Draft previews

We know that publishing your very best stuff is important, and you should be able to see what your post or page will look like before you publish. Now, in version 3.5 of WordPress for iOS, you can preview your drafts! Just tap the preview “eye” tab while drafting your post or page to see the post as it will appear on your WordPress site after you hit publish.

If you have a responsive WordPress theme the preview will show what your post looks like on a mobile device.

Autosave

Thanks to a new Autosave feature, your site’s content is safer than ever before. Now, when you edit a draft in the app, you’ll notice a small “Autosaved ✓” message appear as you type. The draft is instantly saved locally, and if you have a reliable Internet connection at the time, it will autosave online to your WordPress site, too.

More improvements and bug fixes

This release also includes improvements for WordPress.com and Jetpack notifications, as well as fixes for crashes and other bugs. You can check out all the changes here.

The crash on launch that some of you were seeing has been fixed in this release.

What’s next?

We want to continue making your mobile blogging experience better and better! While the dev team is currently deciding what to work on for version 3.6, these next items are high on our list:

• Rich Text Editor
• Improved media management
• Sharing to the app from third-party apps and services

Want to keep up with the latest happenings in the WordPress mobile world? Head over to http://make.wordpress.org/mobile.

A huge thanks to the contributors that worked on this release: beaucollins, daniloercoli, koke, and mrroundhill.

If you have any feedback about the app, please leave a comment below or follow us @WordPressiOS.

Notifications

With the new streamlined Notifications view, you can step away from your computer but still stay connected to your readers. With just a few taps you can:

• read comment threads and reply,
• moderate new pending comments,
• get stats highlights,
• see your new followers and follow them back, and
• see who liked your posts.

Don’t need so many notifications? You can turn off specific notification types (for example “Likes”) in the Settings panel. You can also mute entire blogs if it gets too noisy.

Self-hosted WordPress.org blogs get to join the party, too! Simply connect your blog using the Jetpack plugin and your self-hosted blog’s notifications will appear. Already have Jetpack set up? Then you don’t need to do a thing.

Additional Improvements and Bug Fixes

We were also able to patch up some bugs with this release. Users with multisite self-hosted blogs can now correctly view stats for sites they belong to (ticket #1528). A particularly nasty bug which resulted in the possibility of losing your offline drafts has also been fixed (ticket# 1545). A big thank you to everyone reporting issues, it’s been very helpful in finding these quirks and resolving them once and for all.

What’s Next?

There are many great updates coming for WordPress for iOS. We’re currently working on an update to the post preview screen and better revision control. This should make for a much smoother posting experience.

A huge thanks to the contributors that worked on this release: beaucollins, daniloercoli, koke, aerych, mrroundhill, isaackeyet, sendhil, and Frank Klein.

How do you like the new Notifications? Drop a comment here or follow us on @WordPressiOS to let us know!

Sounds

There are five new sounds created by the talented Josh Mobley in the app:

• You’ll hear a swish sound when you open a panel on the iPhone, or tap a menu item on the iPad.
• A pulling sound plays when you pull down to refresh content.
• Once the refresh completes you’ll hear a click.
• When you receive a new comment a chime will let you know about it immediately.
• The app now makes a crumple sound when you discard panels on the iPad.

Our goal is to provide elegant sounds that enhance your experience with WordPress for iOS, but you can mute the new sounds from the Settings screen if you prefer a silent app. Your device’s mute button will silence the app as well.

Stability Improvements

In addition to the new sounds effects, we continue to make the app even more stable. In this release we fixed a total of 21 issues.

Next Up

A new Notifications feature for WordPress.com and Jetpack-enabled blogs is nearing completion. We also have a visual editor in the works, which we’re very excited about. If these are features you’re interested in helping with, or if you have a different feature or improvement in mind, the time to help make WordPress for iOS amazing is NOW! Drop us a note on our dev blog or chime in at make/mobile on WordPress.org and we’ll help you get started as a contributor!

A huge thanks to the contributors that worked on this release: koke, aerych, mrroundhill, fklu, jkudish, daniloercoli, isaackeyet, and jmobb.

What do you think of the new sound effects? Drop a comment here or follow us on @WordPressiOS to let us know!

Featured Images Support

This has been one of our most requested features for some time. We’re happy to report that you can now upload a Featured Image for your blog posts as long as your theme supports it. You’ll find the Featured Image uploader in the Settings section of the Post Editor—see the screenshot on the right.

