What’s New In TimeTune 5.3

Hello TimeTuners! TimeTune 5.3 is already here! 😀

The star of this update is the new ‘Search’ option in the ‘Schedule’ section. This powerful feature will come in very handy when searching for blocks by multiple criteria (and will allow us to simplify the interface in a future update too).

But that’s not all!

As always, the new version includes many more updates and optimizations ✨

Keep reading to discover all the new improvements!

NEW SEARCH OPTION IN THE SCHEDULE

If you wanted to search past blocks in previous versions, you had to go to the ‘Blocks’ section and search there.

However, the ‘Blocks’ section only shows what we call ‘original blocks’ (blocks as they were created originally). If you later modify a block in the schedule, that modification doesn’t appear in ‘Blocks’.

So to streamline everything, we added a search option to the schedule:

Thanks to multiple filters, you will be able to refine your search as much as you need 🔎

You will be able to search:

• By block title and description at the same time.
• In schedule blocks or in original blocks.
• All blocks, past blocks or future blocks only.
• Blocks related to a specific activity (or all activities).
• All blocks, completed blocks or uncompleted blocks only.

Also, you will be able to sort the results in ascending or descending order ⬆️⬇️

And one more thing! The new search feature will allow us to simplify the app’s interface in a future update:

SIMPLIFYING THE INTERFACE

The new search option renders the ‘Blocks’ section basically obsolete 🙀

The ‘Blocks’ section has always been a bit awkward. It’s just a list of blocks since the beginning of time. If we are honest, the search option was the only useful feature there.

So understandably, the majority users didn’t use the ‘Blocks’ section at all.

That’s why we added a message announcing the future removal of that section:

Remember, if you filter by ‘Original blocks’ in the new ‘Search’ feature in the schedule, you will see the same information you see in ‘Blocks’.

ADVANCING/DELAYING BLOCKS WITH GAPS

Prior to version 5.3, the app didn’t allow you to advance or delay a group of blocks if the selection included empty blocks.

Well, now you can! 🥳

It doesn’t matter if the the empty blocks are at the top, at the bottom or in the middle of the selection. The advance/delay options will be available either way:

NOW YOU CAN EDIT PAST BLOCKS

This has been a source of frustration for a long time. Before this version, if you wanted to edit a repetitive block that started in the past, the app forced you to change the date to a future date.

Why did we have that restriction? 🤔

TimeTune works a bit differently than a traditional calendar. Modifications made to repetitive blocks or templates only apply to future dates, not to past dates. Past dates are your history and they are kept as a log of what happened.

So to avoid confusion, the app forced you to change the date to a future date when making any modification. Not an ideal user experience 😖

TimeTune 5.3 finally removes that restriction and you’ll be able to modify original blocks at will. Just keep in mind that your modifications will apply to future dates only.

NEW SCREEN IN ‘CALENDAR SYNC’ SETTINGS

The old screen for calendar synchronization settings was awkward too. There was a lot of real state in the screen but the app forced you to open a secondary dialog in order to see your calendars.

TimeTune 5.3 implements a new ‘Calendar sync’ screen that shows all the necessary information as soon as you open it:

Now all your calendars are available in the main screen.

Less steps, better user experience 😍

LOCALIZATION FOR DATES, TIMES AND NUMBERS

TimeTune 5.3 properly localizes all dates, times and numbers in non-Latin alphabets:

Different languages may use different characters to express quantities. They can also use different expressions for times and dates.

Adapting this localization for all fields in the app has been a delicate task, but we’re very satisfied with the result 🙌

And that lead to another improvement:

NEW QUANTITY PICKER

When choosing recurring patterns for blocks and templates, the app now uses a new quantity picker:

In previous versions the app used the device’s keyboard to enter quantities. But that was a problem in non-Latin alphabets, because the keyboard might not have the proper alphabet installed.

With the new quantity picker, selecting quantities in non-Latin alphabets is straightforward:

And then we realized that… using the new quantity picker (in any language) is faster than using the device’s keyboard!

That’s a great win-win! 🎉

INTERNAL RESTRUCTURING AND OPTIMIZATIONS

There was a big update in the Android Gradle Plugin that forced us to change many parts of the internal structure of the app.

We had been postponing many of these internal changes for a while because they are delicate, but now there was no escape 🏃

So we rolled our sleeves and started to work. We even took the opportunity to implement many other optimizations we had in store.

Every time we implement big modifications like this, it’s scary. The chance of bugs increases significantly, but in the end nothing bad happened 😮‍💨

ANDROID 5.1 NOT POSSIBLE ANYMORE

Some AndroidX libraries and the Google Play Billing Library don’t work with Android 5.1 anymore.

We always try to support older Android versions as much as possible. But sadly, those libraries forced us to drop support for Android 5.1 😢

The app can now be installed in Android 6.0 and above.

(If you are on Android 5.1 the app will continue to work, but you won’t receive new updates.)

OTHER CHANGES

As always, the new version includes multiple additional changes and fixes:

• Improved slide up/down animation for the bottom menu.
• New social media icons: Twitch, Bluesky, Whatsapp, Wechat, Snapchat.
• Widget buttons now always follow the chosen theme color.
• The widget now always shows am/pm times without leading zeros.
• Solved a problem about blocks sometimes not aligned in the widget.
• Day headers in the widget are now aligned to blocks.
• New 5-minute preset added to the duration picker.
• Solved alignment problems in right-to-left languages.
• Solved a problem about calendar events not opening correctly.
• New translation: Czech.

We hope you like the new version!

If you have any questions or suggestions, let us know! 😀

(Top illustration by Freepik)