Two significant shortcomings of Logos mobile pop-ups (compared to Olive Tree)

Jonathan Sheehy
Jonathan Sheehy Member Posts: 34
edited November 21 in English Forum

By way of background: I have invested significantly in Olive Tree over some years. And now, I am significantly invested in Logos, too.

But importantly, I am almost exclusively a mobile user (which is one of the reasons I love Olive Tree -- they are mobile-first). I study the Bible, complete with commentaries, original language resources, lexicons -- the works -- on my phone. (Which is Android, by the way.)

Logos mobile really is good, and getting better. But there are some things that, especially compared with Olive Tree, feel like they really hamstring my Bible study. Two of them relate to Logos mobile's restrictive pop-up implementation:

  1. Endless scrolling is not allowed in Logos mobile pop-ups. This is massive. Why? One word: Context. The single biggest use-case for pop-ups, I imagine, is to quickly lookup Bible cross references. The more I read commentaries in Logos mobile (intentionally tapping on cross references at every opportunity, since the #1 interpreter for Scripture is Scripture itself) the more I feel hamstrung, actively hampered in my study, by the inability to scroll a verse or two backwards or forwards for context, when in a pop-up. I guess one reason I feel the pain, is that Olive Tree does allow endless scrolling in pop-ups. But that aside, I think this is just sensible design for pop-up cross reference handling in a Bible study app.
  2. Hyperlinks are disabled in Logos mobile pop-ups. I find this very restrictive indeed. Consider the following scenario, which is very common for me over in Olive Tree: I'm reading commentary, and tap on a cross reference. It opens up a pop-up, using the NET Bible, which I have set as the preferred Bible on account of its brilliant Bible notes (particularly translation notes). While reading the cross-reference, I see the NET Bible has a note (or three) on the verse. So I tap through to a NET note, which simply takes over the existing pop-up window. The note, in turn, contains a cross reference, which I tap on, and it, in turn, takes over the pop-up. Then I tap the back arrow on the pop-up and continue reading the NET note. Then I tap the pop-up's back arrow again, to take me back to the original cross reference. Of course, at any stage, I could have tapped out of the pop-up entirely. I follow rabbit trails of Bible study like this all the time in Olive Tree. But Logos cuts it short: I'm only allowed to go one hyperlink deep, generally. This hampers, rather than facilitates, my study. (Well, at least compared to how I do it in Olive Tree.)

I am, of course, aware of the Jump to reference option in Logos mobile pop-ups., But tapping this involves waiting (yes, that one second feels like a wait), while Logos opens up a new tab entirely, and then finds the reference. And I might have 15 tabs open already. No thank you. 🙂 I would much prefer that Logos simply allow endless scrolling in pop-ups, and stop disabling hyperlinks in pop-ups. Please, if anybody's listening. 🙂

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