The digital magazine known far and wide as Flipboard has just pushed an update on its official Google Play Beta channel, and it's a big one. The Cover Stories UI is getting a makeover, and the way you access and find content is getting crammed in some drawers somewhere.
There are a number of small tweaks throughout the new beta. Here are the headlining features.
- Profiles for Flipboard users
- Experimental app navigation interface on phones
- New cover on Cover Stories feed
- Left drawer now contains magazines you're following and notifications/settings
- Right drawer now contains search, topics, and suggested sources
- Improved performance for interface for flipping into magazines
- Fix issue causing duplicate items to sometimes show up in feeds
- Improvements to interface for seeking help within the app
- Fix issue with ad cropping on tablets
- Fix some higher density layouts showing up on phones
- Fix minor issue related to storing feeds for offline viewing
- Other bug fixes and improvements
The left drawer looks quite a lot different than the old one. It has large image tiles and all your profile information right there. It's essentially the way you access your personalized content, and it works throughout the app. The main interface when you start up is just the cover stories feed. The right drawer is a re-styled search page, which mostly works the same way it did, but it's easier to access. If you want to give the beta a shot, just join the beta group, then opt into the test.
[Reddit]