The version number has bumped and it’s time for a new mega thread. This app version is using Ionic Capacitor on the backend, which is why it has taken us so long to get updates out the door. It was a big migration and if we did our job well you shouldn’t see many changes.
We’ve been testing the apps internally, fixing regressions, and updating new versions of previous plugins, but some things might have been overlooked. If you see anything strange be sure to email team@skritter.com or comment below.
3.8.0 Bug Fixes and Improvements:
Fixed a bug where tested decks did not move to Home screen
Fixed a bug that caused “tap to hold” gesture to erase the current stroke when using rawest squigs on the writing canvas
Bopomofo readings now displays correctly for example sentences instead of pinyin readings
Definitions now truncate on the “My Words” screen
Fixed a bug where single characters without Outlier data load endlessly
Writing cards are now graded as incorrect if the “tap-hold to show next stroke” gesture is used
General bug fixes & improvements
Happy studying, and stay tuned for more updates and patch builds.
I’ve noticed that there’s no Practice pad button on info screen during a review session. However, I still see the icon when I access info screen from my words.
Anyone else having issues where when you open Pleco and close it, it causes Skritter to crash? As in, I’ll be studying a character, I tap the integrated Pleco button to see word combinations, and then when I close Pleco and return to Skritter, I get a blank screen. It never recovers so eventually I have to just close the app and restart the review session. Seems to happen at least 50% of the time so it’s been rather frustrating. I’m on version 3.7.4 but this hasn’t started happening to me until recently, maybe for a week or so.
This problem is not limited to Pleco alone. It happens with other apps. For example, after answering a phone call and return to Skritter, there is a high probability of getting a blank screen and have to restart the review session.
I guess I never noticed with other apps because when I usually use Skritter, I’m normally not doing anything else at the same time, so I don’t really switch back and forth. The only app I’m opening and closing consistently during Skritter reviews is Pleco, so I thought the blank screen and Skritter crashing was specific to Pleco. Now that I’m thinking about it, I actually didn’t used to open Pleco that often during reviews so maybe that’s why I also didn’t have so many reviews crash w/ the blank screen until recently weeks.
" * Writing cards are now graded as incorrect if the “tap-hold to show next stroke” gesture is used"
I wish this was an optional setting that could be toggled on or off. I primarily use Skritter to help learn more vocab, and learning to READ the characters is a bigger emphasis for me than being able to write them perfectly with correct stroke order. Being able to use a hint when you can’t remember which stroke or radical is next, or etc, without marking the whole character incorrect, is very useful.
With this new change, there is now no functional reason to use hints rather than just tapping the button to reveal the whole character. Hints encourage you to try even if you only 75% remember the character.
I realize you can just override the SRS grading by tapping the relevant button, but it’s still annoying. This should be a setting the user can select. People who want very strict grading should have that option available, but it should not be forced on everyone.
The function still gives you a hint at the next stroke rather than showing you the whole character, which is the intended purpose of the stroke hints. It helps jog the memory rather than reveal the entire character. A memory jog is a great learning opportunity, which would be totally lost by keeping the previous grading behavior.
In the short term, this might feel a little strange and too strict, but in the long term, it’ll help you learn characters faster by fixing little mistakes along the way and helping you learn correct stroke order without having to think about it.
@pts@rmc Regarding blank screens and restarts, let us know if you see this on the 3.8.0 builds. We did make some changes to how Pleco opens, which should have fixed an issue we did see when testing some of the updates. Fingers crossed it has helped!
about a year ago we had a call where we talked about that the app will soon become a web-app and replace the website? is there any progress on this?
I am mainly asking because for me the website is still basically unusable and nothing changed (which is my fault for also suddenly just dropping skritter for half a year [got depressed])
regardless if there are two things that i would love to see implemented in the app it would be keyboard shortcuts and pinyin keyboard input. i tried attaching my keyboard to my phone, but the app basically does not know how to deal with keyboard input as it seems.
In late 2021 we’ve hired a UX/UI designer and we’re working on loads of updates that’ll fold into the unified client experience along with building out wireframes → mockups → dynamic design files. It is very much a stretch goal for 2022, but progress is being made.
Anyone notice that in the app, their overall Total Words/progress graph got reset weirdly after the last app update? My graph used to show the slow but steady increase over the months since I started using Skritter, but now it’s a totally flat line at zero for maybe 4 months and a super steep climb apparently showing just activity for April/May.
Edit: Not sure exactly when this changed because I haven’t looked at the progress graph for a few days, but I’m on iPhone version 3.8.4
Hi, still wondering if I’m the only one experiencing the bug that I described above. It’s been over a week since then and the progress graph never fixed itself. Obviously it’s not a huge problem but it does make me wonder if the SRS algorithm might be similarly messed up if the app doesn’t seem to know when I’ve been adding these vocabulary words and can only track all my progress as happening the last two months instead of basically spread out over the last six months.
Hi Skritter Team, knowing about your recent affords regarding a design overhaul of the app, it would be great to understand where you’re currently stand at. I’m missing dark mode for a few years already (was available in a beta in 2019 or so). I think you hired a design specialist for this, so would love to get a rough idea if there’s anything we can expect later this year?
The team is working on some design updates, but there is currently no anticipated release date for dark mode. We want to make sure that the design of our dark mode meets the Skritter quality, so it will still be some time before this feature gets added. We understand that many of our users want this and plan to add it once it fits into our pipeline of projects.
It’s probably already a known issue, but if you use Skritter on iPadOS 16.1, and turn on StageManager, Skritter’s layout starts acting really oddly in landscape mode when you resize the StageManager windows to something Skritter doesn’t “like”. Other apps that take a “fixed proportion” seem to lock the proportion, but Skritter doesn’t maintain itself well, and allows itself to resize into unusable ways where controls vanish.
Adding to this one: it would be great to have Skritter generally supporting Split View in iPad OS.
Aside from this, I wanted to mention that I really appreciate two changes in the past weeks which improved the user experience on iPad which is the support for horizontal mode and (improved dark) mode. Regarding the latter, I‘m not too sure if the current status was already included when I wrote my last comment here. I will say the way dark mode is currently implemented hasn‘t unlocked its full potential, but is definitely in a usable condition.
Quick question regarding the latest beta. I’m experiencing long latency in terms of rejuvenation of decks. I remember it only took seconds back then, but now it takes more than one minute per section to rejuvenate. Is that a known issue?
