Sunslider update: New editing system, sign-up flow, and more

Is it a good idea to launch an app right before leaving on a 3-week vacation? (Europe! 💖)

Doesn't really matter. What does matter is that we're marking Sunslider's one-week anniversary with a new update – v1.0.5 – that you should all go download from the App Store. And it's what the not-so-young-anymore call "a biggie":

• We have a completely rebuilt set of editing tools that give you WYSIWG previews, an intuitive (and functional!) crop tool, rotate, filters, and a unified text overlay tool that works the same for both slides and My Days images;
• An improved sign up process, with better color contrasts, a more responsive cursor, and the ability to use special characters in passwords (your current password will, of course, keep working; if you do change it - this is available in your Settings - you’ll also be able to create a new password that includes special characters.);
• Visible suggestions from the beginning for new users: Instead of arriving at an empty “My circle” feed, new users will arrive at the empty “My circle” feed ( 😉) WITH a “People you might like” strip at the top, providing suggestions of people they might like to follow;
• You can now view another user’s followers list in their profile, which should help with discovery. Do note that you still cannot view another user’s “following” list or “likes” list; this is part of Sunslider’s “as much privacy as is reasonable in a public social network” ethos 🙂 Our thinking is, who you follow and who you like is your business; but the people who have chosen to follow you could be useful information for others;
• A number of other little UX improvements: My Days now run from first-published to last, instead of the other way around; you can click to someone's profile when viewing their Days; feed refresh has been reworked to be more reliable, etc.

This should generally make Sunslider much more user-friendly and, well, social. If you run into problems or errors, please don't hesitate to let me know about them.

Over the coming weeks, we'll still be working to improve the app, although at a slightly reduced pace to account for dedicating adequate time to Brittany's beautiful beaches (follow me for pics ;). Then starting in late August we'll get down to the serious work: adding video support, working on DMs, and... well, whatever you think we need!

Remember, the beauty of being here from the beginning and building from scratch is that we can make Sunslider into whatever you want it to be. So do me two favors:

1) Talk about Sunslider and send a link to the friends you really want to have on the network; a great social network doesn't actually need everyone in the world, but it does need everyone that you want to share real moments with.

2) Send me suggestions for improvements and what could make the app experience better - khall[at]sunslider.social.

And think big, this is a project of dreams! As Saul Alinsky (or someone who once spoke to him, or perhaps served him at a restaurant, or brushed up against his shoulder in a department store) said, "If you can dream it, you can do it."

Love,
@kyle

PS: If this is the first email you're seeing about Sunslider's arrival, please check your spam folder - despite our best efforts, it seems that our initial round of email was filtered out for quite a few people. Please see if that was the case for you, and if so, mark those emails as "not spam", as it will be very helpful over the long term 💗

🥐 PPS: 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. Mais ça va être un truc du "Jour 41", sans doute... 🙏

🫒 PPD: 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. Pero eso va a ser algo del "Día 41", sin duda... 🙏

🍋 PPS. Per il momento, questa newsletter sarà solamente in inglese; devo vedere come fare per creare delle categorie e inviarla nella tua lingua preferita. Ma sarà una cosa del "Giorno 41", senza dubbio... 🙏