Improve the app description

[Aga-C]

Hi,

I think, at this time, it would be great to change the app description a bit. The most important thing, to encourage to download the app, is to list what features it has - it would be easier to read the few paragraphs. Many apps have listed its features on F-Droid, starting with dash, period or star. So, except for one introductory paragraph at the beginning, there would be such list with short sentences, and maybe some ending. It's up to you to decide how it will look like best :)

[ManeraKai]

I wrote that description based on this comment from an F-Droid repo maintainer: https://gitlab.com/fdroid/fdroiddata/-/merge_requests/9671#note_670782217

[ManeraKai]

?

This app is an alternative front-end to GoogleTranslate, but it doesn't directly connect to it.
It works as follows:

1. Text is submitted from you the user and sent to a random SimplyTranslate instance (server).
2. This instance will request that data from GoogleTranslate.
3. GoogleTranslate will send the result back to that instance.
4. That instance will send the result back to you.

                 +-------------+
                 |             |
            +--> | instance #1 | ---+
            |    |             |    |
            |    +-------------+    |
+------+    |    +-------------+    |    +-----------------+ 
|      |    |    |             |    |    |                 |
| user | ---+    | instance #2 |    +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|      |         |             |         |                 |
+------+         +-------------+         +-----------------+ 
                 +-------------+
                 |             |
                 | instance #3 |
                 |             |
                 +-------------+

This way GoogleTranslate won't know youre identity. Auto selecting a random instance (default mode) each time will obfuscate and spread your data more so nothing will be linked easily as it's not in a centralized database.

[Aga-C]

This description looks great, but I think this picture is not necessary and there is still missing list of features of the app. Instead of this picture, there could be a Features section, and below something like this:

• Supported x languages
• Material Design with Light/Dark theme to choose
• Text-To-Speech
• Sharing translation from the other apps etc.

It's just my first thought, a draft. You can do something better based on this.

[ManeraKai]

This app is an alternative front-end to GoogleTranslate, but it doesn't directly connect to it.
It works as follows:

1. Text is submitted from you the user and sent to a random SimplyTranslate instance (server).
2. This instance will request that data from GoogleTranslate.
3. GoogleTranslate will send the result back to that instance.
4. That instance will send the result back to you.

                 +-------------+
                 |             |
            +--> | instance #1 | ---+
            |    |             |    |
            |    +-------------+    |
+------+    |    +-------------+    |    +-----------------+ 
|      |    |    |             |    |    |                 |
| user | ---+    | instance #2 |    +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|      |         |             |         |                 |
+------+         +-------------+         +-----------------+ 
                 +-------------+
                 |             |
                 | instance #3 |
                 |             |
                 +-------------+

Features

• Text-To-Speach (TTS).
• Can receive shared text from other apps.
• A tranlate button in the text selection toolbar.
• Auto random instance selection each request.
• Custom instance option.
• Dark theme.

This way GoogleTranslate won't know youre identity. Auto selecting a random instance (default mode) each time will obfuscate and spread your data more so nothing will be linked easily as it's not in a centralized database.

Supported languages:

• Afrikaans
• Albanian
• Amharic
• Arabic
• Armenian
• Azerbaijani
• Basque
• Belarusian
• Bengali
• Bosnian
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Cebuano
• Chichewa
• Chinese
• Corsican
• Croatian
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Esperanto
• Estonian
• Filipino
• Finnish
• French
• Frisian
• Galician
• Georgian
• German
• Greek
• Gujarati
• Haitian Creole
• Hausa
• Hawaiian
• Hebrew
• Hindi
• Hmong
• Hungarian
• Icelandic
• Igbo
• Indonesian
• Irish
• Italian
• Japanese
• Javanese
• Kannada
• Kazakh
• Khmer
• Kinyarwanda
• Korean
• Kurdish (Kurmanji)
• Kyrgyz
• Lao
• Latin
• Latvian
• Lithuanian
• Luxembourgish
• Macedonian
• Malagasy
• Malay
• Malayalam
• Maltese
• Maori
• Marathi
• Mongolian
• Myanmar (Burmese)
• Nepali
• Norwegian
• Odia (Oriya)
• Pashto
• Persian
• Polish
• Portuguese
• Punjabi
• Romanian
• Russian
• Samoan
• Scots Gaelic
• Serbian
• Sesotho
• Shona
• Sindhi
• Sinhala
• Slovak
• Slovenian
• Somali
• Spanish
• Sundanese
• Swahili
• Swedish
• Tajik
• Tamil
• Tatar
• Telugu
• Thai
• Turkish
• Turkmen
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Uyghur
• Uzbek
• Vietnamese
• Welsh
• Xhosa
• Yiddish
• Yoruba
• Zulu

