An error message is never pleasant. But it only gets really annoying when it doesn’t tell you what actually happened. “No connection · E-SHOP-05” doesn’t help anyone who is standing in the supermarket and wants to know whether the shopping list has been saved.
That is exactly where the focus for FamilyManager lay this week. On top of that comes a new start for parents who raise their children in two households. GymBo got a feature for sharing and now calculates more complex workouts correctly. Roadlight helps avoid duplicate requests.
FamilyManager: version 2.2.6 is out, 2.2.7 is in testing
Version 2.2.6 has been in the App Store since 29 September. The next version, 2.2.7, is already being tried out by testers. It brings three main things.
Error messages that say something
Instead of a code, the top now says what didn’t work, for example “Completed items not removed”. Below that come the reason and an ID for support. If it’s unclear whether something was saved, the app says so honestly and asks you to reload.
This applies across the whole app: calendar, tasks, shopping, packing list, timetable, meal plan, documents, custody schedule and more. Raw database text no longer shows up.
Errors that used to be swallowed silently are now visible as well. One example is the chat: if sending fails, the message is no longer gone but is back in the input field.
A start for separated parents
When you create a new household, you are now asked: “Who lives here?” With “We raise our children separately – two households”, an assistant guides you through children, place of residence and custody schedule. Every step can be skipped.
At the end, you can send a link to the other parent. It opens directly in the app and connects both households for the shared children. For blended and separated families, this is the moment FamilyManager becomes truly useful: when both sides see the same plan.
Calendar and everyday life
- Sharing your iPhone calendar with the family now also works for subscribed calendars, such as the school or club calendar.
- The calendar remembers the view you chose last.
- In the timetable, you can create and edit A and B weeks again.
- Splitting or merging holiday periods in the custody schedule no longer loses entries on a poor connection.
- Children see events they aren’t allowed to change with a short note instead of buttons that don’t work.
Already in progress, but not yet in a test version: finer-grained permissions for children, for example which areas they can see and edit. On top of that come invitations that recognise gmail.com and googlemail.com as the same address, and a shopping list that guesses the category from the item name.
GymBo: sharing workouts and counting them correctly
GymBo has a new way to share a finished workout: as an editorial-style graphic, suitable for a story or a post.
Beyond that, it was about accuracy:
- What you train on the Apple Watch now writes the weights back to your workout plan.
- On the Watch, “Done” during the rest between sets is now triggered only by pressing and holding. That way, an accidental tap no longer ends the workout.
- With supersets, circuits and workouts with sections, sets, volume and the comparison with earlier workouts are now correct.
- The plan shows the right starting values when values are carried over for a whole exercise.
These improvements are included in new test versions. The App Store still has version 3.3.1. The big version 4.0 is in preparation.
Roadlight: search first, then wish
On Roadlight, I collect requests and ideas for my apps. So that the same suggestion doesn’t end up there ten times, there is now a live search in the board. When you enter a new request, you see similar entries while you type and can simply vote on those instead.
The board can also be embedded on the FamilyManager website again, and the old address once more leads straight to the board.
Track4Kids
There were no new changes for Track4Kids this week. Version 1.0 is prepared and waiting for the next step.
What’s next
For FamilyManager, version 2.2.7 is meant to go to the App Store once the feedback from testing is in. After that come the permissions for children. GymBo is heading toward version 4.0.
If you’re testing FamilyManager: what helps me most right now is feedback on the new error messages on a poor connection and on the assistant for separated parents. Does the link arrive on the other parent’s phone?
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