Lovit

Publisher: Computershik

Lovit - the unofficial Max messenger client - is now available for Windows Phone 8.1 / Windows 10 Mobile!

features:

Voice and Circles:

- Voice messages: hold the button to record, swipe left to cancel, swipe up to pin and speak calmly. It uses its own Opus codec, and the waveform is filled in as it plays.

- Circle-video messages: a round preview window appears over the conversation while recording, and they play directly in the chat.

- When you move a circle upwards in the conversation, it stays in the corner of the screen and continues to play. Tapping it returns you to its message.

Messages:

- Edit your own messages directly in the input field, with formatting options.

- Reactions: add, change, or remove. Reactions from others appear automatically, without needing to refresh.

- Multiple photos in a single message are displayed in a grid, and can be swiped through in the viewer.

- If a new message arrives while you are reading, the conversation doesn't jump: a small arrow with a counter appears at the bottom.

- Stickers, including animated ones - uses its own WebP and Lottie rendering.

- Videos open and play: rewind by 5 seconds and fast forward by 10 seconds, with a progress bar at the bottom.

- Formatting: bold, italic, underline, monospace, links, and mentions.

- An indicator for unread chats appears on the lock screen tile.

Chats and Login - similar to the iOS version: account folders, "All" and "New" tabs, reply, forward, pinned messages, search by contacts, your chats, messages, and the entire MAX platform. Login is via phone number with a code from SMS, and a password can be set or removed in the settings. Privacy: option to be invisible, not mark messages as read, and hide typing indicators.

Regarding reliability, a lot of bugs have been fixed in the past few weeks, with around 150 test builds. The app no longer crashes when the connection is lost after the phone has been sleeping, or when requesting microphone permission for the first time. Contact names and avatars are now loaded and appear in the list immediately, rather than a few seconds after the chat.

One issue was fixed by looking at how other apps handle it: if the login process failed on the server, the app would get stuck in an "Invalid Session State" error. Now, there's a "Start Over" button to resolve this - this feature is still to be implemented in the iOS version.

What's not available yet: calls, stories, polls, group creation from the interface, and theme selection - the iOS version has four themes and wallpapers, while this version currently has only one, the default system theme.