u/mario_luis_dev

It's only a matter of waiting for Apple to get through review. I can't wait for you guys to try it out!!

FYI: the new site is now https://www.omniphile.app , although the old address cinephile.dev continues to work just the same, at least for now (it will redirect you to the new site).

As for the subreddit, it will forever remain r/CinephileApp, since Reddit doesn't allow slug changes. And I am definitely not starting a new subreddit from scratch 😅

Cheers,

Mario

That's right. Cinephile 4.0 is a complete rebirth and rebranding of the app. A one-stop shop for tracking all your entertainment.

This is the app I had always dreamed of making, and the fact that the dream is now a reality is something that I'm still wrapping my head around. It's both the culmination of ALL of the work I've done up to this point, and a brand new and exciting chapter. I imagined it in my head in so many different ways, and I'm happy and proud to say that the end product is even better than I ever anticipated it could be.

The app is not your typical media tracker that is a jack of all trades, master of none. It is DEEP in each category and (very importantly) it's COMPLETELY MODULAR. If all you want is the old Cinephile experience, you turn off every other media and just leave movies and TV enabled. If you want the ReadTracker experience, turn off everything except for books and audiobooks, and if you want Nook, just leave video games enabled and turn off the rest.

YOU WILL NOT SEE AT ALL A MEDIA TYPE YOU'RE NOT INTERESTED IN.

The upshot of this high level of modularity that is at the core of the app's foundation is that I can grow it in any way I want. Manga, comics, podcasts, music, sports... whatever the heck I want to add later on, will not affect in any way a user who doesn't want these media.

**Premium Users**: This is all thanks to your support, so of course I'm taking care of you. Here's what it looks like:

- You're Cinephile Premium: nothing changes for you. The app's value now has increased a thousandfold, with no price increase whatsoever.
- You're ReadTracker Pro or Nook Premium (not Cinephile Premium): you're good too. No need to pay here again. There will be a "Migrate to Omniphile" button in the settings screen of these apps to allow you to bring over your Premium status. If it was lifetime, it will remain lifetime. If it's a sub, you'll be subscribed to Omniphile at no extra charge for the remaining duration of the sub. Just remember to cancel your subscription in the legacy app after you migrate.
- If you've supported multiple of my apps: THANK YOU, you're a VIP and should be treated as such. I have prepared a "Stakeholder" badge for you to show off in the community. Thank you, truly, for following me on this journey and making this possible.

Omniphile will be going live soon. I am submitting the app tomorrow morning to Apple. Looking forward to hearing about your experience with Omniphile ❤️

Firstly, I’ve pushed a small but important update that significantly improves the experience with the new Smart Search functionality. One of our community members discovered that there may be a defect with the search possibly depending on the user’s locale, so I’ve corrected that. Moreover, an ambiguous search like “scary movie” could’ve meant that you’re searching for the actual title, or that you’re looking for something scary to watch. So I’ve added a button in the toolbar that turns a regular search into a smart one, which will come in handy in those situations.

Lastly, this was the last big 3.X update. I’m going to go off the grid for a bit to complete the work on the 4.0 version, which will be the biggest and boldest update I’ve ever done since I started my indie dev journey. The changes coming with 4.0 should really be an app of its own, but I figured Cinephile is already the cozy home for many users and I don’t want to keep splitting my user base into multiple apps; it doesn’t benefit you guys nor me either.

The current 3.X lineup will continue to receive maintenance, so if anything comes up that needs my immediate attention I will apply a small patch here and there. But other than that I’ll be moving full speed with the 4.0 release, so that I can release it in weeks instead of months.

Stay in touch, and stay awesome.
Mario

Siri AI and exciting new Apple Intelligence features are here!

- See a movie/show (or even a whole list of movies/shows) in some picture or browsing social media, etc? Ask Siri to add them to your Cinephile library! This will work both with text and images as well.

- Type a search in natural language, like “90s comedies with Jim Carrey” and Cinephile will run a smart search for you! (the movies/shows/both option in the search doesn't matter; the app will auto-detect when you're attempting a smart search and will bypass the media type switcher - only your prompt matters)

- There’s a new recommendation engine, presented in a “For You” section in the search and discovery screen. It will give you recommendations based on media you’ve watched and have rated highly (something you watched but rated below 6/10 (or the equivalent in the 5-scale) gets ignored by the engine). This recommendation engine works *with and without* Apple Intelligence; it's only enhanced by the latter.

