Gluon for Micro.blog Hack 2023.1 + Redeem Codes

Well, it's time again for an update. This one has been in the making since November. Thank you to all that have helped me build what it is. I'll keep it short...

- [NEW] Now you can combine pinned topics (emoji) and they'll load extra fast in one view. Just head on over to Discover->Explore and get pinning.
- [NEW] Pinned profiles. Any profile can be pinned to a special list, meaning you can keep up to date with certain accounts when using a busy timeline, or just check in without following.
- [NEW] Better push notification experience, using the new Gluon Sync server... which allows for a few extra things like:
- [NEW] Extra profile data. Now you can add an accent colour and/or emoji to your profile, by tapping you profile image. This is shown to other users of Gluon. It's pretty fun and adds a little extra sparkle to the community.
- [NEW] When replying you can now "reply all" all at once. Yeah, it's nice. In addition, the app will now show the names of the users also (previously it was just the username).
- [Lots more] Oof, there is so much here I forgot what I added haha! For example "Reply all" when replying to a thread, making the user picker nicer, reloading the conversation when replying (so your reply shows up), more icons, better theme colours and more accents (I know!), inline images when replying, allowing hashtags to me muted (yeah!), reader mode when opening links, copying html/text of post (I know!)... and and and.

And because I don't want to bore you even more, there are many under-the-hood tweaks, including some UI changes throughout the app, new Nitpicky options (because!), and many other things just to make it nicer for everyone. Oh wait, I just gave you loads above. But there is more!

Thank you to everyone that has provided feedback and is using Gluon as their go-to app for Micro.blog. Can't wait to make the app better throughout the year.

Hey there, welcome to another quick bug fix release for you.

This update fixes a crashing bug when opening the new post screen.

Gluon is also a little better at showing you which websites you can post to, even if you just have the one. Previously it was hiding the “Sites” info if you only had one.

Happy Gluon’ing.

— Vincent

Hello there. Again! A quick update to fix a few things and a few life improvements:

- [FIX] Fixes an issue with a default site not being selected randomly, causing an issue with posting. Thank you Rom for reporting!
- [TWEAK] In the past, when you only had one site on Micro.blog, the "Sites" options was not shown in Settings. This now shows no matter what. The site you're posting to also shows up on your post editor now, even if you have one site.
- [FIX] Fixes an issue with disappearing posts in the timeline when navigating back via edge swipe, but never completing the back swipe, landing you back where you were... but then it showed no posts. No idea how to explain it. Thank you Robb & Vincent for reporting.
- [OTHER] Other various tweaks and fixes too boring to mention.

Previously, in the last big update:

- [NEW] Adds a timeline filter button in the header on your main timeline. Tap it to open and toggle to your needs. You can hide this button in Nitpicky settings. Long press to go straight to Nitpicky settings.
- [NEW] When adding links "[]()" it will now check if the clipboard has a web URL in it, if so it will insert it correctly in the link brackets.
- [NEW] Added a new font called "Retro". Give it a try. Make your eyes bleed and cry for help.
- [NITPICKY] Correct placement of single "**" or "_" when you tap the icon in the toolbar when inserting without having text selected/highlighted. Will switch to "B" or "I" when you have multi-selected text, which then wraps the word with the correct markdown.
- [NITPICKY] On the reply screen, the conversation view now uses the same formatting as per "new" timeline items.
- [NITPICKY] Tweaks to image loading for promoted content.
- [TWEAK] In Appearance settings, when you set a font size for the timeline items, it will show you the font you use to better reflect on what it actually looks like.
- [FIX] Fixed a few issues with text being cut off depending on where you have added formatting and other tweaks here and there.
- [FIX] Fixes an issue in the text inputs when toggling between emojis and text keyboard... *sigh*...
- [FIX] Fixes layout issues on the reply screen when your reply goes over a million characters... or perhaps just enough to cause a scroll to happen. Now content scrolls nicely and you can actually see what you're typing. Kinda important.
- [FIX] Sometimes images took up the whole height of the timeline item, and covering important bits like text and profile images. Now bits are no longer cover.

