Which I have summarised as follows (in 450 characters, line endings not included):
∙ Add sleep timer based on episode count (@eblis)
∙ Enable bottom navigation for users who have never changed that setting (@ByteHamster)
∙ Convert sleep timer to bottom sheet (@ByteHamster)
∙ New subscriptions selection design (@ByteHamster)
∙ Improve “Report bug” screen (@MrShecks)
∙ Add default sort for episode list (@tmatale)
∙ Open podcast or episode from download log details (@schasi)
∙ Plus the usual assortment of bug fixes & improvements!
Is there a way to get the sidebar back on the homescreen? I hate having subscriptions be on a different page. Subscriptions and queue are the only two things I ever look at.
Currently you can still get the side bar back, but that setting will be removed in a future update. You can customize the bottom navigation to show both your queue and the subscriptions. Then the number of taps to switch between the screens is lower than with the side bar. It just takes a couple of days to get used to.
It’s fewer clicks? I mean my main complaint with navigation is that I have to click on either the sidebar or the subscription page to click on a podcast and then back to the sidebar/sub page to click another podcast which is the same number of clicks. Am I doing it wrong? Cos absolutely my ideal would be able to click between podcasts without having to go back.
I almost never look at Subscriptions. When I check the InBox I delete episodes I won’t listen to and move the ones I will listen to into the Queue. No need to be jumping around because I spend most of my time in the Queue.
Sorry I was unclear. I was trying to understand the reason for wanting to regularly go to the Podcast menu, which as you observe isn’t designed for that. Please help us understand your workflow.
One reason for me is so as to avoid seeing spoilers in the titles of sports podcast episodes. The Inbox is a no go area if there is the possibility of anything like that lurking there.
You can go from anywhere to the queue in one click, before it took 2 (open menu, click queue. Now just click queue). You can go from anywhere to any podcast in two clicks (click subscriptions, select one), same number as before (open menu, select one).
Okay, so for the part I would actually like fewer clicks on, it’s the same. Got it. I know it’s silly since it is the same number of clicks but since what I really want is essentially for the sidebar to just minimize small to the side so I can click between podcasts without that extra click, having a sidebar that closes still feels closer to that than not having a sidebar at all.
I could see how that would work. Like channels in Slack et al. It would take away quite a bit of horizontal screen space, even if we put only tiny cover images, where horizontal screen estate is typically scarce (and it wouldn’t replace the bottom nav, so you don’t ‘gain’ space there).
It might feel closer but is exactly the same, so that’s just a matter of getting used to. (I also needed a month or two to get used to the bottom nav, now it doesn’t bother me any-more).
The buttons on the bottom nav are all on the sidebar though.
I’ll be honest, at this point, I’ve just turned off bottom nav and automatic updates so I’ll decide if I like it or not when I feel like it but the only improvement I really want is the ability to click between podcasts without having that extra click.
i dont like the bottom nav. if sidebar nav is going away im going to look for a different podcast app. its a shame. i really liked this one. lots of nice features.
I’m finding the bottom nav subscription view to miss the mark when it comes to my tagging workflow.
I tag my subscriptions and mainly use that to navigate to my intended podcast
In the sidebar this is easy to do as it is simply a case of scrolling down to the correct tag.
With the bottom nav subscription screen, the tags appear at the top in a carousel which i find tremendously difficult to manouver.
Can I ask the reason behind removing support for the sidebar? Is it a product decision? A technical decision? A mix of the 2? Deprecating an old part of the codebase?
A mix. We had both types of navigation for the last year approximately, but maintaining both is taking too much time for the small team. The side bar doesn’t work well with gesture navigation in recent Android versions and Google’s design guidelines recommend bottom navigation.
These are actually two independent changes (the tags on the subscriptions screen got moved in 3.10.0). We do plan improvements there to better handle large numbers of tags.