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Admin Announcements

๐Ÿ… ๐Ÿคณ Hello, Similar Worlds! ๐Ÿคฝ ๐Ÿš€

The SW Team is pleased to provide you with an update of what has been implemented since our last announcement in November.

Please note that even though we are writing less announcements, it does not mean we stopped development. We are just busier than usual, but we're planning to write more updates in the future, maybe even for smaller updates.

โค๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ’˜ [b]Happy Valentine's Day![/b] ๐Ÿ’“๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ’ž

[sep]


[big]โ€ข Standalone App and Push Mobile Notifications ๐Ÿ“ฑ[/big]

We took advantage of a modern (still experimental) web technology that is available on modern browsers, to make Similar Worlds behave more like a mobile app - [i]Progressive Web Apps[/i].

This technology allows users to install a SW as a [b][c=#BF0000]Standalone App[/c][/b] (on your app list) and enable [b][c=#BF0000]Push Notifications[/c][/b], even if SW is closed.


If you use a modern browser (such as Google Chrome or Firefox) on Windows, MacOS or Android, you can install a Similar Worlds application by [b]adding to the homescreen[/b] :)


On iPhone's Safari, press the Share button and then "Add to Home Screen".



Some browsers might sometimes ask if you want to add Similar Worlds to the homescreen (meaning - install the app).

[b]Google Chrome[/b] shows this:


[b]Firefox[/b] has a "Home" button in the address bar, which you can press:



You can also enable [b][c=#BF0000]Push Notifications[/c][/b], if you go on your Notifications page and press the orange "Turn On" button:


These notifications appear at the corner of your computer screen, or in the notifications drawer on your mobile phone, even if you are not on Similar Worlds. Note that native notifications will only appear if Similar Worlds is closed, or you are not "focused" on a SW page.



Adding Similar Worlds to the homescreen (as a standalone app), together with Push Notifications, should make Similar Worlds a real app on Androids!
Please note that if you have PC and Mobile, you need to enable notifications on both (this is a setting at browser level, rather than global/cross-device).

Unfortunately, [u]iPhones still don't support Push Notifications[/u]. :(
Windows, MacOS and Linux support them. Here's a compatibility table we made, as of today:



๐Ÿ’ก We advise that you [u]use Google Chrome or Firefox[/u], when browsing on Similar Worlds (or any other website!), except if you are on iPhone (where you can use [u]Safari[/u]). Note that Android's default/native browsers usually have an old version of Chrome on it, and they never receive feature/security updates - and very likely they will never support Push Notifications.


[big]โ€ข Suicide Prevention ๐Ÿ†˜[/big]

Our Report Abuse button contains now the following option in all types of posts (Profiles, Messages, Posts, etc):

โ˜‘ [b]This user may be at risk of committing Suicide or Self-harm[/b]


If you and others use this option, we will provide the user with some helpful contacts.

This page is also a good one to give to other users if you feel they should contact a help line:
https://similarworlds.com/help/1-Suicide-Crisis-Help-Lines

Please help us save lives by making good use of this Report option.
These reports don't count towards auto-suspension - instead we help.

We also made a page filled only with relaxing images, to help reduce anxiety and stress ๐Ÿ– ๐ŸŒ„:
https://similarworlds.com/help/2-Relax-Images


[big]โ€ข Recover Deleted Posts ๐Ÿ—‘[/big]

You can now recover deleted threads by using this page - https://similarworlds.com/deleted-posts

You can find this page by going to your Account Settings, scroll down and find "Recover Deleted Posts ยป".
If [u]6 months[/u] have passed since you deleted a post, it will disappear from this list.


[big]โ€ข Change Rating Level of Posts ๐ŸŽš[/big]

We saw several users asking how could they increase the Rating Level of a post that was submitted with the wrong level.

We totally understand that it's very easy to miss this option at the time you post, and now there is no need to delete the thread and post it again.
All you have to do is Edit your post and change it to the correct Rating Level.

Please note that it is only possible to increase the level. If you believe that our filters automatically increased the level of your post when they should have not, please feel free to let us know about that. We are happy to revise our filters if something is wrong.



[big]โ€ข More fun when sending Messages ๐Ÿ“จ[/big]

We noticed that people were hitting the messages limits too often, meaning that users had to wait a few seconds until they could post the next message.
These limits are now lowered, so users shouldn't really hit them anymore, realistically.

However, in order to ensure Similar Worlds stays stable and we don't hit database issues, we changed a bit the way messages are sent.
Therefore, if you were the last person sending a message on a thread, for a short period of time, further messages will be appended to your previous message.
Of course, if in that short period of time the other user has read the message, this will not happen, and your message will not be appended.

Not only that, notifications about new messages include now the name of the user who sent you a message, to make the notification more useful!


[big]โ€ข Other Improvements ๐Ÿ› [/big]

There are [b]LOADS[/b] of other improvements and fixes. Here are some that we'd like to mention:

- Similar Worlds can now detect when you are Offline. That's better than just having the page failing!


- We revamped and re-organized the Privacy Settings. We realized we had them out of place.

- We made a number of changes to make SW more accessible to visually impaired people.

- [b]When pressing the Back button, we now always scroll back to where you were.[/b]

- In most cases, we don't show the username tags if the person is blocked.

- We noticed and fixed a number of accessibility issues with pagination on Groups.

- Photo Albums were not properly filtering Rating Level depending on the viewer's options.


[big]โ€ข Plans for the Future ๐Ÿ’ฅ[/big]

โ—‹ [b]More Relevant Activity in the Home Feed[/b]
โ—‹ [b]Create your own Groups[/b]

[b][c=#BF0000]If you find any weird behavior in our system, please let us know straight away by sending any of the admins a Private Message or an email to us.
This is the best way to reach us and ensure that we will look into the problem as soon as possible.[/c][/b]

---

Thank you for your support and we hope you continue to stay with us.

We are constantly listening to your suggestions, so please keep giving them to us, as they are very important to the future of Similar Worlds.

Very kind regards,
- The SW Team
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SW-User
I can't put it in my home screen. ๐Ÿ˜†๐Ÿ˜†
Nuno ยท Admin
@SW-User Can you please try installing Google Chrome from the Play Store? If you are on Android, you should be able to take full advantage of the features I mentioned above!
SW-User
[image deleted]I'm actually using chrome.. And this is what it looks like when i try to do it. ๐Ÿ˜…
Nuno ยท Admin
@SW-User Awesome! If it says "Open Similar Worlds", I believe that means you have already installed the app in the past. The option turns into that wording, after it's already added to homescreen :)
SW-User
@Nuno really?! But i couldn't see it on my home screen?! ๐Ÿ˜“๐Ÿ˜จ
Hahah nvm, I'll deal with it later..

Anyways, thanks for the updates ๐ŸŽ‰โœจ๐Ÿค—๐Ÿค—
Nuno ยท Admin
@SW-User If you can see SW in the app list (not in the homescreen), maybe you can add it to the homescreen from there (by holding the icon for a few seconds, and then move to the home).