Update! An easier and more fun Talkshow.

The best thing about shipping a v1 is seeing how people use what you’ve built, and hearing what they have to say about it. In the month or so since we launched Talkshow, we’ve heard a ton of valuable feedback from the community — through our support email, feedback on Twitter, and, of course, some Talkshows about Talkshow.

Today we shipped an update to Talkshow for iOS that addresses a lot of the early user feedback, fixes a few more things that have been bothering us at HQ, and lays the groundwork for what we’re working on next.

Here’s the bullets on what’s new — details are below that.

• New tabbed navigation (Home / Explore / Profile) to make it easier to find shows from your friends, shows you’re hosting, and great shows to tune into.
• Search for shows by title to find shows you may be interested in. GoT!
• Tune into Talkshows from the beginning and read them chronologically. No more tired thumbs from scrolling back up to the beginning!
• React to any message with any emoji. 😀😎😱👊💁🏽
• Favorite the shows you love with one tap of the 🌟, and come back to them on your Home tab.
• It’s easier to request to be a co-host, and to accept or deny co-host requests.
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements. Including support for split-screen on the iPad.

Want more info? Read on…

New tabbed navigation

To make it easier to get around Talkshow and find shows you care about, we’ve added a tabbed navigation bar with Home, Explore and Profile.

• Home includes Talkshows that are hosted by people you follow, Talkshows that you’ve favorited, and your own shows that you’re hosting.
• Explore makes it easier for users to search for shows by title, browse our featured shows and favorite hosts, or check out the shows that have been most recently updated.
• Profile gives you quick access to your profile on Talkshow

Search for the shows you want

Our favorite new feature of the Explore tab is the ability to search for shows. This will help you find those Game of Thrones shows, or shows about the Warriors or about photography. To start, we’re allowing people to search by the title of a show and we’ll look to expand how search works as we learn how people use it.

Tune into Talkshows from the beginning

One of the most common pieces of feedback we heard from people tuning into shows was that “it’s too much work to scroll back up in the conversation to catch up…especially if I need to scroll up all the way to the beginning!” We agree; so we fixed that.

Now, when you load a Talkshow for the first time, we will show you the beginning of the conversation, so you can read it in chronological order…the way nature intended. And if you leave and come back to the conversation in the app, we’ll bring you back to where you last were, so you can pick up where you left off.

Do it for the reactions

Finally, while show-wide Reactions were a popular feature in the app, we wanted to make it easier for the audience to share more expressive feedback on individual messages. You can now react to any message on Talkshow with an emoji. Just tap the message, find the emoji you think best captures how you feel about it, and tap it to react. Here’s how it works:

Favorite your favorites

We’ve made it easy to favorite the shows you’re tuned into, which will then save it to your home screen so it’s easy for you to come back to. You’ll find the big star on any show where you’re not the host. Tap it, and now you’ll find that show on your home screen.

Got co-host needs?

We’ve simplified how you invite co-hosts, ask to be a co-host or approve co-host requests. It all happens from the Show Info screen, which you can reach by tapping the three-dot icon in the upper right corner of any show.

• If you’re a host, you can invite co-hosts and act on any outstanding co-host requests from the Show Info screen
• If you’re in the audience and feel like you have something to add to the show, you can ask to become a co-host from the Show Info screen, as long as there are available slots for co-hosts.

Various bug fixes and performance improvements

Finally, we’re contractually obligated to inform you that this release includes various bug fixes and performance improvements. For instance — Talkshow now supports split screen on iPad, you can pull to refresh on any list of shows to update it, and we addressed many of the bugs that were causing the app to occasionally crash. (We obviously hate it when that happens.)

If you do come across bugs that still need to be fixed, or performance that still needs to be improved — we want to hear about it! You can “ask us anything” from the settings screen in the app, or email us at support@talkshow.im and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading, and see you on Talkshow.