IP.Board Communities iPhone App Updates

A week ago we launched the first version of our IP.Board Communities iPhone App and the response has been great so far with thousands of downloads! It's been really exciting for us to see the great feedback and start incorporating it into the newer versions of the app. We have a new version of the app awaiting approval that addresses many of the issues from the first release, we expect that it will be live on the app store within the next 48 hours. In addition to bug fixes, this version includes a few interface tweaks that improve the user experience.

In addition to the version that is awaiting approval, we have an even newer version that we will be submitting to the app store soon. Apple's approval can take up to a week so expect it to be available for download around June 8. Here's a quick preview of what you can expect from this upcoming version:

New Feature: Directory

The directory feature takes the link directory from our site and incorporates it into the app, allowing users of the app to easily discover new communities. We think this will be a great way to drive traffic to your sites, so make sure that you have added your site to the directory!



Clicking the "Add to My Communities" button will take you straight to the add forum page, with the title and url fields pre filled out for you. If you do not already have a username and password, you can leave those fields blank and you will be redirected to the register page the first time you visit the community. This is a great way to drive traffic to your community and for new members to join using their mobile device!

Quick List

This feature will allow you to quickly jump to several sections of a forum, instead of starting at the home page. You can access the quick list menu by tapping the blue arrow on the main forum listing:

After tapping that button, you will see this screen:

We have a lot of future plans for this area, such as including stats from the community.

Settings

The settings area is where you can edit forum details, such as your login and password. In the future there will be a wider variety of settings included for each forum.


Future Versions

All of those features will be included in the next version we submit to the app store, but we have a lot more planned for later versions. We will be adding push support in the near future, so that any notifications that IP.Board generates will have the option of being sent to your phone. We also have numerous enhancements to the interface and user experience planned.

We hope you're excited about these new features, we can't wait for you to try them out! As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions, so let us know what you think!

And, yes, we are still planning an Android platform app.