What's going on with the app?

[Pavel Chernitsky]

So, the "communities" app has been out as a beta since september - that's more that 5 months now. But since it's launch there were no updates on it regarding when to expect it to be "stable", we've had a completely "game breaking" bug with it (screen turns white once you log in) and there has been no fix, ETA on a fix, or any communication on the matter since our ticket was closed with a resounding "It's a beta".  
Having an app that can push notifications to members' mobile devices was one of the major reasons that made us choose to move our community to IPS instead of other platforms. And for quite a while it feels like we're being toyed with. 

Can we get some answers, updates, ETAs, or any kind of information regarding that very central and meaningful part of the service you guys are charging good money for? Or are we just going to stay in this loop of you making promises, us spending money, and then endlessly waiting for an implementation that never comes?

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Is it just me, or is this thread not having any replies super ironic...?

[CoffeeCake]

The app is not something our community would consider without having the ability to make changes ourselves. We have not enabled it for testing, nor do we plan on that until/unless its source code is made available for licensing in white label form for us to review, develop, build, publish and have the ability to maintain as needed going forward.

It would otherwise be a disaster to encourage people to use it, and then have it stagnate or go unsupported or be limited into only whatever IPS decides should go into it into the future either because we're limited to only what IPS can do and cannot integrate other third-party applications and services, or because they change course. Not sure what this model would end up looking like.

[Matt]

Hey Pavel,

Even though our team is expanding, we're still a boutique software house and there's shifting priorities. A small subset of our team created the beta version of the mobile app in part to see if there was a demand for it and how it held up in real life. The feedback is positive but there are discussions over its broad appeal for communities that fall outside of a forum focus.

We recently blogged about how we've brought more PWA features to ensure your site runs as close to native as possible as a web app so that if your community has a lot of customisations, or is heavily focused around gallery then your members have a smooth mobile experience.

We have no updates at this point on the mobile app, but I'd expect after 4.6 has been released we'll have more news to share.

Thanks for your patience.

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Thanks for the response. First let me I'm sorry if come of a bit harsh or cynical, I am a little salty, but this shouldn't "come out on you".

As a "boutique" company ourselves - I know full well s**t takes time, sometimes for time than you thought, and always more than you wanted. What bugged me was the complete lack of updates for almost half a year after building up so much hype for it. It kinda stung.

Actually your post about the browser push notifications (which, in my defense, was published three hours after I started this thread 😄) did ease my stress levels on the matter. 

I think - and please do correct me if I'm wrong - that saying "we have no updates" is WAY BETTER than not giving any update. Maybe, I don't know, have like a "Promises, Promises..." blog post once a month where you recap your progress on all the features/addons/modifications/additions you have publicly "came out with" in a blog post (or wherever else you tell us about future features). It may be a pain to get going at first because you need to collate all the things you "promised", but after the first time it should be super simple because you can basically copy-paste the list of things and just add the stuff you promised in the passing month. Kind of like a "release notes", only for things you're going to do and not ones you've already done.

 

@Paul E. You, as always, make very valid points. But I'll tell you the truth... I just wanna shove push notifications down my members' throats and let them "have an app" so we can kill Tapatalk (curse it's soul) support. And at this point in time, I don't even care how it happens anymore. For all I care Invision can send Jordan to creep up to people and yell "SOMEONE COMMENTED ON YOUR POST!!" into their faces. He'll obviously have to do this in Hebrew, but this I can help with 🤣

[Matt]

I like the idea of the "Promises" blog. @Jordan Invision has been updating existing topics with news already.

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Great to hear that. Maybe something good will grow out of it. 

[CoffeeCake]

15 minutes ago, Pavel Chernitsky said:

so we can kill Tapatalk (curse it's soul) support

The reasons we haven't tested the IPS app is the same reason why we never added Tapatalk in vBulletin nor IPS. You are completely dependent on a third-party getting it right.

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Tapatalk support was added before I "took office" as community lead. And the reasoning was along the lines of "meh I dunno, some guys asked so we added it". Now I'm trying to mop it all up.

Edited March 1, 2021 by Pavel Chernitsky

[CoffeeCake]

[Pavel Chernitsky]

[Joel R]

On 3/1/2021 at 12:06 PM, Matt said:

I like the idea of the "Promises" blog. @Jordan Invision has been updating existing topics with news already.

The engagement and feedback in the Feedback forum has been much better recently.  

I also want to affirm that telling clients "no updates at this time" is useful and welcome.  While we may die a little inside when we don't hear our ideas get picked up, it gives clarity to users.  

[Pavel Chernitsky]

@Joel R Instead of writing "no update at this time" and making us die a little, they could post a gif like: 

 

And so on

[RunInRed]

I can live with the explanation that you guys are a small team and the mobile app was an experiment, but the way you handled the situation is the way to kill your brand.   

You guys published this in 2019 ...

Why not a PWA (progressive web app)?
Invision Community 4.4 already supports several PWA features. However, until iOS supports Push Notifications (and other features) in PWAs, we don't feel they are a fully-rounded solution to using communities on a phone. Building native apps allow us to experiment with new interfaces and approaches. As PWA support improves in the years to come, we'll feed what we learn back into the main product for the benefit of all users.

Then to turn around and point to a blog post about how you have moved to PWA over the mobile app when iOS doesn’t support push notifications on iOS? 

Edited March 11, 2021 by RunInRed

[Pavel Chernitsky]

Things change as time passes, and I think it's fair - and even welcome - for companies to change direction if and when they find a better way to achieve the same end-goal. I think going the PWA route is just a stop-gap to let them breathe while continuing to work on the app. I don't think companies should be forced to go down a specific route because they once said something good about it. I'd rather be a customer for a company who's "brave" and flexible enough to realize the path they went down is a bad idea and be open and honest about it.  

[CoffeeCake]

Honestly, the response in 2019 was the problem. It should have been PWA today + future app then. But, good news that PWA isn't being ignored anymore.