New version of click to chat (V 2.8.5)

V 2.8.5
- Added Tamil translation. Thank you to MageshBabu (mage1k99)!
- Tweaked size of elements in agenda and country code list. Also size of buttons.

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Just the Tamil translation for the app, but also tweaked a bit the size of some elements that were too big. (although on some devices it will probably still be ugly).

Happy holidays too!

New version of Average data usage widget (V 2.1)

V 2.1
- Tweaks: experimental changes to modify properties of the widgets. Include common request such as white theme, widget with only data/date, keep bar at 100% and some more.

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This was like a epiphany, after another user asked for white theme.
A lot of users have asked for minor changes, settings, to modify some properties of the widgets (one even asked something so simple I just made a custom version for them, the change was just a single word).
The problem with all these changes is that in order to let the user set them or not, I need to test them properly, add the setting in the configuration screen, change descriptions or other settings, check that it doesn't break other configuration, etc. This is still so much work for me and my free time, so I had decided just not doing it.

But then I remember something, some apps I use or have used contains a list of 'experimental' settings, a set of checkboxes that you can turn on/off to tweak different aspects of the apps, with a big warning 'These are experimental changes, use with care'. (think for example the 'flags' in google chrome or the about:config in firefox)

That was perfect. I had a list of minor changes that could be made, which maybe don't work in specific combinations, and which may change with future versions.

In about 2 hours I had a lot of requests already available and programmed in a very easy way that will allow to add/remove with ease, and even convert existing tweaks into full features in the future. I also even implemented a check in case a combination of them breaks the app, in which case all will be disabled. I know this seems a bit 'lazy', I could add the settings properly, but as I said I don't have the time to test everything so I prefer to give this 'experimental changes' instead of nothing.

Let's see how useful it is, and perhaps in the future I'll add more 'tweaks' (or you can submit your own, the code is available on github!)

New version of click to chat (V 2.8.4)

V 2.8.4
- Fixed incorrect link generation
- Preparations for Instant app release.

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The instant app release was ready from weeks ago, but I've been as busy as never and didn't want to publish it in case it would break something and I wouldn't have the time to fix it. I'm still busy, but I feel that I can't wait more, I want to publish it, so I really hope nothing breaks. Go beta users!

Also, I was waiting for another change (because the instant app preparations don't change anything in the normal app) but I couldn't spend time with new features, and no translations came. Until a user noticed a bug in the link generation. I don't know why the app worked, I guess WhatsApp ignore errors in links, but anyway it is fixed now.

If the beta is ok, I'll publish it as stable, and then...as instant app.

New version of click to chat (V 2.8.3) + addon (V 1.2)

V 2.8.3
- Option to limit unknown calls list. Requires Addon version 1.2+
- Fixed recent messages list not shown
- Internal change related to publication

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A new version of click to chat, with just a fix and a minor but very requested change regarding the addon. Now you can limit the amount of recent numbers to show (1-10, or disabled) so that it is a lot faster to load. This unfortunately requires a new version of the addon, which due to not be possible to be available on play store you need to manually update it, just by downloading and installing the new apk.

I also changed the way the app is published, and hopefully (if nothing breaks) next version will have a very interesting new way of using the app.

Lucky app statistics

A different type of post, but wanted to post it.

The 'Lucky app' I published a while ago just passed 100 downloads, so I think it is now a god time to test if Play Store does keep the rollout percent and works as expected.


Currently there are two versions of the app. The 'unlucky' apk (version code 1) is the default and then the 'lucky' apk (version code 2) is set as a rollout release available for the 10% of global users.

(sorry for the spanish screenshots)

At the time of this writing, the app was downloaded 101 times by new users. And out of those 101 download, 10 were of the lucky apk (code 2).

(the screenshot is from the developer app, the developer web page statistics are broken and don't display this information, and again sorry for the spanish texts)

So, I guess it is correct to say that Play Store does work as expected! Congratulations to those 10 lucky users, and don't worry for the other 91, hopefully the separation is random and you can be picked for other rollout apps. But that is for another experiment.

New experiment: Instant intent

I'm on fire lately...

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.instantintent

This is an experiment (not enough content to mark it as an 'app') that allows to open intents directly, without installing anything (well, you do need to install the instant app, but play store does it for you if you accept). You can find more information and examples on its url page:

https://trianguloy.github.io/intent/


This may seem like nothing, but this is the first time I'm implementing instant apps...and they are incredible easy to do (in theory) and useful!
If only I have an app that could benefit from it...one that takes very low size...doesn't need to store anything big...and is normally a one-time-use app...

