Bugs and feature requests

LingQ Beta Testers
1

[Android version]

Here is my feedback after just a few days using the new version. I really like the new interface - quite nice! So now for the bugs and small enhancements. Sorry if some of these have already been reported, but since I am new to ver 5, this will perhaps add more confirmation about issues that others see:

  1. Dark mode is quite unusable due to yellow and blue words are difficult to distinguish. Somehow the colors need to have better contrast. So I have to remain in white mode until this is resolved.

  2. Toggles in Settings don’t display correctly. For example, I switch on Dark mode. It does come on but the toggle still displays it as “off”. I think this is true of all toggles as I couldn’t get any of them to display “on”.

  3. Toggle between “text” and “sentence” mode initially didn’t stay in correct location in the text, but I think it was just fixed recently as it seems to stay there now,

  4. However, if you want to read a novel in sentence mode when you finish one lesson and move to the next lesson, it flips back to text mode. Not a big deal, but the old version usually stayed in sentence mode moving to the next lesson.

  5. Long sentences won’t translate in “sentence mode”. I really hope this can be corrected as it doesn’t work in the old version either.

  6. In a few locations – such as the vocabulary list – it shows # “pages” but I would like to see total # words - # pages is not as important as # words. In lower right when reading there is a number that seems to match the # pages in vocabulary. I would rather see # words in vocabulary OR preferably the total number of “known words” and # of remaining “blue” words in this lesson.

  7. On main page and when reading text it would really be nice to show the number of “known words”. This shows up at the top by the country flag when on the website.

  8. PLUS, while reading text it would be nice to see the total # of blue words in this lesson – at a glance, like on the website.

  9. Since I study multiple languages, when I click on “change languages” the list seems to be random. It’s not alphabetical. What I would like to see is the most recent language studied at top with the last accessed at the bottom. PLUS, I would like to see the number of “known words” to the side of the language list – kind of how we can see this on the website.

  10. While reading, click on a blue word, if no known translation, then a repeat of word is displayed which you can click to save as the translation. This if ok. However, if I know the translation, I slide up to enlarge the word display and there is an empty entry box for me to type in the translation. I type in the translation and it is never saved. The only way I can get it to save is to first click the repeated word, then open the box and delete the repeated word to type in my own translation.

  11. The word translation box has the X,1,2,3,4,5 in two locations. Kind of redundant. I like the location at the top since it is simple to switch a word from one number to the next quickly. However, most of the time #5 never displays. I typically only see X,1,2,3,4 and so I have to open the entire window and click the check mark (5) at bottom. My preference would be to get rid of the bottom X,1,2,3,4,5 entirely and fix the top one so that it is always accessible and always shows the full list: X,1,2,3,4,5(check).

  12. In old version we saw a # of uses beside all the translation variations of a word. This version doesn’t show that number. I actually kind of liked seeing that number. It helped me judge which translation to select. I didn’t always select the most used translation either. But I found those number sort of helpful.

  13. Lesson stats after completing a lesson and moving onto the next lesson, I really would like to see total # of known words. It would also be nice to see on that page the 3 numbers shown on the main page for each lesson: 1. Blues, 2 yellows, 3 whites. I don’t like to change blues automatically, I want to check them all myself, so if I accidently missed 1 or 2 it would be apparent on that Lesson stats page and I could go back to review them.

  14. I have found a few occasions where a word displayed as white – but was actually yellow. Click on the word and the popup shows it as yellow. However, I don’t think I can duplicate the bug, so I don’t know how to help you track down the reason for this bug.

Thanks for the new version. Also looking forward to some new languages.

2 Likes
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  1. I usually import novels to LingQ and since most are copyrighted I do not share them. But in both the new and old versions clicking on the “. . .” it says "Shared by: ". Once I was concerned that I had accidentally shared them, so edited the course and see that the “status” is not filled with either “Share” or “Unshare”. It is hard for me to tell if they did get shared or if it is only visible to me. Somehow I think the label should not say “Shared by:” if I didn’t share it. Maybe "Private for: "
1 Like
3

Revised #3 above. Within the past 24 hours, I noticed that the toggle between “text” and “sentence” mode didn’t seem like it was working correctly. Then later it behaved like it was. Makes me wonder if there are still issues there.