You can upload a Featured Image of any size, but by default it’ll use the Image Size preference, which you’ll now find in the Settings section within the app (more on this below).

Push Notifications for Self-Hosted Websites

Push Notifications are now available for self-hosted blogs running Jetpack 1.8.2 or higher. To make it work, we had to have a central server to deliver the notifications to your device, so this feature requires the Jetpack plugin by Automattic to function. Push notifications for self-hosted blogs will work just like how they currently work for WordPress.com-hosted blogs: you get push notifications for new comments only, and will be directed to the comment within the app if you choose to view the notification.

Note: only the owner of the blog will receive push notifications for new comments on their own posts. We are working on making push notifications available for all authors on a blog in version 1.9 of Jetpack. This version is currently in Beta and will be released within a few weeks.

More Accessible Settings

As a part of this update, we’ve moved all the preferences previously only available in the Settings app on your device to the Settings screen within the app itself. This makes it much easier to change settings on the fly. You may even find settings that you didn’t knew were already available in the app. Moving forward, we’ll make sure all settings are available right within the app.

Stability Improvements

In addition to the new features, we’ve worked hard on making the app even more stable. In total, almost 70 bugs and crashes have been fixed in this release. We’ve also worked hard on making the Stats section of the app perform better.

What’s Next

We’re moving to a more feature-driven release cycle, meaning that updates will come faster and focus on single features and enhancements. This is the perfect time to get involved in the WordPress for iOS project. Post something on the dev blog or head on over to make/mobile on WordPress.org.

A huge thanks to the contributors that worked on this release: koke, aerych, irbrad, isaackeyet, daniloercoli, beaucollins, mrroundhill, and jkudish.

How are you liking version 3.2, and what would you like to see next? Leave us a comment here and follow us on @WordPressiOS to get the latest news first.

This is a big one! The WordPress for iOS dev team is excited to announce that version 3.1 is now available in the App Store. In this update you’ll find a redesign for both iPhone and iPad, along with loads of new features! Here’s what’s new:

Updated Interface

The app has an all-new look, including graphics, colors, and a new sliding panels interface! We’ll let the screenshots speak for themselves:

Sidebar Navigation

We’ve added a new way to get around in the app: the Sidebar. The Sidebar allows easy access to any other area of the app with just a swipe and a tap. We also added easy access to app settings and quick photo from the Sidebar as well. To reveal the sidebar, just tap the menu button or swipe the navigation bar from wherever you are in the app at the time.

iPad Panels

To take advantage of the larger screen, we’ve added an all-new Panels interface for the iPad which allows for viewing a lot of information on your blog all at once. Panels can be moved around and resized so that you can view your content however you’d like. You can also remove extra Panels that you don’t need anymore by dragging the entire Panel stack to the right.

New Features

In addition to the UI update we’ve added a ton of great new features, including:

• Post Format Support
  In the post setting tab, you’ll now see an option for setting the post format for your posts. The app will check with your blog to get a list of post formats that your theme supports.
• WordPress.com Reader and Quick Photo for iPad
  You’ve asked them and here they are! We took the great Quick Photo and WordPress.com Reader features that were already in the iPhone app and made them available for the iPad.
• All-New WordPress.com Stats
  Hungry for more stats? We’ve added a new stats view that contains all of the same data that you see in your WordPress.com or Jetpack stats.
• New Post Preview for iPad
  When viewing a post on the iPad, you’ll now get a nice preview of the post including formatting and images.
• WordPress.com Friend Finder
  Use the new Friend Finder in the WordPress.com Reader to connect up to Facebook or Twitter to find your friends that are blogging on WordPress.com.
• All-Around Landscape Support
  Nearly all areas of the app support landscape orientation now, including all of the tabs in the post editor.
• Easy Site and Dashboard Access
  A no brainer. We added buttons on the Sidebar to view your site as well as a Dashboard link so you can access your plugins, widgets, etc.

In addition to all of this great new stuff, we also made many reliability and performance improvements to the app.

Why Stop Here?

Development is continuing at a very rapid pace. We are already marching towards the next big release of the app. So far we are keen on adding a Visual Editor, a Notification Area and support for Featured Images. Want to help out? Check out make.wordpress.org/mobile and the WordPress for iOS dev blog to see how you can get involved!

We’ve had the most contributors ever for this release! Big thanks to koke, aerych, irbrad, isaackeyet, daniloercoli, beaucollins, mrroundhill and pento!

