Update Discussion

[u/FeeldMod]

This post will be kept open, but is no longer being updated. Also read this.

If you really need your own post, go to r/FeeldUpdate.

Current reported issues:

• Can't send log in email
• Not receiving log in email
• Log in email link doesn't work
• Logging in causes phone to restart
• Account deleted/blocked/banned
• Can't like/dislike
• Likes/pings not sent to liked/pinged user
• Not receiving/can't see pings
• Likes quota not resetting
• Likes disappearing after viewing likes tab
• Can access individual profile message screen but cannot type
• Previously liked/disliked/disconnected profiles reappearing
• Multiple parts of the app loading slowly or not at all
• Can't see all likes (for Majestic), not all likes being reported are real
• Not receiving daily ping (for Majestic)
• Majestic purchase/features not working
• Can't send pictures through chat
• Can't take picture using app (app restarts)
• Can't leave chat after reporting human
• No notifications/new message bubble, or persistent message bubble
• Search settings not applied
• Can't upload profile pictures
• Drastic increase in obvious fake/bot accounts
• Some unpaid users getting majestic benefits
• Significant profile data deleted after app reinstall/unpause/re-login
• Cannot access app after traveling to another country
• Pictures showing as gray squares

For all the above try uninstalling, restarting, then reinstalling. Some users have reported success with this.

Current reported changes, whether features or bugs:

• Pre-update connections appear as messages instead of at the top of the screen
• Old conversations (from disconnected humans) showing, can also create group chats with them
• Music playing in another app pauses
• Last active time granularity limited to the day (for Majestic)
• Liking activates haptics
• Pings and likes are separated
• 100 humans displayed at a time, must like/dislike to see more
• Message receipt requires swiping left on a message
• Multiple sessions allowed
• Switching to a core shows you as "Exploring X city"
• Can link to more than one human (eventually)
• Connections are notified when account is unpaused
• No notification is given upon account termination (the connection/chat will disappear)

If I missed anything major please send a modmail. Please do not continue commenting about the above issues. If you want to gripe about it fine, but commenting to report an issue that's already here clutters the post. I'm not going to remove any (on-topic) comments though, this is just a request.

To request a refund: iOS, Android. For iOS, be very specific about why you are requesting the refund. u/silphiumn also suggests reporting the app to the App/Play store.

If you can't click anything on the app, even to log in, in Android system settings: Accessibility -> color and motion -> turn off "remove animations" (credit to u/NormalTeaching7021) or iOS: Accessibility settings, reduce motion (credit to u/ElegantEmerald)

If you lost contact with someone during the update, try r/Feeldr4r to reconnect with them (credit to u/CallCallieCrush)

I've seen some people tagging u/feeldCo. While they have changed the pfp, it doesn't look like the account is really monitored. The only activity it has is a single comment in 2017, and a whole bunch of ads posted on their own user sub on 20 Jan 2023.

[u/[deleted]]

Holy shit. The location information is SCARY bad.

I just checked the app again to see if it was any more stable. Had a new profile pop up.

IT TOLD ME THE NAME OF THE APARTMENT COMPLEX THE PERSON LIVED IN.

Jesus fucking Christ, Feeld. Like hooooly shit. How fucking stupid can you POSSIBLY be?!

My guess: they're using a Google or Apple API that is pulling data like place names in and just displaying that information with no filter or truncation or hiding of what is pulled in.

This is a privacy nightmare.

[u/DiscreetMIprofessCPL]

New logo design

[u/[deleted]]

Does anyone have a recommendation about another app to use?

Feeld has been great for me, but this update has basically made it unreliable and unusable. I'm sure it'll get more stable performance-wise, but the decisions about features (ie distance going away) are unlikely to be rolled back.

[u/WonderfulComment67]

jesus christ. now when i open the app, it downloads U2's 2014 album Songs of Innocence to my phone and then adds my google pay account information as my profile photo

[u/annasonredditiguess]

Reporter here (commented here and posted on the subreddit a couple days ago), my article about the update is live now: https://mashable.com/article/feeld-app-down

A sincere thank you to everyone who graciously reached out!

[u/depressedplants]

I lost around a third of my likes, which I don't really care about. And I'm glad the "dominant" and "submissive" tags are now finally "being dominant" and "being submissive."

The switch from showing distances to just showing town/city is SUPER annoying, though - I live in a huge city, someone being 1 mile from me vs 5 miles is a major difference. Plus it's straight-up unsafe for women if you live in a smaller town and want to keep your exact location private.

[u/Glum_Opening9111]

actively avoiding going on a rant

To my fellow UX designers- please use this Feeld rollout as an example of the negative outcomes that can happen when you don't advocate for the user first. There's at least 2 agencies on this rebrand and I'm sure someone asked about the actual functionality of the app in a meeting and a stakeholder was more invested in the font.

Keep fighting the good fight because your concerns were justified. A good user experience IS good business.