...wait...

;)

New app: Preview video (beta)

New app!
It was available on beta, and it is still on beta, but I think it is ready for public testing.

The app allows to preview YouTube videos using a highly unused YouTube feature.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.popupvideo

Important! This is not a PIP (Picture in Picture) replacement to view videos while using other apps, or a way to listen videos in background, or a way to avoid video-ads (they will also be displayed). [If you want that you can use an advanced app].

This is like a mini-player, and it is an official YouTube feature used by a special intent, so it is basically the same as opening normally, BUT:

- the video loads a bit faster (no comments/related ui) 

- the video can be closed with the back button without returning to the main screen and without loading again when reopening the app.

- but most importantly: the video is not added to your view history! No more useless recommendations because someone sent you a link without a screenshot!

You can find more information in the Play Store page.

Criticism is welcomed! (better if constructive)

New version of Click to Chat (V 2.8.2)

V 2.8.2
- Added Hebrew translation. Many thanks to Yoni Cohen jonbir3!

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Minor update, just a hebrew locale translation, but also a Play Store page update. And all thank to Yoni Cohen jonbir3 who sent it from Github (which is a lot easier and faster than email!...even though I couldn't prepare it sooner, sorry).

New version of Click to Chat (V 2.8.1)

Just a very minor update, as usual after medium ones.

V 2.8.1
- Updated Russian translation
- Fixed rare bug when opening the agenda

New version of Click to chat (V 2.8)

(The post became very long, so I decided to move the changelog above.)

Current status: stable

V 2.8
- New Agenda list. Ability to pin items with name.
- Option to create shortcuts.
- Adaptive icon for Android 8.0+

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A bit late for this one (both the update and the post) but it's finally here!
The update may seem just another one at first, but it includes some big changes I planned to include since version 2.0, or even before, but never found the time to implement them...until now.

Presenting: the agenda list!
Previously you had a 'recents' list, a clock button at the right of the input textbox, that when clicked showed a list of the 5 most recent numbers (unless you had it disabled from settings). This list wasn't configurable, and a lot of users requested to be able to delete individual numbers.
So first I started by trying to improve the default-and-easy dialog into a configurable-but-difficult one. It wasn't an easy task, but I have made others recently in other apps, so I was more confident now.
But, while making it, I though about another very requested feature: the ability to 'pin' numbers. I was making a configurable list, so adding another one wasn't that difficult.

And I managed, so now you can both delete individual numbers from the recent list, and add them to a permanent pinned one! With names! :D

The current implementation is very basic (and ugly, but I refuse to sextuplicate the app size just to add a library with the 80% of assets unused) still it allows for the basic operations: add, remove, pin, unpin.

But wait, there is more!
I started to play with the shortcut creation, another highly requested feature (even though you can do it from WhatsApp itself). And it was very easy, so now you can also create shortcuts for the numbers, even with text! The button should be shown when clicking the arrow button at the bottom (if not, please contact me!).

It comes with a problem: the SHORTCUT permission is needed. After thinking about it I decided that the new feature is more important than the no-permission rule, because this permission is practically harmless (unlike the internet permission, which has the same importance: minimal. That's right, being able to transfer you data to unknown servers has the same level of importance than creating shortcuts. Blame Google).

This also allows to fill that dynamic shortcuts list from android 8+, and which better data to fill that with the pinned items.

Oh, and last but not least, the icon was upgraded to a dynamic icon, for android 8+ too unfortunately.

Phew, that was long, if you managed to read until here: thank you, really.

New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 2.0)

A friend asked: "can you somehow show the usage on each day?" and then this happened.

It turns out that it is in fact possible to check the usage on an arbitrary interval, and with a bit of calendar magic you can display a list with the usage on each day.
This list is a bit raw, and not sure if very useful, but as usual, it was fun.

However the main reason for the update wasn't this (in fact I started that after the previous version but never finished it).
The new feature is the ability to configure an 'accumulate' data, where the unused data on a period/month is accumulated for the next period. It requires manual setting for the first time, and probably tweaking it each period (it is automatically updated, but android isn't very precise with the data usage). It will only need to be set once each month, so nothing big.

