What's new in Bolt 3.20?
Written by Benji Weiser
Updated at March 5th, 2024
Table of Contents
Release dates
Bolt iOS 3.20.5 - 2024-01-25
Bolt Android 3.20.3 - 2024-01-10
(Bolt Android 3.20.7 - 2024-01-23)
Major changes
Improved targeting for timeline ads
Useful for: Your ads team
We've improved our ad targeting to allow better granularity for banner adverts on the timeline. This is an extension of work we had already done to allow for the same functionality on content ads. This is particularly helpful if you don’t want to have the substantial overhead of creating and managing distinct ad units for each timeline. If you want to only show sports ads on your sports timeline, you now can, with only one ad unit.
Who's affected: All Bolt customers using Bolt's Google Ad Manager SDK and wanting more control over what ads show where.
What you need to do: App update to Bolt 3.20 - there's no additional setup needed on our end if taxonomies are already set, although this may require set up in Google Ad Manager.
Easier ad analysing and debugging
Useful for: Your ads team
The Google Mobile Ads inspector is now accessible from the hidden menu on your app settings page. Pugpig Bolt has version 22.5 for Android and 10.12 for iOS of the Google Mobile Ads SDK, so you're able to use all features of the inspector.
Who's affected: All Bolt customers using Bolt's Google Ad Manager SDK.
What you need to do: App update to Bolt 3.20 and access the inspector from your hidden menu settings.
Content the visibility of individual articles (Coming soon to iOS)
Useful for: Your editorial team
We have expanded our content visibility (private/marketing) feature to apply to individual pieces of content as well as whole collections. You can now show particular articles within timelines to only signed in users, or only signed out users. If you want to pin an article about why a user should subscribe, that disappears if they are subscribed, you can. If you have a metered paywall but still want exclusive articles that only subscribed users can see, you can.
Who's affected: All Bolt customers with HTML content.
What you need to do: App update to 3.20 on Android. You'll then need to set specific articles as 'private' or 'marketing' either manually or via your importer.
More control for customers using issue-based authentication (Coming soon to iOS)
Useful for: Your subs or product team
We have expanded our issue-based auth implementation to allow support for individual pieces of content as well as whole collections. Issue-based auth is useful if you particularly care about what content certain subscribers should have access to. This upgrade increases the control you have.
Who's affected: All Bolt customers who use issue-based auth.
What you need to do: App update to 3.20.
Seamless dark mode transition between app and site
Useful for: Your product team
We have added the ability to set an external URL parameter for dark mode, so your website can know if users coming from the app are in dark mode. While a relatively minor quality of life improvement, it's never ideal to have a bright screen flash up when you're reading content in dark mode.
Who's affected: All customers whose website supports dark mode - it's particularly useful if you often link out to your website from your app.
What you need to do: First, app update to 3.20. Then get in touch with your Customer Success Manager or support and we'll do the URL configuration to add query parameters to your app URLs which denote a user's dark mode preferences. Once this is done, your website team will be able to apply dark mode to the site according to this parameter.
More intuitive edition navigation (Coming soon to iOS)
Useful for: Your product team
Based on feedback we have improved the back button behaviour for Enhanced PDF editions. It will now take the user back to their previous view, rather than always returning to the table of contents or Storefront.
Who's affected: All Bolt customers using enhanced PDF content.
What you need to do: App update to 3.20 on Android. No further action needed.
Additional changes
- Article banner ads will no longer show on pages visible via the metered paywall. (iOS only)
- Audio/Video total and elapsed duration analytics dimensions are now numerical, rather than strings
- Fixed an issue where signing in via app onboarding screens would send you back to the first onboarding screen.
- Fixed an issue where tapping the back button on a page accessed via toolbar icon would take the user to an incorrect page. (Android only)