Social App with Dating Functions, Beta Testing

By Vorail, 19 November, 2015

Forum
App Development and Programming

many thanks to the applevis community for helping create better voice over implementation, and leading the way to build a better app for folks (sighted, visually impaired, and blind) who want to make new friends, or seek casual dating and long term relationship opportunities.

Vorail is a voice-only messaging community to ask, answer, and make new friends. The Vorail community includes folks who are married, single, and divorced. Some are looking to make new friends, while others seek casual dating or a serious relationship.

please join our beta testing community, your voice matters.

"you fall in love with the voice first, there’s so much richness and intonation within a voice that gives clues to a person’s personality" (Kevin Satizabal, Royal London Society for the Blind)

thanks,
tom

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Comments

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @Holger, good idea, a hard reset. let us know if a recording issues reappears. thanks, tom

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

When you put a question does it show up inbox? I put 3 first did see and second and third did not. Do you look it before it comes up to determine appropriateness? If so, how long before it shows?

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @Holger, i had the same question. i created an ask-all, and it did not show in the feed or my inbox. i do not know how so many other folks understand how this works when i did not, but i like the logic once i learned it. when you create an ask-all, it shows in everybody's inbox, except yours. then all answers to your ask-all show on home feed. an ask-all that nobody answers never shows on home feed. we do not review content, but if others report / flag content, we can remove content.

thanks!
tom

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

I heard that you have 2 version of vorail beta and none beta. How you are going to combine both? applevis.com member Nina mention vorail which I think is none beta.

hi @Holger,
yes, there is an older version of vorail on app store, and a more recent version of vorail available to beta testers. beta testers have the version with fewer bugs and more features. apple can do beta app review instant or within a day, but app store general release review can take from one to five weeks. today a new release is scheduled for beta testers, and an old version is going through apple's general release review process. all versions of vorail use the same database. app store version users run into bugs that have been fixed in beta, and cannot do everything beta testers can do, but all the data across version is in a single place, and we cannot distinguish who is using which version.

thanks,
tom

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. after returning to home feed from inbox or matches, voice over focus returns to where it was.
.. when receiving push notification and double tapping on the notification, vorail will open to feed screen without error (before app would sometimes open feed page but not show any voices).
.. other minor fixes.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. added voice over rotor action on feed page ‘share this’.
.. changed wording of ‘matches’ tab to ‘likes’. in future, planning to add ability to like a particular ask or answer, in addition to liking a person.

upcoming:
.. ‘invite’ tab

question:
.. does anybody want to see if their facebook or twitter friends are already on vorail?

hi @jessiepp, would very much appreciate your input. beta tester feedback is our compass. most simple way to join is download Vorail from the app store. a better way is to run the beta version. beta versions have fewer bugs and more features than app store general release versions (apple allows us to update beta versions more frequently). to download beta version of Vorail, apple requires they send you the invite email. if you choose beta version, please email me your address or post it here, and i will submit it to apple for beta invitation. i am at pixtas@gmail.com

thanks!
tom

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @jessiepp, a few minutes ago, apple should have emailed you the invitation to test flight beta testing for vorail. we look forward to hearing your voice, thoughts, and feedback on app logic, as well as voice over implementation. thanks! tom

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Morning, Regarding like is there away to remove those who you added in your like and never responded one way or another to delete them from your like? Recording is doing much better

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @Holger, the place where you liked, you can repeat same action to unlike. eg., i can rotor action flick up to "like tom". next time i return to that place, the rotor action flick up will say "unlike tom" (next time may be next time you open the app, or leave that screen and return to that screen).

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @jessiepp, please test any feature that seems interesting, anything you do on vorail, if you have an idea how you wished vorail to work, please share the feedback :) finding smarter voice over implementation has been challenging. eg., yesterday received feedback that vorail is not tapping into a common voice over convention, single finger double tap and hold, and we could use that to handle 'like an answer' (favorite an answer). also received feedback to prevent screen lock when listening to ephemeral inbox messages (on unlock, the messages were gone, even though did not complete playback before screen lock). also received new feedback to add feature to see which of my twitter friends are already on vorail. feedback is how we fix, grow, and make the app work a little smoother.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. added ‘Asks’ tab. too many user generated ask-alls were not getting air time. with new tab, more user ask-alls available, not only the most recent three. updated inbox now contains only private messages to you (public ask-alls moved to asks tab).
.. ask-all tab moved to home screen (‘answers’), to the right of header (which is upper right of screen). is that the best place for the post ask-all button? should it also be one of the tabs?
.. removed search tab. when answers, asks, inbox, likes tabs working better, we plan to improve search tab and then re-add.

is the new ‘Asks’ tab an improvement? should it be called ‘Asks’ or ‘Questions’?

next:
.. still working on preventing screen lock when voices are playing.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

The way the question was posed in the beginning of the thread it seems you only cater to blind and visually impaired folks. How about the sighted people who hear a voice as well? I'm blind and agree that a voice tells a lot about a person, but still. The question seemed a bit condescending in my opinion.

