Starting a new thread, reposting the last major release details:
Thank you everyone who has used the previous beta versions and provided feedback. There is a new version available 5.2.16. We have been working on fixing existing and new bugs that arrived during development of several new features. Our goal for this version that is very close to being feature complete, is to quickly iterate and fix all bugs to get the app ready for launch, so you can expect more versions more regularly than before. Please let us know of bugs that you experienced and that are still present in this new version so that those take priority. Please use the App Tester app that you previously downloaded to access the new version. You should also have received an email notification.
Release notes:
Review both in vocabulary and lesson;
Challenges are now available and accessible from the Stats screen and Settings;
Lesson vocabulary (list of Words and LingQs in a lesson);
Daily Goal tracking in Library, Stats and Lesson;
Course Playlist;
Several fixes and improvements to word popup, including position;
Improvements to colors in dark theme;
Fix to word popup hanging around and having to re-open the lesson;
Switch between transliterations when clicking on it;
Several fixes and improvements to phrases;
Transliteration for phrases;
Sentence mode playback improvements to consistency;
Sentence mode translation fixes;
Ability to add full courses to an existing playlist;
Numerous improvements to Library and Search;
Vocabulary now has more filters including filtering by Lesson and Course;
Words and LingQs information in the lesson by going to the bottom right menu;
Language flags in meanings if multiple languages are present;
Editing existing meaning language by swiping left;
Better tracks downloads management, including the ability to disable/enable downloads in the playlist and re-download individual tracks;
Added like, add and download buttons to lessons in Library, as well as download full course option;
The app works very well now. The only glitch I can see immediately is that the Lingq counter in the main view only updates at app restart.
Also there are some inconsistencies with the lesson art. The cover image does not always view as intended. If you toggle to a course view and back, the cover art is there.
The older limitation to select up to X words also persists. In the olden days, you could select a sentence until the end of it. Now the limit seems to be around 8 words.
vocabulary lookup: when clicking on a word a dialog is opened, in version 4 it was possible to open vocabulary and select the right translation, in version 5 that is no more possible
On a small device is not really usable, in a big device there is the web version.
Really the interface is laggy, slow on playing audio, the GUI is crufty, full of elements that are less usable than the 4.x.xx version, because with normal sized finger is not possible to manage so slim elements on the screen.
I would like to have the option to stay with a 4.x.xx version even after the beta program ended. That is because till now I was able to learn without been constrained to deal with an interface that is heavy and disturbing.
I mean, it is supposed to be a tool to learn languages or a tool to show images and icons? I could use instagram I do not want to stay focused.
You stated “Improvements to Lesson UI”, for me that is a misleading statement, the improvement is guided by a general idea of UI, not to a real language lesson UI. Less is more, and You added more without any good reason, and without any kind of feature addition.
Bug: Settings contains several toggle switches which are questionable whether they work. For example, to turn on dark mode you touch the switch and dark mode turns on but the toggle switch does not indicate it is on. So it works but the toggle doesn’t show it works. All other toggle switches never indicate the on position and it is less certain whether they are on or off.
Request: Not a big issue, but when I click to change languages I like that now it shows known words beside each language that I have studied. However, the order of languages seems random. How about ordering it where the most recent one viewed is on top descending to the last which was used the longest time in the past.
It seems that occasionally English is added into the list of languages I would be studying, where in fact I’m not. I need to actively go remove the language in the desktop site.
This is not a bug introduced by the beta app, but perhaps it’s worth fixing there.
This always annoyingly happens when I get signed out of my profile on Android, whether I delete my data, uninstall and reinstall, or manually log out. Just logging in to the app seems to do this in both 4.0 and 5.0. I always also get the annoying popup stating my dictionary language is the same as the language I am learning, which is a byproduct of this bug.
First of all, most of LingQ is being rewriting by them in this beta, meaning the feature was never written most likely. In many aspects, I already see leaps and bounds of progress made. Second, those correct translations were community translations. 5.0 most likely is having compability issues with the old code infrastructure cause the lack of community translations from working. I personally always question other people’s translations and end up checking manually anyway so for now I don’t see this as a problem.
I disagree on the size issue. I use it just fine on a Blackberry Key2 LE with a 4.5 inch screen. If you provide your phones hardware specs, there may be a compatibility issue they have to account for. All hardware is not created equal and software has to be catered to platforms if there are differences in the assembly instruction sets in the bios and firmware.
I’m definitely liking the improvements in this iteration. Seems to be working very well.
A couple of items I noticed:
In sentence mode, I play the TTS. I go to next sentence and click “translate button”. It gives the sentence translation but for some reason also plays the TTS even though I didn’t ask it too.
As Ira points out…the change language option has the languages in some strange order. I would expect either ordering based on known word count or as Ira suggests, last used language
I’m not really sure but it seems like sometimes manual entry of listening time is not always adding in the value you give.
Sometimes the focus (highlighting a word by tapping on it) goes wonky, and when you tap different words, the selected word is not highlighted even though the description is updated.
When I click the bottom right button for - I think - vocab review in the lesson, a grey bar appears in the bottom and the app freezes.
When I try to select a phrase, the whole screen moves down by about 1 cm (leaving a black space in the top) while I press the finger down. Nothing is actually selected though. When I let go, everything moves back, but marking phrases is impossible.
I also don’t seem to get a suggestion which phrases other users looked up (former grey background).
I also don’t see the tags of a word when it’s yellow. I do see them when the word is blue initially so it seems they get lost.
I don’t exactly know how but after a while I also get an additional tick symbol in the top right corner of the word hint. When I click it the app crashes and after the restart it’s gone again for a while.
Playlist folders realization is a great improvement. Thank you!
Bug: Audio stops at the end of each track. After click on the Play button, the next track starts playing, but not from the very beginning (usually from about the 5-15th second of the track).
Suggestion (for the further versions): Option to set custom action “Go 5 seconds back” for the remote Back button of the car (instead of “Go to previous track”) as implemented in various audiobook readers.
Vocabulary and flashcards:
Missing: Option for Auto Text-to-Speech in flashcards.
Bug: “No related phrases available” for all words (already mentioned in the thread).
Bug: Words status does not increase after 2 correct answers in a row. The same behavior I observed in version 4 (My mobile: Xiaomi Mi 9T).
Suggestion (for the next versions): Option to add word notes or/and tags to the front/back side of the flashcards.
I see some weird “cover image” issues as well. The one I notice is in the “continue studying” section, if say I’m reading a book and two chapters showing next to each other, including the one I’m currently on. When I initially go to the lessons feed, the image is showing correctly for both lessons next to each other in the “continuing study”. If I swipe down to refresh, the cover image goes away on the most recent lesson, but remains on all the other lessons.
