The Steepshot Series: The Steepshot iOS version 0.3.5 (Episode 5)

Repository

https://github.com/Chainers/steepshot.io

A. Introduction

The ability of a new project, a platform or an application to weather the storm, start out on a good footing and do well, depends on a number of factors. First would be funding - where and how to get or source for funds and to have them at the right time. The next is advertising and marketing processes - how effective its marketing strategies are and what it is able to achieve for the projects in terms of users.

These are two major factors to consider when building a new project. A third and yet very important factor is the users of the platform and how to gain a large market share. The question simply is how can it be achieved? And the answer is by making sure every category, kind and type of users are well catered for.

In this case, we are looking extensively at what Steepshot has done to achieve this objective. This is in light of its creation of the Android, iOS and web versions of its app. In this post, our major area of focus will be on the Steepshot iOS platform. We will look at what has been done so far and also beam our searchlight on the most recent version of the Steepshot iOS app.

B. What is Steepshot?

Steepshot is an Instagram like platform built on the Steem blockchain which seeks to reward users for posting pictures and videos, and sharing their daily lifestyle. This comes in the form of an upvote on your post from members of the community. The resulting SBD, Steem and Steem power is released to your wallet after seven days of making your post. These can now be exchanged for other crypto currencies or sold for fiat.

C. Historical trail of Steepshot iOS versions

It is quite my belief that a project looking to succeed would not dare to neglect building an iOS version of its application. Therefore, after the successful launch of the android version of its app, Steepshot soon released the first version of the iOS app. This was released sometime last year and since then, several other updates have been carried out on the Steepshot iOS version. Let's take a look the trail of released iOS versions of the Steepshot app.

• The Steepshot iOS alpha 0.0.1

The Steepshot iOS alpha 0.0.1 was the first version of the Steepshot iOS app released last year. At the time of its release, it was well received by members of the platform. It came loaded with features such as image caching features as well as a separate browse button. It also gave users the opportunity to fit their photos to the width of their device screen. There was also the swipe feature added here. Users could simply swipe to view their profile or swipe to view their current feed.

In the settings area, users were also allowed the opportunity to manage their filter settings for NSFW content. You can either set it off which means NSFW content will not be shown. Or you can set it on which will thus allow you view all content including NSFW content.

There was also an addition of the flag button which gave users the ability to flag any content they felt was inappropriate. Timestamps were also added in this version of the iOS app. Finally, the version 0.0.1 of the iOS Steepshot app allowed users to hide any pictures they wanted to from their feeds. These were some of the features the very first version of the iOS Steepshot app came loaded with.

• Steepshot iOS Alpha 4

In this version of the Steepshot alpha 4, two major features were taken into consideration. The first feature was the search function. With this new update, users of the Steepshot app now had the search feature enabled on the app. This feature allowed them search for other users either via their display names or through their usernames. That means you could search for me by either using my username which is Curtwriter or with my display name, Jude Jeffery.

The second feature here was the likes / votes list. With this new feature, users could easily view the list of those who liked their post as well as those who flagged it. This was however not all for this feature. Users could also see how much voting power was spent by the user liking or voting the pictures and the expected amount from each likes of votes. Let's say I vote a picture you uploaded via Steepshot. You would be able to see the percentage of voting power I expended in voting this picture. You'll also be able to see the amount you should receive from my vote and that of others who liked your photo.

These two features were the major features implemented in the alpha 4 version of the Steepshot iOS app. Several other minor updates, improvements and bug fixes are also present in this version.

• Steepshot goes live on app store

Just about a few months ago, the Steepshot iOS app finally went live on the iOS app store after a review by the review board of the app store. This means that before now, older versions of the app were not available for download on the app store. The version uploaded to the app store featured all the original features on the previous iOS app upgrades as well as a newly edited interface. The app also gave users the capability to search via tags on the Steepshot platform. Finally, the Steepshot team made the iOS platform open source with this new update.

D. The Steepshot iOS version 0.3.5

The most recent version of the Steepshot iOS app is the version 0.3.5 and this is the version we are currently looking at in this article. This version of the Steepshot app did not however come updated with a lot of features. There were just two features implemented on this version of this Steepshot iOS app. Let's take a look at the two features.

• Edit and delete comments feature

Steepshot had previously updated the comments feature on the iOS version of the app. This meant that users could comment on the pictures they like and say what they have in mind about it. This was a great addition as it led to more interaction within the app. However, there was no feature to edit or delete comments in the previous updates.

Now, what if I made a mistake and wished to get my comment deleted? It will be impossible for me to do so since these options were not available. This was a major drawback for the app and it saw a number of users complain.

However this new version of the Steepshot iOS app now features this function. Once you make a comment, you now have two options - edit or delete options. If you're not comfortable with any of your comment, you can simply edit it or delete it as you wish.

• Updated photo size and post screen

Before now, all photos uploaded via the Steepshot iOS were cropped into squares. This simply meant that if you formerly had your picture in landscape format when you took it, Steepshot will turn your picture into portrait mode. This made the picture lose its originality and clarity.

However, to maintain the originality of all pictures posted through the Steepshot iOS app, that feature has now been phased out. Going forward, pictures posted via the Steepshot iOS app will appear as they are on the platform.
This means that your picture and mine will look better and original more than before on the Steepshot iOS app. This where the two major features made available on the Steepshot 0.3.5 version of the iOS app.

E. Conclusion

The Steepshot iOS app is a great addition to the ranks of available Steepshot platforms. It makes a lot of sense for apps like Instagram to exist on the skin blockchain. This, if properly managed, would bring in an influx of users into the Steem blockchain as a direct competition of the original Instagram platform.

However, a lot of work still needs to get done and the price of Steem needs to climb up. Hopefully, the coming New Year will hold a lot of promise for users of the blockchain and all SMTs or dApps created on it.

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/witness/@steepshot/steepshot-ios-version-0-3-5-is-finally-available-in-apple-app-store-steepshot-has-launched-its-own-steem-witness-node
B. https://steemit.com/steemit/@steepshot/steepshot-alpha-4-ios-search-for-users-list-of-likes
C. Other pictures were screenshots from my device.

Series Backlinks

• The Steepshot Series: Introducing the Instagram-like DApp (Episode 1)
• The Steepshot series: Let's Learn to Use the Steepshot Platform (Episode 2)
• The Steepshot Series: Using the Android/iOS versions (Episode 3)
• The Steepshot Series: The Steepshot Android V 0.3.7 (Episode 4)