Take care.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @KE7ZUM, vorail is offered to sighted, visually impaired, and blind folks. there are tons of asks on vorail, most generated by users, others generated by the system. if a question is viewed by a number of members as abusive, condescending, or negative, it will be removed. at some point, will add a feature to vorail to enabling members to gain editor status, and members who are editors will be able to remove questions. similar to the way stackoverflows works.

thanks,
tom

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @Holger, i have experienced something similar. i am working my way through feed, hop over to inbox, record a reply, then when i return focus on feed is at a different row. can you specify in detail what i do to repeat what you are experiencing? on new version, tabs are answers, asks, inbox, likes. i start on the home screen, answers, i play a recording, then focus moves by itself?

thanks,
tom

By Rolando Jr Ogayon on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Hi Tom,
Please pardon my silence.
Here are some of my suggestions, if I may:
Questions tab to replace Ask tab.

All main tabs (Answer, Questions, etc) should always be visible for easy access

Names in like tab should be arrange according to which has the latest activity/message, must have indicator -Unread

Inbox tab is quite redundant, for Ask and Like tabs also contain questions/messages

To eliminate Inbox tab, just stick to having mutual likes to start private conversations

In Like tab, there must be a Profile button along with names so there is an option to review profile

That is all for now...

By the way, congrats for the great development!

Best,
Jhon

Tom,

The Ask button must be in Ask/Question tab.

Thank you!

Regards,
J

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

When I am in the home screen. I had not done so in the inbox.

By SSWFTW on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Hi I definitely like the app But I think it needs a few big tweaks to become mainstream enough To be a fully fledged dating app
People need to be able to make an actual profile where they can say a few things about themselves So that you can get to know someone more easily and more accurately choose who you wish to talk to based on their interests and what you have in common with them
We need a better solution for the inbox because it is flooded with this ask all questions and sometimes the answers Two personal questions can go missing
I also think your personal questions should be saved a day or a certain amount of hours so you can go back and re-listened to what the person has said. Let's say you listen to it but you don't have time to reply then you go back in an hour and it's gone
I do like this so far and the idea of it But I think to get real traction you needed to add A place where people can make their own profile

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Vorail actually I meant the question at the beginning of the post, "are you nonsighted ..." meaning that the app might only be for the blind. I might be the only way who sees it that way, but those are just my thoughts. I might give the app a try, or not, we'll see what happens.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Blindkreep I don't think it is designed for dating anymore, although that could be its use, and remember the profile can't happen as it's voice only, which is actually quite unique.

It was first stated as a dating application and I think in the description it still says That
I disagree about there not being able to be a profile
There could easily be a page where you click on the person's name And you go to a few different audio clips of their interests who they are what they like to do Their age and other things like that
And about me section if you want to call it by another name

You know this question was answer several times. It can be both. If you meet someone you like, you can get to know that person. If you are not interested in dating, you can use it socialize. There are several people who are already involve or marrie and not interest in anyone but want to just socialize or make friends.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

hi @Jhon,
.. got it, will make the change, more votes have been for "Questions" label over "Asks" label
.. currently tabs only show on home screen. you think app would be easier to navigate if tabs in all four of the main screens, correct?
.. got it, tech issue #342 likes ordered my most recent received message and include label 'unread'
.. there is overlap among tabs. i tend to use answers / asks / inbox, and only go to likes if i need to lookup history of a chat. i understand you can get inbox stuff from asks and likes. leaving inbox in for now because for some it is the easiest way to receive all private messages.
.. if eliminate inbox tab, where to find private ask to me (from people i have not liked)?
.. got it, issue #343, add 'view profile' to rotor action in like screen
.. Ask-all button added to both 'Answers' and 'Asks' screen, upper right, next to heading

hi @Holger Fiallo,
.. i listend to an answer, my screen and voice overlay did not move after message played. maybe i need to be near top, middle, or lower on the feed? does this happen to you each time, or when you are at a particular place in the feed?

hi @Blindkreep ,
.. yes, profiles need to be enhanced / extended. #81 enhance profile to include more types of data (eg. ‘what I’m looking for’, that includes friends, flirting, casual dating, serious relationship etc.), add optional fields such as religion and blood type, make editable, and provide a way for owner to delete his or her asks and answers.
.. are you using most recent build, 5 march? inbox in new build only has private questions sent to you.
.. yes, #233 enable old inbox notifications to be revived. inbox is ephemeral, stay clean without effort, but sometimes we need to revive messages already heard.

hi @Blindkreep,
.. i share @Holger Fiallo view and updated app description to include "The Vorail community includes folks who are married, single, and divorced. Some are looking to make new friends, while others seek casual dating or a serious relationship." objective is to make the tools available enabling like minded folks to discover each other. with enhanced profile, better search function, and mute a person, it may become easier for folks to use Vorail in a way that fits his or her interest.

hi @KE7ZUM,
.. i am going to try and edit the title of this forum and the initial post. i do not know if applevis allows this, and if this thread will be preserved after editing title. vorail is available to sited, visually impaired, and blind.