Well hello there again. Hot off the stove, we have a new update for you with some goodies. As always a few tweaks and fixes, because good software is never perfect.

- [NEW] Adds a timeline filter button in the header on your main timeline. Tap it to open and toggle to your needs. You can hide this button in Nitpicky settings. Long press to go straight to Nitpicky settings.
- [NEW] When adding links "[]()" it will now check if the clipboard has a web URL in it, if so it will insert it correctly in the link brackets.
- [NEW] Added a new font called "Retro". Give it a try. Make your eyes bleed and cry for help.
- [NITPICKY] Correct placement of single "**" or "_" when you tap the icon in the toolbar when inserting without having text selected/highlighted. Will switch to "B" or "I" when you have multi-selected text, which then wraps the word with the correct markdown.
- [NITPICKY] On the reply screen, the conversation view now uses the same formatting as per "new" timeline items.
- [NITPICKY] Tweaks to image loading for promoted content.
- [TWEAK] In Appearance settings, when you set a font size for the timeline items, it will show you the font you use to better reflect on what it actually looks like.
- [FIX] Fixed a few issues with text being cut off depending on where you have added formatting and other tweaks here and there.
- [FIX] Fixes an issue in the text inputs when toggling between emojis and text keyboard... *sigh*...
- [FIX] Fixes layout issues on the reply screen when your reply goes over a million characters... or perhaps just enough to cause a scroll to happen. Now content scrolls nicely and you can actually see what you're typing. Kinda important.
- [FIX] Sometimes images took up the whole height of the timeline item, and covering important bits like text and profile images. Now bits are no longer cover.

- Vincent

Happy Gluon release day everyone. This one is packed with some minor new stuff and a LOT of quality of life improvements... just kidding with the minor new stuff ;) Let's get to it:

- [NEW] Focus mode - We've added focus mode for when you're in need of a break. Don't we all? Enable it straight from your profile screen, or head on over to settings to fine tune it. We'll hide the main timelines so there is less distraction. If you want to just show mentions, we have an option to put Gluon into a "Mentions" only mode.
- [NEW] The timeline now looks different. Different in a good way and much more room for content - no more wasted space.
- [NEW] Much improved settings screen and a raft of accents and ICONS. You can also change your accent colour depending on light or dark mode, because sometimes you want to go all neon green when the lights are out!
- [NEW] Lot's of new nitpicky settings for you to try out! Toggle between not showing replies on the main timeline (this is a good thing for some people), only show long posts, hide avatars, hide names and only show usernames and an option to show/hide a conversation icon so you can quickly assess (don't write that with one s) if the timeline item has a conversation going. And a few others, like opening a post screen every time you open Gluon, going hand in hand with focus mode.
- [NEW] Icons and accents... did I say that already?
- [NEW/IMPROVED] Much better timeline loading handling... that's a mouthful! The feeds are quicker to load in general and they update on the fly as you scroll, so they're staying up to date.
- [FIX] Fixed the Hemispheric Views app icon. Now using the official blue!
- [FIX] Tapping on Micro.blog specific links, will open the correct thing now instead of empty conversation views.
- [FIX] Fixes an issue when tapping on a @username within a timeline item and it not navigating to the profile in question.
- [FIX] On your bookmarks page, tapping an item will now open the correct conversation (it was blank before that).
- [FIX] Fixes an issue where your profile wouldn’t show up on the Reply screen.
- [IMPROVED] Settings that take you to a website now might open up in an external Safari/Browser instead of in-app.
- [FIX] Finally... on iPad... when rotating from landscape to portrait, or the other way around, images will now look correct.
- [FIX] On iPad, when navigating to the app from the background, the screens will no longer look super weird for a moment or out of bounds and shifted to the right.
- AND SO MUCH MORE...

Now stop reading, because I just want you to use the app.

Happy Micro blogging.

- Vincent

Hello, welcome to the first update for this year. Secretly it was supposed to come out last year, but I decided to keep it to myself.

