TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGIN’
Hosting Our Server on AWS
Yesterday, the newest Redplanet update was released and we’re super excited to share the details of it. With the advent of Parse shutting down (our old third party server), we’ve spent the past several weeks migrating our servers to Amazon Web Services with the help of our friends over at Restless Apps and Jack Higgins (who basically did 99% of the work). So, please update to version 3.4.0 or later to ensure your data is accessible!
Testing Ephemeral News Feeds With the New UI
On that note, the newest update has two new major features that we added: A new News Feed and a new UI to share content. First and foremost, unlike the old news feed where every post was hidden, the new newsfeed is now streamlined. This means you no longer have to tap on every post to view it.
On Redplanet, three types of posts disappear in 24 hours: Moments, Space Posts, and Shared Posts. Moments are photos or videos captured directly with the camera and shared to your friends or followers. Space Posts are posts you share on your friends’ Space. Shared Posts, are posts you re-share to your news feed. But because these posts disappear in 24 hours, this also means you get to see who else viewed them.
The new sharing interface completely revolutionizes how you interact on the app. Now, the first thing that loads is the camera. We did this to encourage you to share Moments. Upon swiping towards the right-hand side, you find your camera roll for both photos and videos. Here you can select a video or photo to share on Redplanet with your friends and followers. Swiping back to the camera and swiping towards the left-hand side, will bring you to the “New Text Post” section. Here you can write updates on how, or what you’re doing. Finally, go back to the camera and click the “rp” button or swipe up to return to the app’s main interface. The new UI update is extremely easy to use with one hand, so every swipe is simple and every button placement is close for your thumb.
To go back to share posts, hard-pull down from any other tab except the news feed — it will launch you back to the camera. Here’s a demo:
Staying True to Our Core Values
Overall, with the migration and new Timeline and UI changes, the interface of the app gives Redplanet a refreshing feeling. The app will work the same it has always worked, but posting content is much more simple and intuitive. On November 28th, we changed the product that might’ve undermined our core differentiating factor. But now we’re back and standing our ground with out initial vision:
To create a social platform where news can be consumed in a much better, organized way.
And our mission is simple:
To give people a better news feed on social media.
And we firmly believe that that starts by letting people choose who they’re friends are and who they’d like to follow. Thanks for reading, and we hope to see you as part of our community because we’re just getting started. (Find us on the AppStore here)
From, everyone at Redplanet
Josh Choi, Jake Cadez, Michael Furman, and Yusuf Ahmed
Written by Michael Furman
