Version 4 is a ground-up rewrite of MarsFeed using the latest Material Design principals and code libraries! Countless hours have been put in adding optimizations and polish to make using this app as delightful and modern as possible.

Most of the features here you will recognize from the previous version. However, stay tuned for brand-new features planned for the future!

v4.0.5

• Removing the 3D image explorer feature because NASA unfortunately no longer supports it
• Tweaking the circular scroll indicator rendering

v4.0.4

• Downgrading the AndroidX Navigation library to mitigate issues opening non-Perseverance images
• Further upgrading to the latest Material Jetpack Compose libraries for animations and rendering

v4.0.3

• Upgrading to the latest Material Jetpack Compose libraries for animations and rendering
• Other mandatory library updates to keep the app fully compatible with Google Play
• Misc. minor bug fixes

These updates are miscellaneous bugfixes and minor feature improvements unrelated to the previous feature releases.

v3.5.0 - v3.5.1

• Support for Android 13 themed launcher icon
• Linking to these release notes from settings
• Fixing bad Percy/Ginny mission map URL
• Mandatory library version updates

Basic weather info is now available in the Details screen!

For now, this functionality is very simple. I plan on designing a more feature-rich weather page at some point in the future.

v3.4.8

• Better Twitter link for Ingenuity (#MarsHelicopter @NASAJPL)
• Fixing "null" sometimes appearing in weather data
• Fixing a crash

v3.4.0 - v3.4.5

• Fix for bad layout cropping bug
• Tightening up margins after weather section to make the buttons more visible
• Improving weather data and presentation
• Adding weather to Rover Details screen (min/max temperature for the day)

Bayer-coded images appear black-and-white, but actually contain "color" information. This release adds an algorithm to attempt processing that Bayer-coded data to produce a full-color image!

This feature is experimental, because I want to take some time to evaluate over time the quality and reliability of this algorithm.

v3.3.1 - 3.3.3

• New experimental "colorize Bayer-coded images" functionality!
• Adding shortcut to notification preferences
• Fixing an Ingenuity new-images notification bug

These updates are miscellaneous bugfixes and minor feature improvements unrelated to the major code refactor from 3.1. So I'm grouping these separate from the 3.1 updates for clarity.

v3.2.11

• Adding shortcut to notification preferences

v3.2.10

• Fixing crash when using "edit" feature from Android 12 share menu
• Saving generated panoramas to the default picture folder (should now show up in your default Photos app, inside a new "MarsFeed" folder)
• Fix for a crash that can happen when the photo grid attempts to load more images after the user has already opened an image.

v3.2.8

• Enhancements to image-view: Increased zoom limits, tap to fade-out onscreen controls
• Sorting by "Mars Timestamp" value instead of "Capture Date" to hopefully improve predictability of results. Unfortunately, there are significant inconsistencies between the various date values published in NASA's public data, especially in the early days of each mission. This solution isn't a silver bullet, but it's hopefully better... I'm considering a more complex algorithm for inferring the "correct" date value, despite what's published in the data, but that has its own drawbacks. Stay tuned for potentially more later!

v3.2.6

• Fixing Sol-range filter bug
• Internal library updates

v3.2.4

• Fixing ultra-wide image bugs

This is update has pretty big back-end changes for just a ".1" update, so I'm giving it its own section here.

This version adds the notion of "MarsFeed Saved Date" to images, because it turns out NASA often publishes images notably later than it receives the uplink from the rovers. So this should make flagging "new" images much more predictable and consistent.

Unfortunately, this logic change touches MANY parts of the app, so there could be some bugs... Testing feedback would be much appreciated!! https://discord.gg/yAme6jTVvV

v3.2.2

• Fixing bug upgrading on-device DB to support "MarsFeed date"

v3.2.1

• Optimizing some images for reduced app size
• Adding mission link to audio recordings

v3.1.0

• Refactor for "MarsFeed Saved Date"

Ingenuity helicopter images -- finally!

I stumbled on a reliable source from NASA serving the helicopter images, so I was happy to finally make this happen! It's something I wanted from the beginning, but turns out you have to be a part time internet detective to find reliable APIs! 😄

v2.5.4 - 3.0.8

• Upgrading to a new version of MarsFeed services to better support the increase in user traffic and new upcoming features
• Adding ability to see full "raw" image data (long-press the "info" button when viewing an image)
• Fixing bug where share button wouldn't load the correct image after scrolling to a new image
• Adding date descriptions to image-detail view (tap date values to reveal)
  • Demo video
• Handling a rare error during share

Curiosity has joined the party!

NASA's public API for Curiosity's images was very very slow, and I had to implement quite a bit of optimizations on my end to make the user experience within the app suitably fast. Hopefully you'll enjoy the end result!

v2.5.0

• Google is changing how it decides to show reviews on the Play Store, and essentially is requiring more reviews before it will show a star rating. So I added an in-app experience for soliciting a review with hopes that we can get enough reviews to meet the new threshold. Don't worry -- I'll only ask for this once, and only after a week of using the app! Hopefully it won't be disruptive or annoying... I'm open to feedback on this experience!

v2.2.4 - 2.4.0

• Link to new "Surface Explorer" 3D image map
• Prepping for Ingenuity images (not live yet)
• Fixing some layout-shift on the rover details page
• Moving mission links to Details tab
• Updating Perseverance banner image
• Loading modal for long-running share actions
• Adding version number to settings screen
• Discord link in settings
• Reducing app size
• Potential fix for known bug
• Demo video

v2.2.1

• Adding link to r/MarsFeed subreddit
• Fixing rare crash when image-grid filters aren't initialized appropriately

v2.2.0

• Open NASA's mission map to see each rover's current position on Mars!
• Links to each rover's Twitter and subreddit
• Demo video

v2.0.1

• Fix for rare crash when opening an image

v2.0.0

• Curiosity support
• New UX for "NEW" images

Initial release including Perseverance support and the foundational features for the app.

v1.x.x

• Browse and share Perseverance images
• Filter/sort images
• Sync preferences
• Onboard camera descriptions
• Experimental stitching of images into panorama