This release fixes notifications on iOS, which had been broken since the late August release. It also improves the add-friend page and speeds up the loading time of the user page.
Notifications
Notifications are maybe the primary feature of the app in its current state, so breaking them is pretty embarrassing.
The break was caused by multiple layers of issues. First, Apple made some non-backward-compatible changes to its app development kit. The Flutter framework, which this app uses on both Apple and Android platforms, addressed those changes in a way that changed the timing of certain events during app startup. As a result, when a user opened the iOS app, it would attempt to register for notifications before the app had finished starting up. This caused an error which was imperceptible to the user at the time, but which would cause the registration process to fail.
It took over a month to catch the problem because the app will stay registered for notifications for up to a month before its registration expires.
In future releases, a test notification will be sent to a test account as part of every release just to make sure notifications still work!
Add-Friend Page Improvements
The add-friend page with the QR code will now show a little bell at the bottom-right corner when someone has sent the user a friend request. When tapped, the icon will show a list of the open friend requests, similar to the list shown on the friends page. This makes it easier for people to accept each other’s friend requests without having to navigate back to the home or friends pages.
Other Improvements
- The user page loads much faster (on average) when the app is opened from a friend link or notification
- When a user navigates to their own friend link, the app will redirect them back to the homepage