LoopShare logo

Beta Testing Notes

Thank you to our dedicated Beta testers!

Below are the notes for each build of our beta testing phase. Please review the details and provide your feedback. Would you like to share with a friend? As of August 15th, we now have beta versions for iOS and Android.


We have a new, easy to join TestFlight page with instructions for our iOS users.

Join iOS Beta on TestFlight

To get access to our Android beta, please email us at: hello@loopshare.app

1.1.5 Build 1 2025-12-01
Latest
  • Bug Fix: Request user permission when accessing camera on Profile page
1.1.4 Build 5 2025-11-19
  • New Feature: Allow sending a single recommendation to multiple friends at once from the friend selector screen.
  • UI Enhancement: – Updated the friend selector title to “Recommend to Friend(s)” and bottom button text to adapt between a single friend name and “Send to Multiple Friends” while matching the app’s theme and accessibility.
  • Bug Fix: Hide merge data for original users in some scenarios.
1.1.4 Build 1 2025-11-06
  • New Feature: Pending recommendations counter on Your Loops page
  • Bug Fix: Push notification registration issues resolved
  • Bug Fix: App startup white screen issue fixed
  • UI Enhancement: Improved login and forgot password screen readability
  • UI Enhancement: Enhanced "All Caught Up" screen with pending recommendations count
  • UI Enhancement: Form fields now preserve data when switching between sign-in and register
1.1.3 Build 4 2025-10-28
  • Added location banner on Explore page showing "Showing restaurants near: [City, State]" when Restaurant filter is selected
  • Fixed Explore page to request location permission when Restaurant filter is clicked (now consistent with Add Loop flow)
  • Unified restaurant search across Add Loop and Explore pages to use CachedUnifiedSearchService for consistent results and performance
  • Bug Fix: Fixed restaurant search error on Add Loop page - removed "search unavailable" messages and manual entry fallback
  • Corrected floating action button placement: Your Loops page keeps the + button, My Recommendations page has both buttons removed
  • Changed "Add Loop" button to "Add Recommendation" on My Recommendations page for clearer terminology
  • Bug Fix: My Recommendations "Add Recommendation" button now opens Explore page instead of Add Loop screen
  • UI Enhancement: Improved dark mode readability: fixed filter buttons and text on light backgrounds across multiple screens
  • Removed floating Add Loop button and + icon from the incorrect page per user feedback
  • UI Enhancement: Don't repeat photos on Restaurant detail pages
1.1.3 Build 3 2025-10-21
  • UI Enhancement: Eliinate redundant info in notifications. Improved notification formatting with media types, proper date formats, and eliminated duplicate titles
  • Implemented Apple Liquid Glass UI design across the entire app with translucent navigation, blur effects, and fluid animations
  • Added full theme switching support (Light, Dark, System) accessible from Profile → Appearance
  • UI Enhancement: Made restaurant phone numbers clickable on detail pages - tap to dial directly
  • Implemented intelligent two-tier caching (in-memory + Firestore) for restaurant searches and photos. Reduced restaurant API costs by ~95%
  • UI Fix: Pre-select media type and auto-populate search when adding media from detail pages
  • UI Enhancement: Optimized screen space usage across Your Loops, Explore, and Profile pages
1.1.3 Build 2 2025-10-16
  • Bug fix: For some users the Add to List button on Explore page was spinning forever. This has been resolved.
  • Restaurant recommendations are back!
1.1.3 Build 1 2025-10-13
  • Preparing for App Store submission.
  • Fixed bug that was preventing notifcations being sent when a friend accepted a recommendation.
  • Continuing to improve accessibility for iOS users related to font scaling and larger text.
  • Added ability to Delete Account from Profile page.
  • Added Privacy Manifest for Apple App Store submission.
  • Bug fixes and improvements for User search
1.1.2 Build 3 2025-09-18
  • UI Enhancement: Accessability improvements. App has better support for bold and larger fonts on iOS.
1.1.2 Build 2 2025-09-17
  • UI Enhancement: iOS 26 and Liquid Glass support!
  • Enhanced "Your Loops" Page for New Users: Redesigned empty state with colorful gradient background, clearer messaging ("No Loops (recommendations)" and "Call/text a friend to meet up and get new ideas!"), and two prominent action buttons - "Record a Loop" to add your first recommendation and "Find Friends" that navigates directly to the search tab
  • Improved Book Search Intelligence: Enhanced book search with multiple query strategies including exact title matching, "title by author" format support, and better Google Books API integration for more accurate results when searching for specific titles
  • Smarter Search Results on Explore: Implemented intelligent search relevance sorting that prioritizes exact matches, titles starting with your query, and shorter titles, plus streamlined the experience so clicking type-ahead dropdown results navigates directly to the media detail page
