1
 
 

It's been a few months since the last update post, and Connect has come a long way since then. Here's a quick recap of what's new.

Big New Features:

  • Reading Mode: A clean, distraction-free view that strips articles down to just the content. Toggle it on in Settings: Reader Mode, or flip it on per-page while browsing.
  • Inline Chrome Tabs: Open external links in fast, in-app Custom Tabs that keep you inside Connect instead of bouncing out to your browser. Pick how links open in Settings: Open links with).
  • Advanced Search Filters: Search got a big upgrade with new filters, better empty states, and smoother performance so you can find exactly what you're looking for.
  • Piefed + 1.7.0 support: Delivering on last update's promise: Piefed polls are now supported, along with broader Piefed 1.7.0 compatibility, dynamic instance detection, flair, and global vote totals.
  • Lemmy 1.0 support: Starting to test API support for the new incoming 1.0 API changes.

Smaller touches:

  • Domain Rewrite settings and a "Trust Domain" button on the link prompt
  • Case-insensitive keyword filters
  • Tap or long-press crosspost dividers to toggle or jump to the crosspost
  • New loading indicators across comments, profiles, and search suggestions

What's next:

  • Working on some ways to improve discover-ability of new communities

Thank you everyone for all of the support and suggestions, please keep them coming and we'll continue to make Connect the best app for browsing Lemmy and Piefed!

2

2
 
 

Hi,

If you've been on beta you've probably already seen some of this as I worked out bugs and other issues. But in general the top line is there's been some major re-architecture of the app which should let it feel even snappier and more performant than before. I've also added Image Gallery support, so now any post with multiple images in the body will auto-collapse into one image gallery. This is configurable in the settings if you prefer to see all of the images as well. I've also taken Horizontal swiping on posts out of 'Experimental' and it should handle pagination and backing-out more gracefully.

Galleries and video playback now work better and load in the right resolutions, images and thumbnails behave consistently, and animations feel smoother. I also made caching and performance improvements which should reduce stutters and stale content.

If you have any feature requests please let me know :)


TL;DR Changes (versions 287–301)

  • Media & galleries: added image galleries and video support in galleries; fixed uploaded images not showing, full-resolution image loading, tall-thumbnail aspect-ratio preservation, alt-text display, and various image preload/load timeouts and error-handling improvements.
  • Playback & UI: added video autoplay countdown animation, removed small image animation delays, improved community search relevance, adjusted image animation timing, and smoothed swipe-to-close behavior.
  • Caching & performance: fixed multiple comment/post caching issues (including edits showing cached content), introduced a setting to control max cache size, improved comment rendering performance, reduced memory leaks, and generally improved scroll feel and pagination.
  • Offline, federation & reliability: added offline fallback for community pages, federation detection for comments, enhanced error messages, fixed gray-screen and other stability issues, and reverted/adjusted settings storage to improve reliability.
  • Permissions, downloads & validation: improved Android permission handling for downloads, added file validation for downloaded images, and implemented download timeout and retry logic.
  • Misc UI & quality-of-life: added a bug report button, adjusted Export button placement, fixed bottom-sheet and external-link behaviors, made reply text selectable, fixed thumbnails not being clickable, and other small layout/typo fixes.

Full Changelog

Added:

  • Video support in galleries
  • Bug report button in settings overflow
  • Setting to control max cache size
  • Video autoplay countdown animation
  • Support for image galleries (post customization)
  • Offline fallback mode for community pages
  • Improved image error handling
  • Improved Android permission handling for downloads
  • Federation detection for comments (warning when not federated)
  • Enhanced error messages across the app
  • Post refresh now clears related caches (comments, scroll position, sort preferences)
  • File validation for downloaded images (format checks, size limits)
  • Download timeout & retry handling (improved)
  • Improved permission dialogs for denied storage access
  • Better logging for download/image debugging
  • Image dimension capping refactor (maintain aspect ratio for tall images)

Fixed:

  • Uploaded images not showing in Create Post
  • Image preloading hanging (added timeout)
  • Small delay when animating images
  • Images not loading in full resolution
  • Subscribed communities sometimes not loading
  • Edited posts showing cached content
  • Small memory leak when creating a comment
  • Text not selectable when replying
  • Bottom sheet compass button issue
  • Opening links in external browser issue
  • Comment caching problems on posts
  • Comment caching on certain posts
  • Post page being cut off by app bar
  • List view media/external browser issue
  • Quick changing post type in post page view
  • Spoiler font colour not following user text colour
  • Regression in spoiler color setting
  • Swipe-to-close post smoothness
  • Alt text displaying instead of post title
  • Android permission safety before downloading images
  • Export button placement
  • Incorrect DB usage in some flows
  • Settings storage revert/clarity ('s' or 'db' indicator)
  • Thumbnails in list view not clickable
  • App freeze when limiting thumbnail heights
  • Images in galleries showing thumbnails instead of fulls
  • Comments caching too much
  • Editing a post showing wrong community
  • Loading icon stuck when replying to comments
  • Tall thumbnails blurry (aspect ratio preservation)
  • Post refresh briefly showing "no comments" during loading
  • Drawer search Enter key not working
  • SocketException errors exposed to users in offline mode
  • Community header not showing in offline moderated list
  • Comment scrolling reliability (jump-to-comment retry)
  • Potential gray screen when loading post details

Improvements & Technical

  • Improved scroll feel (increased caching)
  • Performance improvements for comment rendering and video tracking
  • Improved app stability and data storage reliability
  • Enhanced test coverage and infrastructure (from adjacent versions)
  • Various small layout and typo fixes

Thank you everyone for all of the support and suggestions, please keep them coming and we'll continue to make Connect the best app for browsing Lemmy!

Links:

-kuroneko

3
 
 

Just a silly idea: Add a filter that blocks posts based on comment to post ratio. (Comment:post ratio + account age would be a bonus)

While it is very brute force, if a user has 5 comments and 2000 posts, chances are that I am going to block that user as a bot. Adding an account age option would be a decent fine-tune option. (Some legit users are just content gods, but they also tend to comment and participate which is awesome.)

Bonus idea, but probably not possible: Collapse posts in my feed from communities that have low user:post diversity. Example: If a community has 10,000 posts but there are only 2-3 different users making those posts, it's probably also something I would block naturally as well.

4
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue:

When I have a PIP video from another app open over Connect, the video's audio will fade out and the video will pause despite no media playing within Connect. This behavior makes sense if I play a video with audio in Connect but shouldn't happen if I'm only interacting with text, images, or silent videos.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Open Connect and a video app that supports picture-in-picture.
  2. With a video open in the video app, tap home to create a PIP video overlay and switch to connect.
  3. Within Connect, view a video that pauses the video (expected).
  4. Navigate away from the video in connect to non-audio media. Try to play the video again while browsing text. The video will pause.

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.486 (486)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CP3A.261005.005

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • cardType: listReverse (default: card)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
5
 
 

Example:

6
 
 

Sorry if this is answered somewhere else but im super curious if this is just a fun Easter egg or what. In the mailbox, if you tap on the little envelope icon, it flips around, and then flips back to an envelope when you tap it again. The first 3 or 4 times I did it it was an empty circle in place of the icon, but then it started showing another icon of a comet or some sort of smaller sphere surrounded by flame or lens flare. It switches back as soon as I tap it or elsewhere on the screen, so I feel like it's not changing any kind of functionality? Very curious if this has a meaning or if it's just cool. I've included a picture.

7
 
 

It does this regardless of the signed in profile including guest. Been doing this for months, thought it'd be addressed by now but maybe nobody has said anything yet.

8
 
 

Salut tout le monde, je suis nouveau ici, après avoir quitté reddit (je me disputais trop avec les autres membres car je les trouvais intolérant et ils m'ont ban (mais de toute façon je me serais bien barré seul de cette plateforme !)... Quelqu'un parle français sur ce Lemmy ? Merci !!!!

