V 4.0
- Several style changes
- New dedicated clear button (pressing back is still supported)
- New setting to disable leading zeros removal
- New Arabic translation. Many thanks to Faisal Aloufi!
- New update notice is shown as message instead of popup
- Fixed issue with zeros after area codes
- Convert entered Arabic numbers
- Removed support to Android 4.0.4 or older (same as WhatsApp)
- Several internal fixes and cleanups
Edit: new beta with updated Russian translation
Edit 2: another beta with missing Arabic translations (oops)
Edit 3: hopefully the last beta with Arabic fixes and translated countries
This was going to be a translation update with some small fixes, but then WhatsApp decide to increase the minsdk, that allowed me to change quite a few style things, and I also added a couple new features...in the end the changes are so notable that I decided to increase the version to 4.0!
The updates are:
- Fix for an issue with removed zeros after area code where it shouldn't, which was reported a while back and implemented a few weeks ago. The issue is that the international format requires number without leading zero neither after the country code nor the number. So if you enter 0440123456 (country code 44) WhatsApp is expecting 44123456. My app removes automatically these extra zeros, it always did, simply by removing leading zeros in both input textboxes. With merge mode however it can't. But with the inclusion of the country selector and automatica country display a few versions ago, I simply needed to use that information to separate them. The issue is that some entries in the selector are country prefix + area codes, and zeros should NOT be removed after the second ones. That's what was fixed. In any case, to be futureproof, the automatic leading zero removal can now be disabled!
- Next minor and also requested change was to add a dedicated clear button. In previous versions if you wanted to quickly clear the inputs (without manually removing them) you could simply press back. Pressing back will clear the inputs if they are not empty, or exit the app if they are already. This feature is still present, but now there is a dedicated button to trigger the clearing (which does nothing if already cleared)
- Next change was something I made due to an internal change, which I think it's a better idea. On a past version I added a dedicated changelog window to see changes without need to open the play store (where past ones are removed anyway) because I know that most people have automatic updates so apps are the ones that should notify the user. I also implemented it so that it would show a popup to notify you. I don't know if this is useful or not (a disadvantage of not having any telemetry whatsoever) but I do know that often people cancel opups without even reading (because if you open the app to use it you can't be bothered to check that thing that it's preventing you to do what you want). For this reason I decided to move the 'new update' notice to the bottom messages box (where the errors are displayed, and where recently I moved the 'check prefix' toast too). This way you can see there is a new update, but you can still use the app normally. The message will stay there until you check the changes or dismiss it.
- This update also includes a recent new translation made by Faisal Aloufi (thanks!) to Arabic language. By complete chance this update also includes a change that allows arabic digits to be replaced by the standard ones, so that they can be pasted, or even typed. And I say by complete chance because this new addition was made before Faisal contacted me to provide the translation!
- And last, but definitely not least (it is the biggest change and the reason of the 4.0 version) is the style changes. It all started with Android Studio 'suggesting' to use borderless buttons, which make the app look 'modern', more or less. They are available since android 3 I think, and I was still supporting android 2.3 so I couldn't use them. However I didn't notice that WhatsApp had officially remove support to that version a few months back, and I forgot! (oops) But this month they again removed support until Android 4.0.4, and now I did too. This allowed me to use quite a few new style features, so I set all buttons as borderless, replaced checkboxes with switches, then I noticed I was missing the accent color, a few colored lines to keep everything sorted... I even replaced all custom icons by built in ones, so hopefully all buttons should be displayed equally (I had a few reports of strange layouts under some roms). And even better, this allowed me to reduce the app size a few kb! (yes, a style update that reduces the size, it's not very common...). Hopefully the new style isn't too different and people like it. Again, without any telemetry, I only have the Play Store comments, this blog and the email to hear from you, so if you want to say anything I will appreciate it!
This was a nice update, let's hope users like it :)
Edit: So far nobody is complaining, and a few liked it, so ... 'I see this as an absolute win' :D