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International Automotive Technicians Network
iOS Mobile App Beta - Release Notes - 1.0.0 Build 1638
Posted to Open Discussion Forum on 11/20/2015 5 Replies

These are the release notes for the 3rd beta release of iATN's mobile app for iOS, which will be going out to beta testers soon. If you have an iOS device and are interested in beta testing, please sign up here: https://iatn.net/beta

You can read the previous build's release notes here: http://iatn.me/9EN [iatn.me]

What's New

• Message filtering improvements, and a change to how they're displayed. Instead of an iATN logo at the top, you'll now see your currently selected message filter instead. You tap that to change it. This gives us better functionality, and more flexibility for additional functionality in the future.

• Improvements made to file viewing, such as the ability to save images you're viewing to your local Photo Library, by long-pressing on the image and choosing Save Image from the menu that appears. Also, more consistent handling of the file viewing no matter how you're getting to the file, and better handling when trying to view data files (shows a friendly error message).

• Basic members are now able to view all TechHelp replies. (This change in access will be extended to the desktop environment soon as well, no more restrictions on TechHelp reply viewing.)

• Improvements to the readability of the Community message stream, primarily through better handling of long URLs. [Before] and [after].

• Simplification of the tab bar at the bottom of the app. More features/tabs will be available here in the future.

• Numerous bug fixes.

Thanks for your feedback reports, please keep them coming, using the in-app "App Feedback" option on the settings tab.

Release Notes

In this version of the app, the following should be working:

• Reading discussions in on the Community tab. As mentioned above, you can now easily filter the view based on your preferences.

• Posting new messages and replying to existing discussions, including the ability to attach vehicle data (vehicle tag, DTCs, symptoms). Rather than picking a forum to post in, you post by choosing from a category. The goal here is for us to steer people's posts to the best category/forum based on what they're posting about.

• Subscribing to receive mobile "push" notifications when any discussion you're interested in receives replies. Just tap the Notify button in the mobile app when reading an interesting discussion. (We're currently sending notifications at most once per hour for each discussion that has received any replies during the previous hour.)

• Searching the Knowledge Base. Premium members only, as with the desktop version of iATN. However, in the near future, basic members will have the option to purchase a "Mobile Pass" directly in the app, providing short term access to search within the mobile app. (Most likely in 3, 7, and 30-day passes.) Our traditional Premium Memberships will still provide the best value: less expensive for monthly access, and will work across desktop and mobile. But for those that just want temporary search access on mobile, there will soon be a way to do that.

• VIN barcode scanning. There are a few ways to access this functionality. The first is to tap on the Search tab, then tap the barcode button in the top/right corner, or the "Scan VIN Barcode" button in the middle of the page (if you don't already have a search going).

There are a couple of shortcuts for VIN scanning available also. On the "Today View" that you can access in iOS by pulling from the top of the device down the screen, an iATN widget is available to install. Tap on the "Scan VIN" button there, and you'll be taken right into that functionality in the app. For those with iPhone 6s or 6s Plus, the newest models which support 3D Touch, you can also press firmly on our app icon to quickly access VIN barcode scanning.

Both 1D and 2D barcodes should work. We've found that barcodes on the door jams typically provide the most reliable barcode scanning.

• Sharing/Printing. You should be able to share or print any message using the "action" button at the top/right of the message view. And for replies to forum messages, you can tap on the reply and you'll see Reply/Share buttons that are specific to that reply, allowing you to reply to that reply, or share it.

• Logging In. For those using iCloud Keychain or have saved iATN login credentials in mobile Safari, you should find it very easy to login to the mobile app, as it will automatically prompt you to login with your account..

• Joining iATN. Though you are all already members of iATN, it's important that new members can join via the mobile app. You might even have some colleagues that aren't on iATN yet that may want to try out this functionality. If you're already sign into the app, tap on the profile tab (the one with your name on it), and select Sign Out. You'll see the option to "Create Account" near the bottom/left of the login form. It should be relatively easy to fill out the form and quickly start using the app. (Note that new accounts are read-only until our staff processes them by hand and approves/rejects them.)

Known Issues

Rest assured we have much, much, much more planned for the mobile app. If you find that there's something you can do on iATN now that you can't do in the app, it's probably already on our list of features coming soon. :-)

• You can't attach photos/videos when posting messages.

• You can't rate messages up or down.

• You can't save things to My iATN, nor access previously saved items.

• You can't view the message center.

• We aren't currently showing file metadata when viewing files, such as title, author, description, vehicle data, related discussions, member comments, etc.

• iPad has some display issues on the Search tab.

• There are some issues with using Siri dictation for composing messages in certain situations.

We'll be getting to all of these issues in time. If you find any other issues, please let us know, using the in-app "App Feedback" option on the settings tab.

Thomas Winzig
Administrator
iATN
Brea, California, USA

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