Release Notes (Geocaching® app) - May 10, 2018

[+Geocaching HQ]

Release Notes (Geocaching® app) - May 10, 2018

 

The latest update to the Geocaching® app is mostly about what you won’t see.

 

The hint button is now grayed out when the cache owner has not entered a hint. Also, these content areas are grayed out when empty: Description, Activity, Attributes, Photos.

 

In every release, we also fix bugs and make other small improvements to the Geocaching® app.

 

Ben (Ben H) from HQ’s Product Team is watching the thread to answer questions whenever possible.

 

Any posts in this thread should relate to features in this release. Unrelated comments may be removed. Please direct unrelated comments to other appropriate threads. Thanks! 

[+Team Christiansen]

21 minutes ago, Geocaching HQ said:

The hint button is now grayed out when the cache owner has not entered a hint. Also, these content areas are grayed out when empty: Description, Activity, Attributes, Photos

Yes!! Thank you!!

[+The A-Team]

1 hour ago, Geocaching HQ said:

The hint button is now grayed out when the cache owner has not entered a hint. Also, these content areas are grayed out when empty: Description, Activity, Attributes, Photos.

That's great to hear.

 

Would it be possible to include the respective version numbers in these release note posts? I got an update for the iOS app today that updated it to 6.2.0, but it doesn't include the above change. I don't know if it's the latest version with a bug, or if the latest version isn't available in the App Store yet and what I got was the previous version.

 

BTW, who the heck creates a listing with a completely empty description?!

[+not2b]

46 minutes ago, The A-Team said:

That's great to hear.

 

Would it be possible to include the respective version numbers in these release note posts? I got an update for the iOS app today that updated it to 6.2.0, but it doesn't include the above change. I don't know if it's the latest version with a bug, or if the latest version isn't available in the App Store yet and what I got was the previous version.

 

BTW, who the heck creates a listing with a completely empty description?!

 

It's rare, but there have been a few minimalist puzzle caches that have done this.  The puzzle solver then has to try to figure out the coordinates from what little information is there.

[+badlands]

14 hours ago, The A-Team said:

BTW, who the heck creates a listing with a completely empty description?!

 

Ahhh...me :-)
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[+Team DEMP]

It might not be obvious to all, but some of the mobile app "releases" are not necessarily App Store releases. They are just updates that are done without releasing/downloading a new app.  it might be helpful for the team posting these updates to indicate if it's a new app download or the existing app will see the changes. 

 

As for the slight color change on the text links for Hint, Photos, etc. it's something but not how I'd expect it to be implemented. The color difference on Hint from green to gray is indeed more noticeable than the shade of gray difference on the other labels such as Photos. But the text/buttons are still active and still cause an action which requires the user to take a 2nd action to close the dialog that says there is nothing there. Why not disable the text/button completely and make the text a much lighter shade of gray or even with a strikethrough or something. At my desk I can hardly tell the difference between an active and inactive link, let along walking around outside in the sunlight.

Thanks

Edited May 11, 2018 by Team DEMP

[+Optimist on the run]

Not sure if it's related to the latest release, but when using the app for a cache earlier, I couldn't get a "open cache in browser" link. Is this a bug or intentional?

[+Lynx Humble]

I am on Android and see the grey for the hint but I don't see difference for picture and attribute on the French version

[+The A-Team]

On ‎5‎/‎11‎/‎2018 at 7:52 AM, Team DEMP said:

It might not be obvious to all, but some of the mobile app "releases" are not necessarily App Store releases. They are just updates that are done without releasing/downloading a new app.  it might be helpful for the team posting these updates to indicate if it's a new app download or the existing app will see the changes.

I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Are you saying that an update could be released, but not be available to apply to existing installs? That just doesn't make sense to me. That's the whole point of updates.

 

Regardless, both the App Store and the current version I have installed are 6.2.0, but don't include the latest changes. How does one get the latest version, whatever version number that is? I've been getting updates for other apps, but not this one.

[+Team DEMP]

1 minute ago, The A-Team said:

I'm not quite sure what you mean here. Are you saying that an update could be released, but not be available to apply to existing installs? That just doesn't make sense to me. That's the whole point of updates.

 

Regardless, both the App Store and the current version I have installed are 6.2.0, but don't include the latest changes. How does one get the latest version, whatever version number that is? I've been getting updates for other apps, but not this one.

 

The Groundspeak team has released "updates" that are new versions in the respective app stores. Those are obvious updates you need to download to apply to your phone. 
 

The Groundspeak team has released "updates" that are not new versions in the respective app stores and occur using the current version on your phone. The last update here for May 10th is one of those. There was no update to download from the app store and the functionality changes were handled without a new build to the client (phone).

[+The A-Team]

4 minutes ago, Team DEMP said:

The Groundspeak team has released "updates" that are not new versions in the respective app stores and occur using the current version on your phone. The last update here for May 10th is one of those. There was no update to download from the app store and the functionality changes were handled without a new build to the client (phone).

Interesting. It sounds like this was a change to the API then, not the apps themselves. Personally, I wouldn't label these latter changes as "releases" for the apps if the app itself isn't changing, but rather the data that's being passed to the app.

[+The A-Team]

Oh, for heaven's sake...

 

It turns out that I am seeing the latest changes, but they don't do what we thought they would and are nearly impossible to see. The release notes use the term "grayed out", but the way the app currently works doesn't jive with common definitions of that term. While the text is indeed grey (and nearly indistinguishable from the regular text), the buttons aren't disabled and still function as they normally do, when they really shouldn't. Like Team DEMP said, the buttons need to be disabled when there isn't anything behind them, and there needs to be a distinct style change so the active and inactive buttons are easily distinguishable.

[+thebruce0]

And, to add to that, the button label could even be changed from "Description" to "No Description" (and be entirely deactivated and greyed out, so there's no chance for confusion)