[Duvi]

You may have noticed a lot of changes around here lately, whether it be our desktop and mobile websites, or on our forums, we’ve been rather busy. Of course, not to be outdone by all this change, it’s time for our app to see an update, and it’s a fairly major one at that.

So I present to you, the official Windows Phone Central app version 3.0, and the product of months and months of hard work, testing, private betas, and then lots more hard work!

The update is available to download right now from the Windows Phone Store here, but if you want to find out what’s new, read on for a feature list. Video walkthrough will follow in a future article, so stay tuned.

Our headline feature this time around, and one that with no doubt has been the most frequently requested, is full forum integration. Swipe over to the browse section and tap the forum tile and you’ll be welcomed to the new forum home screen (you could also tap and hold the forum tile if you want the option to pin it directly to your start screen - see above photo).

We’ve built this forum support from the ground up, based on the Tapatalk API and you’ll find support for:

• Posting and editing entries
• Browsing the forums including sub forums
• Quick jumping around the forums (just tap the header when you’re browsing)
• Viewing photos attached to posts
• Following links posted by other members
• Viewing profile information about users (just tap their tile when viewing a thread)
• Sending and receiving private messages
• Deep linking to forum posts from articles and vice versa
• Viewing recently participated and latest posts from the home screen
• Searching for a post within the forums

We’ve also made a few other changes you might appreciate:

• A new live tile to match the new site logo (rolling out soon to the website - this is a preview)
• Customisable themes for the app and live tile (try out a new Windows Phone 8 colour!)
• Improved YouTube video support with HD streaming even on mobile connections
• Rebranded with the new site logo
• Adjusted margins to bring more content to the front
• Added jump options to the comments section
• Fixed a multitude of bugs
• Made several optimisations to the app
• Reduced the app’s installed footprint to less than 1MB

I’m quite sure I’ve forgotten something from that list but hopefully it’s enough of a change to make you interested! We’ve also made all forum functionality available to free users, you guys will just see the same adverts you’re used to.

Without a doubt this has been a very challenging few months for me but I hope you’ll all feel it has been worth it! Of course, we always welcome your feedback in any form, so please comment, e-mail, post on the forums and generally get in touch!

[mjrtoo]

Amazing work as always, love the new forums! :-)

[Laura Knotek]

This is by far the best way to view and post in the forums on a Windows Phone.

[Duvi]

This is by far the best way to view and post in the forums on a Windows Phone.

I agree. I won't even mention the competition, because there isn't.

Well worth the $0.99 and more!

[VagrantWade]

ARM app and you can have all my moneys for both.

[JayTBennett]

ARM app and you can have all my moneys for both.

It will happen I promise :)

[Shobiz]

Great update. But it doesn't download high resolution thumbnail pictures when on WiFi all the time.

[JayTBennett]

Great update. But it doesn't download high resolution thumbnail pictures when on WiFi all the time.

Yes I had to make a compromise and test for WiFi in a new thread (otherwise it can fail, take ages, and then crash) so it won't always work. Sorry, but this is a limitation of the OS :(

[Shobiz]

Ok cool. Actually, I used this app to make sure I was connected to WiFi.

[kenzibit]

The best app by far. Kudos to Jay and WPCentral. Hope other developers and sites are learning from great examples like this.

[Jalik]

Very well done. It also loads quicker in my Lumia 800! :)

[mjrtoo]

One feature id like to see changed slightly is how you navigate the forum pages. Instead of loading each page as you swipe, would it be possible to load when you STOP swiping, so you can swipe to the page you want quickly and the have it load? Might reduce the amount of data etc.

[JayTBennett]

I'll look into it mjtroo, the difficult part is knowing when you've stopped swiping as that could be after any of the swipes we're registering...

[mjrtoo]

Like a few seconds after you release the swipe? I realize that might be difficult. Great update though, all devs should look to this app for how it should work. :-)

[Xsever]

Try weave news reader too. Very well written too for wp8

[Jazmac]

One of the baddest apps in the marketplace. Keeps getting better and better. Good job on this one. I like it even more now that I discovered I can get to the forums using it. Awesome code guys.

[DJRedLine]

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x

Any chance that in the next update we can get lockscreen notifications?

[JayTBennett]

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x



Any chance that in the next update we can get lockscreen notifications?

that's actually going to be extremely challenging for the count, as Microsoft have said that we have to use the normal count API (so small number on black circle or square) in order to have lock screen count notifications. At present I have written a custom tile, but we'll explore the options available to us

[Duvi]

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x

Any chance that in the next update we can get lockscreen notifications?

Show-off! :P

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x

Hope you're enjoying your device.

[Duvi]

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x

Any chance that in the next update we can get lockscreen notifications?

Show-off! :P

Excellent update and works superb on htc 8x

Hope you're enjoying your device.

[Adretheon]

Since this is the only post about the WPC app I guess I'll post it up here. First of all, I love the app and the new look.

I would however love the ability to have push notifications for when someone reply's to my comments on articles. I've found myself many times asking a question on an article then forgetting I did or what article it was on. So it would be nice to get a push notification for that.

Aside from that everything else works and looks great :D

[JayTBennett]

Hi Adretheon, push notifications are a little tough to do with our current infrastructure but are something I may look in to. What will be coming pretty soon is email notifications when you receive a response, which hopefully will be a good feature :)

[Adretheon]

Hi Adretheon, push notifications are a little tough to do with our current infrastructure but are something I may look in to. What will be coming pretty soon is email notifications when you receive a response, which hopefully will be a good feature :)

That would be wonderful. Just something to remind me I actually commented a question haha.

[Muessig]

I'm currently on the 'try' version of WPC and i've noticed a weird little bug wondered why it would be happening. I've got WPC tile as the smallest version at the moment and occasionally when I unlock my phone instead of seeing the new logo, I see a black tile and white text "Windows" on the very left side of the tile vertically going down like this:

W
i
n
d
o
w
s

If I load up the app and then go back to the start screen again I see the normal logo again. Why would this be happening? Could it be because I'm on try version?

[Duvi]

I'm currently on the 'try' version of WPC and i've noticed a weird little bug wondered why it would be happening. I've got WPC tile as the smallest version at the moment and occasionally when I unlock my phone instead of seeing the new logo, I see a black tile and white text "Windows" on the very left side of the tile vertically going down like this:

W
i
n
d
o
w
s

If I load up the app and then go back to the start screen again I see the normal logo again. Why would this be happening? Could it be because I'm on try version?

Because you have it as the smallest you can have an icon... :P

Hopefully Jay will have a real answer for you.