Your favorite iPhone Mastodon client (wish I could list more than 4 options in a poll, feel free to reply if your favorite isn't listed, e.g. the official Mastodon client):
Feditext beta users: we're aware of the performance regression under the release version of iOS 17 and are tracking it in https://github.com/feditext/feditext/issues/253. we don't know the cause yet. if you're a heavy Fedi user and don't have a pressing need for iOS 17 features, it might be a good idea to stay on iOS 16 for a few more days.
Feditext beta users: tonight's build 76 includes a partial fix for the iOS 17 performance regression. this fix removes a keychain access on a hot path, and is not related to the HTML handling change mentioned above, so you shouldn't see any visual changes.
as always, to update: open the TestFlight app, pull to refresh, and tap the Update button next to the Feditext icon and name.
hey, folks! progress update: i've been coding and testing a possible fix for the iOS 17 hangs and stuttering, and hope to release a new build with that fix sometime next week.
see issue #253 for more details, but the short version is that the iOS API we were using to turn HTML in posts and bios into displayable styled text is now unusably slow, and i'm replacing it with a Feditext-specific text formatter. this might also give us some speedups on iOS 15 and 16, although the difference won't be as dramatic there.
i know there are some people waiting for beta invites as well; we'll get those out soon.
@HaruEb@Ciela@supakaity@ada At this stage it's likely that any native app would come from the #Firefish devs, but if there was a lot of interest in that I know the #Feditext dev has said she'd look at implementing some of the native API to support antennas but that's sometime down the track.
Feditext beta testers: today's build 77 contains internal changes to the HTTP client and the API clients built on it, and shouldn't have any user-visible effects. there are no other changes, because the purpose of this release is to test those changes before building further on them. please let us know on the bug tracker if you see any new kinds of HTTP error.
update: build 77 has problems loading old home timeline posts. please stay on 76 for now; see downthread for how to revert to it.
for those familiar with Apple development: we've rewritten the clients to use Swift concurrency (aka async/await) instead of Combine, which is more readable and easier to reason about. this is the first step in replacing Combine in as many places as it makes sense, which we'll weave in with other work as we go.
prospective testers: we're working through a two-week message backlog, and will be sending invites out today.
we know it's been a bit since the last update. thanks for your patience.
Feditext beta users: please do not update from build 76. build 77 has a bug that prevents scrolling to old home timeline posts or notifications. thanks to @mirabilos for reporting. we're looking into it
we'll expire the build ASAP, but if you've already updated to 77, you can switch back to build 76 from TestFlight. switching back will keep all your local data and you won't be logged out.
Firefish users: there's a known issue (#10543) with unimplemented MFM rendering which prevents links, hashtags, some mentions, and any rich text formatting from being displayed correctly.
this affects all Mastodon API clients, not just Feditext. you don't need to report this one to either us or Firefish.
Feditext + Firefish users: Kainoa says the missing MFM to HTML renderer is on their list, so hopefully the text issues will get fixed in the near future.
fixes for other Firefish-specific bugs on Feditext's side are in progress.
Feditext beta users: today's build 79 includes the new "Siren" HTML parser, which is 3-6× faster than the current WebKit parser for the text formatting used in Fediverse posts. this should result in smoother scrolling for many users.
Siren is experimental, even more so than Feditext betas in general, so by default, it's off. to opt into Siren, open Feditext's preferences, scroll all the way to the end, select Siren from the "HTML parser" dropdown (instead of WebKit), and press the "Apply new HTML parser" button below it.
notes:
do not switch parsers while writing a post: you will lose the post.
the HTML parser is an app-wide setting, and can't be configured on a per-account basis.
if you have issues with Siren, you can revert to WebKit from the same menu.
known issues that you don't need to report:
blockquote lower vertical margins may be too big, causing the end of a blockquote's background rectangle to appear under the next normal paragraph. (however, the indents are still correct, so non-quoted text will not be indented.) this is related to https://github.com/feditext/feditext/issues/48 and https://github.com/feditext/feditext/issues/164 but is (currently) worse in Siren.
Feditext users: Mastodon 4.2 is finally in beta! Feditext already supports some 4.2 features, the most useful of which is Hometown-style exclusive lists: you can hide members of lists from your home timeline by tapping the gear icon in the upper right of a list view. this lets you create lists of accounts that you may follow for a certain topic but don't need in your home timeline all the time, such as hobbies, local news, or Fediverse development announcements.
we'll be adding support for other 4.2 features in later releases; watch issue #175 and issues created from it for updates.
#Question on #posting (I use the #Mastodon site on desktop, #Feditext on my phone): if I #post something with a #hashtag in it, but put the post behind a #CW, is the hashtag then hidden? If not, would people following it need to click through the CW?
Feditext beta users: today's version 1.7.2 (build 83) fixes reporting posts when using a GotoSocial server, adds support for instance rules on GtS 0.12 and up, and fixes a rare visual bug with reporting on all platforms. this build is recommended for GtS users; if you use something else, you don't need to upgrade immediately.
Feditext beta users: we're aware of the hitches in scrolling your timelines, and are tracking them in https://github.com/feditext/feditext/issues/122, which is the next big bug on the to-do list. thanks for all your reports, and for your patience: perf issues can take some time to figure out, especially if they're not due to obvious regressions.
Oh wow. I had forgotten to update the beta build of #Feditext and the performance improvement after the fix for the sluggish scrolling on iOS17 is like night and day 😅