This release doesn't feature anything too new, so it might not be the most exciting one... on the other hand though, they are important updates and bug fixes for you.

Let's get to it:

- [New] A tweaked tab bar, so your content and timeline is at the forefront.In other words, I removed the settings screen from the tab bar and you can now find it on your profile page.

- [Fix] Fixes issues with incorrect follow status on when navigating to a profile that you either follow or not. Sounds confusing. In other words, when you follow someone, but then later on it tells you don't follow them... yeah, that kinda fix.

- [Fix/New] The app now doesn't store the data, for a profile, in storage... which means it won't use so much storage and you'll always have up to date profiles when you navigate to them. This update should also clear out any old data for you.

- [New] The Discover feed is now 10x faster to load. Gluon uses its own discover endpoint, globally distributed. That means it's super fast to load. It'll always be the same as the official Micro.blog discover feed. In other words, I fetch the MB feed, store it in a cached state, and send that to the app instead for you waiting.

- [Fix/New] When you're on the conversation screen, and have a block list active (which I do), then in the past it would not filter out the posts. Now it does.

- [Fix] Conversations now stay around as you navigate around the app, and you no longer encounter blank screens. So when you viewed a conversation, then tapped on a profile, then navigated to another conversation... and then went down the rabbit hole... well now, when you swipe back, it'll have everything as it was. No more blank conversations.

- [Geeky stuff] I made a few other tweaks and improvements to the way the app talks to Micro.blog, Sublime Ads (the thing I wrote to show promoted content) and also some other Gluon API stuff. Oh and of course a few tweaks here and there... that you'll never notice.

As always, I want to thank you every one of you for your continued support. Can't wait to bring more updates to you as the years progress.

- Vincent

Once again hello and welcome to another release of Gluon just for you.

I'm super excited to get this to you as I managed to get some features in the app that I always wanted. Nothing major, but was fun to do. Just to make a little bit better as Gluon matures.

So, here we go:

- Settings screen overhaul. Yeah, it was ugly... so now it looks nicer. And there are some goodies for you here also.
- Alternative icons. Yes, now you can choose an icon to match your favourite new computer or accent colour for the app. I'm just getting started here, so let me know what you want to see.
- More accent themes. A few more colours to spice it up.
- New Nitpicky settings for power users, including: a new image proxy logic handling, making those images pop on your device. Discover changes, like showing pinned topics (more on that next). Open links in-app or in your browser.
- Discovery section, pinned topics. This was already here, but I thought I'll mention it. Now you can pin emoji topics to the top of the Discover section. Each time you load the screen it will pre-fetch your pinned ones so they're ready to rock and roll.
- Timeline items now have a context menu, so you long press on any item to bring up your options. Reply, add to bookmarks and many more. The same goes for promoted content.
- A tweaked tab bar, with new icons (yay!) and also a bookmarks section, so that they are no longer hidden.
- Reply screen now also shows from which account you're replying from... because sometimes you use Gluon with multiple accounts, and that can get confusing... yeah... whooops. No more!
- Mentions screen now has a notification button, taking you straight to the settings.
- Push notifications can now be turned off in-app if you want to have a break.
- Oh and now you can also edit your replies, if within the last 24 hours. Whoop!
- There is so much more, and lots of behind the scenes changes and spelling tweaks...

Oooof, that was a long list. But fear not, I am always working on it if you didn't see something for you.

Thank you so much for everyone helping me keep motivated to make Gluon what it is.

See you next time.

- Vincent

Hello and welcome to the first update of this year!

This update adds a few extras to the discovery section and also includes a few of those needed bug fixes.

- New challenge screen, showing a little bit more information including profiles when words were suggested. Also adds a calendar link, if it's available, for the photo challenges.

- Ability to "pin" discover emoji topics to the discover timeline. Just long press on the topic in the Discover More section and you’ll get a little start to the top left — that means it is pinned. Find them on the main discover timeline. Long press to remove.

