of servers.
Unfortunately that means before we are ready to switch the mobile (and also parts of the main app) to the new servers, we can’t easily release incremental updates of the beta. However, that means that the next update will have many new features and should be a very usable app.
It’s coming along well. I don’t give roadmaps anymore. I know we work as fast as possible and we will significantly speed things up with 4 new full-time employees starting soon Thanks once more for your patience.
It’s been a while since we’ve discussed the state of the mobile app development, but now seems like a good time to do so since we’re close to a new release.
The aim of this new version is to improve upon the older version’s features, add new ones and fix the problems encountered by some of you during the initial tests of the first version.
Our focus was mainly on data sync, this is where most people have experienced problems using the app and we believe this is a key area that needs to work as reliably as possible. We’ve rebuilt the way the sync works from scratch so that most of the problems you’ve experienced are solved by definition. We also understand that the mobile data one has is sometimes limited so when working on a PDF using the mobile app, only the changes one makes are synced instead of the whole PDF like it’s done in the current version. The PDF viewer itself has also got a rework, now having more annotation features available and allowing for realtime sync between the mobile app and the web app.
There’s more to this release in terms of features, we’ll let you know of all of the changes once it’s done. In regards to invitations to participate in the beta, new invites will be sent out once the new version is released.
The app does not render at native resolution on my new iPads. It’s already scalable across iPhone sizes and 9.7 and 12.9" iPads. Syncing was terrible after the release of beta2 and I gave up after a few attempts, but today it worked great. Amazingly fast, and without any issues. Can you please advise to the status of the app and the project in general?
Now we are really close to releasing a new version of the iOS (and Android) apps. However, to prepare the rollout of the new apps we have to pull the existing iOS app (it expired today). So from today the beta test is on hold temporarily.
Why is that? We are not only releasing new versions of the mobile apps, we are also in the final testing stages of putting a completely new system infrastructure live. It will power our new product line and you will be able to sync your data in real-time across the web app, our new PDF annotator, iOS, Android, Mac+Windows (starting with the Word plugin).
When will that happen? Although it will not interfere with any of our live services, we only can do this on a Sunday morning. We aim at a Sunday in second half of June.
My team and I will keep you posted once we have news. I know it took a long time, but this preparation work was necessary so we can deliver all the features you are waiting for more regularly and much faster in the future.
Hi Stefan, will this new version of the iOS apps be available generally or still only to beta testers? If not, I’d really like to become a beta tester; is it possible to enter now?
Stefan’s post above sounded like there will be another beta phase, with the new system infrastructure.
Sounds like a major change, guess they met some hickups along the way.
I’d also like to join the next beta run, if possible, please. I can test both iOS and Android and have a good record with extensive bug reports (github.com/michaelaye)
Although it is true that development for the mobile app took surprisingly long (just today I had to qualify my recommendation for paperpile by stating it took 2 years to get a mobile app), @carlos confirmed that they have already opened the beta for the new iOS app three weeks ago. So I only wish they would onboard beta testers a bit faster.
@carlos, @stefan, can we get an estimate for when all testers will gain access to the iOS beta, please ?
We’ve actually made the updates to the infrastructure in June as planned and tested now a while with only a few users to see how things behave in production.
