I know you’ve got nothing better to do but my two cents worth is that a Jisho button is just as essential as a Pleco button 
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And please don’t forget the Midori button for the Japanese app as in the old version.
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Any new information about a possible release? Thanks for your kind reply
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We don’t have an ETA for the release, but we are working hard to get that point!
Any word on the next beta? It’s been a long time since the last update, and with old Skritter not working on iOS 12, the bugs on beta are starting to become really grating. Would love to see a fix for the new kanji issue in particular.
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Hi,
I’ve been using the Japanese beta since the demise of the old skritter and have to say that I am really disappointed my my learning experience. A few things:
-
The loss of automatically adding words is not only annoying but has also slowed down the pace of my learning as I have to remember to constantly add new words
-
Whenever new words are added i have to log out and back into the the app as the writing for kanji does not work when they are first added
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I have a strange bug that whenever the writing for 死ぬ (!) appears it constantly loops so I cannot progress any further without having to log out and back in again
-
When I log into the website there is a whole host of hiragana/katakana only words that are not on my review list in the app
I subscribe to this app because i want to supplement my Japanese studies. However, it now feels like I am paying to support developers, develop an app for Japanese learners.
It would be useful if you could share when these bugs will be fixed, a timeline to release of the next beta and when (if ever) the old skritter will be back up and running.
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First off I would to apologize for how long this is taking. This next update very well may be the most significant update Skritter has seen, which is why it’s been taking so long. We are still working with Apple to reach a solution with the original Japanese iOS app on iOS 12. In addition to this, we hope that the beta app will out perform the original iOS app in every way, making the original app the lesser of the two. We’ve been trying to put together a timeline of upcoming updates, however it’s not set in stone yet.
Regarding the bug with 死ぬ (what a word to have this bug on!), you can work past this by disabling the Study Kana option in your study settings.
Would you be able to provide a list of the hiragana/katakana words showing up on the website that are not showing up on the app?
So I guess you cannot firmly answer any of my questions and I will have to use workarounds to continue studying?
The list of words showing on the website but not the app are as follows:
にわか
エプロン
レインコート
ふわふわ
めっきり
ピクニック
ミリメートル
にこにこ
ウエートレス
オーバーコート
ぴたり
ばったり
プラットホーム
はきはき
ごくろうさま
しょうがない
でたらめ
ですから
おきのどくに
おおざっぱ
とっくに
めまい
サイレン
そういえば
そうっと
ずうっと
ぼろ
テニスコート
インキ
おやすみ
カーペット
くどい
ばね
タイプライター
おかえり
しゃっくり
どきどき
ブローチ
ファスナー
のろのろ
ぶつぶつ
はあ
そそっかしい
なぜなら
ぶつ
いってきます
さきおととい
しまった
ソファー
しめた
しいんと
どこか
しかたがない
まごまご
なだらか
オートメーション
おおよそ
くれぐれも
Is the Study Kana option on or off in your settings? Hoping to figure this one out soon!
Hi - It’s on.
Thanks
Hmm, I’ve retransferred your study data-- would you be able to delete and reinstall the app to see if those kana items show up?
I deleted and reinstalled but the same issue is occurring I’m afraid.
I too feel like I’m not paying for the service I wanted. I think that a subscription service, unlike a one time purchase, ought to be always up to date and always improving. Sadly I’ve been stuck with no good version of Skritter for a long time now and I’m pondering renewing my annual subscription when the time comes in November. Hearing you saying it will be the biggest update of all, it feels like you’re starting from scratch for the third time. I want to believe you and I hope the big update will be good and will come before the end of my subscription.
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I also feel like the service is steadily deteriorating. And you’ve made no commitment as to when a new beta will be released that wipes out all of the bugs we are currently struggling with. Disappointing.
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Unfortunately my study progress has massively slowed down due to the above mentioned problems. I honestly do not blame the developers for taking their time to get things right, as we are heading into a huge update. However, priority should always lie on reliability. The above mentioned problems are known for 2 months already. That means my study progress has been negatively influenced for many weeks. That said, I only ask you for one thing for the future: please provide at least a small update to fix the most severe bugs, so your paying users can keep studying properly. In the meantime, you can work on the bigger updates in the background. I guess nobody would blame you for this kind of approach.
Btw: I know that using the mobile website is an alternative, however I feel much more comfortable using the app. Hence, the mobile website hasn’t been a true alternative for me.
