Thank you to the developers who donated time to this! I like that games actually load (huge improvement over the old app, which kept the "pairing" box on screen so I couldn't see the game). It seems to work faster, smoother than the old app too.
A couple of deal-breakers though, at least for me:
1) Move notation is not in standard format (I would expect "Qxf2+" for example, but instead of the "Q", there's a tiny symbol that I can barely see, and no option to use standard notation. Maybe if I carried a magnifying glass all the time, I'd know which piece the symbol meant.
2) No access to opening books in correspondence games -- which is one of the main reasons I play correspondence games (to practice openings).
EDITed to add:
3) In the old app, clicking opponent's username during a game brought up a popup that showed their ratings and (if any) my record against them. It was handy to use during a game. In this new app, clicking opponent's username takes me to their profile (and out of the current game!)
@antihumanitarian said in #113:
> Hopefully I can explain why this is exciting as a developer. Mobile development can require a lot of duplicated effort, historically you'd need 1 team per platform. This new app uses Flutter, a tool kit that lets you write the app once and easily publish to Android and iOS, and also Mac, Windows, Linux, and web if you want. Importantly, it runs well and animates smoothly on all those platforms.
>
> So while the app is currently fairly bare bones, you'll notice the key components are functional. Board mechanics, networking, spectating, computer evaluation, puzzles, analysis, are the key elements that come to mind. There's a lot of work to do, but it's usable. This gets it in player hands so they can give feedback; generally the earlier you get feedback the better.
Thanks for the explanation. I've been parsing this thread to figure out why transition was made, as I didn't see anything particularly wrong with the old app. (I actually like old one a bit more than new one, but hope new one will catch up). Dumping older in favor of Flutter makes sense to reduce workload, as otherwise I couldn't find the rationale.
In my personal taste, I don't like slidy, slicky UI, as it seems just slower and unnecessary. But that's my preference. Hopefully functional usability will catch up to old one. One thing I do like is that it has storm and other parts that weren't in old.
I hope it won't create lags like chess.com
I gave up on the mobile app a while ago. One of the things that not a lot of people realize is that lichess.org is a Progressive Web App.
That means that if you go to lichess.org in your mobile web browser, there should be an "install app" (Android) or "add to home screen" (iOS) option, which will install the web app locally on your phone.
In my experience, the Progressive Web App has the best mobile user experience. Only downside is no offline puzzles, which is a minor issue.
Hope it remains cheap and easily accessible as usual. No lagging like chess.com
it's pretty good!
I can't premove, despite having the option enabled.
This is definitely not a beta version. As long as the app can do less than the old one, you can only call it an alpha!
I have therefore uninstalled it again; it has no advantages for me as an end user.
What I expect from mobile apps is that they can be installed on internal memory expanded by an SD card. That doesn't seem to be the case here.
I miss the quick select game buttons
I play a lot of puzzles, and now I can set the difficulty! I don't like the animated solution though, I'd prefer to just show the first move and then use the arrows to see the moves.