9
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: I opened Connect one day and the comment cursor decided to hide. It gone.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Start a comment.
  2. ....
  3. Profit?

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.482 (482)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CP3A.261005.005

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • showFullVotes: true (default: false)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • nsfwView: Hide (default: Blur)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • shouldLoadAllComments: true (default: false)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
10
 
 

As per the title, having troubles logging in to piefed.ca on Connect. Getting a 400 error, incorrect login, and Bad Request. I can log in fine on the browser. PcUMMkcwUPlPqFe.jpg

11
 
 

Example in images - a post I upvoted from 2 to 3 (the one starting with "Facepunch"):

When I reopen the app later, it shows 2 upvotes and doesn't show that I've upvoted it:

If I open the post, the votes update:

12
multicommunity bug (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 weeks ago by to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

Bug Report

Sorry I swear I won't post again! But thank you for such a good app!

Describe the issue:

When trying to fill a 5th multicommunity, I can only see 4 multicommunities and cant see the 5th one. It seems the scroll is bugging out. This is also an issue when you tap the info icon on the multicommunity feed. You can't scroll through all of your communities in that multi.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Make 5 or more multis
  2. Try to add a community to one of the last ones you made.
  3. In the add popup window, scroll doesn't work to see the ones hidden at the bottom of the list.

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.479 (479)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CPH2551_16.0.3.505(EX01)

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • defaultRoute: /community?postCommonListingType=Subscribed&hint=Frontpage (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: Scaled (default: Active)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • drawerStates9: [true, true, false, false, true, true, true, true, true] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • theme: dark (default: system)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
13
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: Just wanted to point out that anytime I try to remove a favorite community, in the app, it doesn't go away. The only way I've been able to clear my favorites is by clearing all app data on my OS which is Oxygen OS (I own a One Plus Open).

If this is a known bug, the feel free to delete my post, but I didn't see anything about this when I searched the community posts.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. On the left toolbar under the favorits category, click the three dots next to community and choose remove from favorites.
  2. It will now disappear.
  3. Back out of the tool bar and refresh your feed. Open up the left toolbar again and the community has returned to your favorites.

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.479 (479)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CPH2551_16.0.3.505(EX01)

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • defaultRoute: /community?postCommonListingType=Subscribed&hint=Frontpage (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: Scaled (default: Active)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • drawerStates9: [true, true, false, false, true, true, true, false, true] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • theme: dark (default: system)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
14
 
 

I pick the same one every time, but it is slightly annoying.

15
 
 

Ive looked through my post history and I haven't down-voted myself but I did find one post that I removed the upvote entirely. But on the connect app it still shows -1 after I put the upvote back on that comment. Any ideas oh how to fix this?

16
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: I wrote some text in reply to a post, scrolled up and back down and the text disappeared.

This has happened in the past and was fixed; seems to have reoccurred.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Reply to long post
  2. Type some text
  3. Scroll up
  4. Scroll back down
  5. Observe text is gone

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.478 (478)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: W1UIS36H.39-17-8

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isSwipeEnabled: false (default: true)
  • isNotificationEnabled: 2 (default: 0)
  • notificationIntervalSeconds: 3600 (default: 60)
  • alertSyncIntervalSeconds: 3600 (default: 900)
  • isCommentBarAlwaysShowing: true (default: false)
  • linkOpenBehavior: customtab (default: webview)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldPreloadImages: wifi (default: always)
  • commentTextStyle: bodyMedium (default: bodyLarge)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleLarge (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 3 (default: 0)
  • enableCommentNavigator: true (default: false)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • isDraftsEnabled: false (default: true)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postCommonListingType=Subscribed&hint=Frontpage (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • applyNsfwInCommunities: false (default: true)
  • drawerStates9: [false, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • postActions: [comment, save] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • shouldVideoAutoplay: never (default: always)
  • shouldPreloadVideos: wifi (default: always)
  • shouldCombineMarkdownImages: false (default: true)
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldCacheArticles: wifi (default: always)
  • shouldLoadAllComments: true (default: false)
  • isOfflineSyncOwnContent: true (default: false)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
17
 
 

I am pressing them by accident when scrolling

18
How can I ban a bot user? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca
 
 

My feed is often full of nothing but low quality spam from a single user - "bOt@zerobytes.monster" . It's obviously a bot, and it's ruining my experience. I know you can typically ban individual users from your feed on Connect, but its not working for this account. Can anyone help?

