January 26: Updated iPhone App Release!
Yesterday was Android... and today iPhone!
We are thrilled to announce that the latest version of the 7 Cups iphone app is currently available for download in the app store! woohoo!!
Please join us in downloading the NEW app!
Here is what you can expect in the new version:
- Much faster, more stable, more responsible and reliable
- Improved community navigation including bookmarked favorite forums
- Hundreds of bugs have been sent to bug heaven
- Fast account switching
This update is the result of a lot of hard work, dedication and love! Huge shout-out to @KrinkTheMellowUnicorn & #Ezrabc!
Once you have downloaded the new app, please leave any feedback or bug reports here!
Yay this is exciting. Because I myself has an iPhone 6s, Rose gold. Hehe. Thanks. c:
@Kaylee - ooh, fancy!
@Kaylee I have an iphone 6s too:)
Thank you all for your hardwork! It's a wonderful job you're doing 
May this community thrive!
btw, it takes a while to make it to the app store for everyone (I don't see it there yet myself).
The new version is 2.5 - so look for that. If it's still 2.2, check back in an hour!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Hey! Should we be able to update now? because the App Store says that the update doesn't exist :(
@as195571
I know (**sob**) -- I'm trying to figure out why. The store tells me that 2.5 is ready for sale, but it isn't propagating (that is, isn't spreading out to everyone) and I'm not sure why. :(
I tried something that might help, but it might still be some time before I know if it worked.
I will post an update to this thread as soon as I solve this problem.
I may be under a little curse, since the Android release also got hung up. It's been a kind of frustrating week that I was hoping would be more, um, triumphant. :\
@as195571 - my store finally updated. check again?
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn I got it:) thank you for all of your hard work!
@as195571 - you bet! and thanks, @ezraBC for the 10,000 lines of code (give or take)!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn must've been hard work, but I greatly appreciate it!! :)
I assume landscape orientation support (useful on iPads) is still in the future?
@JBlue - the extremely near future.
2.5 supports landscape!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Excellent - I look forward to using my Zagg Folio keyboard with it again!
@JBlue I have one of those. very nice!
@JBlue, please let me know if the keyboard works correctly
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn Works just fine. (It did in portrait mode, too, but it's hard to read a screen tilted 90 degrees!)
This is awesome to hear! The iOS app has just been extremely buggy for me--really looking forward to the updates
@patientMango29 yep those bugs were driving is nuts too.
no doubt we'll find bugs in this one but I hope it runs as smoothly for you as it does for me!
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
As much as I hate to be a downer, I am a little disappointed in the update. By trying to make things sleek, the app is even more clunky and confusing to use, and in the first few minutes of using it I have found more bugs than I remember encountering in the old app.
In my honest opinion as a programmer, the devs should work from the ground up and create a clean, simple and intuitive interface for users to use instead of adding more and more functionality all at once to try and help solve issues.
In any case, there are some areas that have been improved of course and I can't really say it doesn't at least look cool!
@patientMango29, thanks for the feedback. Would you mind using the form to report the specific problems you are encountering?
By trying to make things sleek, the app is even more clunky and confusing to use.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by sleek, but can you say more about what is clunky for you and what you found confusing, please?
and in the first few minutes of using it I have found more bugs than I remember encountering in the old app.
That is somewhat shocking to me, given the bugginess of the 2.1.7 version, but perhaps for some reason the old one ran better on your phone? What kind of phone do you have? If you still remember the bugs, could you include them in your feedback form report (if you make one). This will help us fix them!
In my honest opinion as a programmer, the devs should work from the ground up and create a clean, simple and intuitive interface for users to use instead of adding more and more functionality all at once to try and help solve issues.
Thanks for the advice. We built this new version from the ground up, so I'm not quite sure what you mean. Clean, simple, and intuitive are somewhat subjective terms. This is not my first rodeo (I've been doing user experience design on the web now for more than twenty years), and I've worked pretty hard to rationalize the organization and navigation of the app and the site, so I'd welcome any specific feedback you have about how you wish it were different.
Also, which functionality do you consider to be "more and more"? It's funny to hear this was "all at once" when we've been through several phases of implementing this new design over the past few months.
In any case, there are some areas that have been improved of course
Well, that's good to hear, at least.
and I can't really say it doesn't at least look cool!
Great, I guess. "Looking cool" wasn't really my top priority :(
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
I apologize, I didn't realize you were one of the designers/coders. I didn't mean to offend you, I was just giving my subjective opinion. I will write up a more technical summary and bug report tomorrow, but basically I just found it difficult to navigate with the new sidebar and had trouble understanding all of the new icons and how to properly switch screens. I suppose I was hoping for a more simplistic design that might be more intuitive.
As for bugs, the main issue is that (from a user perspective) I cannot seem to request chats for some reason and the app freezes up a lot. But once again, I will submit an actual bug report when I get time.
Thanks for taking the time to read my comments however! I do appreciate it
@patientMango29, now worries. I'm not offended. I'm always interested in how my work feels to people and your programming expertise gives you a unique perspective.
