A new website, v1.2, and emoji animations 👻

Hello, and welcome back to our semi-regular Sunslider newsletter. Today we’ve got some updates that will knock. your. socks. off, especially if you’re already a little jittery from the coffee.

Sunslider’s September highlights

• We’ve got a brand new website, with a look that is much closer to Sunslider's calm, positive feel, an updated look at the app itself, and some fun animations just for kicks. Check it out. (And any feedback on the Spanish/Italian versions is most welcome 🙏)
• V1.2 of the app, which is stable and performing well, was released earlier this week. Highlights include:
  • Fixing an orientation issue that meant landscape videos filmed with the in-app camera weren’t displaying properly;
  • There was a bug that prevented videos viewed via a user profile from having the audio play properly; fixed ✅
  • Videos that were close to the 23-second limit were sometimes blocked from posting, but that’s been corrected as well;
  • Improved explanations in various places (sometimes text wasn’t displayed properly because it was too long, particulièrement en français, oui oui);
  • Video thumbnails are now working properly in notifications;
  • And we improved the visibility on the sign up screens to make things easier to understand; this was a big issue for new users who had already updated to iOS 26.
• Our new blog was just published, highlighting the fact that if we want to have user-oriented solutions that aren’t fueled by advertising and tons of venture capital (helloooooo! 👋), we need to start getting the word out.

It’s all pushing towards Sunslider being a positive social networking alternative. So update your app and post a slide or two, especially if you haven’t visited since the Early Days of 1000 Bugs back in August.

(Find a bug? Let’s keep it real, there are surely some still lurking in there, so let us know! support [at] sunslider.social)

Another piece of good news

We all have friends on Android, it’s fine, it’s 2025, there are worse things in the world (lots of them, for that matter).

Generally speaking, being accessible on both ecosystems is more important than it was back when Instagram was just starting out in 2012-13, and honestly that’s something we underestimated at the beginning. And it’s especially true in our core European market, where Android is now running on about 70% of phones. Sunslider is meant to be a viable offramp from the social media giants for anyone, so launching an app that’s available for all is important both philosophically and practically.

Bottom line: Sunslider v2.0 will be available for iOS and Android, and it's being developed by people with significant engineering experience as we speak (read?). We kicked things off earlier this week and the project is advancing relatively quickly, so 🤞🤞🤞🚀

(This is also an extra reason to get on the app and kick its tires as is, so that any glaring issues can be solved before that release.)

What you can do 🫵

One of the key points in our most recent blog is this:

Let's be real: It is hard to get a new social network up and running, and the conventional wisdom is that it takes tons of money. But if that's true, and if that money comes from venture capital - a startup's traditional source of early-stage funding -, we're going to end up right back where we started, because the structure of those fundraising agreements almost always puts investors' needs first. Tons of VC cash and a shareholders-only attitude is precisely what's led to social media's current state of affairs.

If we're going to do things differently, we're going to need help. Luckily, the list of ways you can help is long! Here are a few:

• Update the app, post a slide or two, and then go give us a review on the App Store (5 stars and glowing words only, please, all real issues/complaints/needs can be taken up with me personally khall [at] sunslider.social ;)
• Share the website/a blog post/the app store link on whatever social media account(s) you use, with a little blurb about what we're building;
• Follow Sunslider on LinkedIn/Bluesky, follow me on LinkedIn/Bluesky (warning: I go unfiltered on Bluesky, so... 🤷)
• Buy a t-shirt! My personal favorite remains "Save an orange", but we've got more 🤗

• Got a great idea for how we can get the word out? Hit "reply" and let me know! As an entrepreneur friend said a while back, "You try a million things, and hopefully one day something works! And then you get back out there and start trying more things."

Until next time, one love <3

🥐 PS: Pour l'instant, ce newsletter va être que en anglais; je vais voir comment je peux faire pour créer des catégories et l'envoyer dans ta langue préférée. C'est sur la liste, promis 🙏

🫒 PD: Por ahora, este newsletter va a ser solo en inglés; voy a ver cómo puedo hacer para crear categorías y enviarlo en tu idioma preferido. Está en la lista, prometido 🙏

🍋 PS. Per il momento, questa newsletter sarà solamente in inglese; devo vedere come fare per creare delle categorie e inviarla nella tua lingua preferita. È sulla lista, promesso 🙏