UX++ for Beam mobile wallets (part 3)

Published in

BEAM Privacy

5 min readMar 2, 2020

Hey again and long time no see since part 2 and part 1! While our core team is focusing on groundbreaking features like Confidential Assets, Lelantus (adapted for Mimblewimble), Atomic Swaps API, Web Wallet, and much more, I dare to say that our mobile wallets are continuously being polished on a finer level, gathering the feedback along with shorter iterations.

So, what’s in the box for 4.0 (iOS, Android) and 4.1 (iOS, Android) versions?

☀️ Features

We 💙 you, our dear newcomers! Therefore, we made the wallets usable straight after they are installed from wherever you are. What was a hassle? Imagine installing the wallet while commuting and trying to re-type the essential seed phrase with one hand while holding the handrails with the other. This stage is not mandatory anymore! With a better balance between the risk and usability, after the installation, you’ll be painlessly directed to the main wallet screen. We want you to try the wallet first and the essential security measure (e.g. the seed phrase validation) will be postponed till enough balance is accumulated. In case you’ll want to validate it from the get-go (e.g. before the incoming transaction) — trigger the process manually from the Settings.

When the right time comes you’ll see the automatic reminder to validate the seed phrase (and you won’t be able to escape the message this time)

Once the wallet is installed, we want you to see how convenient it is right away. With a few magic taps, you’ll be taken to the Beam faucet web page (developed by the Beam community member vsnation [Twitter]) where a fraction of an actual Beam will be delivered straight to your wallet. Experience how fast BEAM transactions are, exchanging some money with your friends straight from the get-go.

While prioritizing the essential features first, we do realize the importance of being in the right trend :) Jokes aside, the dark mode is not only conceptually related to privacy, it also tunes the wallet into the better eye-pleasing mode at night time or under low light conditions.

Mobile phones come and go and, as you should know, Beam is a privacy coin based on Mimblewimble protocol, so your transaction history is not stored on the blockchain. Therefore, we’ve introduced the data import/export functions that allow transferring your Beam wallet data from one device to the other.

We continuously listen for the new features suggestions on our support and community Telegram channels. Some of you were frustrated that to wipe off the wallet data, one needed to create a new seed phrase, re-initializing the wallet state. Well, we’ve just introduced the item in Settings that wipes everything with a few taps (including the “Are you sure?” dialog).

🆒 Improvements

On a smaller scale, few neat things are worth noticing:

Since more and more functionality is being added to the wallet (each with its own item in the Settings), we’ve reorganized the screen into better-grouped sections.

When the wallet is re-opened, you are required to enter the password. So far, if the password has been forgotten the only way to access your funds was to reinstall the wallet and initialize it from your seed phrase. From now on, you can just trigger the restore function from the password screen.

Want to use the transaction details somewhere (amount, addresses, etc), but the “fancy”-looking transaction receipt doesn’t allow to copy-paste the actual numbers? Use transaction details from the contextual menu and prosper!

For the impatient, transaction screen refreshes when you pull it down

To simplify the support procedure, the wallet version number is always shown on login and restore screens.

🛠 Fixes

All kinds of smaller things: typos, color corrections, elements’ placement, refined explanations were done to make the wallet more intuitive and simple to use.

✅ That’s it for now

More functionality is coming (e.g. displaying rates in BTC/USD is one good example of many), stay tuned, let your friends try the wallet which just became easier to use, and tell us how we can do even better. Thanks for reading till here and see you again :)

UX++ for Beam mobile wallets (part 3)

☀️ Features

🆒 Improvements

🛠 Fixes

✅ That’s it for now

Written by Alexander Abramovich