Fast Lane! Posted July 30, 2020 Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) Seems just like the mobile site. Just worse. At least on Android it seems to have tons of bugs too. I'm sure a lot of hard work has gone into it, but what's the point of the app versus the mobile website experience? It seems to be basically the same things but now with what I assume will be rigid formatting (skin) experience that doesn't allow any customization. This makes many of our sites incomplete on the app. It also precludes other non IPB areas of our site which does who knows what to our usage. With no ability to monetize effectively (this is a business for me... ad revenue matters) and perhaps a negative effect to website traffic and SEO/rankings as a result, I for one will stick with the current responsive design and disable access to the app. My two cents. I'm truly not trying to rain on anyone's parade. It just doesn't work for me. Edited July 30, 2020 by Fast Lane! Steph40 and Ay hazea 1 1
Maxxius Posted July 30, 2020 Posted July 30, 2020 It needs to be improved, one giant thing being is the overall speed of the app. It takes awhile before it opens up. Much faster to open chrome and enter the url. 🙂 I'm positive guys at IPS will figure this out eventually. Tapatalk app has a decent speed so why not IPS app too? 🙂 AlexWebsites 1
Jordan Miller Posted July 30, 2020 Posted July 30, 2020 There’s of course room for improvement. But I loveee it. I wish a white label version was available. 😢
Fast Lane! Posted July 31, 2020 Author Posted July 31, 2020 13 hours ago, breatheheavy said: There’s of course room for improvement. But I loveee it. I wish a white label version was available. 😢 I'm curious. Compared to the mobile version on the web, what advantage does it carry for you?
Jordan Miller Posted July 31, 2020 Posted July 31, 2020 7 hours ago, Fast Lane! said: I'm curious. Compared to the mobile version on the web, what advantage does it carry for you? Push notifications are a humungous deal. Also, I think many people tend to overlook the psychology of what an app can provide for your business. To the consumer, they see you have an app and it's extremely impressive. There's a mobile version of FB, but everyone uses the app. They both can technically do the same, but one simply functions much better. I would love to see the IPS team begin shifting conversations towards how this app will become the next evolution of IPS. It is (imo) how forums should function in the future. I know there's an entire can of worms associated to shifting away from the web version to an app, and what this means for developers / the community etc. I'm less interested in the "how" and more of the "why." 🙏 🙂 Maxxius 1
Fast Lane! Posted August 1, 2020 Author Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) 13 hours ago, breatheheavy said: Push notifications are a humungous deal. Also, I think many people tend to overlook the psychology of what an app can provide for your business. To the consumer, they see you have an app and it's extremely impressive. There's a mobile version of FB, but everyone uses the app. They both can technically do the same, but one simply functions much better. I would love to see the IPS team begin shifting conversations towards how this app will become the next evolution of IPS. It is (imo) how forums should function in the future. I know there's an entire can of worms associated to shifting away from the web version to an app, and what this means for developers / the community etc. I'm less interested in the "how" and more of the "why." 🙏 🙂 How on earth do you monetize this nearly as much as a website? Also, many sites have far more features to them then the forums. Having an app for one segment of the site and not others fractures the experience of the site. Fwiw I get email alerts and they pop up just like push notifications on my phone. No major delta imo. 11 hours ago, Maxxius said: Push notifications, easy. That can't be the only reason. You can get push notifications via 3rd party services if that was all it was. Edited August 1, 2020 by Fast Lane! PPlanet 1
jesuralem Posted August 1, 2020 Posted August 1, 2020 4 hours ago, Fast Lane! said: Also, many sites have far more features to them then the forums. Having an app for one segment of the site and not others fractures the experience of the site. This is the main reason I won't be pushing for the app in my site. The forum is the most active part of my site but there's a lot of other services that are not ips based and getting people out of the forum is my main goal. I would consider it if the source was available so a developer would be able to integrate it in a broader app, as we did for the forum. PPlanet 1