  • Case-Insensitive Friends Search: Fixed friends search to work regardless of capitalization - searching "tark", "Tark", or "TARK" will all find the same results, making it much easier to find friends by name
  • High-Priority "Loop Added" Push Notifications: When someone accepts your recommendation and adds it to their loops, you now receive an immediate push notification (available for both free and premium users) with Firebase FCM fallback for reliable delivery
  • Premium Features Documentation: Added comprehensive documentation for current and upcoming premium features, including planned service integrations (Libby, Goodreads, Spotify, Netflix) that will be premium-only to provide clear value differentiation
1.1.2 Build 1 2025-09-14
  • Enhancement: Enhanced the My Recommendations view to display media images (backdrops/posters) like the Friend's Recommendations view for better visual consistency
  • Enhancement: Added duplicate handling to the Friend's Recommendations view to group multiple recommendations of the same media and show recommendation count
  • Enhancement: Improved visual consistency between My Recommendations and Friend's Recommendations views with unified card layouts and rating displays
  • Enhancement: Added personalized recipient names to My Recommendations view - now shows "Sent to [Friend's Name]" for single recommendations instead of just "Sent to 1 friend"
  • UI Improvement: Updated text colors to use dark teal (#2C3E50) on light backgrounds for better readability and accessibility
  • Enhancement: Added average rating calculation and display for merged recommendations across both views
  • Enhancement: Improved recommendation card information hierarchy with better spacing and typography consistency
1.1.1 Build 4 2025-09-10
  • UI Improvement: Persist a user's rating when saving to a list and use it when reommending to a friend
  • Bug Fix and UI Improvement: Finishied implementation of the Edit List screen - now changes can be saved and persisted
  • UI Enhancement: Improved the visibility of the back button in media section for users list items and Explore page items
  • UI Enhancement: Removed the redundant second user profile image
  • Bug fix: Show the users profile icon on Add Loop and Recommendation screens
  • Enhancement: Added App category to Explore page and cleared up that it and Restaurants are in Coming Soon state
  • Enhancement: Built out the Other category - now a user can add from the Explore page and save basic info to go in a List or send to a friend.
1.1.1 Build 3 2025-09-09
  • Bug Fix: Push notifications are working more reliably for all users
  • Enhancement: If a user recommends the same media to a friend multiple times, it will only show up once in their Recommendations list.
  • UI Fix: Ratings on media pages were sometimes outside of the tile for long user names
  • UI Enhancement: Use type-ahead to search for media on Explore page
  • Bug Fix: Friends search has proper database index
1.1.1 Build 2 2025-09-07
  • UI Enhancement: Notifications take you to the notifications screen in app
  • Bug Fix: Double notifications were being sent on recommendation feedback
  • Bug Fix: App notifications badge properly clears when notifications have been viewed
  • Enhancement: Added new privacy setting on Profile page. Make your user public or private so that you don't appear in Friends->search.
1.1.1 Build 1 2025-09-06
  • Enhancement: Simplified Lists - now you get two default Lists - My Recommendations and For Later
  • New Feature: Push Notifications for iOS
    • Active push notifications
      • 🎬 Friend recommendations (original)
      • 👥 Friend requests (new)
      • ✅ Friend accepted (new)
      • 🤝 Friend connected (new)
      • 💬 Feedback (new)
      • 🔄 Loop added (new — mutual friends only)
      • 🎉 Loop completed (new)
    • In‑app only
      • Recommendation sent
      • Loop added by me
      • Loop completed by me
      • Loop skipped by me
  • UI Fix: Removed "Mark as Read" on Notifications page as it was not used.
1.1.0 Build 4 2025-09-03
  • Enhancement: New recommendations from a friend are not automatically added to your Loops. A user can view the notification and take action on it.
  • Bug Fix: Cleared up confusion about multiple Subscription information fields.
  • UI Fix: Improved main Add Recommendation/Loop page to show a more accurate title. A Loop is what a user creates when a friend recommends a show, movie, book, restaurant, or app to them in person.
1.1.0 Build 3 2025-09-02
  • Bug Fix: Attempt number 2. Improvments to auth handling when creating a notification.Some users could not share Recommendations from Explore due to a permissions issue and race condition. This has been resolved.
  • Bug Fix: Improvments to friend connection handling. Don't error when already a friend.
1.1.0 Build 2 2025-08-31
  • Bug Fix: Some users could not share Recommendations from Explore due to a permissions issue and race condition. This has been resolved.
1.1.0 Build 1 2025-08-29
  • Enhancement: Push notifications for iOS and Android!
  • UI Fix: Grammar and more friendly message when you have no Loops for a filter type
