ARI Mobile App Roadmap
Changelog
- 3.1.8 — December 17, 2024 — Initial public launch of release version on iOS
- 3.1.8 — December 2, 2024 — Initial public launch of release version on Android
- Various bugs cleaned up through November
- Reliability testing of core features complete
- Assignment submissions feature offered as a beta release
- 3.0.7 — November 6, 2024 — Initial release candidate version released to additional alpha testers and select Ayn Rand University students
- Filtering by course categories added
- “Continue Learning”, “Recommended” course sliders added
- User accounts and watch history imported from the old app
- September 18, 2024 — Alpha test version released to a broader internal group of alpha testers
- Video progress tracking added
- Lock screen controls and background play added
- 3.0.0 — June 16, 2024 — Initial test version released to internal users
- App rebuilt using new, more reliable software
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Known Bugs and Errors
- ARU courses are not visible. Expected to be fixed by early January.
- On the Courses navigation page, when interacting with the course filters, the header of each filter is formatted awkwardly (e.g., “_courseCategory” instead of “Course Category”). Expected to be fixed in December.
- On the Courses navigation page, under the “All Levels” filter, the “Beginner” option is omitted in the mobile app but not the web app. “Intermediate” and “Advanced” both populate properly, indicating a small issue with indexing the available level options. Expected to be fixed in December.
- On the audio-only player, adjusting playback speed does not function properly. If you want to adjust your playback speed, you must keep your player in video mode. Audio-only is currently available as a tool for people to save bandwidth in limited data environments or if their cellular plan is data-restrictive. Expected to be fixed by mid-January.
- Courses which have been completed will still appear under the “Continue Learning” header on the homepage. This area should only feature courses in progress. Expected to be fixed by February.
- Downloading a course eliminates the audio-only option until the course is deleted from your phone, since users would not need to use bandwidth to stream a video once it is downloaded. This is bad behavior, though, as it still increases battery consumption. Expected to be fixed by March.
- Displayed Course Activity Timestamp on Course page does not update or display consistently on. While this does not impact the user’s ability to take the course, it is a cosmetic nuisance and should function properly. No timeline for this fix.
Known Issues for Improvement
- Courses in Ayn Rand University’s 2-year program are posted using an old video player, which does not save listening progress. This is an internal process issue, where we need to make sure the Zoom recordings can be posted fully into the new app’s system in a timely manner. Expected to launch by mid-January.
- On the lock screen, only the track name is displayed, and currently shows the system’s internal Lesson ID in brackets. The ideal lock screen will show the instructor as the “Artist” and the course name as the “Album” with the well-formatted lesson name as the “Song.” Further, the course image should appear as “Album Cover Art.” Expected to be launched by mid-January.
- When loading media in a lesson, listening progress is fetched after the full media file loads. The result is that the user might click play before the player seeks to their most recent progress point, resulting in an unpleasant experience. The player needs to fetch listening progress when it loads, so the experience is seamless. Expected to launch by February.
- For Android users, accessing downloaded courses in Airplane Mode can fail if the courses are not in the home screen (e.g., in “Continue Learning”) or if they are not near the top of the Courses screen. If you plan on using Airplane Mode, we recommend clicking “Take this Course” before downloading a course. If you’ve already started the course, we recommend listening to a lesson for just a second. Either of these actions will set the course as your most recent course accessed, making it the first option on your Continue Learning screen. Expected to be fixed by February.
- When on a course’s page, clicking the course’s tags navigates to a Category page for the specific tag. Since this looks similar to the overall Courses page, a user would reasonably expect to be able to apply the same course filters, e.g., filtering for Instructors or by Topic. Expected to be launched by March.
- On the Course navigation, when toggled into a long list of filter options (one which requires scrolling, such as the Instructors filter), scrolling up too quickly from the bottom will cause the list to close — the app thinks you are swiping the menu away, but you may intend to just be scrolling aggressively up in the list. No timeline for this improvement.
- When webviews of Ayn Rand Institute website pages are accessed in a popover window, the cookie banner displays in a large and unpleasant manner. While the EU requires these abominations, we are looking for ways to mitigate their intrusiveness. No timeline for this improvement.
- For certain Ayn Rand University courses, students are not expected to complete every lesson. This means they cannot mark the full course as “Complete” in the app. Though nothing breaks as a result of this, it is a nice experience to have a gallery of courses you’ve completed as a way of reflecting on your achievements. We are considering ways to help with this. No timeline for this improvement.
Upcoming Features
- A full-width “Start Here” block will appear at the top of the homescreen, featuring our system’s top recommendations for content for each user to consume. Expected to launch by February.
- Lexicon and Works and Talks will be added to the app, with seamless embedding of concepts into the course consumption experience. Expected to launch by February.
- Improved styling for the audio-only player. Expected to launch by March.
- Faster load speeds enabled by better caching and a content distribution network. Expected to launch by April.
- “Smart” recommendations based on your watch history. Expected to launch by April.