Connectivity issues

Earlier this week MetroTalk stopped functioning for all users, as a result of a change deployed by Google to their servers. Being a third-party app without access to an official API, this kind of outages are unfortunately unavoidable as we are not notified in advance for such changes.

We have been investigating the problem over the last 2 days and what we discovered is that these changes had a major impact on MetroTalk. The way the app is currently created allows for faster data retrieval and processing compared to most other implementations, but unfortunately this fact was also the reason that MetroTalk was affected to such a high degree.

We are now happy to announce that tonight, we will submit an update to Microsoft for approval that fixes these issues. Please note that the approval process takes 3-5 days on average, and you will automatically be notified by your device for downloading. If it is critical for you to have early access to this updated version, please continue reading the paragraph at the end of this post.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenienced caused. This issue was out of our control, and we worked as fast as possible for resolving it. In the future, please consider following us on Twitter for announcements, as it is very difficult for us to respond to individual emails during outages like this one: http://www.twitter.com/metrotalk

Thanks for your understanding.

–MetroTalk

Early access: The fastest way to get a new app to users is by publishing it under the beta program which requires no approval by Microsoft. We plan to release the final version of MetroTalk under this program tomorrow, for users who would like immediate access to the app. Although this will be labeled as a “beta”, it will be identical to the version that will hit the marketplace later this week. If you are interested in this, you need to send us the email address you use on the Windows Phone marketplace to beta0413@metrotalk-windowsphone.com, in order to provide you authorization for downloading. Please only include your email address at the body of the message. At the same time, we encourage users to wait for the official update, and only contact us if it is absolutely critical for them to have access to MetroTalk as soon as possible.

MetroTalk 3.0 is now released!

The first release for WP8 is now available. There are many new features, and even more will follow in the next few weeks! Don’t forget to unable the message counter for your lock screen!

Here’s the full changelog:

• New: Windows Phone 8 support
• New: Fast resume
• New: Multi-size tile support
• New: Lock-screen unread counter
• New: Text-to-speech
• New: Added ability to auto-dial a contact directly from the start screen (a new pin-to-start menu has been introduced in Call/Text)
• New: Additional folder pages can now be downloaded using a scroll-up gesture
• New: Option for enabling private mode, which hides any sender or content info for new notifications
• New: Option to disable vibrating on new messages
• Update: Added new icon for the Call/Text secondary tile
• Update: The account PIN is now hidden in settings
• Bug fix: Secondary tiles are working now on WP8

Grab the app now from here:

MetroTalk 2.5 is now released!

Another update is out today with lots of bug fixes and a couple of helpful new features:

• New: Added ability to dial without the need of a data connection
• New: Added new “pin to start” option for Call/Text with auto dialer
• Bug fix: The “send” button is now properly enabled where appropriate
• Bug fix: The callback dialing option would sometimes fail repeatedly
• Bug fix: Loading contact photos would sometimes result in a crash
• Bug fix: New messages now properly allow newline characters
• Bug fix: Updating the live tile now properly resets the backtile text
• Bug fix: Opening conversations would sometimes repeatedly result in an error until a full folder refresh

MetroTalk 2.4 is now released!

The fastest Google Voice client on the Marketplace, has now also become the client with the most features! A new version is out, with a revamped interface and lots of new features. Read the changelog or download it from the Marketplace now.

New features preview

Since the release of v2.0, we have been working on a number of exciting new features, and we want to share some of the details with you. You can expect the following to arrive in the next couple of weeks:

• Allow side scrolling for flipping through folders on the main page
• Added thumbnail support throughout the app, including the folder page and the favorites panel
• Added support for displaying information for the most recently received message on the main app tile
• Added support for international characters, for both contact names and messages
• Phone number action links can now also dial through Google Voice

These are primarily based on feedback received by users; if you have not submitted your own requests yet, visit http://metrotalk.uservoice.com and send us your ideas today!

Review screen bug

Unfortunately v2.2 introduced a bug, which causes the review screen to be displayed every time the app is launched. We greatly apologize for the inconvenience. This bug managed to slip through our testing due to the following: the specific screen does not appear until after a few weeks since the app has been installed. Every re-installation resets this timer, thus we never had the opportunity to see this in our testing, were re-installs are often involved.

MetroTalk v2.3 is currently available from the Marketplace for fixing this issue. Early next week, v2.3 will also be available for MetroTalk Free, for addressing the same problem. In the meantime, you can follow these instructions for permanently dismissing the screen, without needing to wait for an update.

• Enter the app, wait for the review screen to appear, and dismiss it.
• From the application bar, enter “Settings” and then “General”.
• Hit the back button on your device, all the way until exiting the app.

The problem should now be resolved. Once again, we apologize about this issue. We will do our best to ensure, that no similar problems will come up in the future.

Push notifications outage

We’ve had a small outage today with our push notifications server, which lasted for a few hours. Everything should be back up and running now. Please let us know if you have any problems. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.