# Beta testing the Android mobile app
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [September 14, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165 "2016-09-14T22:27:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:09am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/81 "2016-09-21T05:09:37Z")
The web has no analogue to the “new” tab. I guess there is a bit of confusion about it so let me explain.
The “new” tab exists cause you can be tracking multiple sites, you may have 10 unread notifications on site A and 2 on site B. The 2 “new notifications” on site B may be a month old, the 10 “new notifications” on site A may be 2 hours old.
“new” is in the context of a site, not an absolute date figure. The job of the “new” tab is to coalesce all this information into 1 view. When you view “new” **immediately** blue bubbles on **all** sites are cleared. We keep the list there cause you may be working through it. Throwing it away after you visit the first notification would be a shame.
If you want to clear “new” list click the square (or back from front page), there is no real waiting involved, that said, in practice I have not found even one case where I needed to clear “new”.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/82 "2016-09-21T05:14:39Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> When you view “new” immediately blue bubbles on all sites are cleared.
This worries me _a lot_. Let’s say, as you suggest, that I have 12 notifications. I get through 3, and something comes up - perhaps a phone call, a text, or anything else that makes me close the app or put the phone down. When I return to the app, new will be cleared (as the app went to the background), and if I go onto the web there will be no blue on any notifications! This seems extreme - and also creates a large possibility of missing something.
> [@sam](#):
>
> Throwing it away after you visit the first notification would be a shame.
I wasn’t suggesting that the entire list be cleared, just the notification that I clicked on.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/83 "2016-09-21T05:38:20Z")
> [@jomaxro](#):
>
> I wasn’t suggesting that the entire list be cleared, just the notification that I clicked on.
I just amended it so
- Unread PMs always show up in new
- Read notifications are **always** suppressed from new
[https://github.com/discourse/DiscourseMobile/commit/67b8d6c1e2b809ea9a9f362f56fd8334cb11312f](https://github.com/discourse/DiscourseMobile/commit/67b8d6c1e2b809ea9a9f362f56fd8334cb11312f)
> [@jomaxro](#):
>
> This worries me a lot.
Well just to be 100% clear, visiting _new_ does not set individual notifications to read, it merely resets the blue bubble.
If you have 10 notifications on the site and click your avatar, the blue bubble clears. What happens if you are not done mentally processing the notifications and get interrupted?
- If you “missed out” on likes, well its not a big deal
- If you “missed out” on replies, they are still there in your “unread”, you will eventually catch up.
Same thing goes for the app, except that its trivial to switch tabs and view full history if you want to re-catch-up.
Sticking “new” until every notification is marked read would be very oppressive, why force people to visit every topic they have that someone liked?
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/84 "2016-09-21T05:44:58Z")
> [@sam](#):
>
> visiting new does not set individual notifications to read, it merely resets the blue bubble.
My bad, I misread bubbles - thought the highlight was disappearing! Removing the bubble just like clicking on my avatar makes perfect sense. Sorry for the false alarm 😥.
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### Author:  [@j.jaffeux](https://meta.discourse.org/u/j.jaffeux)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 8:32pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/85 "2016-09-21T20:32:57Z")
I have fixed all of these, I will push it soon and it should be in the next update 😉 Thanks for your feedback.
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/86 "2016-09-21T20:36:27Z")
> [@joffrey\_jaffeux](#):
>
> I have fixed all of these
Awesome, thanks! Does that include the missing icon for Stonehearth, or is that an issue on our end?
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2016, 8:50pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/87 "2016-09-21T20:50:27Z")
That is an issue on your end, you need the apple touch icon
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 3:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/88 "2016-09-23T03:06:13Z")
From another moderator at Stonehearth regarding the app:
> Got the app running on Android. It asks for one known-problematic permission type on install […] The permission type I am referring to is ‘draw over other apps’. This has historically caused pretty irritating conflicts between apps which aren’t always easy to identify.
Looking into it, it seems that the app requests draw over permissions on install, but doesn’t list it in settings post install. Now we’re both confused about it and also wondering what the permission is used for.