- Native privacy focused, and friendly, promoted content in the discovery sections. These are run by me for people on Micro.blog. Have a look and see what you think. There is an option to disable them in settings for 5 days.

- Micro Monday profile tweaks, giving you a nice overview and you can listen/subscribe to the podcast. Go to Discover -> More (top right) and then find the Micro Monday section.

- Inline images. You can now inline images in the compose window when creating a new post, if you have a hosted Micro.blog account. It's simple, but I hope you like it. Just tap the image after it uploaded and select the inline option.

- Fixes an image bug when tapping on a post with multiple images — now the correct image is shown/scrolled to.

- Fixes a potential issue when you reply to someone, but the text is cut off. This is mainly because you may have a large following count.

As always, thank you to all my testers and of course to everyone using the app! I really appreciate all the support and kind words.

— Vincent

Hello, and welcome to the next version of Gluon.

Not many features in this one, but it’s an important one that fixes a few new things and gets things tidied up for iOS14.

- Fixes an issue with links not opening when choosing a different default browser.
- Fixes an issue when you first log into the app, and no posts are shown. Now they show. Rejoice!
- Fixes an issue when a modal would be dismissed when opening the in-app browser. Sorry for that.

And whilst we’re at it, Micro.blog recently launched "2.0" (two point oh). That means a few things were renamed.
- Favorites are now "bookmarks".

New stuff exists also!
- Tapping on a mention notification now opens "mentions" within the app and highlights the message with a little green dot. The green dot disappears after a minute or so.
- Included with the above, there is an extra option to open up the actual conversation. Just saves you those extra taps. Find it in Nitpicky. Thanks Odd!

What else? Hmmm… That’s it for now. Hope you enjoy it.

As always, I never ask for a review - so if you’re willing, please leave one. It means the world to me!

Thank you for driving me to make Gluon better over time. Can’t wait to show you what’s next.

- Vincent

Hello and welcome to the next release of Gluon. I'm pretty excited about this one as it paves way for the next chapter in Gluon's short history.

As always, I want to say thank you to every single one of you that has contributed with your kind messages of support and feature requests. I know I cannot grant every wish, however I think this update ticks a lot of boxes.

So let's get to it.

- New timeline syncing mechanism. You cried and I listened (and also cried). So now your feed should update and fill in the gaps the best it can. No more missing posts for you.

- Allow and display multiple sites if your account has more than one "blog" hosted on Micro.blog. That means you can easily select which blog you want to post to with a simple tap right in the post editor or selecting it in the "More" screen. Thanks to everyone requesting this feature! It was fun... most of the time... to implement.

- Categories update as you select a new site, if you use the above feature. It deserves its own point. I'm proud of it.

- Micro.blog challenges! Yup, you heard me correctly. These now display in the Discover timeline if and when one is announced. That used to be a manual job, but now comes via the Gluon API!

- Oh and now we come to bug fixes. There are a lot in here. Thank you so much to everyone telling me about your bugs. They've been bugging me, so I made sure to address some of those.

- Slightly reduced app size... you heard me correctly!

- Oh and something special... but I can't say more... except that it's pink!

Did I miss something? Probably.

I hope you're happy with this release as I am.

Again thank you so much to everyone. I couldn't do this without you.

If you feel like leaving a review... then please do!

Oh and thanks for reading the release notes... let me know if you did :)

Onto the next exciting chapter for Gluon! Can't wait to share it with you all.

- Vincent

Hey. This update fixes a bug with images not uploading! Sorry for that! It certainly feels like a TestFlight update, but I assure you it’s not :)

In addition I tweaked:
- Pull to refresh no longer causes multiple calls to the Micro.blog service.
- Links open as they used to instead of a modal. So now you can back swipe like a champion!
- Some other last minute tweaks… because I do that.

Here are the previous release notes:
— — — —
Hello dear users!

