The new mobile app

Greetings fellow Grepolians!

It’s been a while since I had the privilege to write here, I am humbled by the sense of nostalgia, for it has been a long time since posting here, and I hope to improve your day by sharing with you news to a subject hat has been important to some of you – our new mobile app.

Let me first say: we hear you! Not everyone is happy with the new app, and you are right to be annoyed with some issues. We are too! This is why we would like to share some of the things we are right now working on to improve. Mostly it is about user experience (UX), and if you are like me with slightly fat thumbs I got great news for you!

Down below, we organised the collected feedback from our players, and things we can do to improve. But remember, Grepolis is a game that has been developing for over a decade and is still changing. Your feedback is welcome and will help us improve even more.

This being said, please keep sending us more suggestions in our community forums!

So, here it is some of your feedback and our ideas how to deal with the problems.

Your feedback	Our proposal to improve
We can’t see the active spells and for how long they are active because you need to tap hold with it not suitable for mobile because of the small icons.	For the new App players we will create a new Activities window. This window will have a tab with the active spells/running powers (similar like we have it in the old App). In this window they will be able to see all the running powers and for how long they are active and have the possibility to extend them if they are extendable.
The command bubble and interacting with commands is difficult on mobile because of the size, so Player often mis-click the command when they for example want to cancel it.	In the same actives window mentioned above we will add a movement and trade tab. In that tab the players will be able to see all the movements and the details, same goes for the trades in a trade tab.
Checkboxes are too small and often mis-clicked.	This one is a simple one, we will make larger checkboxes available and design them differently so we can avoid mis-clicks.
The menu inside the settings screen is way too small, often leads to mis-clicks.	We are making the menu text larger and more suitable to use on mobile.
The navigation in the Reports and Messages screen is hard to use on mobile. When switching between reports it is often the case that the players mis-click the button.	We will enlarge the buttons and reorder them on the screen.
The keyboard often covers the text-area so players cannot see what they are typing.	The text-area will be resized when the keyboard gets open and resize to it full size again once the keyboard closes. With this approach the players should always be able to see what they are writing. Screens that have search boxes on bottom of the window, we want to change and rearrange.
When zoomed in and closing the window the zoom resets, players don’t like this.	We implemented this as a feature, but since our players don’t like it, we will remove the zoom reseting when the windows get closed.
Players often don’t know how the zoom is supposed to work, they don’t know that they can drag special elements and complain that the credentials are not saved even when they checked the “Remember me” functionality.	We will introduce a tutorial that will show up on the new App, which will provide important information like that you need a safeguard on your phone (pin/fingerprint,…) because we want to have a better security for our players, introduce them to the dragging option and try to explain how a pinch-zoom works.
The city list is not really suitable for mobile. Often when scrolling players are moving cities to groups where they don’t want them.	Creating a new window for the city list that will be available in our app.
Some buttons are not usable at all like the buttons in the trade screen.	We are reworking the components to a more suitable design for mobile.
Window header buttons are still way too small.	Our revamping, will make them larger and more usable in the mobile context.
Island quests window contains important information about the decision in a tooltip. Not very suitable when you need to long tap the buttons.	Changing the design of the window and migrate important information out of the tooltip.
Town switch is not always working because our players have issues with tapping the small buttons.	We are re-working the town switch design for mobile, so it is easier to use for our players.
Main UI is not suitable for mobile because elements can get simply too small on devices with small screens.	We will continue redesign the main UI for mobile so it is more suitable for our players.

There is more to be done in our new app, and more shall be done with your continued support and feedback. It is in our core to create and make an app and experience that places the player first.

We can not thank you enough for all the feedback you provided so far and we are counting on it every time!

Thank you all!

Ricardo & the Grepolis team