After a long, long winter it was time for a thorough Spring cleaning.
The dev team opened the windows, shook out the rugs, and did a bunch of tidying (they even vacuumed under the couch).
If you’re still experiencing winter (and some of us definitely are) we hope this update brings a bit of sunshine your way.
TL;DR
- Gander now remembers whether you picked Gander only or Gander + Bluesky. It applies properly to searches too
- You can now add an account to your Nest right from a post or from a profile
- Gander should be be running smoother, faster, and be a bit gentler on your batter life
- Android photo albums are back in the photo picker
- Flicks, Boards, For You, interests, and topic feeds got a tidy
- The cursor ghost that made text jump around while typing is gone
New Features
Gander / Gander + Bluesky Settings
Your feed settings now works the way they should. No more switching it on and off to get it to work.
- Gander remembers whether you picked Gander Only or Gander + Bluesky
- The setting loads correctly when you log in
- If you choose Gander Only, search stays focused on Gander and vice versa if you have Bluesky enabled
- This applies to searching for people, posts, and hashtags
Add to Your Nest
You can now Add to your Nest right from a post’s action menu. Less navigating around when you find a Nest-worthy account.
Improvements
Performance
Gander was feeling a bit sluggish, so we shook off the cobwebs and cleaned up some code.
- The home screen has been rebuilt in a few key places so it runs smoothly
- Switching between feeds should be quicker
- Moving from one feed to another should have less delay
- Following and unfollowing people shouldn’t flicker anymore
- Switching between feed views should be steadier
- Gander should feel smoother when you open it
- No more pixelated animation on entry
- The dark tint on the For You Page is gone
- Scrolling is smooth like butter
Battery
Gander should be gentler on your battery now. We cleaned up some extra background activity so the app does less when you’re not using it.
Feed and Topic Cleanup
A few feed behaviours got tidied up so everything shows up where and when it should.
- Topic feeds now show more current posts
- The interests grid resizes more cleanly
- The interests grid is now organized in three columns
- Rearranged the For You Page
Flicks, Profiles, and Navigation
Tapping now takes you to where they were always supposed to go. Imagine that.
- Flicks now open properly from someone’s profile page
- Tapping someone’s avatar in the For You Page / Nest now opens their profile
- Bottom navigation should stop disappearing unexpectedly
- We removed scroll-to-hide navigation
- Less flicker when following and unfollowing people
- Switching between feed views should flicker less
- The Flicks repost action has been replaced with the Boards button to match the current design
People You May Know
Suggestions should be a little smarter now. No more suggestions to follow people you already follow. Or yourself. How would that even work? We’d rather not know.
- Fixed an issue where People You May Know could include people you DO already know
- Cleaned up the account state issue behind the generic suggestions
- Suggestions should better reflect who you already follow
Behind-the-Scenes
We also made a few improvements to the systems that help Gander stay reliable and safe as more people arrive.
- Better support for moderation tools
- Better support for links and invites
- Improved monitoring so we can catch issues earlier
- More deployment checks to help prevent avoidable breakage
- General infrastructure cleanup to make the app experience more stable
- More reliable systems under the hood so the app can keep feeling better on the surface
Fixes
Android
A few Android bugs got swept up in this release. Thank you to everyone who flagged these. We can finally post that picture of Fraggle Rock that we’ve been dying to post.
- Photo albums now show up properly in the Android photo picker
- The Create Boards button no longer hides behind the Android navigation area
- Keyboard behaviour is cleaner on verification screens
- Removed the extra verification submit button now that the screen auto-submits
- Board name editing should behave better
- Chat fields should behave better
- Mention fields should behave better
- Report fields should behave better
- A few other Android text fields got cleaned up too
The Cursed Cursor
We set the ghost haunting the cursor free. We wish it well. Elsewhere.
- Text should stop jumping around while you type
- Board name editing should feel less wonky
- Chat text, mentions, and report fields should behave normally
- Likewise for a few other fields on Android devices
Known Issues
Nothing major to flag this round. If something feels off after the performance and battery work, or if a setting isn’t sticking the way it should, let us know through the in-app feedback form.
Thanks
Huge thanks to everyone who flagged slowdowns, sticky settings, missing Android albums, disappearing nav bars, jumpy typing, and a whole slew of other minor but inconvenient things. And put up with all of them while we tidied up and got ready to invite more folks in to join.
