Wow is it that time again? Why yes it is, its time for another Thunder release! This release has a lot of minor tweaks and improvements to the overall Thunder experience. I’ll list out a summary of all the update points here, but if you’d like to see the full changes, check out the GitHub release page.
A reminder for anyone who didn’t catch the previous announcement, Thunder is now officially available on Google Play! You should also be able to search up Thunder on the Play Store to find it. For more details about the launch, see this post: https://lemmy.world/post/1631968
If you are using the Google Play version or TestFlight, please note that it may take a bit of time before you receive the update. As always, this is an alpha release, so do expect bugs to pop up here and there. Now onto the update notes. This update brings a few major features:
- You can now select custom accent colours! This will allow you to choose a splash of colour which will be applied consistently across the whole app. Please note that Material You has to be disabled for the accent colours to be applied properly
- You can now customize the look of the comment indicators. There are different options to choose from to suit your personal preferences
- There are even more settings for you to customize. You can hide the FABs, hide NSFW posts, show community icons and authors on posts, and even more!
- Improvements to link previews. With this, you should be seeing more link previews and it should create a more consistent experience
- You can now manage blocked communities and users. Simply go to your profile, and there should be a gear icon for you to remove any blocked communities and users.
- You can now access user and community sidebars. If you visit a community, or a user, you can tap in the info icon to bring up a sidebar filled with all the information you could possible want
- Overall improvements to performance. This update should feel smoother and there should hopefully be less stuttering happening overall
- Finally, there has been some under-the-hood changes to allow for localization and translations for the future. Look forward to this in a future update!
We have a Matrix space if you would like to join in on discussions: https://matrix.to/#/#thunderapp:matrix.org
If you find any issues or would like to suggest features, please open up a new issue! As always, contributions are always welcomed here.
I would also like to acknowledge all the following contributors that have worked on this latest release! (in no particular order): @machinaeZER0, @CTalvio, @micahmo, @njshockey, @sant0s12, @ajsosa, @vbh
As always, I would just like to thank everyone so far for the amazing support so far. Thunder is still a project that I can only work on the side, and it has been incredible so far. A lot of my time has been taken up to work on improvements to Thunder, and to maintain active and meaningful conversations to improve the overall experience for Thunder.
If you would like to show a token of appreciation, you can buy me a coffee! The donations will help support some of the development overhead costs (e.g., apple developer program for TestFlight builds) and other costs!
Thanks again for everything so far, and I hope you enjoy this update! Here’s some canned beans for you for reaching the end of this post 🥫🫘
Link previews in compact view, hurrah!
Great update. 😁
Edit: I like how clicking a comment takes you directly to that comment too. Easier to keep track if there’s a fair few replies to a particular comment.
Hello, comment context was my contribution :) Just a quick note, there are still some rough edges when interacting with comments from that context view. I have some fixes for them but they didn’t make the cut off unfortunately. So that will definitely be improved in the next release.
This app is my daily driver. It gives me that RIF experience. The comments colors are actually a nice way to remember what part of the tree I’m in.
If you are like me, and want the pre-release updates. Use Obtainium to pull directly from the github.
It’s been fascinating watch all the people contribute to build an app from the ground up. Random contributors using their unique skill sets to add to the usability and interface.
PS. Tablet mode is awesome on the S8 ultra.
Bang up job as always. This is the best “Alpha” WIP app i have ever seen. Normally when i hear “alpha” i think “buggy”, “unstable”, “missing features”, etc.
Not mentioned above, but an oft requested feature I implemented is also in this update.
You will now be able to tap-slide with one finger to zoom images.
The sidebar also enables blocking users.
You know, you are making it quite difficult to find accessibility bugs in your app. What the heck am i supposed to contribute when they are all gone? /s
