Tapatalk for Windows Phone gets a big update

Tapatalk is an application designed specifically for accessing forums, which allows its users to have a single interface to access different forums . It is quite useful for those cases in which there is no version of the web adapted to mobile phones, although it requires that it have the Tapatalk plugin installed to be compatible with the service.

A few hours ago version 2.0 of Tapatalk for Windows Phone arrived, which makes a complete change in the user interface (UI ). In addition, new features are added and various errors that the application had were solved.

This update comes thanks to the collaboration of Microsoft with the Tapatalk team, and also thanks to the Spanish developer Jagoba Los Arcos. The latter is the creator of Foropolex, or was until he was hired to beresponsible for developing the new applicationtogether with the Tapatalk team.

Tapatalk 2.0 for Windows Phone

In Tapatalk 2.0 for Windows Phone the interface has been completely redesigned to offer a completely native user experience. The application is divided into 3 sections, and wall is the new section added by this update.

Wall: from this new section we can keep up to date with the latest topics created in those forums that we are following.
Explore: allows us to navigate between categories (or search for a specific term), in order to find new forums that are of our interest.
Forums: A list of those forums we are following.

For new users, the application has a quick guide available to learn how to use Tapatalk and its application for Windows Phone.

When we enter a forum through Tapatalk, the menu will always be available through which we can easily navigate between its different sections, and through which to log in to be able to post messages.

You have to keep in mind that the application uses a Tapatalk account, but for each forum you need your own account with which you can write in it.Even so, it seems that there is some surprise prepared in this regard related to the possibility of login to all forums with a single Tapatalk ID

This would allow us to forget about having to identify ourselves in each forum we visit through the application, since only one identity verification would be necessarywith a Tapatalk ID.

Personally, I really liked the way posts are displayed in this new version. These are organized into various pages of up to 20 messages each (you can choose 5, 10, 15 or 20), and have the text on a light background, without distracting elements when reading.

To update you just have to swipe down, just like in the official Twitter client for Windows Phone.It is possible to choose the behavior of the application when loading (if we want the unread files to be displayed first, in chronological order or from the end).

To navigate between the different pages of a post you can go page by page, jump directly to the last one, or choose exactly the page in the list that appears in the previous image. Here we will also see what comments (each identified by ID_COMMENT) there are in each one, which certainly facilitates the search.

The interface is not everything

We have already reviewed the application's interface, and we have been able to verify the work that Tapatalk and Jagoba Los Arcos have done with this new version of the popular application for browsing and discovering discussion forums on line.

The new design represents a huge leap from the, in my opinion, outdated design that the app used to have on Windows Phone. Now it can be considered a decent application, on a par with its equivalents for other platforms.

Leaving this aside, let's go with more news for Tapatalk. A very important one is the integrated image editor that has been added, thanks to which we can alter the brightness or contrast of an image that we are going to attach, as well as crop it, rotate it, add text, etc.

There is no limit to attaching images, since every user of the Tapatalk application has unlimited image uploads on their servers.

With the advent of Windows Phone 8.1 and startup wallpapers, many apps have started to make their app icon transparent, and Tapatalk is now one of them too. Without this, the icon would be displayed as it is, keeping its color, which doesn't leave a good result on the screen.

If we want the text to be larger or smaller, we can change the font size in the message view, in the application's configuration options.

Something that was missing was the lack of the moderation features that were added in the Windows 8 version. All of them They are now coming to Windows Phone, so it will also be very useful for moderators, as it will allow them to act if necessary without leaving the app.

Finally, in every topic and message there is the possibility of viewing it from the web browser, with its own interface that the forum has when visiting it from a PC. You can also share topics and messages with your contacts, through applications that allow it.

And obviously, they have taken advantage of this big update to include fixes for a lot of bugs that the app had. Hopefully the app will only get better from this point on.

Tapatalk is also in Windows 8

Unlike the version for Windows Phone, the Tapatalk application for Windows 8 is only available for download in English. It is not known if they will decide to update it soon, following the steps of its mobile version.

The version of Tapatalk for Windows 8 offers exactly the same possibilities that I have mentioned so far, only with an interface adapted to computer screens and tabletsThe arrangement of all the information also varies, achieving an ideal result for the users of this application.

The only difference that could be highlighted is that thanks to the application's hidden top bar, we can see the list of our forums at all times(and the Home button), so switching between them is very quick and easy.

Tapatalk (Windows 8) Version 1.2.1.0

Developer: Tapatalk Inc.
Download it at: Windows Store
Price: free
Category: social

Tapatalk is the only social application that combines more than 50,000 Internet forums into one optimized mobile experience.

Conclution

Tapatalk for Windows Phone has become a reference application, especially if we take into account that a service like this is not exactly used by few people on Android and iOS. Although it could have been earlier, better late than never.

You can tell that Microsoft is doing its best to get developers involved in the platform, putting teams to work with them just like they said they would. A very wise decision, but one that I hope will not be necessary for much longer.

If we talk about performance, although I don't know if it will be my Nokia Lumia 520 or WP 8.1, I have to comment that I noticed that the application was not running smoothlyIt took her several seconds to pay attention to me, and the further I got into a forum, the worse she got, even getting to hang.

I don't want to say that it's going to go wrong for all of you, since I installed it on a Nokia Lumia 630 and it was better. I suppose it will be a matter of the Lumia 520 processor, although in both cases the application was not as good as its version for Windows 8.

But leaving aside this problem, which I suppose they will try to fix in the future (and I imagine few will notice), I have to point out the fact that it's not only an application for users, as it can also be used by the moderation team.

I hope that over time they will add more features for both user profiles, since reading the forums in an application like this is a totally different experience.Much more comfortable than going through gigantic forums on your mobile screen, because there is no version adapted to these.