Announcing the Sensorly Beta!

We are happy to announce the long-awaited beta for the new Sensorly is out TODAY for both Android and iOS! The Android application is rebuilt from the ground up using new Android battery protections, better networking, and more accurate location readings. Both platforms are using a new speed test methodology to better represent how you consume content. The apps are now reporting into a brand new data-pipeline allowing Sensorly to collect and analyze more signal samples.

Why?

The changes to Sensorly were necessary to better serve users as the app grows. Reliability and scalability were the primary factors driving the decision for the new Android app and the changes to the back-end infrastructure. Starting with this new beta, Android users are able to contribute more, while using less of their precious resources on their mobile device. The iOS app was redesigned in early 2017, and the new iOS beta will build on these changes to now feed our new infrastructure.

What’s New?

Let’s run through the exciting new changes for the Sensorly apps and platform.

Android and iOS

The new beta applications for both Android and iOS are feeding a brand new data-pipeline built with the future in mind. This new data-pipeline will be able to reliably map samples from both operating systems but also provide new insights not possible from the old pipeline. This new infrastructure will also power the new Sensorly.com, which is coming soon.

Map Layers

The most consistent feedback we receive from users of the Sensorly app is that they love to “paint the map”, and we want to ensure this is a great experience. We’ve created a fresh new map style that is easier for new and experienced users to comprehend. The new maps are significantly faster to render, and it looks great when zoomed out looking at a whole country. Additions to the map will be using a new batch rendering service that will ensure your samples will be added to every zoom level in a timely fashion. This time frame will be tested during this beta, so check back for your updates to the map in the days following if you do not see your contributions right away. Finally, we recognize that networks are changing all the time, and that users want to feel like their contributions make a difference. Therefore, we will be loading only the last 12 months of data into the new map layers.

New Speed-Tests

The speed-test functionality of Sensorly has been updated to use a content delivery network (CDN): these are servers distributed all across the world to be local to the users of Sensorly. Using a CDN is a better representation of how you use your phone consumes data in other apps, providing key insight into your quality of experience on the network. The speed-tests performed against the CDN method will also save you data while still providing the insight into your performance you are accustomed to with the previous iterations of Sensorly.

Better Networking

The new beta apps use less data, saving you money. This is accomplished by batching your network check-ins to Sensorly, using less data during speed-tests, and compressing all interactions with the Sensorly infrastructure.

Map Trip Changes

Map trips are now more useful to users. As you start a map trip, your signal strength will now be represented along your route. Map trips are also now reviewable after the fact, including an interactive map that will show your entire route and your strength along that route.

All New Android App

After much deliberation, the Sensorly team decided that the entire Android app needed to be re-written to provide users with the best experience. While incremental changes had grown Sensorly into the great tool it is today, the future of the application necessitated a ground-up rewrite.

Better Battery and Location

The new Android app uses opportunistic gathering to save your battery while gathering more samples than ever before. The app now uses location data gathered by the other apps on your device coupled with the relevant signal data captured by Sensorly’s SDK to provide the same data Sensorly has always used plus new data points which are provided by the newer generation of Android APIs. Using location data requested by other apps results in no longer polling your GPS and exponential improvements to battery usage on your device.

New User Experience

The goal of the new Android user interface design was to make it easier to use, while also updating the overall look. The visual style is consistent with the re-designed iOS app, while also conforming to the Android platform guidelines and patterns.

iOS Updates

The iOS version of Sensorly got its refresh in early 2017, and today’s version will build on that refresh. Notable additions to the iOS app include iPhone X support and various bug-fixes found by our users of the current App Store version and our new beta users. The beta iOS app uses the new map layers, better behavior for Map Trip, and speed tests featuring our enhanced test methodology.

How Do I Participate?

The current Android and iOS beta apps are out now. We are accepting new testers for both platforms and the only thing we require to get you signed up is your email.

Android

The Sensorly Android beta will be available through the Google Play Store and our Sensorly Beta Google+ Community. The Google+ Community will be the place to find all news, discussion, questions/answers, and provide feedback to the Sensorly engineering team.

To sign-up for Android beta via Google+:

1. Request to join the Sensorly Beta Google+ Community
2. You will receive an email upon acceptance
3. The link to the Android beta app is in the Sensorly Beta Google+ Community but can also be found here.

Want to provide more insight?

Enable Active Network Collections mode via the Settings > Data Collection screen to paint more of the map in the background, while still preserving more battery than any previous version of the Android app.

iOS

The Sensorly iOS beta will be available through Apple’s TestFlight service for distributing betas. Anyone running iOS8 or later is eligible to take part in the TestFlight beta. To sign-up for the iOS beta via TestFlight, you will need to provide us with your Apple ID email via this form.

We will be adding users to the beta in groups, so keep an eye out for an email from TestFlight that indicates your acceptance into the beta. The email will have a subject line that looks like “TestFlight: Sensorly invited you to test Sensorly”.

To install beta apps from an invitation email on your iOS device:

1. Install TestFlight from the App Store
2. Open your invitation email.
3. Tap Start Testing in TestFlight.
4. Tap Accept, Install, or Update.

To provide feedback to the Sensorly engineering team, tap Send Feedback in the app’s details page in TestFlight. Please note, that you must have a Mail account setup on your iOS device for the feedback button to appear because it uses the mail app to pre-populate your email. The feedback email contains detailed information about the app and about your iOS device. Please provide instructions on how to reproduce your problem if you can in your email to the dev team.

If you have trouble getting the beta setup on either Android or iOS, please reach out to using the Contact Us page on Sensorly.com.