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Android App release 2.8.0: A better UI to improve your workflow

UI improvements for a more efficient workflow: 2.8.0 brings you a redesigned side panel, a cleaner tablet view, new, more intuitive icons any more.
ownCloud Android app release

We received a lot of feedback via , over the GooglePlayStore reviews and over the ownCloud forum Central. All of it helped ensure we built the Android app you want.

 

Sidebar menu with more details and features

The side bar menu now has Feedback and Help options, and two brandable images; one directly in the lower side bar, and a background in the top header.

It also displays a user disk space quota, showing used and available space, at the bottom of the side menu. Now, at a quick glance, you’ll know when you’re running out of space

 

ownCloud side bar improvements

Interface improvements on the side bar

 

Turn your Sort Upside Down

Previously, you could sort files alphabetically, by size and creation date, but until now, it was not possible to make this sort descending. Do you like the new sort submenu with descending option? Let us know!

 

ownCloud android app sort descending

Sort your files as you want with the new “Descending” option

 

New Download Icons

Some of you asked for new download and available offline icons, so they can be easier distinguished. They deserved a complete redesign – give us your feedback about the new download and available offline icons and the new pins for downloaded, sync and available offline files and folders.

 

ownCloud android app new download icons

You can see the new icons best, if you select a file while holding your phone sideways.

ownCloud android app new download pins

Pins in different colors symbolize the current state of a file.

 

User Feedback Improves the Tablet Look

The ownCloud Android app can not only be used on Android smartphones, but also on Android tablets. There are many users using the app in bigger screens and giving us feedback about their experience. Thank you very much for this, it helped a lot to improve the app even more.

The previous landscape design on tablets consisted of two different panels, the list of files on the left and the preview mode on the right. This is out of trend and was triggering some problems when reading longer file-names. That’s why we got rid of the two panels and keep just one in landscape mode in tablets.

 

ownCloud android app tablet view

The new view on tablets, more up to date and convenient.

 

Making the OAuth2 Flow more Secure

There are some security improvements in the OAuth2 authentication process. Specifically, the embedded web view has been replaced with Chrome custom tabs to correct some edge case security issues.

 

ownCloud android oauth2 custom chrome tabs

Displaying the OAuth2 windows with Custom Chrome tabs prevents certain hacks.

 

Improvements to Sharing

The primary purpose of ownCloud for all users is file sharing. Other features are fantastic, too, but in the end it boils down to sharing. So, the sharing view was redesigned to provide a more intuitive layout now.

Since File Drop was fully integrated into ownCloud X, users can let others, who don’t have an account, upload files while not allowing them to view other users’ files. It’s a very handy function, but the process was unintuitive.

In 2.7.0, you had to check “allow editing” and uncheck “show file listing” to create a File Drop link. To provide a consistent user flow with the web interface, you can now see the 3 possible options:

 

ownCloud android app sharing view more intuitive

All possible sharing options are displayed in the sharing view now.

 

Fixing Camera Uploads – Work with us!

You told us that some devices and camera apps are still having problems with Camera Uploads. We are investigating, but we can’t reproduce the errors on our test devices – yet. So we need your help.

How can you help us: if you are encountering the problems, too, please report them to us. Work closely with us to solve them; together we can find the cause. We need as much information as you can give us, and sometimes we may need you to try out hotfixes.

If you are still having problems with Camera Uploads, please get in touch with us and open an issue on Github or email ! Together we can fix this.

 

Developing this app is a big community effort, so we want to thank a few of you. Harshit Bansal continued to contribute after the last release, this time he fixed an issue with the snackbar hiding a button. Thanks also go to Semih Karakaya, who fixed an issue with backwards compability.

This version is already available on Google Play Store and F-Droid, get it now! If you use ownCloud, but have not seen the Android app yet, check it out! If you already use it and like it, give us a review:

 

 

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ownCloud

July 11, 2018

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