iOS App Store Release Checklist

[benonymity]

Here is a rough checklist of bugs that should be fixed on the iOS app before it comes out of beta and could go onto the App Store.

• [x] #973 - Lots of playback errors/starting on open
• [x] #1104 - Improve background efficiency
• [x] #1177 - Syncing playback speed to AVPlayer
• [x] #1141 - Fix play/pause hooks
• [x] #622 - Smooth out rewind/pause
• [x] #1002 - Now Playing chapter track, resolves #239
• [x] #844 and #910 - Annoying playback crash
• [x] #477 - Fix timer reset on play/pause
• [x] #933 - Diagnose/fix unique playback issue

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There are also many quality of life updates that don't make the app unusable, but would be nice to have. They're incomprehensively listed here:

Features:

• [ ] Complete Swift SDK for background API access (requires OpenAPI spec to be finalized)
  • [ ] #475 - Needs native API access
  • [ ] #725 - iOS shortcuts would also be made possible by an SDK
  • [ ] #629 - Would also probably need an API SDK
  • [ ] If all this was completed, a home screen/lock screen widget would be a simple addition
• [ ] #466 - Implement on iOS to parity with Android
• [ ] #260 - Sleep Timer improvements to parity with Android
• [ ] #205 - Add setting for rewind time
• [ ] #163 - Offline bookmarks
• [ ] #60:
  • [ ] Mark podcast as done from player menu
  • [ ] Ability to swipe on books for options
• [ ] #542 - Display downloaded books in library tab
• [ ] #544 - Jump to titles
• [ ] #831 - Android sleep timer fade parity
• [ ] #779 - Open Airplay UI from in-app
• [x] #818 - Increase hitbox of playhead
• [x] #526 - Prevent accidentally losing your place

Bugs:

• [ ] #968 - Playback error logging
• [ ] #985 - Sleep timer "end of chapter" problems
• [ ] #452 - Fix local seek of finished books
• [ ] #798 - UI issue with ebooks
• [ ] #998 - Tap vs. swipe event confusion in webView
• [ ] #891 - Consistency between app and native time remaining
• [ ] #1000 - Huge amount of effort for minimal return, but maybe eventual endeavor
• [x] #686 - Issues between tracks with short rewinds
• [x] #699 - Specific multitrack resume issue
• [x] #681 - Selective swipe-back
• [ ] Any other crashes not documented/reproducible

[advplyr]

For the improve bookmarks bug I don't think that is actually a bug. It wasn't reproducible. Adding offline bookmarking and syncing would be a feature but would be lower priority for release.

The continue listening shelf offline was also not a bug but I closed that one since I added that in the last release. There is one other thing I want to add before coming out of beta which is showing the offline items in the library view. Currently when you are offline you will see nothing in there and all your downloaded media will be on the home page.

Thanks for making this checklist, getting there!

[advplyr]

I just closed #375 and made #163 the main thread for offline bookmarks

[benonymity]

Great, updated those two things on the list!

[Jmanko16]

Bug, selecting chapter list and going backwards does not actually take you to that chapter, it just resets current chapter to beginning on iOS

[Jmanko16]

Consider adding download button for offline playback to app (allow audiobook file or ebook to be downloaded locally and played in another app)

[whmountains]

I would be in favor of releasing as soon as possible, and adding more features after the app store release. The app is already incredibly useful, and at least one friend has told me that the only thing steering them away from ABS is the lack of a mobile app.

I'm guessing this option was considered and discarded. What was the reason? Perhaps it is easier to iterate faster with testflight.

If the app were released to the store, I would still happily stay on the testflight version to help test new features. Probably many other users would as well. You could release to testflight first, then to the app store a few weeks later after the bugs are worked out.

[advplyr]

I'm okay with releasing before everything on the checklist is complete, but I don't think it is ready to release right now. It's close though.

Once you release you start getting rated and reviewed. Many people are not going to see that this is an early release and under active development, so they will give a negative rating on something we are currently working on. It's not a big deal since it will be a free app, but still preventable by not rushing out of beta. Having a poorly rated app does detract users if we want people to use the software we've been building.

[vdrover]

following, and offering encouragement to release as-is.

[benonymity]

Thanks for the bump @vdrover, just updated the list with new features and bugs. I agree that getting a release out sooner would be better, especially judging by the incessant requests for more beta space, but there are a few gamebreaking playback bugs it would probably be bad to publish with. But hopefully a release isn't too far in the future!

[ruoti]

I'm willing to help out with this in the coming weeks, once school is out for the break.