opentype Posted August 1, 2020 Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) It sound like the criticism is “if it’s not perfect and complete at the start, it’s pointless in general”. They are just starting out with it! Monetization, messages, more native app views and so on. I am sure it’s on the road map or will be put there if we need it. By the way: you can already add more than just forums. I just added a Pages article section and it works just fine. Edited August 1, 2020 by opentype Marius, Morgin, SammyS and 2 others 4 1
Fast Lane! Posted August 1, 2020 Author Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) 7 hours ago, opentype said: It sound like the criticism is “if it’s not perfect and complete at the start, it’s pointless in general”. They are just starting out with it! Monetization, messages, more native app views and so on. I am sure it’s on the road map or will be put there if we need it. By the way: you can already add more than just forums. I just added a Pages article section and it works just fine. We are talking about non IPB parts of our site. Even if IPB allowed the source code out to us, I'd now have to make custom edits to the code to add the others parts of the site and then maintain the code over time. This costs money and time and is in addition to having to maintain both the mobile web and desktop version. Assuming at best the app had equal monetization then this is a net loss in income. Do you monetize your site and if so I'm curious on your take? To me if a feature leads to increased cost / decreased monetization overall, then I'm not quick to want to us it. I'm running a business after all. Edited August 1, 2020 by Fast Lane!
Jordan Miller Posted August 1, 2020 Posted August 1, 2020 8 hours ago, opentype said: It sound like the criticism is “if it’s not perfect and complete at the start, it’s pointless in general”. They are just starting out with it! Monetization, messages, more native app views and so on. I am sure it’s on the road map or will be put there if we need it. By the way: you can already add more than just forums. I just added a Pages article section and it works just fine. Nailed it! It's got to have some starting point. I think the notion that if it doesn't work for everyone right off the bat, it's not worth developing. Couldn't disagree more 🙏 Marius, opentype and Morgin 3
jesuralem Posted August 1, 2020 Posted August 1, 2020 I never said it wasn't worth developing, I just said it does not fit my site specifics. I don't use commerce or three gallery either, this is not a complain of any kind, just a statement 🙂
Kyle F Posted August 1, 2020 Posted August 1, 2020 It would definitely be advantageous to have an actual iOS/Android app again, like the old "IPB Mobile" one.
Fast Lane! Posted August 2, 2020 Author Posted August 2, 2020 12 hours ago, breatheheavy said: Nailed it! It's got to have some starting point. I think the notion that if it doesn't work for everyone right off the bat, it's not worth developing. Couldn't disagree more 🙏 Do you have anything thoughts on the concerns several of us have raised? Fracturing sites that contain content not "IPB" based Adding custom features and skins that sites have (but the app cant) Additional costs to maintain a custom app (versus responsive web skin) Decreased Monetization (especially advanced schemes like header bidding) SEO when web traffic drops due to app usage versus web Maxxius 1
Jordan Miller Posted August 2, 2020 Posted August 2, 2020 12 hours ago, Fast Lane! said: Do you have anything thoughts on the concerns several of us have raised? Fracturing sites that contain content not "IPB" based Adding custom features and skins that sites have (but the app cant) Additional costs to maintain a custom app (versus responsive web skin) Decreased Monetization (especially advanced schemes like header bidding) SEO when web traffic drops due to app usage versus web My initial thoughts are that if you build a great product, it will become profitable. If your site includes content outside of IPB, like Wordpress, then yes that will be an issue. I used to use Wordpress and IPB and made the decision in February to be fully IPB and it was the best decision I've made for my site (maybe ever). Simplifying is important. Custom features and skins... I love my theme, but I also love the simplicity of an app. If there were a few color schemes for sites to choose from that could suffice in the beginning. Additional costs to maintain an app... if it's packaged in with IPB then I imagine it wouldn't be too costly as it would be the service they are providing a for an annual fee (perhaps). Decreased monetization... apps can implement advertising. I was thinking of giving my paying subscribers access to the app, so it would be monetized that way for me. SEO... yea, that's a good point. However, the app would be in addition to your live site just like how this community currently is. 🙂 AlexWebsites, evcom, Marius and 1 other 4
