New Feature Introducing the forum mobile apps (Android/iOS/PWA) ~ with installation instructions

Using the forum mobile apps

** We are using PWA technology, so they are NOT installed through the App Store **
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I had been holding off writing this until we had both Android and iOS apps released, which as of iOS 16.4 (this is a requirement) is now the case, so I'm happy to present to you instructions on installing both versions, as well as enabling push notifications

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are push notifications?
A fancy name for instant notifications - basically the notifications and alerts you get in your notification bar and/or lock screen. Before we had this, we had to rely on email alerts which really wasn't the best. But as of now, you can get instant alerts as soon as something relevant happens on the forum, along with direct links to that action - nice!

What is a PWA?
PWA stands for Progressive Web App and at it's basic level, it allows you to install a website as an app. The benefit of this is you don't need to code separate apps as everything uses the same codebase. You still get an app experience though, with an icon on your home screen, notification badges (the number next to the icon) as well as the instant notifications.

Do I need to install it on my home screen?
For Apple, if you want alerts then yes, that's their strict rule. For Android, you can just enable push alerts without actually installing to your home screen (scroll to the bottom for a video on how to do that)

Can I decide what alerts I get?
Yes you can! You will always get notifications related to any watched items (so new replies, new threads etc) but you can decide separately if you want notifications for conversation messages, thanks, likes, quotes and many other things by heading to the account preferences page and ticking (or unticking) the relevant options.



You might also want to turn off email alerts altogether now if you are going to exclusively use your mobile - one less thing to check

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Installation Guides

See the separate thread here for instructions on how to get setup.

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And there you go - should have everything covered now If I've missed anything do let me know and please post any comments or suggestions on this thread if something else isn't quite right.

Other than that - enjoy the new experience!

 

[the green vanper]

Never used Chrome and never will. It's never been a user friendly browser, their only goal is to collect data from user activity and to sell it further.

 

[the green vanper]

It seems it can be covered by the address bar on the bottom

Nope

I've managed to move the address bar away, still the same, no 'Install the app' line.

 

[ben]

Just tried on Firefox normal, it's in the app menu bar "add to desktop"

It's also in firefox focus, but that didn't seem to persist the login, so notifications wouldn't work anyway.

 

[the green vanper]

Thanks for checking ben

But as I understand now it's not a separate app, it's just something that launches the forum in the browser (Firefox in my case). Requires saving the password in the browser itself, I'll pass.

 

[ben]

Thanks for checking ben

But as I understand now it's not a separate app, it's just something that launches the forum in the browser (Firefox in my case). Requires saving the password in the browser itself, I'll pass.

Yes, it integrates with the browser rather than being a true stand alone.

The pwa bit is basically making a direct home screen link and removing the navigation bars and browser parts.

Notifications don't need the pwa bit actually (they do require persistent login though), but it just makes it a nicer package.

 

[ben]

Notifications don't need the pwa bit actually (they do require persistent login though), but it just makes it a nicer package.

Ah this isn't correct. For iOS (and maybe Android, I'm not sure) it's required to add to home screen (activate PWA) for push notifications work.