I'm back with another update for you all. It’s taken a bit longer than I wanted… life threw some random curve balls!
So, let’s get to it:

- You can now remove your posts so they no longer show in the timeline. Made a weird reply? Just remove it and start again. It’s a right swipe away.
- Add the Discover “Tagmoji” when composing your post. This means it will get added to the correct Discover More section on Micro.blog. Just tap the “#” icon in the post screen.
- Tweaked the Appearance section, which now works instantly! BOOM. KAAPOW! Have a play and find your favourite combination.
- Added a font size setting so you can refine your preferred font size for the timeline, reply and post screens, on top of the system settings. Need 60 points of font size…? Do it!
- Added a Micro.blog status check, which will alert you if the service is down or not. It’ll also offer to show you the status page on the “More” screen.
- Fixes an issue when you’re following over 1,000 followers and your reply pane became… S… L… O… W. No more!
- Fixed an issue with account switching.
- Some wording tweaks and a sprinkle of emoji.
- Fix a handful of wonderful bugs!
- Overall UI tweaks and fixes here and there.

That's it for now and no doubt I forgot a few things.

Happy blogging and see you soon with another update :)

- Vincent

Hello dear users!

I'm back with another update for you all. It’s taken a bit longer than I wanted… life threw some random curve balls!
So, let’s get to it:

- You can now remove your posts so they no longer show in the timeline. Made a weird reply? Just remove it and start again. It’s a right swipe away.
- Add the Discover “Tagmoji” when composing your post. This means it will get added to the correct Discover More section on Micro.blog. Just tap the “#” icon in the post screen.
- Tweaked the Appearance section, which now works instantly! BOOM. KAAPOW! Have a play and find your favourite combination.
- Added a font size setting so you can refine your preferred font size for the timeline, reply and post screens, on top of the system settings. Need 60 points of font size…? Do it!
- Added a Micro.blog status check, which will alert you if the service is down or not. It’ll also offer to show you the status page on the “More” screen.
- Fixes an issue when you’re following over 1,000 followers and your reply pane became… S… L… O… W. No more!
- Fixed an issue with account switching.
- Some wording tweaks and a sprinkle of emoji.
- Fix a handful of wonderful bugs!
- Overall UI tweaks and fixes here and there.

That's it for now and no doubt I forgot a few things.

Happy blogging and see you soon with another update :)

- Vincent

Hello dear users :)

This update brings many changes.
Thank you to everyone that has tested the app and has been, and is, giving me continued feedback.

Let’s get to it:
- Posting now allows you to add categories to your posts, using the toolbar.
- Replying now allows you to view the item you’re replying to, just tap on the “replying to” text.
- In replies, you can now @-mention someone and it will auto-suggest anyone in your contacts.
- Your profile now displays your Pins that you have earned on Micro.blog.
- Along with the pins the profile screens have been updated for easier navigation with clearer buttons and actions.
- The timeline now attempts to stay nicely on your last post, allowing new posts to show without loosing your spot. Also includes a “new” indicator.
- Feed sync has greatly been improved and should work faster, and also update past posts much better.
- Nitpicky settings, found in the “More” screen, for your pleasure - Show character count when typing, display full names and so much more like the image proxy for when you need to save a bit data.
- An overhaul of the “More” screen.
- The reply and post screens have been overhauled to work much better.
- Fixes issues with account switching.
- Many under-the-hood UI tweaks, for example tweaked swipe actions.
- And so much more

Thank you again to everyone using the app!

Gluon is mainly driven by the community and your feedback really drives app development, so if you have any suggestions just let me know.

I’m so happy, and thankful, for everyone that gave the app a review on the App Store. It really drives me to make Gluon better for everyone.

Enjoy this update as much as I enjoyed making it.

Until next time.

- Vincent

Hello everyone,

This update includes many tweaks and fixes:
- Better handling of your timeline position when new items are loading when you have scrolled down.
- Mute filtering is so much faster now; no more waiting!
- Adds the February challenge to the Discover screen; take those pictures.
- Fixes a few crashing issues with when tapping a URL in a timeline item, namely webcal links.

As always, thank you so very much for using Gluon and your continued feedback.

- Vincent