Version 8.9 beta 2

The second beta contains the following improvements compared to beta 1:

• The app now supports the dark mode also for older Android versions that don’t support switching between light and dark theme in the system settings. For Android 9 or older, a new check box is displayed. in the app settings that can be used to enable the dark theme.
• The app has been translated to Vietnamese thanks to MengMengShu(@CMonOS).
• The app has been translated to Hebrew thanks to Yonatan Arbel. Moreover, Hebrew version of Morse code has been added into the app. You can switch between the International Morse code and Hebrew morse code in the app settings.
• Minor fixes and optimizations

If you would like to help with the testing, you can join the open testing channel on the app page on Google Play. You can tap the “Join” link in the “Join the beta” box. Alternatively, you can join the testing also using this direct link: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/holecek.pavel.MorseCode

If you encounter any bugs, please report them at pavel.holecek.4@gmail.com. Many thanks to all of you that are going to help with the testing.

Version 8.9 beta 1

A new version 8.9 of the app will be released soon for Android. This version contains a significant change “under the hood”. It’s been migrated from the older platform (Xamarin.Forms) to a newer one (.NET MAUI). This has been a necessary change because Microsoft ended the development of the older platform and recommends migrating to the newer one. This change is therefore required so that the app could still use features from the latest Android versions. MMoreover, this change should improve the performance and the overall speed (mainly the startup speed). As usual, any bigger change can introduce not only new benefits but also new bugs. That’s why this new version will be released on Google Play first for brave ones that would like to help with its testing.

If you are interested in the testing, you can join the open testing channel on the app page on Google Play. You can tap the “Join” link in the “Join the beta” box. Alternatively, you can join the testing also using this direct link: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/holecek.pavel.MorseCode

If you encounter any bugs, please report them at pavel.holecek.4@gmail.com. Many thanks to all of you that are going to help with the testing.

Version 8.8 released

This version contains support for a new language and minor improvements:

• The app has been translated to Norwegian (Bokmål) thanks to Sivert-André Halhjem.
• Minor optimizations and removal of the code that is not needed any more.

The following version will have big changes under the hood. It will be based on a new platform. This change is necessary because the older platform (Xamarin.Forms) is not under active development by Microsoft any more. That’s why I’ve been preparing the migration of the app to the successor (.NET MAUI) of the older platform. The benefit should be also a better performance, especially startup speed. Because it’s a big change, it will be necessary to test everything thoroughly. That’s why I’m preparing a public beta testing on Google Play in a few days. If you are brave and if you would like to help with the testing, please feel free to join the beta testing on Google Play once it’s launched.

Version 8.7 released

The new version contains the following improvements:

• Small UI improvements mostly in the learning – slightly bigger sending button, nicer formatting of the text for the button, slightly larger font size also for a few other elements on this page. Besides learning, the decryption dialog has been also tweaked a bit.
• Targeting Android 15 – this is a technical change but an important one. The app is now build for the latest stable Android version.
• Improvements and fixes for the translation in Arabic Morse code - the translator can handle more variants of the letters.
• Fixes in the learning – a software keyboard has not been sometimes opened.

Version 8.6 released

A new version with the following improvements has been released:

• Hungarian version of Morse code has been added. This version includes additional codes for character in the Hungarian alphabet such as “é”, or “ö” and also mnemonic words for easier remembering of the codes. You can switch between International Morse code and Hungarian Morse code on the Settings page. Please be also aware that in Hungarian Morse code the letters Ö and Ő share the same Morse code. The holds also for the pair of letters Ü and Ű. As a result, when you translate a message from Morse code to the plain text, the app cannot know which of these two letters should be used in the particular situation and a manual correction might be necessary.
• A small improvement UI in the dialog for encrypting or decrypting using Vigenère cipher - a popup dialog is displayed instead.
• A small improvement of the new level dialog in the learning - the dialog can also be closed by pressing Enter.
• Fixed usage of the Arabic Hamza letter in the learning based on the user feedback.
• Libraries has been updated and other necessary maintenance has been performed.

Version 8.5 released

This version includes several UI and performance improvements:

• A new setting to swap the dot and dash buttons on the Morse code keyboard. By default, the dot is displayed first (on the left) and the dash follows after it (on the right). However, if you prefer the reverse order, you can now customize it in the Settings page.
• Larger, more usable button on the manual sending page. The original small circular button has been replaced by a larger button that extends to both edges of the screen, making it easier to press with your thumbs even in landscape mode.
• Improved the dialog on the learning page for moving to a new level.
• The buttons on the learning page have been adjusted and slightly enlarged.
• The rules for when to show the larger Morse code keyboard and when to show the smaller one on the translator page have been adjusted. They should better handle the case when the application is running in the split-screen mode.
• Improved performance when sound is generated on the learning page.
• Slightly reduced audio latency on the manual sending page.

Version 8.4 released

This version focuses mainly on improvements in learning:

• There is a new way of entering an answer in Morse. You can enter it using a single button (a short tap adds a dot; a long tap adds a dash). You can practice sending during the learning. There is no sound when the button is pressed yet but I will add it soon in the following versions.
• Buttons in the learning were adjusted so that they would better use the available space on the screen.
• Arabic translation of the app has been added. Many thanks to Kyriakos Asaid for his help with the translation.

Version 8.3 released

• Improved learning: some characters look very similar (such as letter “O” and number “0”) and could be confused. To help you distinguish these characters more easily, a group name is now displayed under the question (letters / numbers / other characters / Morse codes). Moreover a frame has been added to help distinguishing characters that are similar but differs mainly by their vertical position on the line (for example coma and apostrophe).
• Saving the message in Morse code as an audio in M4A format was modified so that it would work also on older versions of Android. Previously, it was supported only for Android 8 and newer.
• A few characters were corrected in the Russian version of Morse code based on the user feedback.
• Internal changes were made to diagnose sound problems more easily.

Version 8.2 released

• It is possible to configure the behavior of the translator when the translation in Morse code is copied to the clipboard or sent to another app by the Share function. By default Unicode dots and dashes are used (for example “•−”). However, not all applications can handle these characters correctly. If you copy the translation to an app that might have problems with them, you can enable a new checkbox on the Settings page, which will cause that the copied or shared translation will contain simple dots and dashes instead of the unicode ones (".-" instead of “•−”). They don’t look great but you can be sure that all apps support them.
• Saving a message as an audio file in the compressed M4A format uses functions that require Android 8 or newer. On the older version of Android, the process failed and an error message was displayed. In this version, the selection of the M4A format on Android 7.1 and older is therefore temporarily disabled. You can still save the message as an audio file in the WAV format even on the older Android version. I am going to rewrite this feature in the future so that M4A could be used even phones with older Android versions.
• A crash was fixed - learning history pages could crash the app if the loading of the history from the database failed.

One million downloads on Google Play

Google Play reports that over one million people have already downloaded the Morse Code app 🎉✨🎉. That’s great news. Thank you all for your support and I hope that the app will serve you well also in the future.