19
 
 

It's not a bad thing overall but I find it distracting when I'm scrolling down.

In my view it would be better if it appeared when coming back into the app but once scrolled down it didn't appear at ll again.

20
 
 

First thank you for all the hard work. This is a great app.

I love the new "saved folders" feature. Unfortunately the bottom pop-up for adding a saved post to a folder overlaps with the general nav buttons on my phone, so I have trouble using that pop-up.

Proposed solution: could there be an option for that pop-up to be in the middle of the screen, or the top, or some other place?

Thanks for reading, and again, thanks for all your effort.

21
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: As the title asks: i usually open the app, then notice there has been no update for several hours since my last launch. But when i pull down, it refreshes with a long list of new articles, so it doesnt seem like a sudden influx of new posts. This happens across communities and servers. Is it a setting thing, or a bug?

Steps to reproduce: 1. 2. 3.


Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.467 (467)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CP2A.260705.006

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • linkOpenBehavior: browser (default: webview)
  • shouldPreloadImages: never (default: always)
  • shouldShowReleaseNotes: false (default: true)
  • isDoubleTapToLike: true (default: false)
  • isConfirmOnExit: false (default: true)
  • shouldOpenYoutube: false (default: true)
  • shouldImageConvertWebp: false (default: true)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • nsfwView: Hide (default: Blur)
  • applyNsfwInCommunities: false (default: true)
  • drawerStates9: [true, true, false, true, true, true, true, true, true] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • shouldVideoAutoplay: never (default: always)
  • shouldPreloadVideos: never (default: always)
  • shouldCacheArticles: never (default: always)
  • enableHistory: false (default: true)
  • maxCacheSizeGB: 1 (default: 2)
  • displayUserVoteTotals: false (default: true)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
22
 
 

With article preview enabled, if you want to preview an article thumbnail from the feed, you have to tap into the post and then use the preview gesture there. Perhaps the article preview function can be activated with the title instead? This would also make the preview gesture more consistent across post types with a thumbnail.

Personally, every now and then I have to tap into a post and I'm used doing it from the feed. Of course, if changed, people used to the current flow may be annoyed and prefer the thumbnail. I'm guessing people that prefer card view would prefer the image activation as well.

23
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue: Whenever I tap on the thumbnail for this post, it takes about 3 for the image to fully render and not be blurry. It seems like the image is not loading from cache and is redownloaded each time I tap on the thumbnail because it then takes another 3 seconds to render. The cache shows the image is less than a MB so I don't think it's the local webp conversion that's taking 3s. I think slrpnk.net has some server issues at the moment as it's not a noticeable issue with images hosted on other instances. But it may highlight a different Connect issue.

EDIT: And of course, right after the post, it's not doing the rendering issue anymore. I'll try to find another example and figure put the conditions for this.

EDIT2: Um, edits are not being reflected again? I made an edit and submitted it but after that was done, the post did not update with the edit in it. Had to manually refresh to see the update.

EDIT3: Okay, so if that first post does not exhibit the issue, any posts from a community on slrpnk.net, such as their meme one, can provide another sample. But it may depend on where you are and when you try this; maybe your proximity is no affected or the instance has resolved the issue by then.