However, I think it would be good for the people who have been working on iOS to triage this list. While the bugs seem reasonable to fix before release, many of the features feel like things that could easily wait until a later time. This post is nearly a year old, and based on the number of items in the list, it would seem that the app is farther from release today than it was in February. At this point, more people might be being driven away from audiobookshelf by the lack of an app then would be driven away by a good app with some issues (what it currently is) that gets 4/5 stars in the app store.

[vdrover]

Willing to contribute a 5-star rating post-release :)

[vdrover]

Just an idea: leave the source code open source and charge a 1-time fee of $2.99 for the app as a "distribution fee". That's totally compatible with the GPL, and could easily cover the apple developer fee at a minimum.

[benonymity]

@ruoti good point, I've now separated this list into a release section and nice QoL updates. Especially since some of the bugs are only affecting a few people it might not be reasonable to wait on them for a release that is affecting a lot of people. I'll also put some time in over the holiday break to try and fix some of the bigger bugs.

[advplyr]

Thanks everyone for the comments and @benonymity for keeping a running checklist.

I would say the main blocker for iOS right now is the bugs. We are getting a lot of reports, especially in Discord, about the media player closing when the phone is asleep and you pause with bluetooth. I haven't been able to reproduce that but I removed some background activity yesterday from the iOS side so hopefully someone can build from source and check if that is still a bug.

Maybe iOS made some recent changes that kills background tasks. Android has similar issues to overcome with background tasks getting killed, mostly by the battery optimization logic.

[gh0sti]

following, and offering encouragement to release as-is.

I would not release until we know for sure that the pause/resume function works. This is a very frustrating experience on iOS users when streaming/playing from download and pausing the book for more than 5 seconds kills the app and the playback session until you reopen the app. @advplyr says he has a fix but the users who have said this is an issue really should test this to make sure it's ready to go. I believe this is a show stopper until resolved with feedback.

[advplyr]

I don't have a fix because I haven't been able to reproduce the issue, but I did make some updates.

[vdrover]

I experience the issue (not a blocker for releasing for me as progress is saved), but happy to test. I have version 0.9.66 currently.

[TeroKeso]

I just bought an iPhone 15 alongside Android. If there have been no differences between sideloading vs testflight, then I can try to reproduce the problems. playback issues are familiar from the early days of the Android app

[advplyr]

I want to add that I think we need to better handle playback errors before the release. This is commonly reported as an Abs bug when the audio file cannot be played on the device. I opened an issue for it https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/issues/968

[gh0sti]

I want to add that I think we need to better handle playback errors before the release. This is commonly reported as an Abs bug when the audio file cannot be played on the device. I opened an issue for it #968

since either using ABS to convert multi mp3s to m4b or just adding m4bs from elsewhere I haven't come accross this issue on iOS. Is this due to quality of the audio file such as flac ect?

[vdrover]

Seems you're getting closer. Any estimate for release?

[jvik]

FYI: I've been using the iOS Beta for a year now, and it has been working flawless for me through ~200 hours. In my opinion it is more than stable enough for a production release and I would gladly pay for it.

[TheUncannyObserver]

I would also be willing to pay for this once it releases. I use the mobile view every day from Safari, but a native app would be much better.

[nigiriemoji]

Can you please add issue #973 to the list of bugs for iOS checklist? I feel like this is going to be a common bug for many iOS 17 and newer users

[benonymity]

Done. I think right now #973 is probably the most obvious barrier to release. Can't speak for everyone, but I encounter it on an almost daily basis. When I have some time I'll try to see what if anything changed in either the ABS code or iOS 17 that broke playback so blatantly—it should hopefully be a simple solution.

[indiefan]

Regarding #973, I’m curious if the change was related to defaultRate (and thus fixed by recent pull request). @benonymity if you’re encountering it so frequently, can you try using a build from head which includes that fix and see if it still happens? (Not sure how long it takes for changes to make it into the test flight build)

[harupong]

I tried iOS app v0.9.74-beta with iOS17 installed iPhone, and #973 seems to be fixed. Thanks a lot for a great contribution, @indiefan !! Can't wait for the official release to the App Store 🚀

[RaHoni]

Has anyone an Idea when the IOS Version might release? Or if I can help without a Mac?

[BlwAvg]

Has anyone an Idea when the IOS Version might release? Or if I can help without a Mac?

There is a primary developer who makes daily commits, along with several additional contributors. We are excited about the upcoming iOS support, but it requires time to implement. This is a free project, and the work is progressing at an exceptionally fast pace for a volunteer effort.

As for how you can help, you absolutely can! Visit the main page and check out the "Contributing" section for more information. https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app

EDIT: In the meantime, for iOS users, you can purchase ShelfPlayer for about $4. Many iOS ABS users recommend this app. Although I use Android and cannot personally vouch for it.