3.5.3 testing notes (extended edition)

[SkritterJake]

@mrclwlf

Really enjoy the update videos running down the features and tweaks you make in each version, this makes me feel connected, as a user, to the development of the product.

Glad they’re useful! It takes some extra work, but I think it is well worth it, especially at this stage in our development process

@mrclwlf

I appreciate the Rejuvenate feature. Would it be possible include a feature that applies it to all decks at once, and automatically apply in the future? I use a bunch of different decks and split my study that way, so it’s been a few days of clicking and waiting for each to resync.

Will certainly explore this with @josh. The main thing for 3.5.3 was getting this into the app to avoid terrible things from happening in the event of a deck delete. Stay tuned!

@mrclwlf

Does Rejuvenate only work on decks I am still learning? I don’t see the option displayed on decks where I have learned all the words? What about going forward? Will words I learn in one deck automatically update in others, or will I have to repeat this process on a regular basis?

If you’ve learned a deck to 100% completion you shouldn’t need to rejuvenate them at all. If you’re making lots of changes to an old deck, it’ll check to see if you’ve learned the words in other decks and we’ll give you the option to sync them up. Honestly though, if you’re not studying from an old deck (on the deck level) then I wouldn’t stress about it too much.

@mrclwlf

• My deck menu is a little slow. On its face, this isn’t a huge issue, but it can get grating when hopping to and from decks when looking for words to learn. But whenever I exit a deck, I am brought back to the top of the deck list, with only a few loaded, and have to scroll while the others do so as well. I don’t know what the backend looks like, but would an option to omit heavy content like video & images potentially save some time?

This area of the app is outdated and in need of an overhaul. We’ll be doing further optimization in the future that should speed things up a lot!

@mrclwlf

Would love to be able to “pin” decks I’m particularly interested in to the Home page, especially if that was then paired with the ability to review that deck from home without having to navigate through Due Cards/Only Review From Selected Decks.

Me too! I have an issue open for this as a future improvement.

@mrclwlf

Speaking of learning, I would love the ability to “next” learning a word without having to exit learning mode. Or to switch back and forth among words to potentially either mark as learned or “Show Me” without having to navigate out of learning mode. Currently, this means that if I decide against learning a word, I have to exit, and scroll back down to where I was before picking another. This can be a pain, even with vocab lists that have several dozen words per section (ie: HSK). Optionally, if there were a way to quick-add words from the section menu instead of having to first enter learning mode and then select “Mark as Learned”, that could solve some of the issue, especially as selecting “mark as learned” automatically boots the user from the learning mode and brings them back to the top of the section. (this is linked to what I raise in the third bullet point).

More bulk-action controls will be coming to the decks in the future. Should address most of the points you’re raising here

@mrclwlf

On my review flow, I tend to select several decks at a time (keeping cards under 150), and trying to zero them out. But to do so, I have to come back and re-select all of the decks I was just working on every time. I would love a “review until cleared/zero” button beneath the review button, that would just cycle results I wouldn’t normally clear to the back of the queue.

I believe we have a feature improvement open for this already. But if not, I’ll sure to open one! We do get this request here and there, and I agree it’ll help improve the study flow!

@mrclwlf

Also not in this build, but you mention that the Progress tab will be updated soon and holy sh*t that is the feature I’ve been hands down most looking forward to since the Skritter app was majorly overhauled. From there, the sky is the limit! I want to earn badges when I do 1000 reviews a day for seven days straight!

Holy sh*t indeed! We’re very excited about bringing this out soon!

@mrclwlf

Anyway, thank you for reading this far. Always appreciate how connected to the user base Skritter devs are!

Thanks for taking the time to type up your thoughts, and for using Skritter. We’re all making this app better and better together!

-Jake

[SkritterJake]

@crawfordsam @mrclwlf two things we’re talking about as a team at the moment just to give you some context on where we’re at, and what we’d like to do in the near future.

1. Generally cleaning up how fast items get posted and updated from the server to the app. This really shouldn’t take as long as it does, and ideally we can grab something like 1000 items in a second, but we’re working in very small batches at the moment so there is lots of room to improve.

Question: would this rejuvenation be as bad for your study flows if it took 1-3 seconds as opposed to 1-3 minutes?!?

2. A potential for a “auto-rejuvenation” on account level to keep things organized for those who don’t care so much about restudy value (can obviously be toggled on and off, but having it on would be closer to how the older versions of Skritter words when you press the add item button).

[mrclwlf]

Hi @SkritterJake, thanks for the update! In terms of your questions, I would answer a resounding yes to both! If this was a brief process it wouldn’t be so bad, like @crawfordsam, my issue was with keeping my phone awake and being “active” while just waiting for things to load. This was compounded by not knowing how far along the total process for the deck I was at, so unless I knew exactly how many chapters were included, I had no idea how long was left.

Personally, I would find it very convenient to have an auto-rejuvenate feature on the account level. Like something that would work on login, and again when adding new decks. Or any version thereof, especially that I could activate and forget about.

[SkritterJake]

Got it. Thanks for the details!

[Therebackagain]

Hmmm… TestFlight gives me version 3.5.2 as the latest version, then when I open it it gives me a notice that takes me to the App Store to update again there.

Is the AppStore version 3.5.3? And if I update there, will I have the beta or standard app?

[SkritterJake]

App Store version is 3.5.3 and contains a fix for logged out guest users, which is why it went directly to production.

You don’t need to update it if you don’t mind the update notice and want to send screenshots via beta. You can also just attached a screenshot to any email you send in-app via the Help Screen. Of course, isn’t something that can be sent from any screen like it can be in TestFlight