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  1. Course blue word count does not match individual lesson blue word count. For example, Mini Stories showed I had a lot of blue words, yet I knew I had worked through all lessons and should be zero. So when I look at individual lessons all are zero. This could be an issue with yellow word counts also, but I didn’t check those closely.
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Addition #11 above. I believe the reason I only see X,1,2,3,4 is due to the small screen on my phone. So #5 gets cut off due to the way the popup list comes up. Depending on the vertical location of the word screen, sometimes I see #5, sometimes not.

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Good list. I also agree on #12. (amongst others). I think they said they would display them in the most used order. However, having the count is nice because it can show potentially if one meaning is a lot more common. dict.cc has that sort of ordering if you go to the website (used to show in app, but now mobile version in both old and new seems to go to a mobile version of dict.cc that doesn’t display these numbers).

Anyway…if one meaning has a much higher count I tend to think that is the typical usage and high degree of confidence. If the numbers between 1 and 2 are fairly even, then that either shows both meanings may be fairly common, or possibly that people aren’t quite sure. Usually I’ll then check another dictionary and find out neither really is the common usage or that one is more typical. Without the numbers it’s a little bit of a guessing game.

Also, I’m wondering about the ordering, because in the old app, in many cases a lower number would appear first and most commonly picked one appeared in #2 or #3 or even #4 spot. Perhaps on old app it was ordered by when the definition was added?

1 Like
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  1. Just within the last 24 hours I have had a couple of languages where the top section is no longer “Continue Studying”. Other languages are ok. But one language now has “Language” at top and “Continue Studying” second down. The other has “Pronunciation” at top and “Continue Studying” second. Quite annoying. Please keep “Continue Studying” always at the top. Is there any way for me to switch “Continue Studying” back to the top? I can’t find a way to do this and I don’t know why this even happened.
8

I’ve seen no comments from someone at LingQ concerning my posts. I suppose one could assume that they are paying attention and working on these issues? But no response almost makes me feel like they are not paying attention, which kind of makes me feel it is not worthwhile bothering to post comments. Are these issues even being discussed at LingQ?

1 Like
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  1. I had deleted several months ago several courses (novels) from my French language. They are gone, I thought, since they do not show up on the web site. However, 4 courses show up in android Beta 5 that I deleted quite a long time ago. My first thought was whether Android and Web were accessing the same database in the background. But they must be and that the deleted courses are only “marked” as deleted and aren’t really gone. The web must recognize the deletion flags and so does not show them but then the Android Beta 5 doesn’t see the deletion flag so it shows them. However, I have deleted many old novels (courses) from other languages and I think even others from the French language that do not show up (correctly) on either the web or android.
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I don’t know how often they are checking, but it also could be that your suggestions aren’t on the official Android thread for the latest version. They had said to post the bugs and items on that thread. They also don’t respond to all, but it sounds like they are gathering all the information. I think a new version is coming out soon and then there will be a new thread to post issues on that presumably.

11

Thanks for the response. I don’t recall instructions on where to post issues except on the Beta 5 forum. I guess I will see if any of the issues are fixed in the next update. Then I will post my issues on the correct thread. Thanks.

12

Hi IraLund,
great suggestions. I’m not sure where is the right place to add suggestions for the android 5.0 app… so I guess I’ll post another one here and they’ll see it at the same time:

  • When I read a Spanish text on my android and click on a word, for some reason the voice pronouncing the Spanish word pronounces it in English. The web version doesn’t have this problem.

Thanks!

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  1. Speed is slower on beta 5 android. I uninstalled it and went back to the current version. Now I have decided that I like the current version much better. Everything works so much faster and cleaner without all the bugs. I use dark mode mostly. I can read it in the current version but not the new. Translation of sentences is no better in the new than in the old. So now I have decided that there really are no improvements with the new version that entice me. LingQ must fix all the bugs, make dark mode usable, have ability to translate long sentences, increase the speed and get the new languages loaded – before the new version is satisfactory to me. The initial wow of the main screen has now gone after “real use” of the program a few hours daily for a few weeks. I am also disappointed that no one from LingQ has acknowledged that they are paying attention to these comments. I will probably try it again when the next beta is released. But I will have to see that they have been paying attention to the bugs and feature requests or I will once again revert back to the older version.