Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

Discussions around the Android version of the Gospel Library application.
jake.ev88
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#131

Post by jake.ev88 »

Looking to hear about when I will be able to change the font type in the app. Any ideas?
shawntayannmcarthur
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#132

Post by shawntayannmcarthur »

Gospel library will not load on my Motorola droid phone yes it is old but it still works. Any help
jdlessley
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#133

Post by jdlessley »

shawntayannmcarthur wrote:Gospel library will not load on my Motorola droid phone yes it is old but it still works. Any help
Take a look at the thread Supported Android versions for Gospel Library - Updated Oct 2018. There is a minimum Android version and a minimum Gospel Library version for you to load the application. If your Android version is old but still supported you should be able to load the app for your version. But note that Gospel Library versions older than version 5 will not receive content updates.
JD Lessley
Have you tried finding your answer on the ChurchofJesusChrist.org Help Center or Tech Wiki?
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sbradshaw
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#134

Post by sbradshaw »

shawntayannmcarthur wrote:Gospel library will not load on my Motorola droid phone yes it is old but it still works. Any help
What version of Android is your phone running (usually there's an "About" section under Settings)?
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
kayvon
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#135

Post by kayvon »

sbradshaw wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:02 pm
kayvon wrote:Can you help me determine which of these will be fixed in future releases and which are permanent conditions?
All of the feedback we've been receiving through various channels so far has been gathered together and forwarded up the line. As the QA engineer for Android Gospel Library, I've seen a lot of feedback during the past 2 weeks, and I've made sure that the most common items are at the top of the list. The development team and the designers haven't received specific direction yet for 4.1. Until then, the developers are cleaning up bugs (mostly non-visible changes).
Has this calmed down any over the past 5 years? I'm still on the same tablet and still hoping these will be fixed someday.
1) There is no ability to hide undownloaded content.
2) The annotations and footnotes appear at the side of the screen, covering up the scriptures you're trying to read. Consequently, you can either have annotations/footnotes, or you can read the scriptures, but not both. (Previously they were unobtrusively located at the bottom of the screen.)
3) There is no way to adjust the margins. On a larger tablet, this leaves a lot of unused real estate on the screen sides that I'd far rather have text in.
4) The combined bookmarks and screens/tabs menu makes it more difficult to switch between tabs/screen and to bookmark things, requiring extra steps. This is a minor issue because, unlike the other issues, we can still perform the same thing, albeit with additional steps.
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#136

Post by sbradshaw »

kayvon wrote: Sun Aug 29, 2021 10:09 am
sbradshaw wrote: Fri Dec 23, 2016 10:02 pm
kayvon wrote:Can you help me determine which of these will be fixed in future releases and which are permanent conditions?
All of the feedback we've been receiving through various channels so far has been gathered together and forwarded up the line. As the QA engineer for Android Gospel Library, I've seen a lot of feedback during the past 2 weeks, and I've made sure that the most common items are at the top of the list. The development team and the designers haven't received specific direction yet for 4.1. Until then, the developers are cleaning up bugs (mostly non-visible changes).
Has this calmed down any over the past 5 years? I'm still on the same tablet and still hoping these will be fixed someday.
1) There is no ability to hide undownloaded content.
2) The annotations and footnotes appear at the side of the screen, covering up the scriptures you're trying to read. Consequently, you can either have annotations/footnotes, or you can read the scriptures, but not both. (Previously they were unobtrusively located at the bottom of the screen.)
3) There is no way to adjust the margins. On a larger tablet, this leaves a lot of unused real estate on the screen sides that I'd far rather have text in.
4) The combined bookmarks and screens/tabs menu makes it more difficult to switch between tabs/screen and to bookmark things, requiring extra steps. This is a minor issue because, unlike the other issues, we can still perform the same thing, albeit with additional steps.
(4) (Good news first!) Gospel Library 6.0 will be in beta soon – in Android Gospel Library 6.0, screens, bookmarks, and history have been broken out into separate sections again.

(3) is unlikely to change in the short term. The margins on chapter/talk content pages aren't controlled by the app developers, but instead are controlled via CSS stylesheets by the team that prepares content for Gospel Library on all platforms (including Gospel Library Online), and that team is bound by the Church's style guide.

(2) The reason this change was made in 4.0, is because before 4.0, "related content" was primarily a list of abbreviated scripture reference links, the same as appears in printed scriptures, and that list can easily display in a small area. Starting in 4.0, related content was expanded to replace abbreviations with full references, to include actual snippets of linked content, and more recently, videos and images are included, too. More interactivity and content in the related content area requires more space to a) keep things visually uncluttered, and b) support those with accessibility needs (larger text sizes, larger tap areas). I agree that it would be nice to have the option for related content to be at the bottom, for users who aren't personally concerned about clutter or accessibility, but it would need to be implemented in a way that a user could choose/customize, and customizability doesn't tend to be ranked as high in the priorities list as other things. (In case you're wondering – I don't fill in the priorities list. But in my quality assurance role, I certainly do my part to fill in the bugs list. :) ) As mentioned above, the workaround for seeing the main content and related content at the same time on a small screen is to rotate to landscape, and choose "Pin Sidebar" from the overflow menu at the top of the sidebar.

(1) This was considered for 6.0, but the idea was abandoned along with other 6.0 ideas that were too ambitious to undertake all at once. In the meantime, if there are only a few books you care about, you could consider using custom collections. I agree that this would be a nice feature, and it could be implemented in a simple way if it were deemed a priority.

Continue sending feature requests through in-app feedback, as common feature requests are batched together and included on a report that's reviewed regularly.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
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sbradshaw
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#137

Post by sbradshaw »

jake.ev88 wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2017 1:18 pm Looking to hear about when I will be able to change the font type in the app. Any ideas?
Watch for some good news coming in Gospel Library 6.0 on this as well (or if not 6.0 – 6.1).
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
kayvon
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#138

Post by kayvon »

> I agree that this would be a nice feature

Everything I listed used to be a feature of the app, including the margins problem. Since that time, these problems have been introduced, which makes me worry that fixing them again isn't really a priority. (Well, that and the 5-year gap since I first requested them.)
mwestout
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#139

Post by mwestout »

I think it is interesting that the Gospel Library for IOS team has figured out how to display related content on the right side of the screen without obscuring the main content while in portrait mode. Unless Android has some sort of limitation preventing this, it can be done.
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sbradshaw
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Re: Gospel Library 4.0 for Android

#140

Post by sbradshaw »

mwestout wrote: Sun Feb 27, 2022 10:44 am I think it is interesting that the Gospel Library for IOS team has figured out how to display related content on the right side of the screen without obscuring the main content while in portrait mode. Unless Android has some sort of limitation preventing this, it can be done.
Related content on iOS and Android behaves mostly the same. On a phone in portrait mode, the related content sidebar will slide over, covering the main content. To see them side-by-side, you need to be in landscape mode, or on a tablet or larger device. In previous versions of the app (before Gospel Library 4.0, which was released in December 2016), related content showed in a drawer at the bottom of the screen on a phone in portrait mode. However, before Gospel Library 4.0, related content also did not include actual content snippets, videos, or images – it was a list of abbreviated scripture reference links only – so, it was easier to display the related content in a smaller space.

The best way to send a feature request is using the in-app feedback (Help > Send Feedback). The support team keeps track of common feature requests and provides regular reports to the Gospel Library product manager.
Samuel Bradshaw • If you desire to serve God, you are called to the work.
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