- You can now enter a prompt for the on-device LLM model (completely private; no information ever leaves your phone) describing what you’re in the mood for. Example: “A cyberpunk movie similar to Bladerunner”, and the algorithm will match you with appropriate titles. You will then play a swipe mini-game (Tinder-like) where you decide what you liked or disliked.

Cheers,

Mario

If you thought the Home tab was customizable, think again. This update completely overhauls this screen to give you nearly infinite customizability.

Want to queue up some collection? ✅

Want to have a different layout mode for each different section? Knock yourself out; set a grid for one section, a list for another, and so on ✅

How about a different animation for completion of season finales? ✅

A dedicated “Rewatching” section for movies / shows that are being rewatched!? ✅

A banner carousel at the top showcasing everything you’re watching? ✅

Cheers,
Mario

I’m really digging the new OS release, but as usual with .0 versions, this one is plagued with bugs.

One particularly annoying example is this search bar that you find all over the app. When you hit the “x” button to clear the search text, the bars keeps re-expanding on its own about three times before settling down. Inside the feedback board it’s even worse, as the bar completely stops functioning and can even disable the screen close button…

I’m bringing this up so that you know I’m aware of these issues, though they’re coming from the OS itself, so there’s nothing I can do to fix it. We’ll just have to hope and pray that Apple fixes these issues. This particular search bug has already been reported by someone else: https://developer.apple.com/forums/thread/845737

Cinephile on your wrist! Say hello to the new Apple Watch companion, from where you can see and track movies and shows from your queue 🤩

And there’s more:

- When recent movie releases are announced to come to a digital platform, you’ll now see where and when on the movie’s details screen. You can then even opt to be notified upon release.

- When using the compact list layout, you’ll now see not just how many episodes are left, but also how much watch time remains.

Cheers,

Mario

- Added a "Watching Now" option that kicks off a timer with the movie/episode runtime and a corresponding Live Activity + widget intent.

- Dropped movies now carry more info. You can set at which point during the movie you gave up and that partial watch time contributes to your watch time statistics. It also gets recorded permanently in your watch history, so you can see not only when you dropped the movie but how far in you were when you dropped it.

- Rewatching a movie no longer means you necessarily record the rewatch immediately. You're now given options to send the movie to Up Next or For Later. If you choose "Rewatch Now" you can record the rewatch on the spot as before, or you can kick off the "Watching Now" timer.

- The rating/review sharing card is now available to share right from the summary prompt that appears when watching a movie.

- Fixed an issue where one-letter searches were impossible.

- Fixed an issue where shows that changed the episode count from TMDB were impossible to refetch the metadata for.

Happy Sunday!
Mario

If anybody knows what airline is flying me round trip for €329 please I’m all ears!

What do you think of this layout? Of course, the existing layout with smaller cover but more info (air time, network, etc) remains as an option. You can in fact mix and match, have two instances of the same "Upcoming" widget, one with the original look and another one with this one!

The long overdue notes/review cards in the details screen for movies/shows is here! If you weren't into reviewing and writing notes, you may want to revisit that thought 😉

Cheers,

Mario

I’ve added the option to show all community comments/posts/reviews automatically translated. The option will be on by default.

Any of your “readable languages” in the app’s settings will skip the translation altogether. For instance, for me any posts in English, Spanish or Italian remain in the original form; everything else is auto-translated.

Edit: Version 3.7* .. I'm getting a bit too ahead of myself 😅

This update brings two highly requested features at once: TV networks and production studios metadata. Each comes with their own new statistics, smart collection filters, grouping options in the shelves, new browse feeds, etc

I've also added some improvements to the new episode wrap up sharing card.

Cheers,

Mario

This update brings an exciting new sharing feature, where right after watching an episode you get to select your favorite thumbnail from the in-episode shots and create sharing cards that show your episode’s rating, favorite character, and whatever thumbnail of your choosing.

There are also the following improvements:

- Changing thumbnails / covers / backdrops is now available to all users, not just Premium.

- When marking as watched a season finale, you’re asked whether you’d also like to rate and/or review the season.

- Added an option in the settings to choose whether to display the watched date or the released date for watched items in the shelves and collections.

- Added a filter by just movies or just shows in the actor details screen.

- More theme colors have been added, and all of the theme colors are now also available for the movies/shows assigned colors.

- Improved the Favorite Actors and Favorite Genres charts in the stats; raised the cap from 20 to 100.

- Fixed an issue where movies with digital-only releases were showing as “In Theaters”.

- You can tap on your (or someone else’s) profile pic to zoom in.

- Added import support for Refract.

Cheers,

Mario