Hope it is useful! (it is for me, :P ) And also I set the version to 2.0, because now there is a main screen instead of the main+settings unique activity from before.

Current status: stable


V 2.0
- History activity: you can view the usage on each day of the period. Button from the main widget opens this.
- Accumulate option. Enable this if your provider saves the unused data for the next period.
- New main screen, separated options to secondary one.
- Small tweaks for the size and view of the widgets.

New version of Click to Chat (V 2.7.1)

A minor version to fix a WhatsApp beta bug (yes, the bug is on the official WhatsApp, latest beta version as of now, but there is a workaround).
Hopefully nothing else breaks...

V 2.7.1
- Temporal workaround for WhatsApp bug (if asked, choose this app to open the links in WhatsApp)

New version of Click to chat (V 2.7)

The update you all were waiting for...a few years ago! (With a Russian update)

Serious now. This update adds a fully new country code list dialog. Previously it was just a list, and I received some suggestions to add an option to filter it. This is no easy task, nor very difficult, but I never found the right moment to implement it...until now. I present to you (for those reading this...there must be someone...I hope) a filterable country code list! With also the ability to sort by country or code, and A-Z or Z-A! No country flag icon, sorry, that will double the size of the app, and that is a no-no.

Aaanyway, it was fun, and I have some other fun and useful ideas to implement, but...you know, maybe they will be next week ... or next year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



Current status: Stable

V 2.7
- New prefix selector dialog (with filtering and sorting!)
- Updated Russian translation
- Tweaked clipboard detection

New version of Average Data Usage Widget (V 1.5)

Two small suggestions from users.

Current status: stable.

V 1.5
- Smaller 'average usage' bar (the top one)
- Compact mode when the progress widget size is too small

New version of Lucky 10% (V 1)

Double surprise!

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.lucky

This is just a fun little experiment that suddenly came to me, and couldn't resist making it.
You can find all the information in the app description, basically Play Store has the ability to publish 'staged rollout updates' to a specific percent of the Play Store accounts in the world (theoretically), so you can have two different apps published at the same time, and each user will get one based on internal Play Store parameters.
This experiment is basically that situation: there are two different apks published, one 'lucky' and another 'unlucky', and the lucky one is set to be available to only 10% of the total users.

The apps only contains the logo and message, nothing more, so there is no point in downloading it other than checking if you are lucky (perhaps you are and your friends aren't?). Still the apps are extremely small (I think it is a personal record) so there is also no point in not-trying.

Nonetheless it was fun to make :D

New version of Threedimensional Maze (V 4.0)

Surprise!

Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.cubicmaze


Most probably you don't know what this 'Threedimensional Maze' is. It is the first game I ever published to the Play Store. It was made with Unity 3.5.7, and it worked more or less fine, however as time went on, more and more devices were unable to install it (crash at startup) and although I made a VR version with unity 5 it was not a full update (all the camera-related were changed to work with cardboard).

This, on the other hand, is a full update, using Unity 2017 (the current latest long-term version). And although it was needed to make a lot of changes, it should provide the same experience but without crashing (which is a plus!).

There are no additions other than a 'battery saving mode' which was tested but never released. But there are a lot of internal changes that were needed to convert the 3.5.7 project to 2017, including some visuals. These changes mainly include:

• Full rework of the UIs, from the old OnGUI to Canvas objects. The UI assets may have changed, as well as some position of elements, but hopefully they aren't very different.
• Compass 'anti-fix'. On newer Unity versions the compass was 'fixed' and theoretically easier to use. However this broke my script, and I needed to find exactly what was the change to 'unfix' it. Not an easy task, but finally done.
• Changed a bit the was things are saved. On the early days of the original game I was adding and removing features on almost each update, and so a lot of 'settings' were saved but ignored. I made the game to find these unused settings and remove them automatically, however on this version I was unable to make that work (for some reason it was disabling the saving of new settings).
• Also some typos and small tweaks have been made while I was looking at the code (which was interestingly not bad written...strange, when you normally look at old code you made yourself the most common is to find 'wrong ways of coding' everywhere, and although I did found some they were just a few).
• The apk size has increased a lot...and I mean A LOT (from ~8 to ~24 MB). I hope this is because I couldn't find a way to optimize the size, because if this is due to Unity and their sdk...

In the end this game is nothing more than a fun little project I made to test myself as a game developer. A bit creative, with horrible UI. I've been wanting to update it since a few years, and finally it is done.