[ManeraKai]

Kept the image as it really helps grasping the idea. It's not easy for non-technical people to understand what a VPN is. What do you think @Aga-C?

[Valdnet]

Supported x languages

@ManeraKai Aga-C meant a number in how many languages the app translates. Currently the list of languages is too long.

[ManeraKai]

This app is an alternative front-end to GoogleTranslate, but it doesn't directly connect to it.
It works as follows:

1. Text is submitted from you the user and sent to a random SimplyTranslate instance (server).
2. This instance will request that data from GoogleTranslate.
3. GoogleTranslate will send the result back to that instance.
4. That instance will send the result back to you.

                 +-------------+
                 |             |
            +--> | instance #1 | ---+
            |    |             |    |
            |    +-------------+    |
+------+    |    +-------------+    |    +-----------------+ 
|      |    |    |             |    |    |                 |
| user | ---+    | instance #2 |    +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|      |         |             |         |                 |
+------+         +-------------+         +-----------------+ 
                 +-------------+
                 |             |
                 | instance #3 |
                 |             |
                 +-------------+

Features

• Supports 108 languages.
• Text-To-Speach (TTS).
• Can receive shared text from other apps.
• A tranlate button in the text selection toolbar.
• Auto random instance selection each request.
• Custom instance option.
• Dark theme.

This way GoogleTranslate won't know youre identity. Auto selecting a random instance (default mode) each time will obfuscate and spread your data more so nothing will be linked easily as it's not in a centralized database.

[Aga-C]

Kept the image as it really helps grasping the idea. It's not easy for non-technical people to understand what a VPN is.

You're right 👍

The description looks good, but "This way..." should be below the image, as it is related to this description. And maybe @Valdnet would like to correct some text or add something to this feature list?

[Valdnet]

Typo:

A tranlate button in the text selection toolbar.

Shouldn't there be and instead of in?

You can understand that the "Translate" button is in the text selection toolbar :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:.

Corrected: A translate button and the text selection toolbar.

As for the "Translate" button itself that it is, I wouldn't mention it. It is obvious it should be.

[Valdnet]

Additionally, in the graphic image I would give arrows to all instances and return arrows as well. Currently, they only illustrate that one instance is selected with no return path of translation 😉.

[ManeraKai]

You can understand that the "Translate" button is in the text selection toolbar stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye.

Bruh that is what I meant:

[ManeraKai]

Additionally, in the graphic image I would give arrows to all instances and return arrows as well. Currently, they only illustrate that one instance is selected with no return path of translation wink.

Thought of this, but it will make the drawing so complex. The text describes that the request will go back. The text also said that it will be random. I may change the arrow's position though to the instance #3 to appear random as 1 isn't a random selection.

[ManeraKai]

With all arrows

                 +-------------+
                 |             |
            +--> | instance #1 | <--+
            |    |             |    |
            |    +-------------+    |
+------+    |    +-------------+    |    +-----------------+ 
|      |    |    |             |    |    |                 |
| user | <--+--> | instance #2 | <--+--> | GoogleTranslate |
|      |    |    |             |    |    |                 |
+------+    |    +-------------+    |    +-----------------+ 
            |    +-------------+    |
            |    |             |    |
            +--> | instance #3 | <--+
                 |             |
                 +-------------+

With one arrow the instance #3

                 +-------------+
                 |             |
                 | instance #1 |
                 |             |     
                 +-------------+     
+------+         +-------------+        +-----------------+ 
|      |         |             |        |                 |
| user | ---+    | instance #2 |   +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|      |    |    |             |   |    |                 |
+------+    |    +-------------+   |    +-----------------+ 
            |    +-------------+   |
            |    |             |   |
            +--> | instance #3 | --+
                 |             |
                 +-------------+

What do you think @Valdnet?