Screenshots:
**Install permissions:**
**Post-install permissions**
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 7:20am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/89 "2016-09-23T07:20:39Z")
Thanks for the super fast update. Unfortunately the update didn’t seem to do what it said it would - draw over apps is still listed during install.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 7:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/90 "2016-09-23T07:25:03Z")
Weird I removed it, can you try a full uninstall/reinstall?
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 7:26am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/91 "2016-09-23T07:26:04Z")
That was the first thing I tried when I saw that. Notice the screenshot says install, not update.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 7:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/92 "2016-09-23T07:48:05Z")
In particular
[https://github.com/discourse/DiscourseMobile/commit/376b529b5a7da7d222b19105f8a9dead1cd3cc7e](https://github.com/discourse/DiscourseMobile/commit/376b529b5a7da7d222b19105f8a9dead1cd3cc7e)
so I am not sure what more android wants of me
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### Author:  [@jomaxro](https://meta.discourse.org/u/jomaxro)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2016, 12:13pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/93 "2016-09-23T12:13:56Z")
I saw that too. Let me ask the other moderator if he still has the permission listed…
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### Author:  [@DavidGNavas](https://meta.discourse.org/u/DavidGNavas)
#### Post date: [September 26, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/94 "2016-09-26T11:59:25Z")
Some comments about the testing I’ve done with my Xperia Z5c:
- When you click in a notification, I think that the expected action is going to the tab “New”, instead of going to the list of forums.
- The addition and deletion of forums in the list is not so important, it’s an action that users will do only occasionally. Instead, viewing the tabs New, Replies and All will be much more frequent.
So, in terms of usability, I think that the structure of the app would be Forums, New, Replies, All, and it should be able to switch between these 4 tabs by swiping left/right (swipe has become an usual interaction in apps).
Therefore, the plus icon ➕ could be at the bottom of the Forums tab (perhaps like material-design); and the deletion of forums could be performed by another icon at the bottom ➖ or by holding the finger in the selected forum for a specified time.
- It’s not urgent until the app is finished, but it would be fine in the future to have locales in order to translate the app 🙂
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### Author:  [@kai](https://meta.discourse.org/u/kai)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2016, 9:52am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/95 "2016-09-27T09:52:19Z")
Would also like to test this.
If you could send me an invite this would be great.
thanks
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### Author:  [@enricostn](https://meta.discourse.org/u/enricostn)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2016, 11:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/96 "2016-09-27T11:43:56Z")
May I sign up for testing? Thanks!
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### Author:  [@wesochuck](https://meta.discourse.org/u/wesochuck)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/97 "2016-09-27T16:29:40Z")
If you hand out another round of invites and could include me, that would be great. Thanks.
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2016, 8:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/98 "2016-09-28T08:41:14Z")
Invites are out! 🙂
> [@DavidGNavas](#):
>
> When you click in a notification, I think that the expected action is going to the tab “New”, instead of going to the list of forums.
For android it is a bit odd, but I may change it to use grouping like gmail has, then clicking on grouped notifications can expand to individual one’s and clicking on a notification can take you to the actual action.
> [@DavidGNavas](#):
>
> So, in terms of usability, I think that the structure of the app would be Forums, New, Replies, All, and it should be able to switch between these 4 tabs by swiping left/right (swipe has become an usual interaction in apps).
Keep in mind, I do not plan to add any radical changes till we have the app released in the app stores, that said, can you do a mockup of what you are after so I can properly give feedback on it, having a bit of trouble following.
> [@DavidGNavas](#):
>
> It’s not urgent until the app is finished, but it would be fine in the future to have locales in order to translate the app
Absolutely, I want translations and some system for translations. It’s tricky cause we would have to add a settings sections probably (unless we can try to map phone locale to app locale)
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### Author:  [@wjdp](https://meta.discourse.org/u/wjdp)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 1:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/99 "2016-10-04T01:25:39Z")
Hi @sam, could I get an invite? Android 5.1.1 on OnePlus One.
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### Author:  [@James\_Higginson](https://meta.discourse.org/u/James_Higginson)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2016, 1:49am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/beta-testing-the-android-mobile-app/50165/100 "2016-10-04T01:49:27Z")
I would like to test this please
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