Swellnet App - BETA testing feedback (June 2022)

Good news, I've got a fix coming in Beta 4 to address the Spotify/Audio ducking issue - thanks for reporting it! Also cheers to everyone for all your helpful feedback and bug reports :)

thermalben wrote:

Also re: winds.. the good/bad categorisations are difficult to automate, as quality of surf (relative to wind) is also proportional to swell size and (on the East Coast) direction. Consider fresh S'ly winds on the Gold Coast - perfect for the southern points under a decent east swell, but terrible for the open beaches on a small south swell.

So true. And so frustrating when the points are the only option ....
Loving the app, though i haven't remembered to hammer it everyday
The live wind feature is great and that it shows 3 different spots is special. I'm middle Goldy and it's amazing the difference between Seaway wind and Tweed wind. And then to have Byron there as well in case of an expected southerly to save a wasted trip south or to hit it straight away is awesome
Personally WOTD/forums etc on desktop only is enough, keep it simple, uncluttered and user friendly the way it already is

Thanks for letting us have input

New App is looking and functioning great for me. Format of the App is easy to navigate and variety of AWS data very useful, especially once favourites are saved. Only two observed locations available in SA so probably limited ability to compare observations vs. forecasts, but that's not what this is about. The App is good for trip planning with the long-range WAMS etc. However, I always check forecast winds on other platforms (multi-model comparisons such as Windy) as your model outputs for SA tends to be under forecast. As an aside, not sure of the value of the Chiton area images. All images are subjective (unless it's pumping), but the cams are working well. How are ya Ringston!

Loved using the app so far team.

One feature I'd like to see is the ability to sort the display order of my 'starred' forecasts and surfcams in the home screen. This would allow me to see the most relevant data once the screen loads, an the least relevant below the fold. I currently have 2 reports and 6 cams starred on my home screen, and they currently only display in the order I 'starred' them.

I'm assuming there is not already a feature that covers this, apologies if there is!

Options for this feature:
- My preference would be manual drag & drop (activated by long select on a forecast/surfcam pane in the home screen)
- Another option would be adding sort/filter options (Alphabetical, Region, State)

@Thingo, Glad to hear you're enjoying the app! There's no favourite sorting at the moment but it's high on our roadmap. We did some experiments earlier in dev with drag & drop, but ran into performance issues when it came to dragging video, I'm keen to revisit it though - and I like your idea of adding sorting/filter options - I'll forward it to our designer.

This app is so much fun. Spent hours on it Saturday before last (it was getting cross with me and gives an error after I'd been on it too long but I just swapped between big groyne & superbank) and had already been following the swell through it over your array of cameras from Aggies to Manly as it progressed over the rest of the week. Not sure you intended it to be used like that but with the zoom-in I was right in the action virtually (shit day here at the time rated 1/10 surf and weather wise so had some time on my hands).
Still using the browser as first option because the list of comments is my preferred form of reading and entertainment, that and watching other people surfing excellent waves, when I can't myself.
The app is great

@Standingleft, that's awesome, really happy to hear it's fun to use - and fascinating to learn how people are using the app in the wild. Thanks for letting us know!
Do you remember what error you were getting by chance, or was it a crash? Android or iOS? :)

MitchTheDev wrote:

@Standingleft, !
Do you remember what error you were getting by chance, or was it a crash? Android or iOS? :)

Hi Mitch, sorry for slow reply, just saw your reply yesterday. I had thought at the time 'I should write this message down, probs going to ask' but of course I didn't. I've tried to recreate it, navigated through screen time outs and pauses to the stream to keep the Cronulla Point cam up for half an hour this morning and only got the standard, 'App has encountered an error' once.
I think that Super Saturday of east swell maybe the demand on the Kirra/Superbank cams was off the chart? It was excellent viewing if you like relentless surf action.
It wasn't a crash, just a polite message (I'd been hogging the stream) pretty sure it's something you put up, same font/graphics like the rest of the app.
My phone is a cheap Oppo Android and I'm out in the country with basic ADSL internet, up in the shed on a wifi extender too. (Haha that brought back a funny memory. Did I have a dial-up internet when Swellnet first came on line !? Is that possible?) ADSL is pretty fantastic in comparison but yes if it's working well here which it does then it's a pretty solid platform I think.
Love your work

@Standingleft Sorry for the lengthy delay, I got caught up with the iOS launch. Hope you're doing well, and thanks for the kind words! Cheers also for letting me know about the Cronulla Point error, I'll keep an eye on it. If a cam ever gets stuck try giving it a pull-down refresh, in most cases that should reset the player.

Glad to hear the Super Saturday action was good viewing haha, we've been seeing quite a lot of traffic on weekends since the official releases (iOS just went live Friday) - hopefully everything has been smooth and stable in userland.

I second that ADSL is great, I was on 56K for the longest time due to my area being really slow to roll it out. When it first came here, it was stupidly expensive, so my neighbour and I ran a giant ethernet cable over the fence and went halvies on the bill. Good times.

Any way the on the app to zoom in using the usual smart phone two finger pinch zoom?

Full screen is good, but I often find myself zooming in a little extra directly on the peak. Can't do it in the app it seems.

@Stok Are you referring to pinch-zoom on the video player, or around the app in general? You can pinch-zoom when the player is fullscreen in landscape orientation. Let me know if it's giving you any trouble.

Ah thanks! I didn't even try once zoomed in, assumed it would be the same format as when via on mobile web browser, where you can't zoom.

Problem solved - great app.

No worries, happy to help!