  • UI Fix: Media tiles on Explore page no longer cover up Year and rating info
  • Enhancement: Friends request now actively look for matches and clean up when a friend joins LoopShare that you had previously invited or added a Loop from.
  • UI Enhancement: Moved subscription banner to top of page and tightened up whitespace.
  • UI Enhancement: clicking on user from the Recommend to Friend screen no longer sends immediately.
  • UI Enhancement: Change keyboards for all comment fields to natural capitalization.
  • Enhancement: Recommendations dafault to private and only show up for the friend you share them with. Note: Existing recommendations are public but you can delete them from your Proifle page.
1.0.4 Build 3 2025-08-27
  • UI Fix: Show a friendlier message when the user is signing in but provides an incorrect account or password
  • Bug Fix: Don't send duplicate recommendation notifications. When taking action, hide the notification and create new one for the outcome (Added to Loops or Skipped)
  • Bug Fix: Fixed a minor logout runtime issue
  • Bug Fix: Resolved a permissions issue when accepting a recommendation via notifications view
1.0.4 Build 2 2025-08-26
  • Bug Fix: Show friends that have already been invited on Requests tab
  • Enhancement: Friends page has been revamped to work better, be more clear, and visibly sort LoopShare users and regular users
  • Enhancement: Major upgrade to Notifications system and UI. Notifications are visible in top left of every app screen. Many more notification events are gennerated now and you can view your history.
1.0.3 Build 1 2025-08-21
  • PII Enhancement: Don't return extra user information when searching for new friends
  • UI Fix: Show friends profile pic in the main Friends view
  • Enhancement: Show the current build version in Profile->About
  • Enhancement: Server updates to fix Friend invite via email function.
1.0.2 Build 2 2025-08-19
  • UI Fix: Move profile pic down so that it is not covered by iOS notch/Dynamic Island
  • Enhancement: Remove second subscription badge
  • Enhancement: Show the current build version in Profile->About
1.0.2 Build 1 2025-08-19
  • New Feature: Share feedback with your friend when marking a recommendation as completed.
  • Enhancement: When you mark a recommendation as completed, it will instantly be removed from your Loops view.
  • UI Fix: Cleared up friend and user ratings on the Completed Loops view
  • Enhancement: Default to your rating when recommending to a friend
  • Enhancement: Cached popular lists on Explore page
  • Bug Fix: UI improvments to main Loops page
  • Bug Fix: Popular books list on Explore page now shows recent top sellers
  • Bug Fix: Eliminated the redundant Browse Recommendations button on the Friends page
  • UI Fix: Moved the Remove Friend higher so it isn't hard to interact with at bottom of screen.
  • New Feature: Notifications to friends when you complete a Loop is now working and sent thru main notifiations mechanism.
  • UI Enhancement: Added the ability to send a notification to a friend when you complete a Loop.
1.0.1 Build 1 2025-08-12
  • New Feature: Recommend to friends from Explore page - via popular lists or from your custom lists.
  • New Feature: Review and accept recommendations from friends via Explore notifications
  • New Feature: Added author to all Book views. Existing data will need to be updated manually.
  • UI Fix: Half star ratings are now displayed correctly.
  • Bug Fix: Error that occurred when accepting some friend requests has been resolved.
1.0.0 Build 10 2025-08-03
  • New Feature: Added address and phone number to Restaurant recommendations. Phone is a clickable field
  • UI Fix: Improved contrast on Login and Registration screen
  • UI Fix: Highlight the save button and added one at the bottom of the Add Recommendation screen
  • Bug Fix: Skipping a Loop/Recommendation now works as expected.
1.0.0 Build 9 2025-08-02
  • New Feature: Added address and phone number to Restaurant recommendations. Phone is a clickable field
  • UI Fix: Improved contrast on Login and Registration screen
  • UI Fix: Highlight the save button and added one at the bottom of the Add Recommendation screen
  • Enhancement: App now recognizes non standard user fonts and dynamically adjusts screens and icons
1.0.0 Build 7 2025-07-31
  • Moved Lists to be easier to access on Explore page in first spot of filter row
  • Bug Fix: Recommendations from a friend not on LoopShare were not appearing in the feed.
1.0.0 Build 6 2025-07-31
  • Big shift - you can no longer create recommendations for yourself. If you did, you will be asked to migrate them to a List
  • Emphasizing new premium features. Not yet fully implemented.
  • Bug Fix: Friend merging works much
1.0.0 Build 5 2025-07-30
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Bug Fixes
1.0.0 Build 4 2025-07-27
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Bug Fixes
1.0.0 Build 3 2026-07-26
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Bug Fixes
1.0.0 Build 2 2025-07-26
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Bug Fixes
1.0.0 Build 1 2025-07-25
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Bug Fixes