I'm a product design (among other things) and @ezraBC is the developer of the app. @devteam built the site from scratch. The two of them are our only coders!
I will write up a more technical summary and bug report tomorrow
Thanks. That's a big help
but basically I just found it difficult to navigate with the new sidebar and had trouble understanding all of the new icons and how to properly switch screens.
Good to know. Part of that is an onboarding or first-time user experience (FTUX) issue. We have plans for overlays to teach the UI to new people. I'd be interested in knowing how it all performs for you once you are oriented.
In general you can tap a navigation menu item on the bottom to switch between sections. Tapping it a second time will pop open the left drawer that has the full navigation menu.
We did move the conversation lists into the left drawer, which is new and probably disorienting at first. I believe it will prove as convenient or more than the old model where you have to "pogo-stick" into a chat, and then back to the list, and then into another chat, etc.
There is also now a Recent Conversations screen to give you quick access to both 1-1s and Group Support rooms you were recently in. Eventually we will add favorites or other ways of sorting your chats.
I suppose I was hoping for a more simplistic design that might be more intuitive.
In my experience, intuitive tends to mean "familiar" and simple is in the eye of the beholder. I welcome suggestions, so if you have ideas for how it could be simpler to use, I'm all ears!
As for bugs, the main issue is that (from a user perspective) I cannot seem to request chats for some reason and the app freezes up a lot. But once again, I will submit an actual bug report when I get time.
That will help, thanks, especially knowing your device and OS version. The 2.1.7 issue had a lot of serious stability issues and crashed and hanged a lot. I haven't experienced the 2.5.x series freezing up personally (the limits of QA testing, I suppose) so knowing more about your environment will help us identify thebugs.
What happens when you try to request a chat? That's a serious problem!
Thanks for taking the time to read my comments however! I do appreciate it
Of course! Your feedback makes my job easier and helps everyone. I hope I didn't come off as defensive. Ezra and I have been working on this for many weeks, evenings, and weekends and I'm a bit weary.
@KrinkTheMellowUnicorn
Also, I will apologize for making assumptions where I had no right to. I just got the impression that many features were added "all at once" since the interface was completely changed since the last update, and was, of course, frustrated in the issues I had with navigation. I did not write the app, so I have no right to take a glance at it and tell you how it was made!
However, regardless of your many years of experience in the field, I do stand by my opinions and hope you might take them into consideration. Thanks once again
@patientMango29 - did you maybe never have the 2.x version? Were you still on 1.x with the 4 blue tabs and such?
I'm trying to see what fundamentally changed, as the December version had the same bottom navigation and basic structure. It lacked some of the detail (the better community nav and UI, the chat nav features I mentioned above, the referral link on the Me tab) but it was the same fundamental information architecture.
But if you just upgraded from the older "blue" design I can imagine this would have been quite a surprise!
I do value your feedback and didn't mean to pull rank by mentioning my experience but rather wanted to reassure you that we aren't just poking around randomly and do have some idea of what we're doing and trying to accomplish.
I had to make a new account since I couldn't remember my password and when I went go sing back in the app it says: Invalid email or password on my new account it's annoying to have a new screen name and stuff there should be a a "forget password" button on the bottom of screen instead of having to go to the main area and stuff
@HappyDog1 - good idea, can you make a suggestion so we don't lose track?
(also on the desktop, go to Community > Support & Feedback and the link to the suggstion box is near the bottom of the page
Update is very hard to use with voiceover and the tabs are on the left side of the iPhone 5s and the iPad, with the previous window that I was in on the right corner of the screen. Also, there are numerous buttons and stuff that is not labeled properly. When I search for a listener, it is hard to navigate through the list of listeners with voiceover. The send button is not visible by voice over, therefore you cannot send a message and less you turn off voiceover and use vision.
@wittyCat4195
Thanks for the feedback. There seem to be some layout compatibility issues with some versions, apparently. Can you submit feedback on the form or reply with the iPad version and iOS versions you are working with? That will help us pinpoint the problem.
Someone left a review for the app mentioning the voiceover problem as well. Thanks for letting us know about it. Apparently the earlier version supported voiceover better? I'm sure this is something we can address.
Sorry for the inconvenience!
Can you visit lite.7cups.com and tell me how the interface there works on your devices, too?
I have an iPhone 5s in iOS 9. My friend is using the iPad, I can ask her what version she has. She is also a voiceover users well. That review was for me.
Hey!
I really like the design of the new app and could find certain things more easily than before. Some problems I had before seem fixed, but I have new problems.
I'm using an iphone 6s and when I try to post something on my feed and click the "post to feed" button, it sends me to my growth path and doesn't post anything...
The other thing might not be a real problem, maybe I just didn't figure it out. When I click on a username in my feed, then the person's profile pops up. But how do I get to their feed?
And one time when I tried to pull the cursor in a post i was writing to correct a mistake, instead of pulling the cursor to the left, I pulled open the right menu. With that my post was completely lost. I guess that was my own mistake, I was just a bit annoyed that pulling open the menu deleted what I was writing.
Thank you all for your hard work!!
My friend has an iPad mini three. She's also a voiceover user too.