Mobile App Changes

[Janet H]

In the coming days forum access via the mobile app will be discontinued and we wanted to make you aware of some other options so that your surfing won't be interrupted.

Our forums software has a mobile view with this same functionality. Use a browser to access the forum instead of the app. Transitioning to this view on smaller screens is straightforward and we'll add convenient links at the top of the page to help you navigate to the mobile-friendly view. You will find those links right at the top of the list of forums as you log in. Click the desired link to toggle the view.

In the coming months, we'll be moving to new software (exciting details soon) so this current change is a temporary one. Deprecating the mobile app has been a difficult choice but we are taking this step in an abundance of caution as security concerns for this aging platform increase. We take member privacy seriously and believe that the inconvenience caused by this change is outweighed by broader privacy issues. Thanks for understanding.

Example of new links location (coming in a few days):

 

[RetiredAt49]

Thx for the heads up…. I’ve really enjoyed the native mobile app and hope it returns. As a fellow software engineer and mobile app developer, I’d be willing to volunteer and assist in the development/maintenance if needed.

 

[latexman]

I’ve never used the mobile app, and access the mobile view of the website via my iPhone browser. I assume in the coming months the new software/website will just show up one day and replace the old software/website?

 

[gamboolman]

I never knew there was a Mobile Application? Ha !

I've always just logged on like what I do on the Pooter....

 

[tulak]

99% of my activity here is using the app on an iPhone or iPad.

I hope there will be a replacement. I’ve tried using the website in the past, but it doesn’t work as well. I’ll try the mobile web version in hopes that it will work better than the full web version.

 

[bltkmt]

Curious as to why? I use the app extensively.

 

[Toast]

+1 I also exclusively use the app on my phone and iPad.

 

[steelyman]

Any idea how long to expect web-only access? I’m one of those app users.

 

[Gumby]

I believe the answer to the questions in the last three posts can be found by reading the original post.

 

[Murf2]

Man, Tapatalk is going to be a ghost town!

 

[Dd852]

Thanks for inspiring me to cancel my Tapatalk subscription! That’s $4.99 a year I now have to blow on something … coffee? Cake?

 

[Sunset]

I believe the answer to the questions in the last three posts can be found by reading the original post.

Well, if we start carefully reading the posts, it's going to radically change the random thread drifting we get to enjoy..

 

[Qs Laptop]

Man, Tapatalk is going to be a ghost town!

Thanks for inspiring me to cancel my Tapatalk subscription! That’s $4.99 a year I now have to blow on something … coffee? Cake?

I'm somewhat confused. I'm a TapaTalk user, that's how I access ER.COM on my mobile devices. Is there a separate ER.COM mobile app other than using TapaTalk?

Is TapaTalk access going away?

 

[MichaelB]

I'm somewhat confused. I'm a TapaTalk user, that's how I access ER.COM on my mobile devices. Is there a separate ER.COM mobile app other than using TapaTalk?

Is TapaTalk access going away?

Your questions are addressed in the OP.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Your questions are addressed in the OP.

Is the "mobile app" referred to in the OP, in fact, Tapatalk?

 

[cathy63]

There are two Early Retirement apps.

This is the "Early Retirement Forum" app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socialknowledge.earlyretirement

This is the "Early-Retirement Forum" app for iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/early-retirement-forum/id410652442

I believe the message in the OP means that both apps will be removed from their respective app stores soon and if you have one of them installed on your mobile device, it will stop functioning.

People also use the "Tapatalk" app (and possibly other apps) to access the forums: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkpro.activity

Tapatalk is not owned by e-r.org or Social Knowledge and it is not clear from the OP whether this announcement means that Tapatalk will also stop working. It may be that nobody at e-r.org knows the answer to that yet.

 

[Janet H]

There are two Early Retirement apps.

This is the "Early Retirement Forum" app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.socialknowledge.earlyretirement

This is the "Early-Retirement Forum" app for iOS:
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/early-retirement-forum/id410652442

I believe the message in the OP means that both apps will be removed from their respective app stores soon and if you have one of them installed on your mobile device, it will stop functioning.

People also use the "Tapatalk" app (and possibly other apps) to access the forums: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quoord.tapatalkpro.activity

Tapatalk is not owned by e-r.org or Social Knowledge and it is not clear from the OP whether this announcement means that Tapatalk will also stop working. It may be that nobody at e-r.org knows the answer to that yet.

Tapatalk and the ER branded app are both impacted. The underlying architecture of these are the same

 

[Montecfo]

It is not a big deal. I have used the browser on my phone a lot when the app would not work for some reason.

I did not have major issues with this but do appreciate the heads up.

 

[target2019]

One user challenge is text size. Depending on the phone, mobile app browser and the OS, changing this requires trial and error. And sometimes you can't get there from here.

For example, in Brave browser on my Pixel 7a, the New Posts page does not honor the browser request to zoom text to 110%. However, on the actual post page the browser text zoom does work properly.

This may not matter to other users, but I thought it worth mentioning.

 

[JoeWras]

So I deleted the app and signed on to the website using the phone. It was just a "fair" experience. I clicked on the website style and it became unusable. I tried to get back to "mobile" and would not let me.

I signed off and back on and it is back to mobile. It said it cleared the cookies, so that must be it.

It seems to me that if you are a mobile device and click "website," you get stuck in that box until a log off. It works the other way too, as reported above.

A little bug.

I guess I'll muddle through with the mobile view on the phone. I don't use the forum heavily from the phone so no big deal.

 

[captain3d]

Ah that is why my app is not working. Will try the web version.

 

[captain3d]

Having used the web mobile version for a few weeks now I am really hoping the iPhone app comes back soon.

Going into a thread does not take me to the last thing I read etc.

 

[chris2008]

It seems to be down for Android since Oct 28. Right?

 

[target2019]

Having used the web mobile version for a few weeks now I am really hoping the iPhone app comes back soon.

Going into a thread does not take me to the last thing I read etc.

That isn't a problem for me, on Android and Brave Browser.

On your phone there may be some script or cookie blocking? Just my guess.

 

[tulak]

The mobile view has some issues:

1. No way to mark a thread as read without going into the thread. With the app, you were able to press down on the thread title for a couple of seconds and it would mark the thread as read. Made it really easy to skip threads.

2. No way to ignore a thread. It wasn’t an issue with the app, but now that you have to go into the thread, it would be nice if you could mark it as ignore so it never shows up.

3. New Posts shows all threads in the last 24 hours. It bolds threads with unread posts and unbolds threads where the posts were read. This isn’t great. I’d rather have a list of only unread threads and I’d want it to go back more than 24 hours. This is different than the desktop view, which works the way you’d expect.

Those are my top 3 issues with the mobile view. I tried to see if any of the above was configurable, but couldn’t find anything.

I suspect that this isn’t going to be an easy transition for some of us. The mobile app, while it had faults, made it really easy to participate on the forum. I hope that a newer version is available soon.