Company update
A hand-rolled website and 1.1 on its way to the App Store
What we built this week and what's coming next.
The website
Tether has a new home
Until this week, our web presence was on Framer. It has been replaced with this site built from scratch: a home page, an About page explaining why Tether exists at all, and a release notes page that keeps itself current by reading our own App Store listing.
First impressions
The handshake of the app
Signing in and setting up an account are the first impression that people have of the app. Sign-in was redesigned this week, with visual improvements and better success/error states. Setting up your profile as a new user and editing it later are also consistent experiences rather than two disparate ones. And deleting your account now confirms it is really you first, in the cases where Apple asks us to.
Design
Consistency is key
We're redesigning Tether, with some screens updated and others still wearing the old look. This week, the last of the main tabs caught up: activity, messages, friends and profiles now match events and posts, so the parts of the app you see most are more cohesive. Empty states and loading screens also got some love.
Everything else
Polish that hardly anyone would ordinarily notice
The friends list now updates automatically, versus using pull-to-refresh. Photos let you hide the UI so you can see the photos unencumbered. Message previews say who sent a photo. Events happening right now use the same card as upcoming events, instead of the oversized one they had before. Your full name shows on your profile, and text-only posts show their words on your profile grid. We'll keep working through any opportunities we have to sand and polish the app.
Next up
Version 1.1 went out to TestFlight twice this week and is now with Apple for review, so it should reach the App Store shortly. After that, we're working through the flows the redesign hasn't reached yet: creating and editing events, writing posts, message threads and group chats.