@ skritter developers: please do not regard this as blaming. Rather see it as a kind advise from the perspective of your users. As we do not know about your internal plans, the current situation has indeed become frustrating.
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Another bug - my review list yesterday was 266 however it took +800 reviews to get it to zero.
Any reason for this?
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First, I wanna thank you all for taking the time to write and comment on the forum, send emails, etc. and express concern rather than just running for the door. We totally should be releasing updates out and fixing little bugs while we work on bigger things. It’s the correct way to roll out updates. And we haven’t been doing that.
It has got to be supremely frustrating, especially if you’ve been supporting us and Skritter over the years. Honestly, it is frustrating for us, too. As much as we’d like to be on that path right now, we’ve had to make some tough decisions, and we feel that the short-term pause on updates is the only way to reach the long-term goal of stable apps that are updated and improved regularly-- and worth paying a premium monthly fee for.
What we’re doing right now is taking the necessary steps to ensure that we can be doing all of the things you would expect from a mobile app company like ours from here on out. We understand that the decision we’ve made has killed momentum and increased frustration–especially for those of you who have been so hardcore on Skritter.
Our current timeline for the Skritter: Write Japanese update (and the path to App Store release) is December 1st. Our team is doing everything we can right now to get the new Japanese app out for testing before that date. The Chinese app will follow shortly after that. Japanese is broken on iOS 12 and it needs replacing first. Things might have gone a bit differently had that not been the case, but it is the reality we’re dealing with and one we’re working to overcome as quickly as possible.
While we’re not writing the app from scratch, we are working hard to make some necessary changes to certain elements of the application. The coming update will help ensure that the following trouble areas are resolved from here on out.
- Offline access and quick syncing updates for app data (lists, study progress, example sentences, stroke data, mnemonics, decomps, etc.)
- An SRS review queue that doesn’t baffle the world with strange behavior and extended study sessions to just get to 0 for the day!
We’re not stopping there though. We’re also working on some killer updates that should make Skritter a more fun, useful, and rewarding study experience for all (including new users, which should help us ramp up development efforts in the future).
I don’t just wanna talk about the app, I wanna show it off as well. So, here are some images from the app as of this morning. Sorry for the unexpected color change in the app, I’m using one of the new themes that’ll be included in the app as well (we realize not everyone is a fan of Skritter’s black/green/tan experience). I proud to report that I’ve learned more Hiragana in the last week of testing than I have in my life thus far. And that is a very good sign of what these kinds of changes will do for your Skritter experience soon!
List learning and testing options for comprehensive study experience in a single list.
List section options for both learning and testing!
Learning card preview (more updates coming to this screen)
List and List Section testing controls and settings
Still concerned, angry, or frustrated? Please feel free to reach out to me personally so we can talk more. I’m happy to correspond via email or even jump on a phone call if necessary. My email is jake@skritter.com
Best,
Jake
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This was a great update, Jake, and just what I was looking for. Thank you. It’s good to know that the old app will be up and running soon, and that the new app will be ready before end of year.
Skritter has been VERY helpful for my post-N1 learning, and I’m excited for these changes! Offline access will be huge, especially on those long plane flights to Tokyo.
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First, thanks for your kind reply. So, your plan is to release the “final” official version of Japanese Skritter by 12.01 this year. The Chinese version will follow afterwards. So far so clear to me. My question is still regarding the Beta version of the Chinese version. Will we likely see any kind of update in the next days as the iOS beta will expire in a few days? I have become very dependent on Skritter and since my new semester at University has just started, I am really in a pity situation right now. So once again the question: will there be any chance to get a small update which fixes the most severe bugs mentioned above? For sure I am not requesting for any new feature here. If not in the next days, can you make any rough estimation when to expect the next Chinese beta, so I can think about alternatives to continue studying. Thanks in advance for your feedback on this.
I totally understand. And thanks for writing a reply so quick! @josh will work on submitting a new build on Friday at the latest. Factoring in the weekend we should still be able to get the update out in time even if there is a rejection issue we have to address for some reason.
I’ll be honest. I’m not sure how many issues we’re going to get fixed up in the next two days. A lot of the code we’re working on right now is isolated from that version of the app. But, we’ll do what we can to include stuff if possible.
Sorry that I didn’t address this in my previous reply. This morning I checked my TestFlight before writing the reply and I looked at an internal build, not 3.0.18 that you’re on. Eight days is a lot less time than the 45 I thought we were working with.
Our current development-cycle would leave you all without the current beta and that isn’t what we intend at all.
Apologies!
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