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Pugpig Bolt 4.2 is here! Here’s what’s new…

From vertical video carousels to improved UX, take a look at what new features are in Pugpig Bolt 4.2

4th December 2024

Pugpig Bolt 4.2 launch

Welcome to 2024’s final edition of What’s New in Pugpig Bolt. What a year it’s been… our team has been working tirelessly throughout the year to ensure Bolt is the best app platform on the market. More recently, we’ve been working on lots of exciting features including improvements to the subscription screens to make them more intuitive and engaging – read more here, we’d love to know your thoughts.

While this newsletter is a great overview of the latest features on Bolt, we’ll be looking at these in lots more detail and putting the power in your hands to vote on our roadmap priorities at our annual Customer Summit happening tomorrow (Thursday 5th December). RSVP now if you’d like to join us at Pugpig HQ or join us online via Zoom – we’d love to see you there.

Speaking of events, we recently attended a developer event at Apple’s new London HQ where they did a deep dive into their new App Intents functionality. We’ll be looking at what exactly this might mean for publishers in next week’s Media Bulletin newsletter – make sure you’re signed up to hear our take. 

As we head into December, we’d like to wish all of our fabulous customers, partners and industry friends a happy and healthy end to the year. 

Team Pugpig

Pugpig Bolt iOS & Android 4.2 release date: Monday 21st October 2024

see all pugpig bolt release notes

Vertical video carousels are here!

Useful for: Your product & editorial teams

We’ve enhanced our carousel functionality to seamlessly support vertical videos, making it easier than ever to showcase video content. This builds on the work we did before to allow different aspect ratios for vertical video. 

This update also includes a modern carousel design that works beautifully with both vertical and horizontal videos.

Plus, tapping on a video in the carousel opens it in full screen, delivering an immersive viewing experience similar to other popular, video-led apps.

Note: Vertical swiping to navigate to the next video isn’t currently supported when viewing in full-screen mode.

Who’s affected: All Bolt customers using video in carousels.

What you need to do: Get in touch with support to discuss what’s needed. Configuration will depend on your desired setup.

Seamless swiping comes to Android

Useful for: Your product team

Android users can now enjoy smooth, intuitive swiping through carousels and custom timeline cards, just like on iOS. No more tapping arrows to navigate – it’s now easier than ever for your users to explore horizontal content.

Whether scrolling through carousels or custom timeline cards, the new swipe functionality delivers a faster, more natural way to engage with content.

Who’s affected: All Bolt customers with carousel content in timelines.

What you need to do: No action or app update needed – this is an automatic server-side update. If you have custom carousel cards, reach out to support who will make a quick edit to ensure they follow the new behaviour. Once this is done, the arrows will no longer be visible.

Bolt now remembers a reader’s position in an article

Useful for: Your product team

From this Bolt version (4.2) onwards, readers can pick straight up from where they left an article, even after exiting the app, navigating to different sections or reading other content. Bolt remembers their exact position in an article to allow for seamless reading.

This highly requested feature is perfect for those with longer form content that users may not able to finish in one sitting. Longer form content consumption is now lots more convenient and user-friendly for your readers. Read more here.

Who’s affected: All Bolt customers, especially useful for those with long-form content.

What you need to do: Reach out to your Customer Success Manager to update to Bolt 4.2. No configuration changes are needed. If you notice this behaviour doesn’t happen or is inconsistent post-launch, please get in touch as this is likely a result of the content’s markup.

Enhanced toolbar flexibility

Useful for: Your product team

You now have greater flexibility for the design of your app toolbar (see the green arrow on the image). You can now choose to display your logo, the tab title (ie. settings), or nothing at all on any tab toolbar – this is no longer limited by tab type. Essentially, you can customise the look and feel of your app toolbar across all content and tabs.

Also, you can now add up to two trailing toolbar icons per tab (see the green circled icons on the image). These icons can link to any in-app feature or tab, and you can customise these independently for each tab, giving you more flexibility to enhance navigation and create a tailored user experience.

Who’s affected: Any Bolt customers wanting more options for their app toolbar.

What you need to do: Reach out to your Customer Success Manager to update to Bolt 4.2 and let them know any changes you’d like.

Greater control and edition-based support for Timeline Layouts

Useful for: Your product team

Timeline Layouts – our full content curation and customisation solution for timelines – now offers even greater control and flexibility as well as improved support for edition-based content.

You can now toggle the feature on or off for individual timelines and content types, giving you even more precise control over each individual timeline.

Who’s affected: Any Bolt customers wanting to ensure their content looks its best on bigger screens.

What you need to do: This feature is available now – reach out to your Customer Success Manager if you’re interested.

A/B testing in your Bolt app

Useful for: Your product team

We’re exploring how we can help you maximise the results you get from your app with experimentation, specifically looking at how we can best support customers’ goals through A/B testing. We’d love to hear from you if this is something you are interested in. Read more here.

In case you missed it…

Join the Mobile Matters community

Talk to other mobile publishing professionals about how they’re developing their apps and growing their audience in our newly launched Mobile Matters community. This month, we’ll be launching sessions for Mobile Matters members to pose questions to Pugpig experts. Find out more & join.

[Podcast]: Pugpig co-founder Jonny Kaldor on ‘why news publishers should invest in apps’

In the latest podcast episode from our friends at Norkon, our co-founder Jonny Kaldor explores the value of apps for publishers as they discuss how, why, and when apps truly work for news brands. Listen to the episode here.

How to use Whatsapp channels to drive app downloads

Publishers and broadcasters are looking for new opportunities in third-party platform audience development, and we see a way to use WhatsApp to not only drive users to your content but also grow the users of your app. Read the full article.

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