Apps I would love to see eventually made available on UT:

Video Chat - even a single way to do this would be fantastic - whether it is via eventual support for Telegrams currently alpha video call capabilities being enabled in TELEports - or via Morph support for various web based services, or via WebRTC - whatever gives us a viable option on UT devices that is easiest to implement is all good by me.

Task List with ToDoTxt support - there are a ton of existing task list apps for UT already, but I really would like one that has ToDoTxt support, along with NextCloud syncing support, so that it could be synced to a multitude of cross platform apps, all in a "future proof" format. Info on the ToDoTxt spec is at http://todotxt.org/

Native basic Video Editing app - while there are a number of online web services that can be used for this task, it would be way more efficient and reliable if there was a UT app that could do basic functions like trim, rotate, resize and reformat for videos - especially useful for posting to social media directly from ones mobile device.

Ride share app - it would be very useful for me if there was a UT native app for either Uber or Lyft (the two most popular services for this in the USA). While these services can be hailed via an online web page accessible via Morph, the rest of the experience is definitely not as smooth as what you get on Android and iOS.

Widevine support - it would be nice if there was a Widevine plugin for Morph, allowing it to be used for movie streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. I understand the proprietary DRM nature of this makes it difficult to do this - but given that there are plugins for Linux via Chrome (that is compatible with some of the other Chromium based browsers, as well as Firefox) - perhaps there is some way this could still be implemented.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Start with installing gimp package in your Libertine Container.
Screenshot is GIMP running in Libertine Container using the Color 48 theme to make icons usable on a mobile device - https://bitbucket.org/paynekj/paynekj-gimp-scripts/raw/2e8e87faf5eaaf6036e0d8b68ff9f6f37a3f0421/themes/Color-48.7z

In order to install this theme I had to extract the 7z archive on my computer and upload the folder to the phone. Then I had to go into home/phablet/cache/libertine-container/xenial/rootfs/usr/share/gimp/2.0/themes rename the "Default" theme folder as "Old Default" - and then paste in the Color 48 theme folder renamed as "Default" (because trying to change the theme from Gimp's gui would just crash it)

Also to get the GTK menus to be sized to be useable on phone it is important to: create a file named .Xdefaults in a text editor (tedit is a good Ubuntu Touch native one for this) with a single line Xft.dpi: 280 - or whatever other dpi value which you prefer. Save this to the home directory of your chroot environment - usually .local/share/libertine-container/user-data/xenial/ in your normal home directory.

You also still need to use an external bluetooth keyboard for GIMP on the phone in order to have the gui respond.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

great and informative interview! Thanks for posting and huge thanks to TheKit for all the work he has done for UT

Best regards,
Steve Berson

There is a known bug with Snaps that osk is not properly called up with them. From my understanding Mir 2.x integration is needed to fix this, and while this is something the core dev team is working on, it might be a few months before it arrives for UT. A possoble work around is to use bluetooth keyboard with these apps.

For Firefox, I would suggest installing the version built for UT by Fuseteam, it features osk working, along with touch scrolling, pinch to zoom, as well as some tweaks to the gui better optimizong it for mobile use. Just download the most recent build for arm64, unzip, and then open the click in Open Store to install - https://gitlab.com/debclick/uFirefox/-/artifacts

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I was just thinking it would be fun and illuminating, and could possibly garner some promotion for UBports, if some recent devices (e.g. Volla Phone) that were fully configured were handed to some figures that were key to Canonical's initial effort to create Ubuntu Touch (e.g. Mark Shuttleworth, Jono Bacon, etc.) and if there impressions on how far Ubuntu Touch has come in the 4 years since Canonical dropped it were recorded and posted as a video. It would be nice to hear some talk by them on what they think could have happened if Ubuntu Edge had become a reality, as well as what they think UBports can offer for the future in terms of what has become of their "baby" once it "left home."

Just an idea! - and given that UBports has now been developing UT for around the same amount of time that Canonical did (about 4 years each - Canonical did 2013-2017) maybe one that makes sense to do now.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Phone calls over VoLTE in the USA are now working for Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (miatoll), using latest Focal (20.04) dev channel build! Tested using T-mobile network, calls are clear with no echoes either way, with both calling and receiving working great. SMS text and single recipient MMS photo sending and receiving work on this device with VoLTE as well. Big thanks to the UBports team and the community devs and porters for this very big step for UT!!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Given that the current "promoted/supported devices" are now all discontinued and at least 4 years old (with the Nexus 5 now 7 years old) - doesn't it make sense to change both the website as well as support priorities to a new set of "promoted devices"? Seems to me Volla Phone, PinePhone, OnePlus 3/3T, Sony Xperia X series, PineTab, perhaps Google Pixel 3A, and whatever Xiaomi/Redmi device is looking to be easiest to fully support, would all make sense to change the focuses to as far as what is "promoted"- with the understanding that some devices (e.g. PinePhone, PineTab) need a bit more development before placing into this category.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Telegram is NOT hosted in Russia - servers are located around the globe, financial HQ is in London UK, operational HQ is in Dubai UAE. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegram_(software)

There are chat groups for UT also already hosted on Matrix (but that do not bridge to the Telegram groups) if one is looking for an existing alternative to Telegram.

