Some improvements I'd like to see to core features of the mobile app

In a recent post, I mentioned there were a bunch of improvements I'd like to see to the core experience of the mobile apps. Kevin asked me to post a list, so here goes!

Some of these are long standing gripes, others are more dreams. But they are all features that I find myself wishing for on a regular basis.

Reading the Old Testament in Hebrew - This is basically impossible to do currently (apart from using the Interlinear, which works decently). Here's why:

1. Lemma lookup does not work properly - When there are multiple segments in a single Hebrew word, it is very common that the lemma lookup only finds one of those words (and usually not the one you need to look up). As an example, I just opened up the LHB to Jeremiah 34:3. The first word I saw with multiple segments was מִיָּד֔וֹ. I long pressed it, and chose Info. Verbum tells me this word is from הוּא, and that it means "he, it". That's the final of three segments, and arguably the least interesting. Given how many words in Hebrew have multiple segments, the result is that Verbum is currently not the app for you to read the Bible in the original. When I do so, I always end up using the Interlinear because of these problems. 

2. Lemma lookup problems if your device isn't in English - A friend of mine had his phone in German, and came to me with problems because the Info button wasn't returning any lemma information for the Hebrew Bible. Once he switched his phone's language to English it worked properly. (I don't know if this continues being a problem as my phone is in English).

Improvements to Original Language Reading experience

3. Lookup information on long-press - It would be great if the app could have at least the option to run the Info lookup automatically when you run a long-press, as most reader apps I've seen do. This could be a great addition for Reverse Interlinear Bibles as well (displaying the Info bubble with the OL info). The info bubble could appear underneath or above the pop-up panel that already appears. This would provide a sort of equivalent to the "pop-up on hover" or "Info pane on hover" options that make reading in the Original Languages (and using Reverse-Interlinears) such a joy in the desktop app.

4. Offline look-ups - Both for Original Language and Reverse Interlinear resources, it would add so much to the experience (and speed) if the info-pane pop-up on long-press could appear when online or offline. 

Searching

5. Improve the resource dropdown within the search pane - It is difficult and confusing to pick which resource or collection you want to search within the Verbum app. Ideally we could get something analogous to the dropdown in the desktop app, which allows us to search, which has full titles, etc.

6. Bible search resource dropdown includes non-Bible resources - Not sure why, but they are there. As well, not all Bibles are there. Again, hopefully we can move towards a desktop-like-dropdown experience.

7. Improve the Passages dropdown in the Bible search - Currently I get a list, in an apparently random non-alphabetic order of some of my passage ranges. Again, modeling after the dropdown in the desktop app should be feasible in the mobile app, and would add a lot to the experience, especially if we can type in our own range or even select it from a Bible verse menu. 

8. Online searching for datatypes - The app already prefers searching the cloud, which makes me wonder if it might be reasonably easy to allow some more advanced searches for datatypes. Especially the Person, Places, Things, and Events (more on adding those below) datatypes could at times be useful for the Bible search.

Link panel improvements

9. Allow for leader and follower - The option to have the top and bottom (or left and right) panel link together is in theory a great one. I have hardly yet to find a Bible and commentary combination where it actually works, however. So many times I have turned it on, got frustrated, and then turned it off. The problem is that when you read a Bible, the commentary is there to accompany your reading, and not vice-verse. But, when you look through your commentary, it scrolls your Bible automatically, often in very jarring ways. What we need is to be able to set the Bible to lead, and the commentary to follow. 

Android Bible Verse pop-ups

10. Only the beginning of 1 verse is displayed in the Android pop-up - When you tap on a Bible verse in the Android app, only the first part of 1 verse is displayed, even when you tap on a verse range. In the iOS app, it works properly. I run into this silly little limitation in Android practically every time I use the app, and find it quite frustrating.

Some reverse-interlinear love

11. Add the Person, Place, Thing, and Event tagging - It would be great if the Info pop-up included the Person, Place, Thing, and Event tagging in the OL and RI Bibles. Of course, if more tagging could be added that could add a lot of richness as well, but those are the ones I've most often found myself missing.

Performance adjustments for slower Android devices

12. No animation page turn - Most of the time I've spoken with people about the Android device, I'll end up hearing how slow the app is. One simple solution to this would be to offer a no-animation page turn. The app used to offer this, and it was amazingly fast. It could be a great option for those whose phones or devices aren't quick enough to handle the scrolling or page-turn with animation gracefully. It would also be useful for the e-ink crowd.

Notes

13. Ending a note with a Bible reference - If I make a new note, and end the note with a Bible reference, but don't add a space or a period, the reference is not recognized as a Bible reference (on iOS... on Android I have more serious issues. cf. next number)

14. Strange Android note behavior - In Verbum 5.7.2 stable, I'm getting strange note behavior, that is making taking notes quite impossible. Once I type a word, and press space, I can no longer delete the word. The cursor goes back to the end of the word, and no further. As well, Bible references aren't being recognized at all as Bible references. This bug is new for me, and I don't remember it in previous builds.

15. Multiple references - I would love to be able to attach multiple references in the mobile app to a note. 

I could add more, but 15 is a nice number.  Thanks for a great app.