Unique app made with Tasker (Your feedback PLEASE!)

[Amir S.]

Hi, i would really appreciate your feedback about my app Anything Texter; it lets you do any action with text and/or numbers from 1 screen that is accessible quickly from any screen.

I believe in this idea so much.....

Free at the play store with no ads (or message me for an apk):

http://goo.gl/ed0Hcz

(if you're lazy to try the app watch the video and give me feedback)

Thanks a lot in advance!

  

[S Williams]

Hi Amir,

Looks very useful, I will test it out over the next few days and return with some feedback.

[technogeezer]

Very cool!

Suggestions:
Is it possible to code your app so that users can link any app which uses text?
I use 'hackers keyboard' because I like the cursor keys.  Is it possible to use any keyboard?  Or could cursor keys be added to your keyboard?

Nit:
'Swipe from the bottom left edge' - Do you mean 'the lower left corner' or do you mean the bottom *or* left edge?

Great app, in any case!

$.02

[Amir S.]

Look forward to your feedback Sean Williams.

Regarding your questions technogeezer;
-you can sent any text/numbers using the share button, i will also check adding a custom app from a drop down menu, great idea!
-yes you can use any keyboard, the built-in keyboard is optional.
-bottom left corner yes, preferably from the edge.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts technogeezer

[Rich D]

Hi, amir,

> Hi, i would really appreciate your feedback

Interesting app,  looks very useful. 

Still feeling my way around but a few things I have noticed. 

I have a rooted Motorola Droid 4 / Stock ROM   / Android version 4.1.2

The droid 4 has a slide out keyboard.

--My landscape views need a little work ( see screen shots), all portrait views look good so far. 

-- After showing your keyboard if I hit my back button your keyboard will still be shown. The only way to dismiss it is with the red button on your keyboard. (Took a few minutes to find that)

[Rich D]

Update on landscape view.

I can get this view in landscape if I call your app when my device is in  portrait  then rotate to landscape.

However when i call the app when my device is in landscape I get the view shown in the first post.

[Amir S.]

Thank you Rich for your feedback!

-I never planned on making it compatible with landscape since android keyboards are full screen when in landscape...
...but now i'll create a layout for landscape mode where it will fit and use the whole width of the screen and the buttons will be in 1 row. Will add this in next version.

-The built-in keyboard is an overlay so pressing back once will minimize the android keyboard and pressing back again will close the window, not the keyboard.
If you use the keyboard it will close when you choose an action or press the red exit button. You can also auto enable it at startup.

Im glad you liked the idea (:

[Dennis A.]

Play Store says my DEVICE not compatible.
..unable to download.

Nexus 7 (2013) kk4.4.4 rooted

Dennis

[Amir S.]

Dennis thanks for telling me this!

Apparently its not compatible because you can call and send SMS directly from the app window so Google Play store see it as a phone app only...

HOWEVER, Anything Texter works fine on my Nexus 7 tablet when installing the apk manually.

You can grab it from the xda thread in the attachments at the bottom (no need to sign up or log in):

http://xda.tv/AnythingTexter

I will see what can be done about this because i would prefer to not create a tablet specific version apk :/

Your feedback is a blessing and i hope you install the apk manually and try Anything Texter out!

[Rich D]

> -I never planned on making it compatible with landscape since android keyboards are full screen when in landscape...
> ...but now i'll create a layout for landscape mode where it will fit and use the whole width of the screen and the buttons will be in 1 row. Will add this in next version.

Probably not a high demand option. I am always in landscape because of the slide out keyboard, However since these devices are disappearing like the dinosaurs I believe most android users stay in portrait. 

>
> -The built-in keyboard is an overlay so pressing back once will minimize the android keyboard and pressing back again will close the window, not the keyboard.
> If you use the keyboard it will close when you choose an action or press the red exit button. You can also auto enable it at startup.

I believe expected behavior for any android app is to be able to use the back button to 'back' out of any app and close any unnecessary processes. IMHO...  :) 

[Sean Williams]

So after a few days...

First off I wasn't initially clear what I could accomplish with Anything Texter however that doesn't mean the app is not useful to me just that I found there was an initial learning curve. The more I played with the app the more I understood what was possible and began finding uses for the built in functions. The instructions are clear and useful when long pressing the icons.

Hats off to you regarding the user interface it is incredibly complex yet works well and having used previous apps of yours the UI is clearly very unique to you.

The built in keyboard is very well implemented the only recommendation from me is - maybe have the backspace key prompt to clear all the text when long pressed? I found the short-cuts to input date time etc very useful but one small bug here is when %PNUM is empty it will still populate inside the text area as the raw variable '%PNUM'. The theme settings for the keyboard are a really nice touch.

The core focus of the apps UI (given the nature of the app) is possibly the text input box. I like the way you can expand the box for writing larger amounts of text however I would have liked a bigger input area on the main screen... maybe this would be possible? Also my text ticker is black just like the text box so it can't be seen maybe the text and background colouring could be customisable? One bug I found after expanding the text box then tapping to minimise the coloured icons reappeared but the text box stayed expanded so the icons covered the text.

I preferred to use the notification when accessing the app as the hotspot would sometimes block buttons on other apps obviously not much that can be done about that so the notification is a good option.

[Amir S.]

Sean i was delighted to hear your feedback! Thank you.

-Long tapping the Backspace in the built-in keyboard to clear the entire text/number is a good idea ALTHOUGH keep in mind that tapping the white gradient in the right side that shows if the text/number box are active actually clears the whole text/number box and it's mentioned in the manual. Try it out! while i add the option to long press the backspace as well.

-I'll add an action that sets the phone number into the variable, maybe its not automatic on every phone.

-After you expand the text box, type in text and then show the buttons again then the flow of your task is to choose an action rather then input more text.....saying this i have built it this way before i learned that i could test an element size and bring it back to its original size (no matter the resolution), a technique i am using on different apps.

I will update it so it will go back to its original size though, thanks for the note!

-The main reason the text/numbers fields are black is because white text is very easily readable on a black background rather than the opposite and it strains your eyes WAY LESS.....i wish more people knew this but every UI in the world by developers and companies likes to be bright haha

it is a good idea actually to be able to invert the colors of the text and the background! which will help in your case where the text ticker is black.

-I myself like having the notification and also changing the hotspot to the smallest size in the options, it works great as long as you swipe from the edge and it doesn't block other buttons on your phone.

Again i appreciate your feedback Sean for both pros and cons of Anything Texter and will update it accordingly!

[Sean Williams]

ALTHOUGH keep in mind that tapping the white gradient in the right side that shows if the text/number box are active actually clears the whole text/number box and it's mentioned in the manual. Try it out!

I had not noticed this - very handy!

-I'll add an action that sets the phone number into the variable, maybe its not automatic on every phone.

Sounds good.

-The main reason the text/numbers fields are black is because white text is very easily readable on a black background rather than the opposite and it strains your eyes WAY LESS.....i wish more people knew this but every UI in the world by developers and companies likes to be bright haha
it is a good idea actually to be able to invert the colors of the text and the background! which will help in your case where the text ticker is black.

Maybe we are conditioned by our use of paper. In any case I do prefer black themes however consider 'invert colours' as a feature request.

-I myself like having the notification and also changing the hotspot to the smallest size in the options, it works great as long as you swipe from the edge and it doesn't block other buttons on your phone.

So resizing the hotspot has removed my issue. I do prefer the notification tho so I will stick with that for now.

The only other issue I have encountered is when using the built-in keyboard the backspace key can never delete the first number in the input fields. We can use your method from above to clear the field as usual.