There are a lot of smaller tweaks and bug fixes in this release which you might not notice at first, but they definitely improve the overall experience.
As for the bigger things:
ability to select call(s) and message(s) ringtone
the app will now stop ringing if call was picked up on another device
completely overhauled incoming call UI and UX
basic emoji support
better proximity sensor handling in voice-only calls
Some things are of course not mentioned here and I’ll let you discover them!
No incoming messages notifications, only mentions and incoming calls (the incoming call screen is well done, it shows above lockscreen etc).
The new message notifications are implemented yet?
BTW the caller side call screen should be improved,
if it is a audio only call,the screen becomes blank, the caller might be confused what’s going on. The screen should have some elements showing even if the controls are hidden.
the screen should turn off when the proximity sensor is triggered. The sensor is working, it does turn off the front camera when covered, but if someone wants to talk with the earpiece, the incoming videos should be stopped too. Or this functionality become available only in audio only calls.
It seems that up until 2.1 beta1 if i voice called from the app the screen just went blank after a few seconds (the controls dissapeared and if i tapped the screen thay came back) but the backlight was still on. If noone connected, the screen stayed blank if it was not tapped. Yes if someone was connected we have the avatar, name etc, but until then the blank screen is disconcerting.
But it seems i cannot reproduce it with beta2, the controls no longer dissapear so this is no longer an issue.
Although i would say the “connecting” animation should stay on until a succesful connection is established with someone. Also a client side ringing sound may help.
The proximity sensor does not have any effect on audio calls. The only occasion i see it working is in video calls where until covered, the front camera stops working.
At least in audio calls the proximity sensor should turn the screen off.
I’ll change this a bit more in one of the future versions, but it’s quite good already in beta2 I’d say. As for client ringing: there have been requests in this regards, but as it’s not really a proper feedback (since it’s not real “calling” and you cannot know if someone rejected the call) I’ve dismissed it.
Proximity sensor will be turned off by default in beta3 for audio calls. There’s a request for turning the screen off which I’m still thinking about (it’s not possible to turn off the screen btw, rather it’s turning brightness to minimum).
Then maybe some message or leaving the existing “connecting…” message on the screen for this time? People might think there is something wrong if not getting any feedback for a few seconds (the screen is essentially blank with the 2 icons on it) so having something in the screen for these periods will certainly help.
For the screen turning off - it should to work like regular audio calls do. I was under the impression the screen turns off then?
Also if I write an accent in Android talk. In the web interface don’t show and show a code.
The first sentence in the picture are:
Soporte básico de emoji
