Rachel 4:45 pm on December 7, 2016
Tags: Android ( 166 ), beta ( 47 ), needs-testing ( 32 ), wpandroid ( 34 )

Call for Testing: WordPress for Android 6.3

WordPress for Android version 6.3-rc-1 has been released in the Google Play Store. You can join the betaBeta A pre-release of software that is given out to a large group of users to trial under real conditions. Beta versions have gone through alpha testing in-house and are generally fairly close in look, feel and function to the final product; however, design changes often occur as part of the process. from the Google Play Store on your device (under “Become a beta tester”), and comment here or join the Google Plus beta community for more discussion with other testers. (Note: If you see a message that the beta testing program is full, you’ll need to wait for space to open up before you can join the beta. Thanks for your interest!)

What to Test:

New: Swipe between notifications

In the Notifications tab, you can now swipe left/right to move between notifications. (Previously, you had to go back to the notifications list to open another notification.)

Open the Notifications tab (the bell icon)
Tap on a notification to open it
Swipe to move to the previous/next notification in the list
Tap the back arrow in the top left to return to the notifications list

Feedback:

Did you notice the “swipe snackbar” pop up at the bottom of the screen to explain the swiping action?
Were you able to swipe as expected between notifications? Did the direction of the swipe feel natural to you?
Did anything confusing or unexpected happen while checking your notifications?

(Related GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issue and pull request.)

Updated: Styles on the login screen

The app’s login screen has new styles to differentiate between the login forms for WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ and self-hosted sites. To see the difference, log out of the app (or install the app fresh on your device):

By default, you will see the WordPress.com login form with the WordPress.com logo and “WordPress.com” stated above the login form.
Tap “Add self-hosted site” at the bottom of the screen to switch to the login form for self-hosted sites. This screen now displays the WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ logo with a grey background.
Tap “Log In to WordPress.com” to return to the WordPress.com login form.

The new styles:

: Initial Login Screen

: WordPress.com Login Form

: Self-Hosted Login Form

Feedback:

How do the new styles look to you? What feelings do they evoke (for example: surprise, confusion, satisfaction)?
Can you log in as expected with each form? Do you have any trouble using either form?
Is the transition from one login form to the other smooth?

(Related Github issue and pull request.)

Bugs & Feedback

Did you find a bug or come up with a feature request while testing? Did you try the additional flow testing? You can discuss it here, report it using the “Enter feedback about the app” form in the Google Play Store, or head straight to the Android Github repository and open a new issue.

Thank you for testing!

#android, #beta, #needs-testing, #wpandroid

Lance Willett 11:14 pm on December 7, 2016

Ran through both swipe for notifications and new login styles on a Nexus 6P.

Swiping

Did you notice the “swipe snackbar” pop up at the bottom of the screen to explain the swiping action?

I didn’t see it on the notifications screen, but I did notice it pop up at the bottom of the Reader when I clicked into the first post in my “Followed Sites” stream.
Were you able to swipe as expected between notifications? Did the direction of the swipe feel natural to you?

Yes, the interaction is just as expected. Without the snackbar, though, I probably wouldn’t have discovered this feature.

Login screens
How do the new styles look to you? What feelings do they evoke (for example: surprise, confusion, satisfaction)?

They look nice and clean, feelings are normal as with any web form. I like how the color scheme differentiates between self-hosted and WP.com.
Is the transition from one login form to the other smooth?

Yes, feels natural.

Here are a few screenshots showing what things look after I logged out of the app.

https://cloudup.com/c7jpzGV97TC (using Cloudup because I got an error uploading to this comment “Unknown message type passed.”)

One possible bug: on the “Choose Sites” screen — after logout — I didn’t expect to see anything. Instead, both of my “self-hosted” sites were still there, and I could interact with them. Should that not happen?
- Rachel 1:38 pm on December 8, 2016
  
  One possible bug: on the “Choose Sites” screen — after logout — I didn’t expect to see anything. Instead, both of my “self-hosted” sites were still there, and I could interact with them. Should that not happen?
  
  That’s expected behavior. Self-hosted sites are added to the app separately from your WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ account, so after logging out of WordPress.com your self-hosted sites will still be there. (You can go to each site’s Settings section and tap “Remove Site” to remove them.)
  
  Once the FluxC project is fully integrated and launched, any self-hosted sites using Jetpack will be automatically added and removed when you log in and out of a WordPress.com account (as in the iOSiOS The operating system used on iPhones and iPads. app).
  - Dan Johnson 10:17 pm on December 8, 2016
    
    I also didn’t notice the snack bar until I opened a post in the reader. Seems it only displays once, and could be easy to miss. Maybe show it a few times before hiding it? I wouldn’t have known I could swipe otherwise.
    
    Apart from that, swiping worked as expected.
hoverduck 5:49 pm on December 8, 2016

I love the notification swiping! Works just the way I’d expect. Although I logged this bug – https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/4888

When opening a notification directly from the Android system notification, the swiping capability doesn’t work.

In logging that I also came across this problem, where the notification doesn’t appear as read immediately after opening it from the system notification – https://github.com/wordpress-mobile/WordPress-Android/issues/4889
Pingback: Test the new version of WordPress for Android
sarah semark 11:53 am on December 16, 2016
I flipped through the notifications a slew of times but never once noticed a snackbar, even when I was specifically looking for it, and I definitely wouldn’t have figured out the notification-swapping intuitively. (I’m on a tablet.)

I also experience the issue where opening a notification from my lock screen doesn’t allow me to swipe through other notifications (even if I have multiple notifications on the lock screen).

For the login screens, I noticed a few things:
- When I flip from the WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ login screen to the self-hosted login screen, and then back to the WordPress.com login screen again, the password field disappears. There’s just a username field, then a “Next” button. When I click on “Next,” the password field appears. Seems it would be more straightforward to show both boxes at the same time, unless there’s an instance in which you don’t need to enter your password.
- My username & password persist across the two login screens. This may be an Android feature rather than a feature of the app, but it felt counterintuitive.
Video.
- If you have 2FA enabled on your WordPress.com account, there’s then a *third* input box that shows up for your 2FA code, and the other two boxes are greyed out. The greyed-out style feels a smidge clunky. (I’m not sure if this is an Android standard, but it felt awkward to me.) Screenshot.
- Rachel 12:05 pm on December 16, 2016
  
  Awesome feedback, thank you!
  
  I flipped through the notifications a slew of times but never once noticed a snackbar, even when I was specifically looking for it
  
  Since a number of people mentioned this, I did some additional testing. I think we’re not seeing the snackbar because we know the swipe feature exists — the snackbar is designed to keep popping up until you start swiping through notifications, as a way to help discover the new swipe feature. Once you start swiping, though, it won’t appear again.
  
  I also experience the issue where opening a notification from my lock screen doesn’t allow me to swipe through other notifications (even if I have multiple notifications on the lock screen).
  
  That has been changed to allow swiping after opening a push notification (PR here), so that’ll be fixed before this version launches.
  
  Seems it would be more straightforward to show both boxes at the same time, unless there’s an instance in which you don’t need to enter your password.
  
  If you log in with your email instead of your username, you can go through a magic link flow that doesn’t require a password. 🙂
  
  My username & password persist across the two login screens. This may be an Android feature rather than a feature of the app, but it felt counterintuitive.
  
  Ooh, interesting! I always thought that behavior was meant to help me, for example if I started entering my details but then needed to switch from the WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ to the self-hosted login form because I was actually logging in to a self-hosted site. cc @iammattthomas regarding that and the 2FA design mentioned above. We could keep that in mind as we look more broadly at the login flow.