What do you think of this update? Leave us a comment here or follow us at @WordPressiOS to get in touch with the team.

This is your invitation! Hope to see you there!

Swipe to moderate comments

It’s that time again. Version 3.0 of WordPress for iOS is out and adds some exciting new features. Most of the changes have been under the hood so we can now start giving you great updates fast. Let’s jump into it.

What’s new?

• Push Notifications for WordPress.com. If you have a WordPress.com blog added to the app, you’ll now be able to opt in to receive push notifications of new comments, which makes it easier than ever to keep up with your readers and moderate comments on the go.
• Swipe-to-moderate Toolbar. Swipe over any comment in the Comments list to bring up a moderation toolbar – no need to use bulk moderation or go to the comment permalink. It’s right there, and it’s fast. Another nifty change is the highlighting of new comments in the Comments list when you’ve refreshed, it makes it easy to see what’s new.
• Vastly improved performance, especially for iPad. Version 2.9.6 was the most stable version of WordPress for iOS ever, until now. Over 44 bugs and crashes were fixed in this release.
• Translations added for Chinese (Taiwan), Hungarian, and Polish (thanks for the translation help!)

Download version 3.0 of WordPress for iOS today.

Contributors

The following contributors have worked on this release of WordPress for iOS: koke, irbrad, aerych, daniloercoli, mrroundhill, rhc3, boctor, isaackeyet - are you next?

What’s next?

Here’s what the rough road map looks like, find more and discussions on the dev blog.

Version 3.1

This release is tentatively scheduled for the end of June.

• Sliding Panels are currently being implemented for iPad. This will allow for faster management and an easier overview of everything in the app – from posts and pages to comments, stats, settings, web dashboard access, and WordPress.com features.
• A slide-out iPhone/iPod Touch Menu will allow for quicker access to the things you do the most in the app, and provide a great overview.
• Post Formats is being added to the post editor so you can easily change the appearance of your published posts if your theme supports it.
• A better Welcome screen to get you started quickly with the app and learn more about what it can do.
• More iPad Stats than ever before, fully leveraging the screen space.

Version 3.x

These are some of the features/changes we’re considering for the upcoming versions of WordPress for iOS.

• Image settings in post editor to set Title, Description, Alignment, Size, and more.
• Simple visual editor for text formatting options.
• Support for Galleries.
• Improved post/page Preview.
• Simpler access to Save Draft and other publishing settings.
• Quick Photo with “advanced” fields such as tags, categories.
• Push notifications for self-hosted blogs through Jetpack.
• Support for setting Featured Images.

You should get involved right now. We’re looking for feedback on the planned features and help testing the releases with a new and active Beta Team. If you’re a developer you can get involved directly to help get these great features out quicker – learn more about how to get involved by visiting the Development section.

What are your thoughts on WordPress for iOS and the future? Tweet us @WordPressiOS or leave a comment below.

Posting a photo from the Camera+ Lightbox is dead easy. Tap “Add Photo from Camera+,” and your phone switches to the Camera+ app – select a photo to load it into the WordPress app. Add a Title and a Description (both optional), and boom! You’re done.

Using Camera+ to snap your photo is just as easy. Tap “Take Photo with Camera+” to switch to the Camera+ app’s camera. Make a “meow” sound to locate your cat, add effects, borders, and crop your photo. When you’re done, just press “Use” and your photo is imported into the WordPress app where you can add details if you want.

What’s Next

As more camera apps open up their features for other apps, we’ll look into making more options available. Camera+ was the first to open their app up for integrations, but hopefully more will follow.

For now, the Camera+ options are only available for the Photo button on iPhone, but we’re hoping to add it to the Post Editor very soon as well. If you don’t have Camera+ on your phone, the options simply won’t be shown. Be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow us on Twitter to get the latest news first.

Do you use Camera+, or another camera app? Please let us know in the comments!

The new post editor

What’s new?

• A Feature-Rich Content Editor. Now you can easily format text, make bulleted lists, create links, and do all kinds of other fancy stuff. (It’s about time, right?) Read more
• Full Screen Editing. No more teeny-weeny content editor — now you can view more text at a time while you post on the go. Read more
• Reading Made Easy. Keeping track of your favorite blogs has never been easier. Browse all the latest posts on blogs you follow in one place, right from your iPhone. Read more (no pun intended!)

