Amethyst 0.46.2 (alpha): Bugfixes and Performance Improvements

Nostr often talks about Nostr. But whenever the discussion revolves around a client, more often than not, it's about the features, NIPs & performance parameters like speed & memory/data usage. Even when UI elements are debated, they focus on Note composition/Note response elements like images/videos/likes/replies rather than the supplementary elements like Note/Settings options. As a frequent Amethyst user, I want to highlight these other elements that with introspection seem to be beautifully designed for information & control.

(*Disclaimer: I'm not a designer or in any way a UI professional*)

### **Post Option Overlays**

As an Android user, I've not seen many apps utilize overlays (apparently called *Contextual Menus*) in the way Amethyst does, for options on Note details.

On long pressing any note, there's a 2 x 4 or 2 x 3 grid that shows options pertaining to the note/it's author like Copy Text, Follow, etc. In those tiny purple-background squares, both an icon & text in white for the options are displayed.

|*Overlay options* |*Overlay options on Own Note*|

| --- | --- |

| ![]()| ![]() |

It's nifty way to present 6-8 options (with icons), in limited space without making it feel cluttered or overwhelming.

On Home & Global feeds & Notes/Replies pages in Profile (except DMs) this overlay is actually redundant, with the vertical 3-dot menu(*kebab menu*) already incorporating most of these options on Amethyst. But the elegant way in which it showcases the options, makes it easier to interact with.

### **Image Carousel**


Images are the bloodline of today's social media & changing the layout of images is a way to elicit feedback ¬‿¬" Whether it was Twitter moving from the cropped image previews to full-height images, or full-bleed images on Damus or NIP-94 going live on Amethyst, these discussions tend to be most passionate. While I'm not totally awed by the way the images are displayed- vertically aligned, one-after-another no-padding, with super-thin borders & rounded edges- it makes for an easily scrollable feed-view. But what I love is the carousal that pops up when an image is clicked leading to the intuitive swipe left/right, pinch zoom experience. The position tracker ✨ at the bottom marking current one by a purple dot, in a line of dots is remarkable for capturing where & how many info quickly & the Save button is a bonus.|

### **Boosted Notes**

When a note gets re-posted or boosted (Sorry, Jack re-note is as catchy as fetch iykyk 🤭) on Amethyst, this is how it looks:

![ *A boosted note* ]()

It has an icon-inside-an-icon to show the profile pic of the original note author & reporter aligned with their usernames & NIP-05 identifiers. Both the icons (yes, the one inside too) are clickable & have their corresponding note option kebab menu. The original note looking like it slightly butts-in on the boosted note reminds me of overlapping sticky notes; and the "boosted" to the side of the author name being bold but faded is a nice touch.

### **Relay Settings**

Most clients provide sufficient options to add/remove relays but Amethyst takes it a step further and provides the user with controls to determine which relays to use for which feed/functionality.


Okay, it's overwhelming at first. But tinkering with it a little bit, it's great to find out that one can choose which relays to use for: *Home Feed, DMs, Public Chats, Global Feed & Search*. It also shows the data downloaded from & uploaded to a relay & using the same arrows also indicates whether the user can read from or write to that relay (green => yes). While the addition of a relay is very prominently shown at the bottom, ❌ next to the existing relays allows for removal. Maybe there's a better way of giving such a fine-tuning of relays - in any case, this is a good start. If only there was a way (tooltips?😕) to show what the icons stand for & *clearly indicate that the changes are saved only when "Post" is clicked* (maybe by changing it to "Update"), it may help new users better.

Speaking of relays, there are tiny relay icons below the poster profile icon on each post, indicating from which relays the post is being read from. For a sample, see the part inside a red box in the boosted note example - it has 7 icon, each representing a relay; 😹 for nos.lol, 🍷 for wine, etc. This is handy as a quick check to know the relays that a specific follow & I have in common.

There are a few things on Amethyst that I'm not a fan of - the confusable Quote Notes & Replies UI for example, but they're minor niggles in an otherwise smooth experience. None of these elements are make-or-break in any client. Most times, they just get the job done - nothing more, nothing less. Yet for some reason (maybe cos I use Amethyst too much 👀), they made me pause and ponder, & sometimes make me smile. I write this knowing well that given how fast Amethyst versions drop, in the next major update, these may no longer exist - but still worth capturing them when they do.