I have been posting to the SDMB on Android-based mobile devices for several years. When I wish to compose a post, I tap into the composing field, and a little QWERTY keyboard appears on my touchscreen. I touch the characters to compose my post, and tap on the “Submit” button to send it.
Throughout the time that I’ve been posting this way, I have occasionally been offered an opportunity to use Tapatalk for the purpose. And I have consistently declined, on the principle that I don’t need to install and learn how to use another damned app.
Lately, however, it has occurred to me that I really have no inkling about WHAT it is I’ve been declining to incorporate into my user experience. And I’ve decided to do something about that.
So, Dopers: please explain Tapatalk to me. What is it? How difficult is it to learn? Does it have any features that make it likely to enhance my posting experience, and if so, what are they?
There’s no guarantee that educating myself about this utility will result in my adoption of it, of course. But my refusal would originate from a place of knowledge rather than one of inertia. And if I were to begin using it, I would definitely disable that damned sig.
It really depends on the size of your screen on your phone.
My iphone is one of the smaller ones, and I find that it doesn’t display all of the StraightDope web-page easily in the browser. I’m constantly re-sizing the page or scrolling back and forth horizontally to read the posts.
Tapatalk re-sizes it automatically so there’s no need for horizontal scrolling. Just regular vertical scrolling.
That’s the main reason I use it. Atomic Dog has an equally valid reason not to use it: his tablet is big enough that it displays well enough that he doesn’t need to keep re-sizing and scrolling horizontally.
I use it on an Android phone and two android tablets.
It can automatically categorize posts by UNREAD, PARTICIPATED if I choose, or I can just browse the various sub forums. I can choose to receive notification of new postings on subscribed threads if I wish. I follow about 10 different forums and they are all in one place on my phone and tablets.
The only downside I’ve found is that polls don’t appear. If there’s a poll mentioned in a posting I need to go to a browser to participate.
Is TapaTalk perfect? Probably not, but I find it convenient most of the time.
Tapatalk provides a native look and feel for web forums, meaning it’s supposed to make using the SDMB (and hundreds of other forums) on a phone easier. (For tablets, it also has a landscape mode). It does this in several ways:
Reflowing the text into paragraphs sized appropriately for your phone. Instead of zooming in/out awkwardly (as though you were looking at a screenshot of the forum), you would just scroll up and down like you’re reading text messages or emails.
Integrating forum functionality into a native user experience. You no longer have to zoom in to find the tiny reply button; you just reply at the bottom of your screen like you would a text message. Subscriptions are handled through Tapatalk’s notification scheme, much like text messages, instead of requiring you to zoom in to the Quick Links menu, zoom in to the Subscribed Threads sub-menu, and then try to one-finger it without touching the other things.
Automatically displays images in threads, so you don’t have to click on a link, wait for your browser to load it, and then go back to read the rest of the thread.
TLDR: Tapalk provides a standard phone experience for old forums like the SDMB, which never bothered to make a mobile version itself.
Really, the only way to know if you’ll like it or not is to try it.
Personally, I don’t think it is any better or worse than using a browser, it’s just different. As noted above, there are some features that don’t work properly on Tapatalk, so that’s a bit annoying.
It’s a free app. Try it. If you don’t like it, delete it.
As it happens, most of my mobile browsing is on my tablet, which I keep in landscape orientation, and delivers an experience nearly indistinguishable from my desktop. My phone is an Aquos by Sharp, and that DOES mess with text sizing and whatnot. I’ll look into adding Tapatalk on that.
Now that the question’s been answered, I’m astonished nobody else has chimed in about how much they hate being nagged by this popup every time they click on a thread.
Just based one that policy of irritating probably millions of people with an unblockable, needs-your-attention-now popup that pops up asking you the same thing again and again repeatedly every few times you click on a thread, I’d never install Tapatalk.
Seriously, how many cumulative years of peoples lives have they wasted now?
Estimating 5 wasted seconds every hour on an 18 hour a day cycle over 2 million people, I’m getting that they waste something like 5 person-years annually. Whatever they offer, I guarantee it isn’t worth that collective price.