Updated features

• Quick Photo will now use the post format for images (if your theme supports it).
• You can now post pictures that you’ve already taken with Quick Photo.
• Your stats referrer links and comment links can now be opened right from this app.

Version 2.9 also includes numerous other bug fixes and improvements not listed here. For a full list, visit the 2.9 Trac milestone.

A Feature-Rich Content Editor

Having the ability to easily style text, • create • lists, and add links has been requested since version 1.0 of WordPress for iOS. While you could type the tags manually, and use the elusive “Link Helper” feature to create links, it was not optimal.

In 2.9, a format bar is added on top of your regular keyboard that mimics the look and feel of the keys you’ve become so familiar with. Select some text, press a formatting button, and bam! The text is wrapped with the proper tags. If you don’t select any text, both the opening and end tag will be output and the cursor placed in the middle. Easy-peasy!

The format bar is enabled for both the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, and adjusted to the respective keyboards and device rotation. Try turning your iPhone to landscape mode when editing a post! The bar will shrink in size to give you more space to write on.

Full Screen Editing

Your phone has a relatively small screen. When writing a blog post, a large portion of it is taken up by the keyboard itself. While you’re not likely to write an 8,000 word post on your phone, wouldn’t it be great to get just a little more space? In 2.9, the top navigation is hidden, giving you more space to write on. This is particularly useful in landscape mode, where space is even more limited.

When the post is ready to go, just press Done on the format bar and you’ll be right back in the Post editor.

Reading Made Easy

Follow your favorite blogs on the go!

You can manage the blogs you’re following in your WordPress.com dashboard, where you can even add external RSS feeds.

Don’t follow many blogs yet? In the app’s “Read” screen you’ll also find Freshly Pressed, listing the some of the most interesting posts from around the WordPress.com network. Or you can tap the little arrow button and select from a multitude of interesting topics, such as Art, Technology, Books, and many more.

This Read function is in Beta and will be improved over time, so we’d very much like to hear what you like about it and what you’d want to see next! Post a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter.

What’s next?

While we’re very proud of this release, we’re not resting! We’re currently in the planning stages of WordPress for iOS 3.0 which is going to be the biggest update to the WordPress for iOS app since its birth. The plan is to take an overall look at where the app is, and streamline it for what you use it for the most.

A more imminent update is coming shortly, with updated strings for numerous languages. If you’d like to help us translate the WordPress for iOS app into your native language, check out the translation project.

So, how do you like 2.9 – and what do you expect from 3.0?

Quick Photo

The “Quick Photo” button is a big step towards the next-generation WordPress app. It’s the first feature that’s action-centric, meaning that instead of picking the blog, and then selecting what you want to do with it, you pick your action first. The thinking is that an app should be all about getting in and out quickly, performing a specific task.

As you launch the app, you’ll notice there’s now a button in the bottom of your blogs list. Tap it to launch the camera and take a picture, when you’re satisfied you can add a title or a description (if you want, both are optional), and boom — you’re done! The function remembers the last blog you posted a Quick Photo to and will use that for future posts as well. Note: iPhone only for now.

Stats

Finally you’re able to check your blog’s statistics on the go. There are charts for Daily, Weekly, and Monthly page views, swipe over them to see the others. You can also see Daily Views by date, as well as top Post Views, Referrers, Search Terms, and Clicks for the past 7 days.

The Stats feature natively works for all WordPress.com blogs, however you’ll need Jetpack or the stand-alone Stats plugin to see stats for your self-hosted WordPress blog. We recommend that you enable Jetpack on your site, as we’ll add app-specific functions to it in the future to help further enhance the apps in a quicker turnaround time.

Localization

This has been long awaited for a lot of you. We’re happy to report that the WordPress for iOS app is now completely translatable, and 2.8 adds support for 10 languages: Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Hebrew, German, Dutch, French, and Croatian.

Is your language not translated yet? You can very easily add it yourself, and we’ll put it in the app in a future release! To get started, visit the WordPress for iOS project on translate.wordpress.org (learn more). You don’t have to translate all strings, other people will join in to translate remaining strings.

Other changes

While we’re excited about adding a few new, much requested features, we know that stability is still an issue. We’ve been able to resolve 3/4 of all crashes in the app. This update fixes a number of additional crashes and bugs. The full list of crash and bug fixes is available in the WordPress for iOS Trac.

Be sure to follow @WordPressiOS on Twitter for the latest news.