How our app works with its new update

Dear readers,

The time has come: we’re delighted to announce that – thanks to your suggestions – the long-awaited update to our app has finally arrived! If the app doesn’t update itself automatically, worry not – just one click in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store will do the trick.

The following changes and new features are now available:

• The navigation bar at the bottom is gone (we know it never quite worked)
• The menu has moved from the bottom right (three dots) to the top right menu with three dashes)
• There is now a “Settings” item in the menu, which includes two options that many have asked for:
• We now have a dark mode that’s easier on the eyes when reading (and actually looks quite nice)
• and you can also choose whether you want to continue to swipe through the articles from left to right or prefer to scroll
• Also, each issue now has a cover screen that summarises three topics of the issue and shows the date
• And with the help of three small icons, we show for each article whether it is text, audio or a video – or several at once.

We started planning the update right after the launch of our app – but these projects usually take longer than you think, and we were also faced with the challenge of managing the whole thing with practically no budget.

We are all the more pleased that we have now found a way to further develop our app continuously and professionally through the cooperation with the Berlin University of Applied Sciences HTW and our two new team members Sandra and Marco. We’d therefore like to take this opportunity to thank the agile students of the HTW and their competent professor Verena Majuntke as well as Sandra and Marco, and – not to forget – our CTO Oliver, who has built up the technical structure of the app from the very beginning, helped to develop it further and manages all the new processes and teams!

We hope you’re as excited about the new update as we are, and if you have any further suggestions please don’t hesitate to let us know! We’ll be working on the next points right away – a version for tablets, for example.

Best wishes and enjoy,

Jonathan and the whole Squirrel News team