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.472 (472)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: CP2A.260705.006

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isNotificationEnabled: 1 (default: 0)
  • commentDividers: 0 (default: 1)
  • isCommentActionsReversed: true (default: false)
  • linkOpenBehavior: browser (default: webview)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • applyUserNotesGlobally: true (default: false)
  • shouldSaveUserNoteContext: true (default: false)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldUseHighRefresh: false (default: true)
  • shouldLimitCardImages: true (default: false)
  • shouldPreloadImages: never (default: always)
  • commentTextStyle: labelSmall (default: bodyLarge)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleXSmall (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 2 (default: 0)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • showFullVotes: true (default: false)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • shouldInstanceBlockIncludeUsers: false (default: true)
  • colourSurface: 4278190080 (default: null)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postCommonListingType=All&hint=All (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • defaultCommentSort: Top (default: Hot)
  • cardType: list (default: card)
  • drawerStates9: [false, false, false, false, true, true, true, true, false] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • swipeActionsComment: [upvote, upvote, downvote] (default: [upvote, save, reply])
  • postActions: [comment, save, none, none] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • swipeActionsPost: [hide, none, none] (default: [upvote, save, hide])
  • shouldVideoAutoplay: never (default: always)
  • shouldPreloadVideos: never (default: always)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldCacheArticles: never (default: always)
  • shouldDisplayCommunityBanner: false (default: true)
  • stickySortSettings: true (default: false)
  • toxicModeUrl: https://79623798464325.github.io/connect-toxic-filters/example.json (default: ``)
  • theme: amoled (default: system)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
  • applyUserVoteTotalsGlobally: true (default: false)
24
 
 

I think the article preview would be more useful, at least to me, if it was inline with the comment preview and remained on-screen with a long tap. Reading and scrolling while having to hold the long tap is cumbersome. Granted, it's a preview feature, but I think it's a worthwhile feature to be able to easily read an article straight from a feed and then go back to the feed. Which is why I also like the comment preview.

For those reading and wondering about the mentioned features, it was introduced in v1.471, which is a beta so you would need to join that to use it.

EDIT: Not sure why but this post only shows a sliver of the article for the preview. Loads fine in reader mode and other article previews seem to load up the full article.

25
 
 

Bug Report

Describe the issue:

The Cloud Sync option shows that I'm not logged in (I have previously logged in to this), and if I tap sign in I get the error shown on the screenshot.

Steps to reproduce:

  1. Go to settings
  2. Scroll down to Cloud Sync
  3. Mine was logged in but it asks me to sign in
  4. Tap sign in
  5. See error

Device Information

  • App Version: 1.0.468 (468)

  • Platform: android

  • OS Version: W1UIS36H.39-17-8

  • Migration: n/a (attempts: 0)

Modified Settings

The following settings have been changed from defaults:

  • isSwipeEnabled: false (default: true)
  • isNotificationEnabled: 2 (default: 0)
  • notificationIntervalSeconds: 3600 (default: 60)
  • alertSyncIntervalSeconds: 3600 (default: 900)
  • isCommentBarAlwaysShowing: true (default: false)
  • linkOpenBehavior: customtab (default: webview)
  • alwaysShowInstance: true (default: false)
  • alwaysTrustDomains: true (default: false)
  • shouldPreloadImages: wifi (default: always)
  • commentTextStyle: bodyMedium (default: bodyLarge)
  • postTitleTextStyle: titleLarge (default: titleMedium)
  • customColoursPreset: 3 (default: 0)
  • enableCommentNavigator: true (default: false)
  • isTopBarFixed: true (default: false)
  • isDraftsEnabled: false (default: true)
  • shouldAlwaysDisplayAvatars: true (default: false)
  • defaultRoute: /community?postCommonListingType=Subscribed&hint=Frontpage (default: null)
  • defaultPostSort: New (default: Active)
  • applyNsfwInCommunities: false (default: true)
  • drawerStates9: [false, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true] (default: [true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true, true])
  • postActions: [comment, save] (default: [comment, save, none, crosspost])
  • shouldVideoAutoplay: never (default: always)
  • shouldPreloadVideos: wifi (default: always)
  • shouldCombineMarkdownImages: false (default: true)
  • shouldRemembercommentPosition: false (default: true)
  • shouldUseProfileBanner: true (default: false)
  • shouldCacheArticles: wifi (default: always)
  • shouldLoadAllComments: true (default: false)
  • isOfflineSyncOwnContent: true (default: false)
  • imageDomainRewrites: {} (default: {})
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