By KE7ZUM on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Thanks thanks. I might give this app a go. I'm in the middle of recording a script I forgot to do last week, but might give it a go and maybe do a podcast on ti. We'll see as I'm picky about how it should be done.

Blessings and happy Sunday

By Nina on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Hello,
I kindly suggest that issues from beta and non-beta versions be kept on their respective forums. This is for clarity and organization purposes. E.g, there are bugs the non-beta version is experiencing that the beta version is not. To give feedback relating to the non-beta on the forum related to beta or vise versa seems like thread is veering from main topic.
So in summary: though all feedback is valid, whatever is from the beta let it stay with the betas, and whatever is from a non-beta bersion or feedback not related to betas let it be on the app directory.
Thank you :)

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. major under the hood change to audio encoding
.. minor fixes such as adding rotor action ‘view profile’ in likes screen, and lowering music volume when recording asks or recording answers

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

received feedback that app is crashing 100% of the time, even though it tested well on our devices. this release includes a special library to help us understand what is causing the app crashes. if app crashes more than once, please email us as soon as possible with details describing at what point app crashes. pixtas@gmail.com thank you :)

tom

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. added tabs to all screens
.. fixed bug that caused skip after we record an answer and our answer is auto played (may not have completely fixed this bug yet)

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. updated code to (possibly) eliminate an issue with crashes

What happen to the back button when you are in questions? I believe there was a button so you can go back to all answers.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Holger, the back button was replaced by tabs. used to be kind of root and branches navigation. feed was root, main screens were branches from same root, back button to return from branch to root. to go from questions to inbox would require branch to root to another branch (using back button). with updated version, tabs are on all main screens. to go from questions to inbox is not a single tap on the tab (four finger single tap to get to tabs). new layout is four roots (feed, questions, inbox, likes) connected by the common tab bar. how does the new navigation, tabs on all main screens, work for you?

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

When is search returning?

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Holger, as soon as everybody is satisfied with feed, questions, inbox, likes tab, then we work on search. there are still some basic issues we need to improve, such as a mute rotor action, not allowing duplicate names, and enabling app to continue playing a message even after screen locks. a related topic, what is better, 'search' or 'filter'?

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. if screen auto locks, voice message will continue to play.
.. fixed a bug with inbox that was preventing some of the voice messages from disappearing after being played. messages that are played on first visit should not appear during followup visits to inbox. in future version, we are planning to add a ‘revive’ feature to inbox, or extend the length of time to 24 hours before played inbox messages disappear.

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Just keep the name search.

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Holger, name search for names of other vorail people, and/or search for names of people that you already know, to see if they are on vorail. could you provide one or two usage case scenarios? thanks, tom

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. added mute a person to rotor actions
.. prevent screen from auto locking while recording (need feedback, did we fix this?)
.. fixed error that prevented screen from being blank when opening vorail

By Vorail on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. improved voice over for posting tagged ask-alls
.. various bug fixes

By Holger Fiallo on Sunday, March 13, 2016 - 01:25

Noticed that it takes several seconds to save a question.

By Vorail on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - 01:25

@Holger, it is taking a lot, lot longer to save questions (in my opinion). we changed encoding to address issue of playback stopping before playing to end of answer. instead of only saving, app is converting to different encoding before saving. there are solutions to fix this. we will start with the least costly approach, but if it continues, we will do more on server side (which is more costly to us). this issue will get solved, i'm guessing maybe within next couple of weeks. thanks, tom

By Vorail on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. saving voice recordings faster.
.. erasing temporary files to take up less space on our device.
.. host of minor fixes and enhancements.

next:
.. still working on adding a ’start’ or beep at start of recording to announce app is ready to record, without causing choppy start to recordings.

By Vorail on Wednesday, April 13, 2016 - 01:25

new:
.. preventing screen lock during recording
.. added voice over announcement, “start recording” when device is ready to record
.. the ask-all we create now show up in our questions screen (after creating the ask-all, need to leave questions screen, then return to questions screen to force a refresh, then our new ask-all shows)