I had never even heard of the Mattermost service prior to this post - given that there is no UT client for it at all seems one is putting the cart before the horse as far as this request goes.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

Us users tend to fill up these Q&A's with feature requests for things we would most like to see developed sooner than later - but what things would the UBports team like to see added to UT by their fellow devs and the community first??

Best regards,
Steve Berson

For those attempting to use Firefox in UT, the one option currently available to us is to use it within a Libertine container. For many devices the Firefox 84 version that is in the default repositories will crash whenever a site is attempted to be loaded. However, Firefox-esr (extended support release) 78 works stably in my testing (although slowly, due to the lack of hardware acceleration for apps in Libertine containers currently).

arm64 version is here (scroll to bottom of page to find download links to the deb package in your language)
https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/21042451

and armhf version is here -
https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+build/21042452

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I think the ultimate plan (or at least one possible one) is to allow people to place widgets and launchers on the wallpaper background as if it was a "home" (same as if it was a non-vanilla-Gnome-3 desktop) - but that this will take time to code and the need to streamline the code and image size to what can be easily maintained makes the first step of getting rid of Scopes one that will have to happen in order to make any forward progress from there.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@MarkG_108 - yeah - uNav is a bit clunky in usage in my experience - but I think offline maps for Pure Maps should end up happening within a month or two - I've been really encouraged by how well it works, and it was just ported to Ubuntu Touch a couple weeks ago.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I want to mention that for folks who do install Firefox-esr 78, if you go to update the packages in your Libertine container it is important to set Firefox to "hold" on any updates, so you don't end up replacing your Firefox with a current but unusable version.

The Terminal commands to enable this are:
$ libertine-container-manager exec -i xenial -c /bin/bash

# apt-mark hold firefox

To undo this hold enter:
# apt-mark unhold firefox

Best regards,
Steve Berson

I will note that for those that like a slightly cleaner look for their lock screen, that you can disable the circle thingy that displays usage stats by going into Settings and then Security & Privacy and unchecking Stats on welcome screen.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@dobey said in New Launcher, edge channel.:

@TotalSonic said in New Launcher, edge channel.:

I think the ultimate plan (or at least one possible one) is to allow people to place widgets and launchers on the wallpaper background as if it was a "home" (same as if it was a non-vanilla-Gnome-3 desktop) - but that this will take time to code and the need to streamline the code and image size to what can be easily maintained makes the first step of getting rid of Scopes one that will have to happen in order to make any forward progress from there.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

It has been an idea that a few people have mentioned. There is currently no plan to do it (nor do I think should there be, as it's not a convergent feature).

I don't see why allowing icons and widgets on a "home" background (whether mobile, tablet, or desktop) would be consodered "not a convergent feature" when that feature is an integral part of most OS's in all 3 form factors. I do agree that coding that feature to be truly convergent would likely be difficult, and as such should not be a priority for the UBports team.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@nero355 - the current work being done to enable VoLTE for Ubuntu Touch is prioritizing Mediatek support, as this development is being led by Volla, which uses those soc's - info here - https://www.jeroenbaten.nl/UT-VoLTE-proposed-technical-architecture.pdf

Best regards,
Steve Berson

@Aury88 said in New badge for Yumi?:

here some iterations..!

...my screen is filling with friendship...
Here the link to the svg:
https://mega.nz/#!UN0SDA7J!njORZM45c7EuA5DotnT8eW3KKdTD36mN9HL_iYIsmEo

I really like the bottom logo on this one a lot, far superior to the others in my opinion.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

There is a functional native Signal client (Axolotl) now in the Open Store, and there is a beta for TELEports available that allows the UT device to initiate an encrypted "secret chat" for Telegram, and there is a clunky but functional webapp available for Wire - so there is in fact a number of ways to send and receive encrypted messages from a UT device currently.

Also - if one needs to have end to end encrypted notes, the Standard Notes UT webapp allows to access these online with an option for them to be password protected.

But it would be great if encrypting our home folders was made much easier to do in the future - hopefully a developer will take on this task at some point.

Best regards,
Steve Berson