BitTubers for mobile is here!

Earlier this week we released the mobile interface for BitTubers.com and we’re continually improving it. We’ve designed it to be lightweight and responsive. It still needs UX improvements in certain areas, but we’re on the right track to make it on par with (if not better than) the desktop experience.

The mobile version has some noteworthy features. When viewing a post, you can swipe it downwards to continue playing it in the background while browsing other feeds, similar to PIP (picture-in-picture) mode on desktop. Secondly, you are now able to cast videos natively to a TV on the same local network. If you’re wondering whether you need the AirTime extension to earn or donate to creators on mobile: not at all. That stuff is handled by the integrated AirTime module. The same goes for the desktop version as well.

Users with mobile devices typically make up the majority of views on social media. Releasing the mobile site is an important step for all of us, as we can now start developing the long awaited apps around it.

In upcoming updates we will be working on streamlining the mobile site further, for example by improving user experience for leaving comments. If you encounter bugs or have any suggestions, let us know using the #bugreport and #mobile topics. Thanks!

Performance optimizations

For the past weeks we’ve been working daily on improving performance on the user side and the server side. We’ve done optimizations to rendering, feed loading times, data usage through thumbnail caching, and search by indexing pre-fetched results. You may also notice that media descriptions are no longer shown in feeds. This is deliberate, as it saves a lot of screen real estate and it’s improved performance a lot. You need to open a post to view the description now.

NSFW alerts

We’ve added an “inappropriate content” warning message when opening a NSFW-tagged post while your “Show NSFW” filter is off.

Light/dark mode auto setting

You can now choose “Auto” mode for light/dark theme selection. Based on the time of day, the theme will switch automatically to dark mode when the sun sets.

The settings page of your profile.

You don’t need the extension to donate

This is not part of this specific update, but we thought it was a good idea to iterate the following: you don’t need the browser extension to donate to other users! All you need is to login to the integrated AirTime module to access your wallet. Click the BitTube icon in the corner of your screen to bring up the AirTime module sidebar. This is part of what makes the mobile release such a big step: you can send and receive donations wherever you are.

Onward!

We’d also like to take this opportunity to repeat a few upcoming milestones on our horizon for this year.

Messenger App. Based on Signal, a p2p and encrypted messaging app. It will feature AirTime and the ability to send each other TUBEs. We are also looking into deep integration with the BitTubers platform, to enable push notifications, private messages, chat and perhaps the mobile BitTube browser itself, all at your fingertips.

BitTube browser upgrades: Tor integration, auto updating, local BitTubers frontend integration, storage node capability, native offline wallet interface and more. We intend the BitTube browser to become an all-in-one pillar of the ecosystem. It will power true decentralization where every user will participate in the network in multiple ways.

As for BitTubers itself, there is too much to go over. Though it hardly includes everything, check out the Features & Roadmap section for a general idea of major upcoming features.

Wrapping up

We hope you enjoy the updates we’re bringing. For a complete list of weekly changes, check out the BitTubers Changelog.

Have a great weekend!

Your BitTube Team