betatesters wanted :)

pl.ayground · Sep 15, 2010

Hi, I have created a simple app that visualizes your SMS inbox as a cloud of words (size based on word usage) - currently I seek for few users with 2.2 device for beta tests. Please check Visual Words at Market (free) and report your experiences in this thread. Thanks for help!

PS. The app may behave strange depending on your SMS inbox size and content - if you see blank black screen only please try clicking the screen to change visualization settings (check on the app webpage for details).

weirder · Sep 15, 2010

Only Froyo is supported? Sounds like a fun app to toy with a little.

MacaronyMax · Sep 15, 2010

Niice idea , yeah i'll beta test if you want't

asystat · Sep 15, 2010

ill beta test too if you want. angeldelaguarda [at] gmail(dot)com

archangelugp · Sep 15, 2010

I installed and played around with the app. It has some entertaining possibilities. Some things I noticed..

(Nexus one running rooted eViL 1.15)

-Words are tiny.
Suggestion: Show words that are used the most, maybe even bigger words based on how often they occur. (Doesn't seem to do that at this point.)

-Some times it includes the (1/3) (2/3) parts of the messages.
Suggestion: I'm not really a fan, perhaps removing them would bring a little more polish. Not a really a big deal though.

-Words do not fill the screen.
Suggestion: I have over 400 text messages but it only fills just the corners of the screens. There is a HUGE black area in the middle thats not doing anything, would be nice to try and fill the screen as much as possible.

I'm still playing with it, I'll let you know if I come across anything else.

Some screen captures:

pl.ayground · Sep 15, 2010

Thanks for the test - I am quite surprised that all words seem to have exactly same font size ... I think/hope that changing the scale to logarithmical in options and clicking then when it displays the screen touch it according to the instructions below should help:

* Top left will decrease the number of words while top right will increase it (starting at 500, increase by 20%, decrease by 10%, 5 words minimum).
* Bottom left will decrease the font range, bottom right will increase it (starting from 10pt to 60pt, increase by 20% decrease by 10%, 6pt to 36pt minimum).
* Center Left will decrease the logarithmical scale, Center Right will increase it (making the “scale curve” more steep). It requires plenty of clicks - changes are relatively slow at the beginning (increase with each click though).

please check by clicking - increase word count few times (upper right corner) and increase font size few times (bottom right corner).

thanks for the comments on (1/x) - I have a list of words being removed will add few of these.

For all others willing to test - the app is in the market - look for "Visual Words" - feedback is highly appreciated - make sure to touch the screen to change the settings.

archangelugp · Sep 15, 2010

Increased and decreased font size, and pretty much messed with UI to get it to break, everything seems like its working as intended.

(This was what I was expecting with the first image of words.)

pl.ayground · Sep 15, 2010

Thanks for the effort on testing - I will surely look into what can be done to have the right scale from the very beginning. (not very simple as the inboxes across the globe will vary significantly)

Second point on my todo list is giving the user ability to fliter words (I do have a small "filter list" but looking at your screenshot I see much more, and it actually will be language dependent) ...

Third will be the sender filter I think.

Thanks again and I hope you had fun playing with it.

PS. posting a comment on Market that it actually works will help to countermeasure the comment I got from initial version where there was no option to scale via user interface...

archangelugp · Sep 15, 2010

Added a comment to the market, also marked the other as unhelpful since it's no longer valid.

Keep it up

meanm50 · Sep 16, 2010

Seems to work as intended. I must be thick, but I don't understand what it does...I mean, I do...but I don't see how this is going to benefit me.

Eris KaosFroyo V34

z0mbi3 · Sep 16, 2010

I'd love to give this a test, how can I get hold of it? PM me if possible.

themapleboy · Sep 16, 2010

This concept seems like a good idea for a livewallpaper. Ill beta in a minute downloading now (if it's not gonna work on any phone it wont work on mine) and post a logcat if applicable.

Edit: Works well on HTC Dream with modified lcd density, added review and marked unhelpful one as such.

archangelugp · Sep 16, 2010

z0mbi3 said:
I'd love to give this a test, how can I get hold of it? PM me if possible.

It's on the market as "Visual Words"

themapleboy said:
This concept seems like a good idea for a livewallpaper. Ill beta in a minute downloading now (if it's not gonna work on any phone it wont work on mine) and post a logcat if applicable.

Edit: Works well on HTC Dream with modified lcd density, added review and marked unhelpful one as such.

That would be pretty nice actually, just change the background when a new text message is received... humm...

JakeWharton · Sep 16, 2010

Once I fiddled with the corner touching I was able to get a nice picture.

My suggestions:

Auto detect screen size and render at an appropriate size by default.
Provide an OSD with buttons for the adjustments (similar to zoom on stock browser)
Default to logarithmic scaling.
Provide a spinner to let us know the application is doing something.
Run the calculation in a background thread as to not block the UI and possible cause a Force Close prompt.

Ran it on some friends phones with equally awesome results. All that's needed is general UI polish and you'll have a really clever application.

dsMA · Sep 16, 2010

what does this do?

I am down for beta testing but aside from guessing it has something to do with txt messages I have no idea what this app does...can someone explain?

archangelugp · Sep 17, 2010

dsMA said:
I am down for beta testing but aside from guessing it has something to do with txt messages I have no idea what this app does...can someone explain?

Sure, I'll do my best.

Visual Words reads the words from the SMS messages on your phone and places them on the screen in no particular order. When you touch the center of the screen a different set of random words will fill the screen. Press in the bottom left corner and the words shrink, bottom right, and they get bigger. (Some words are bigger then others when they are used more frequently, so over time, you could be able to see which words you favor in your text vocabulary.)

This application is merely entertainment, just more of a artsy kind of entertainment. This isn't something that is going to do your math homework for you, or complete your project deadlines.

But at this point, who knows where playground is going to go with this, the code itself has to be pretty interesting if nothing else.

dsMA · Sep 17, 2010

archangelugp said:
Sure, I'll do my best.

Visual Words reads the words from the SMS messages on your phone and places them on the screen in no particular order. When you touch the center of the screen a different set of random words will fill the screen. Press in the bottom left corner and the words shrink, bottom right, and they get bigger. (Some words are bigger then others when they are used more frequently, so over time, you could be able to see which words you favor in your text vocabulary.)

This application is merely entertainment, just more of a artsy kind of entertainment. This isn't something that is going to do your math homework for you, or complete your project deadlines.

But at this point, who knows where playground is going to go with this, the code itself has to be pretty interesting if nothing else.

Thanks that was a very good description of the app. I think seesmic was doing something similar to this in their pc client for twitter.

So is this an app that you open and then it has those effects or does it run in the background and you have words floating around your screen all the time or does it just pop up when ever you get a txt message...how does it work?

mercianary · Sep 17, 2010

I like it

I wonder how big the word viagra would be if it worked on email.

Veldmuus · Sep 17, 2010

i would like to be a beta tester for your application

it looks really amazing.

Device: HD2, with Froyo 2.2 on it

archangelugp · Sep 17, 2010

dsMA said:
Thanks that was a very good description of the app. I think seesmic was doing something similar to this in their pc client for twitter.

So is this an app that you open and then it has those effects or does it run in the background and you have words floating around your screen all the time or does it just pop up when ever you get a txt message...how does it work?

Right now it's only when you run the application do you get to play around with / look at the words.

betatesters wanted :)

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