this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2023
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Avelon App

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Avelon update (1.0.2 b24) - iPad support, image carousels, smart link previews, user links and more! (lemm.ee)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Heyo everyone,

This update brings a few cool new features, most notably:

  • Smart link previews
    • Now shown in comments and posts
    • Previews for communities, users and regular links
  • Image carousels
    • For posts with lots of images!
  • iPad support
  • Layout/ui tweaks
  • Bug fixes and other improvements

Check out this image gallery in the latest build to see how it works:

(just scroll through it!)

I figured (like some other devs) that some iPad support is better than none. Though the layout is not built from the ground up for iPad, it now fills the whole screen and pushes in some content. This is similar to how other apps like Apollo did it, and it looks much nicer than than a scaled up phone app. I haven't had time to test this version much, so please let me know if you discover any weird stuff.

The update also introduces a custom markdown rendering system that enables me to add things like link previews and image carousels. Seems to work pretty well now, but could definitely be some bugs with it for certain posts - if you find any, let me know!

Hope you enjoy the update!

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

And for you running the latest update, check out these link previews:

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

This is awesome!

[–] Jackolantern 4 points 1 year ago

Hey man, I’m trying out the this latest update and it’s been great. The UI looks sleek as always. And there’s little slowdown now compared to before when switching post viewing.

I also love that you added a link preview, however can this be tweaked so that user name mentions doesn’t show a preview? But I don’t think that’s possible.

I’m also getting used to not having a hide read button. But it will be a lot better if there is a choice for one.

Over all, the update has been great. Feels a lot more stable. And thanks for adding iPad support. Will test that later.

Thank you! Keep up the good work!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hi evgiz,

Another great update 1.0.2 (27).. this time the app feels snappier than ever.. I loved it..

I have come with one more request here (greedy me):

Can you make the bottom nav icons customisable??

Like changing their position according to our likes maybe..??

( I wanted the search and notification icon swap their position to maintain the visual design aesthetics.. so asking this )

Thank You.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Customizing the tab bar positions will not be a priority, got a lot of other things that I think are more important. Perhaps in the future!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

No problem!!

I appreciate your work..

The app has shaped up really well from past few updates..

Thank you.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nice, it keeps getting better! Thanks :) Sorry that I keep bringing up the tab bar (it’s already gotten a lot better), but it still looks a bit off to me (comparison):

  • the margin to the side should be smaller
  • padding between text and icon should be slightly less
  • Icons itself should be slightly larger
  • padding to the bottom should be slightly less
  • padding to the top should be slightly less
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Tap bar looks a lot nicer in the most recent version, thank you :)

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Agreed, it’s getting better and better! Any chance we can get some alternative app icons to choose from? For dark mode I preferred the previous icon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I'd like to do custom app icons, but I'm not that good at graphics design. I'd definitely be down for some community icons though

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Happy to hear that! Used your image as a reference😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Nice :D

[–] nowaybehind 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What a great app! Loving it so far. Is there any way to support you? Any version in the App Store soon?

With some polishing this will be the one I use.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks! Working towards an appstore release hopefully quite soon

[–] nowaybehind 1 points 1 year ago

I just downloaded the AppStore version and could make that tip. Thanks, great release!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just started using the beta. It is very smooth and my new favorite lemmy app.

I would love to see a toggle for “default external links to Reader Mode.” The search function was a little difficult to find with the arrow in Explore; idk if there’s a way to have the search more accessible. And I would love to see some icon options whenever in the future.

Fantastic app though. I love the theme options built-in and smooth UI.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Cool, thanks! Reader mode is a good idea, I haven't actually used that before but would definitely be nice to avoid all those pesky popups etc. I'll try adding it soon!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Thanks! I appreciate you considering the feedback. And again, thanks for the app. I just heard about it, and it is crispy clean.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@[email protected] This update should also fix the link issues you reported earlier!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Great! 🙏

Incidentally, I opened Avelon fullscreen on iPad today -- wonderful!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hi,

This bug is still present in the latest build:

Clicking on the Heading of the first post in any post feed is taking the page to the communities introductory page which is present above that post feed.

Example: please try clicking on the headline of first post of Avelon community (Introducing Avelon for Lemmy line )here would take the page to the about page is Avelon.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Hmm, seems like this only happens if you have a fairly large text size, no? I'll make sure it's fixed for the next build.

What do you think about the new features?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Hi evgiz,

I have a very very very small request for you.. I know I pop out every now and then with smallest of the small nitpicks which might annoy you often..

You have fulfilled most of my requests earlier too and I’m really thankful for that.

Here goes that small request:

Please swap the position of search and notification icon in the lower nav bar.. if you do this small code change I won’t ask for the custom nav bar option I asked in the other post which you said is of least priority at the moment ( Which I totally understand )

Please consider this one small request before the big AppStore launch..

Thanks man.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No problem, your feedback definitely helps so keep it coming!

I think you're in the minority here, I personally prefer to have search to the right side for instance. Perhaps I'll add a "shuntipepperment tab layout" setting just for you :p

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I love Avelon nevertheless.. 😅🙏🏽

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Hey,

Today I learned that I can customise the gestures according to my liking by clicking on them and can change their functionality via pop up window.. ( I can interchange the SAVE and REPLAY functionalities )

Never knew this before.. ( Silly me )

Thanks man.. really awesome..

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

One more heads-up:

  1. The link preview only enlarges the list if a page has too many links.. ( for 50 links it generates 50 link previews making the list to grow with 100 entries with duplicates )

My question is that, Is this supposed to work like this or anything can be done to reduce the list and nullify the duplicates ( Kind of inline previews maybe )??

Example:

Please check how the link preview enlarges the page by checking any one of the posts in this below community.

https://feddit.nl/c/trendingcommunities

Here this community shares 10-20 trending communities each days.

  1. Noticed that Short and Medium Left swipe functionalities in gestures have been swapped ( Earlier it was Short for REPLY and medium for SAVE ),.. is it intentional or a bug ??

I felt the medium swipe for save was a standard setting across other lemmy/reddit apps and got used to it. 😅

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Just checked for smaller text sizes also, I think it’s a hit and miss in most of the case.. can’t exactly say this is happening only for the larger sizes..

The newly introduced features are good one..

Especially the link preview is a must have.. Happy to see the Avelon is getting feature rich..

Can't wait to see Avelon soon in app store so that many will discover this cool app.

Keep up the good work. 👍🏽

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It probably didn’t come with this version, but Markdown support in the compose view is really nice, Thanks :)

Do you think you could gray out all markdown symbols, like this: image? You’re already doing it for the bullet points so I‘m assuming it wouldn’t be a huge change

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

May be an iOS 17 issue only, but this update appears to have broken custom text size in the post. The feed text changes, the settings text does, but inside the post the text doesn’t change size.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Should be fixed in latest build!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Looks the same right now. I’ll see if I can add a photo…

Edit: can’t add a photo because lemm.ee limits photo sizes to very low levels

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was wondering if you have any thought about reducing the buffer between posts and comments?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hmm, yeah could add a customization setting. Would you prefer just a thinner buffer or a single grayish "line" like in some other apps?

I figured that since the design is quite minimal you need a clear separator between items, but perhaps I went a bit overboard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I was thinking a single grayish line, but a smaller buffer may also work.