The eSteem series: The eSteem Mobile Android App (Episode 2)

Repository

https://github.com/esteemapp/esteem

A. Introduction

To efficiently pass across knowledge to a group of students in a school, the teacher will need to possess the required knowledge as well as a few textbooks. To effectively win a battle and overrun the enemy, the battalion of soldiers need to have the weapons, as well as the knowledge of how to use them.

In the same vein, project developers who aim to grab a large chunk of the market shares, needs to carry out a thorough research into the market. This would enable them know their potential customers or users, and what kind of products and services to develop for them. The eSteem project team has been quite excellent at this and the result can be seen in their high user count.

The purpose of this article is to introduce the eSteem mobile android application. We shall look at a brief history of the Android app as well as some of its features. Also, we would look at the current version of the eSteem mobile for android and the new features that were implemented on it.

B. The eSteem Mobile

eSteem mobile is the name given to the mobile versions of the eSteem app. Under this, we have both the android and the iOS versions of the app. In this post, our major focus is on the android version of the eSteem mobile app.

This eSteem mobile for android device is an app created by the eSteem team for users of android devices. This app was built to grant users a faster way to access and make their post on the Steem blockchain as well as carry out transactions. To get the app up and running on their devices, users simply need to visit the Google play store, search for eSteem and install the app right away from there. We shall now look at the history of the eSteem mobile for android devices and how the project was kick started.

C. The history of eSteem

The first post ever made on eSteem was made by @good-karma 2 years ago, precisely on the 13th of July 2016. It was around that period he joined the Steem blockchain and was already looking at ways he could contribute to the growth of the platform. From then on, had been worked on, reworked on and upgraded several just to effect the necessary changes on it.

As at then, it was just called Steem mobile and was in beta version. Some of the features implemented in the beta 0.0.4 version included the login ability, voting and a number of other features. Then, the app was just a bare faced one with little or no graphics design on it. In terms of graphic content and outlook, one could say that the app was not appealing to the first of the five sense organs, i.e. the eyes.

On the 5th of August 2016, the name eSteem was given to the app and the new logo was created and assigned to it as well. Few days later, the app went live on Amazon app store and Google play store. After that historical move, it has been updates, updates and more updates to the app.

From the 16th of August 2016 to the 18th of December of the same year, no less than 18 updates on the android version of eSteem was released to the public. A number of features such as multi language support, reading time for each post, change of logo and many others were among the features implemented in these upgrades.

In recent years, several updates have been implemented on the app and released. It would therefore be quite strength draining for us to go through each and every one of them. Seriously, I never had the inkling that eSteem has existed as long as this. Therefore, to make this article less boring for you, I would simply skip all of those and get down to the most recent version of the eSteem mobile currently featured on the Google play store.

D. The eSteem mobile legacy version 1.6.0

The eSteem mobile legacy version 1.6.0 is the latest release of the eSteem android app on the Google play store. As usual, this version of the app came with a lot of features to improve the quality of the app for its users. There was a major focus on the app's interface with several tweaks being implemented so as to make it more appealing to the eyes and friendly to the fingers.

One major feature implemented here was the activity center. When I tried out this feature, I immediately fell in love with it. The activity center on eSteem is just like the notification section on busy.org. It can be accessed from the bell icon. This allows you see quite a number of notifications. You could see those who replied to your post with their comments and those who mentioned you as well.

When someone upvotes your post, the notification also appears on the notification area of your screen whether you are on eSteem at the time or not. In addition to these, a brand new loading screen as well as a welcome screen was added in this version of the eSteem mobile for android.

A favourite feature which allows you to bookmark users was added to this update. When you bookmark a user via this app, the user does not get notified so it's not really like the follow button. I usually check @didic's profile to learn from his comments and post as well as @utopian.io profile to see what's new. With this feature, I can easily access a profile without hassles or having to start searching for them all over the blockchain.

A button was also added to make posting of current images in your gallery very easy. With a click of the button, you can quickly access your image gallery and add your preferred image to your post. For those of us who like and use the night mode feature, this feature has been tweaked a little to allow for more colors within the app. All of these features were geared towards making up better and the efforts of the team are well appreciated.

E. Upcoming features / update on eSteem mobile

A post released recently by @good-karma shared the current prospects and the work the team were doing especially concerning the android mobile version. It is an entirely new version of the app, redesigned and written from scratch. This eSteem Mobile v2 for android when released, is expected to better the experience for users.

Since it has not been released yet, I won't be able to say much about it as I can only write on what I have tested. My suggestion is that the team should work hard at reducing the size of the app on mobile devices. I downloaded and installed 1Ramp on my phone and it was less than 6 mb. I use Steepshot in posting pictures and videos and occupies an up to 10mb on my device.

The Actifit fitness tracker which I use for tracking my step count is less than 5 mb in size. Not all phones possess the capacity to carry a large application. So the team should please see what they can do to reduce the size of the app from as high as 33mb to at least 10 or 8 mb. It is not a desktop application for crying out loud.

In previous releases, users have complained about the text being too small on screen. I concur with that as sometimes, I have to closely peer into my screen to read a post. I suggest that the font size should be tweaked a little so that we don't end up with eye problems in the long run. If possible, text size controls should be implemented, thereby giving users control over the size of the text on their screen.

Finally, a lot has happened since the last release of the eSteem mobile versions for android devices. And HF 20 has come and gone, and its benefits remain with us. Now, users can register instantly with claimed accounts. I know of some dApps that have been claiming these free accounts for a while now. An example is Actifit, the activity and fitness project for users of the blockchain.

I'm not quite sure if eSteem has keyed in and begun claiming free accounts. If it has, then there should be an option for instant registration on the upcoming version of the eSteem mobile. Where it has not, then the necessities should be put in place to ensure that claiming of free accounts are begun in earnest. If this is successfully implemented, it could effectively increase the user base on both eSteem and the Steem blockchain.

Conclusion

eSteem was one of the first dApp that started out on the blockchain about two years ago. It remains one of the oldest. As such, it is supposed to be a trailblazer for others to follow which it has been doing quite well. It is my hope that the fire is not quenched but grows as the days roll by. Thank you for your patience.

I hope to see you on the next episode of this series. Have a nice week ahead.

I remain your amazing dApps presenter, @curtwriter.

Resources

A. https://steemit.com/esteem/@good-karma/esteem-surfer-1-0-0-release-79775e065812d
B. https://steemit.com/esteem/@good-karma/esteem-mobile-2-0-preview-fe6b3f3613c71est

Series Backlinks

• Let's talk about eSteem Surfer (Episode 1)