New version of Click to chat (V 2.6.2)

I wanted to publish the surprise, but this happened. Will be next time?
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I was incorrectly applying a theme on android 4.X, and so the recents were displaying as white text over white background (invisible).
This version tries to fix that, by applying the correct theme when using android 4.X. Hopefully this 'correct' theme is better (or at least it is not broken).

Current status: stable

V 2.6.2
- Fixed incorrect theme on android 4.X

New version of Click to chat (V 2.6.1)

Just a translations update.

Current status: stable

V 2.6.1
- Updated French and Italian translations





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Hopefully the next post will be about something different...

New version of Click to chat (V 2.6)

Hello again, if there is someone reading this.

Based on a few suggestions from users I implemented two new features: ability to hide the main screen info (for a cleaner UI) and option to share a link to the app page (for sharing with friends...because Play Store removed that useful feature for unknown reasons).

Also, since those and other some recent additions were making the about screen more and more crowded, I finally separated it into two: Settings and Info.
I also hope the new distinction help users find the settings (some people asked for things that can be changed).


Current status: stable


V 2.6
- Added option to hide the main screen info
- Separated About dialog into Settings and Info
- Added link to translations page
- Added option to share the app

New version of Click to chat (V 2.5.1/2)

Another update with translations, French and Italian, thanks to Armand Secco.

[Update] 2.5.2 is now available with country names translated too.

Current status: 2.5.1 stable, 2.5.2 stable.

Changelog:
V 2.5.1/2
- Added French and Italian translations. Many thanks to Armand Secco!

New version of Click to Chat (V 2.5)

Never though I will finally be able to do this, but I did! And it wasn't too hard.
This version has no visible changes to the user (or shouldn't, if there are they are a bug!). Instead what I did was rework almost all of the code. It is a big internal change, I almost labeled it as V3, but since there are no visual changes, I decided to simply set it as V 2.5 (sorry V 2.3 and V2.4, you will never exist).

This app started as a simple one-class app, but as time passed and little features were added, the app grown and that 'small' class become a real mess. I was able to implement some 'helper classes', but the main class was very long and full of interactions between functions. It was difficult to maintain.

For the record, in V2.2.1 the app had 11 small classes, and one monstrous one. Now it has 22 small classes. The code is almost the same in both versions and the interactions too, it is more or less just reorganized, but being modular allows for a better maintenance of the different parts. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to implement some more bigger changes now! (can't promise). Anyway, it was interesting and fun to do. The best part is that the size of the apk incremented just a few KB (93.9kb->100kb). I was expecting it, but not so small! (in fact I though it would be doubled and that it was going to be discarded, but seeing the results it will stay. Also the download size by play store is even less than before...not sure why but I won't complain).

I plan to implement a small little thing too for the stable version, and I'll upload this as alpha (for automatic google-play tests), then as beta (to check how it behaves on users) and finally after probably a few weeks as stable.

[Update]

The alpha test was successful so I'm keeping the changes and published as beta. I also managed to implement the other important change: now when pasting from the clipboard (or when sharing as text) there is an actual not-dummy parser! yay! Previously the parser simply removed all non-digits numbers, but now it will scan the string for separated numbers, and if more than one is shown it will even ask! How cool is that? Still the 'prefix separator' is very basic, I'm not using any external library, but the improvement is notable.

Current status: stable

V 2.5
- Improved number detector on clipboard paste and text shared, asks if multiple numbers found
- Internal rework of the code

New version of Click to chat (V 2.2.1)

Really small update, but better than nothing (I guess)

Current status: Stable

Changelog:
V 2.2.1
- Updated Russian (new string from previous version)
- Fixed saved recent numbers (numbers were not saved properly and when restoring the prefix was lost)

New version of Click to chat (V 2.2)

Long time no see!
I'm sorry for the lack of updates recently, I hope to be able to publish some more updates in the near future (I hope...).
From now here is another quick update mainly to fix the addon link, but I managed to implement a suggestion to disable the recents (for those of you concerned about security).

I have some big updates I want to make on my interminable TODO list, but as usual time/external work are restrictions that I can't remove.

I'm also going to stop posting two posts for beta/stable versions. I'll just update the first one (this).

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Current state: Stable version published

V 2.2
- Addon link fixed
- Added option to disable saving recent numbers/messages
- Placed elements outside scrolling area