[Valdnet]

Ah, that toolbar you meant 😉.

With one arrow the instance #3

This can be 😁.

[Valdnet]

Maybe it should be added that the application gets the official list of instances.

[ManeraKai]

This app is an alternative front-end to GoogleTranslate, but it doesn't directly connect to it.
It works as follows:

1. Text is submitted from you the user and sent to a random SimplyTranslate instance (server).
2. This instance will request that data from GoogleTranslate.
3. GoogleTranslate will send the result back to that instance.
4. That instance will send the result back to you.

                   +-------------+
                   |             |
                   | instance #1 |
                   |             |     
                   +-------------+     
+--------+         +-------------+        +-----------------+ 
|        |         |             |        |                 |
|  user  | ---+    | instance #2 |   +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|        |    |    |             |   |    |                 |
+--------+    |    +-------------+   |    +-----------------+ 
              |    +-------------+   |
              |    |             |   |
              +--> | instance #3 | --+
                   |             |
                   +-------------+

This way GoogleTranslate won't know your identity. Auto selecting a random instance (default mode) each request will obfuscate and spread your data more between instances so nothing will be linked easily as it's not in a centralized database.

Features

• Supports 108 languages.
• Text-To-Speach (TTS).
• Can receive shared text from other apps.
• A tranlate button in the text selection toolbar.
• Auto random instance selection each request.
• An updatable official list of SimplyTranslate instances
• Custom instance option.
• Dark theme.

[Valdnet]

Very good for me 👍.

[Aga-C]

For me too, but please fix the typos:

• Speach -> Speech
• tranlate -> translate
• missing dot at the end of "An updatable official list of SimplyTranslate instances"

[ManeraKai]

@Valdnet sorry I thought you were only talking about the text selection toolbar problem here: https://github.com/ManeraKai/simplytranslate_mobile/issues/144#issuecomment-946744915

[ManeraKai]

This app is an alternative front-end to GoogleTranslate, but doesn't directly connect to it.
It works as follows:

1. Text is submitted from you the user and sent to a random SimplyTranslate instance (server).
2. This instance will request that data from GoogleTranslate.
3. GoogleTranslate will send the result back to that instance.
4. That instance will send the result back to you.

                   +-------------+
                   |             |
                   | instance #1 |
                   |             |     
                   +-------------+     
+--------+         +-------------+        +-----------------+ 
|        |         |             |        |                 |
|  user  | ---+    | instance #2 |   +--> | GoogleTranslate |
|        |    |    |             |   |    |                 |
+--------+    |    +-------------+   |    +-----------------+ 
              |    +-------------+   |
              |    |             |   |
              +--> | instance #3 | --+
                   |             |
                   +-------------+

This way GoogleTranslate won't know your identity. Auto selecting a random instance (default mode) each request will obfuscate and spread your data more between instances so nothing will be linked easily as it's not in a centralized database.

Features

• Supports 108 languages.
• Text-To-Speech (TTS).
• Can receive shared text from other apps.
• A translate button in the text selection toolbar.
• Auto random instance selection each request.
• An updatable official list of SimplyTranslate instances.
• Custom instance option.
• Dark theme.

[Aga-C]

@ManeraKai Using <p> is not a good idea. F-Droid adds <br> on its own with every line break in metadata file what produces ugly result. Also, for the same reason, I wouldn't create a list with <ul> and <ol>. Take a look on a metadata from another project, where HTML tags aren't used for paragraphs and lists, and it looks good both on a website and F-Droid app: https://github.com/SmartPack/PackageManager/blob/master/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/full_description.txt (it looks like this: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.smartpack.packagemanager/)

Also, I would use <b> for Features header to make it more visible.

[ManeraKai]

It's now like this: https://github.com/ManeraKai/simplytranslate_mobile/blob/f87b02e08af1af6f6cd0f8529b97a09d69ca4bdc/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/full_description.txt

[Aga-C]

Let's just hope F-Droid won't break pre 🙂

[ManeraKai]

Hopefully