SuttaCentral mobile app now available in Google Play Store

moderator note: this app is no longer available in the Google Play store, the thread is now closed to avoid confusion

I’m pleased to announce a SuttaCentral Android App is now on the Play Store, available below or by searching for ‘SuttaCentral’ in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.suttacentral.suttacentral.suttacentraltwa

Any testing feedback on this thread is very welcome. Currently it has shortcuts for SC-Voice and Discuss and Discover that can be placed on the home screen and should be able to be used alongside the “Add To Home Screen” app that you may be using if you’re an Android user (no Apple App Store yet, still working on it!) :

Many thanks to everyone part of this so far - @faujidoc1, @HongDa and Bhante @sujato and the earlier web devs who made it a Progressive Web App. Any merit from this I’d like to dedicate to the many many beings effected or yet to be effected by the fires here.

@faujidoc1 has produced the lovely poster below, we can download the PNG here or PDF here if anyone would like to promote SuttaCentral this way with an easy QR Code :slight_smile:

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Thank you, Michael. This is so utterly cool!!

And I join in your wishes for all people and animals threatened by the fires in Australia right now. It’s hard to imagine how you must feel like when staying in winterly cold Europe. My heart is with you over there! :heart:

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Hello from the SuttaCentral App!
With a few minutes of playing with it, everything seems to work good. It’s cool!

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This is great. I look forward to the iOS application. Thank you for all of your efforts.

I would gladly print these flyers to promote the app and website.

One small note, there is no space between the period after the first sentence. It is not a big deal but caught my eye immediately and I figured I would let you know.

Not intending to not pick. Just wanted to help a fellow friend :pray:

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Whoops! This has got to be Mara’s doing … up to no good as usual! :laughing: Thanks for pointing it out! :pray:

Error has been fixed. Updated files - PDF here and PNG here

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It may be just me, but the white on yellow text is hard to read.

Would the forum icon make more sense with a different background? I was looking at all of these things in the yellow “night view” on my screen so the yellow kind of disappeared. In any case, yellow next to white just isn’t very accessible.

Much appreciation for your hard work on the app!

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This might be helpful; Amazon tablets (which are popular cuz very inexpensive) have specific compatibility issues for their version of Android. At this time, the Google store android version of the SuttaCentral ap appears to NOT be compatible. It appears there is no fee for developers to offer in Amazon ap store. Here is a link here for developers ’ testing.
https://developer.amazon.com/apps-and-games

Amazon does have free aps and free Kindle reader content routinely.

I’ll test ap on my phone. Thank you for this work. :pray:

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Yes, I can understand that! Also, it won’t work well if printing out on a greyscale printer.
Hence, here is the version with Black text on a yellow background. :smile:
PDF here PNG here.

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Hi @ERose, I’ve just submitted to Amazon Store, set to be approved in the next few days. Would you like to be added to testers? Just PM me your amazon user email address and I’ll add you in - I haven’t been able to test it on any Amazon devices so that’d be great.

There’s also now a Beta Tester stream on the Play Store if anyone would like to be a beta tester that would be a great help - presently not much is set to to be rewritten that is all that dramatic but possible future app integrations or a new landing page might happen and would be great to test it first.

@Snowbird I’ve just changed hat forum icon to have the red background, seems to make much more sense and this should appear for new installers once moved out of Beta stream.
:anjal:

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I too am unable to find the App on the Google Playstore after I changed my phone.

Can you please help. I have been regular user.

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I believe the dedicated app in the Google Play store is long unavailable. You should now be installing the site as a PWA.

Please see the Offline use instructions. At the very bottom there is a button to add the site to your home screen.

I am using it for years on my phone, and could still install it about two years ago when I had a new phone. I never got to work the PWA, however.

The app is no longer on the Play Store as of March this year, it sort of “lapsed” but can be put back. I’m sorry this happened, but it shouldn’t have removed the shortcuts from current installs.

There used to be a pop up screen offering the app install, but I think that was removed from SC. Installing from within the browser prompt by clicking the three dots on top right of Chrome, and selecting “Install app” (i.e. the PWA app) has stood the test of time:


There were issues with hanging on the load of the app, the way it forced the viewing of both the forum and looking for suttas into the same window, and no usage advantages over using the original method of installing the app from the browser.

I would need to completely rewrite the app for it to go back on the Play Store, using a new code base as the one that was used was abandoned by the Google developers in favour of Bubblewrap GitHub - GoogleChromeLabs/bubblewrap: Bubblewrap is a Command Line Interface (CLI) that helps developers to create a Project for an Android application that launches an existing Progressive Web App (PWAs) using a Trusted Web Activity. . I could do this and put it back on the play store, but the inability to toggle between the suttas and the forum in different windows would continue (unless I make a new app just for the forum, which would remove the forum Home screen shortcuts already present). I’m not all that confident in my coding abilities as I was in 2019 but I would give it my best shot again if people want it back in the play store.

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Thanks so much for the update and your earlier work.

Honestly, unless there were actual app-specific features, I don’t see the advantage of having it in the Google store, other than for folks who can’t get the offline working. I think there was a trend a while back to make everything into an app. But SC is a website with constant development, so I’m not sure it makes sense to duplicate work.

Just my $.02.

Perhaps it makes sense to close this thread (and modify the OP for the sake of future travelers) and then if someone is going to develop a new app they can start a new thread to discuss it.

I can’t find it by searching Google Play Store on variations of the string “SuttaCentral”

Would your care to provide a URL?

Thank You.

Are you looking for it somewhere other than the app store?

The link in my comment was to the Google Play Store.

My mistake, I thought the thread was new and did not realize that the app had gone through its lifecycle.

This is exactly why I suggested that the @moderators close the thread and put a mod note in the OP.

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