Since upgrading to the latest version of the Android app (v15), I’ve noticed a few regressions that I wanted to highlight.
For context, my normal Newsblur mobile workflow is that I scroll the ‘Unread Site Stories’ feed (set to ‘Unread - Oldest’), with items automatically marked as read as I pass them, and I open interesting ones to take a look and save ones I want to read later.
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Default long-press story action became ‘Share’, which was very confusing. Until now, long-pressing had always either saved/unsaved or opened an action menu where I could do so (I don’t remember exactly which). I don’t remember if that was built-in or something I had customised, but is it not possible to preserve the existing behaviour by default?
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Under Settings → Preferences → Gestures → Story titles, ‘Swipe left’ and ‘Swipe right’ can both be set to ‘Save / unsave’, but ‘Long press’ can only be set to ‘Save’
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Opening an item now seems to have more of a delay than before. I can’t get it to reproduce reliably, but sometimes it will take further still—a couple of seconds—with a 'Loading’ notification at the bottom of the screen, which I’d never seen before. I’ll see if I can record it the next time it happens.
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Feed names now seem to be the same text size as item names, which is a bit confusing under normal conditions (it took me a while to realise that it wasn’t my feeds’ item titles being mangled):
…but looks particularly bad in ‘Compact’ mode and on sizes L and above:
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I couldn’t find any release notes available for the Android app; what else changed in v15?
Debug info:
- App version: Newsblur (
com.newsblur) 15.0.0, installed from F-Droid
- Device: Google Pixel 8a w/ GrapheneOS v2026091001
Amazing, super useful screenshots. It’s in the test track but because you’re on f droid you upgraded immediately. I’m still iterating on it and have some pretty huge updates coming out later today. I’ll take your comments into account. Keep them coming as I put out more updates.
v15.0.4 is coming next with fixes for story title sizing and spacing. Feed names are now smaller and less prominent than headlines, and titles, previews, authors, and dates have proper spacing without overlapping. I tested all five font sizes in both Compact and Comfortable, across all themes and both orientations. Here are samples in Black:
A few other changes since 15.0.0 that address your report:
- Long press defaults to the story actions menu again. Explicitly saved gesture choices are preserved, so if yours still opens Share, choose “Show actions” in Preferences.
- “Save / unsave” is now available for long press, alongside “Save story.”
- Opening a story now starts the transition before the article finishes rendering. This should help with the delay, though I haven’t reproduced your intermittent multi-second pause. A recording would still be useful if it continues.
- Story and feed menus have icons and grouped actions. “Mark older/newer stories read” is available in the story menu.
- Font size and theme can be changed directly from the story list menu. There are also more choices for when stories get marked read, including scrolling, opening, a delay, or manually.
Thanks for the detailed report. Those screenshots helped pinpoint the overlap.
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(FYI F-Droid lists multiple 15.0.0 versions, not sure if that’s expected or not)
Yeah I didnt want to give up the 15.0.0 version number but I kept putting out so many updates that I gave up and just increased the minor version. The build number is more important anyhow.