AlexWebsites Posted August 2, 2020 Posted August 2, 2020 On 7/30/2020 at 12:28 PM, Maxxius said: one giant thing being is the overall speed of the app I'll agree it should be faster loading. Its a step in the right direction and having an app should create more user engagement. Without monetization, I'm probably not gong to use it on my forums unless I can tailor it only be used to a particular user group. Jordan Miller 1
Aiwa Posted August 2, 2020 Posted August 2, 2020 Both sides of the fence have valid points. The app, in its current form, is not a one size fits all. I’d like to hope it can get that way, but that depends on a lot of factors in play across many highly customized communities. It has great benefits, push notifications for one, but those benefits may not benefit everyone. PPlanet and evcom 2
AlexWebsites Posted August 8, 2020 Posted August 8, 2020 (edited) I’m using the mobile app now and it’s a bit slow loading and searching on an iPhone 6s. Sometimes I have to click more than once to navigate around. Hope it gets “fine-tuned” There’s also this weird fixed scroll up in the editor. Have to use my thumb to drag down the text and see what I wrote...don’t like that at all. Had to hit post link multiple times and nothing. Closed down phone and reopened and was able to post. Also no edit available in app, had to jump into a browser “responsive“ on phone, which I’m on now. It’s much much faster, so I really hope the app gets faster otherwise people will not want to use it. Edited August 8, 2020 by AlexWebsites
Fast Lane! Posted August 9, 2020 Author Posted August 9, 2020 I worry this will cause the IPB staff to have to maintain 2 code sets (strike that, 3... for iOS, Android and web). Assuming no additional revenue, then will this slow the development of future releases? Keeping 3 code bases in sync is far harder than 1.
ABGenc Posted August 9, 2020 Posted August 9, 2020 I have just installed the version "featuring the communities browser" but failed to find invisioncommunity ? The main forum is not listed ? 🤔❓
Rikki Posted August 9, 2020 Posted August 9, 2020 Thanks for the feedback - it's definitely early stages. We'll be looking to improve performance as time goes on, as well as add functionality. There's only one codebase for both iOS/Android, but that is indeed (currently) separate from the main product. It's very much 'work in progress' right now 🙂 Maxxius, Davyc, SammyS and 1 other 3 1
Dean_ Posted August 13, 2020 Posted August 13, 2020 How does one search other communities (when it's ready?). Since we can submit our sites now, are we waiting for 4.5 and then everyone who submitted their site then goes live, etc?
opentype Posted August 13, 2020 Posted August 13, 2020 (edited) 33 minutes ago, Dean_ said: How does one search other communities (when it's ready?). Since we can submit our sites now, are we waiting for 4.5 and then everyone who submitted their site then goes live, etc? The sites are being approved and are usable already. There is a search bar and a category overview to browse the communities. @Rikki The way that “Entertainment” is shown is such an evil OCD trigger. Edited August 13, 2020 by opentype Joy Rex and Maxxius 1 1
Dean_ Posted August 13, 2020 Posted August 13, 2020 5 minutes ago, opentype said: The sites are being approved and usable already. There is a search bar and a category overview to browse the communities. @Rikki The way that “Entertainment” is shown is such an evil OCD trigger. OK, I don't have this at all, I was using the Beta app, and that's all I can seem to find on the AppStore from Apple. All I can do is login via the app to this community, I can't find the other to search communities. Aethes 1
Aethes Posted August 14, 2020 Posted August 14, 2020 13 hours ago, Dean_ said: OK, I don't have this at all, I was using the Beta app, and that's all I can seem to find on the AppStore from Apple. Me too! But I just keep reading about this app everywhere! 😅 Is this a sort of 'private alpha/beta'? Can't find anything on the AppStore, still. 🤔
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