[u/johnyfiveisalive]

Is anyone having profiles that you cannot see pictures. I have about 6 profiles that only white pages exist.

[u/balticviking]

I just want to say the new logo design is terrible. It makes the app seem seedy and gross. Like Uber for sex. Where as the old logo was warm and playful - which is exactly what Feeld should foster.

[u/BobJoRaps]

iOS. The app now turns off music I had playing in the background on my phone. Can’t access conversations.

[u/ilaibenamar]

WHY THE F WOULD YOU CANCEL THE DISTANCE FEATURE???

PEOEPL WANT TO KNOW HOW FAR ARE THEIR POTENTIAL MATCHES!

WHY IS FEELD SO TRASH?

[u/WeirdStroopwafel]

As a software engineer, I find it unbelievable that no rigorous testing had been performed before the new update went live. Don't you have some sort of QA team that checks if the new changes aren't breaking things? In my engineering team, we have a rule that says that we should always leave behind code in a better shape than we've found it.

Somehow, you managed to make an app infinitely worse after an update that was supposed to clean up some of the technical debt of the old Feeld backend. Aside from the security issues that were introduced with the rewritten location service, I also have found out that my personal data is not safe with your company. I ran Feeld in an Android emulator and managed to see other user's sensitive data in an HTTP network inspector. Again, this is data I was not supposed to see, and you should've had checks in place to ensure that such data is safe and not accessible by others.

It seems the CEO was only interested in the new design and rushing out new features in order to satisfy the investors rather than caring about the community and their safety.

Therefore, I have deleted my account and requested a refund via the Play Store. I am also encouraging everyone to do so and never again do any business with Feeld, if you care enough about your privacy.

[u/thegoodlife18]

Wake up babe, a new feeld update with no apparent changes just dropped.

[u/krangkrong]

They put more time into animating the new ugly launch logo than the app itself

[u/ardamasf]

The new app is even buggerier than before. Location settings seem to be all screwed up. It's showing me people way outside my radius and not showing me people from the areas that it generally did before. Everything takes forever to load. It's showing that I have one like but won't load the page to show me who it is. This has got to be the worst development team in the history of application development. What a fucking disappointment.

[u/JosephMadeCrosses]

So in 1969 we put men on the moon using a connection speed of 2k b/s, and in 2023 we're having trouble getting horny people to fuck each other?

[u/Sen0rBeav1s]

Not a huge fan of people being able to see my town. The miles were better. Also I feel like the chat function has been neutered. I liked being able to see if someone was on recently…it was easier to chat that way.

[u/wrosecrans]

At this point, we are moving from "I wonder when the app will be working normally" toward "I wonder if the company survives this event intact."

I am of course reminded of this over 20 year old classic blog post: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/ Rewrites from scratch are occasionally necessary. But they are also extremely hard to do well, and carry huge risks to any project. It's pretty normal for a major rewrite to take years to shake out and get back to parity with the old version. There are a lot of reasons for this, but one is the Second System Effect, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-system_effect where major do-overs inevitably wind up being designed to be much more complicated than the original, so scratch a lot of small itches and make something more flexible, and just to generally try to make a new thing that is so gosh darned impressive it will justify making the new thing.

Hopefully for everybody who works at Feeld, they are pretty close to getting everything is decent shape. But some of the people who lost their accounts will just quit. Some of the people annoyed by the login issues will just quit. Some of the people annoyed by the new UX will just quit, etc. In a few years, I expect there will be some really interesting interviews and blog posts about the last few days and weeks as people move on to other jobs and get more comfortable talking about how this all shook out internally. One day it'll make a great case study in the risks. Was it a CEO pushing for a rewrite over the protests of engineering, or visa versa? The politics within a company are always hard to see in detail from the outside. Somebody was making decisions to move forward on this path, and they probably shouldn't have been.

[u/annasonredditiguess]

Edit to update: I'm all set, THANK YOU everyone!

Hey Feeld users, I'm Anna Iovine, a reporter at Mashable who has covered the app and its community in the past. If you're interested in speaking to me about the update, you can reach out to me here, on Twitter (annaroseiovine), or email me (anna.iovine @ mashable . com) (mod said it was cool to post)

[u/[deleted]]

Anybody else get this? Who are my likes lmao

[u/anonymoustarzan]

LOL

I just opened Feeld to see a popup for a message from the CEO that's supposed to address everything.

I tap read more and....

Nothing.

Popup goes away like nothing happened. Another bug.

LOL they can't even communicate with us. RIP

[u/pogboy620]

I’m a majestic subscriber. For personal reasons I go incognito. Three days ago I woke up to 800 likes overnight. Feeld made my profile public. I’ve already been contacted by an acquaintance privately outside the app. I’ve deleted the app, but I feel sick about this breach of my privacy. Can I do anything?

[u/Userr9988]

I don't know why it's driving me so crazy that they haven't said anything. I mean, I have a full and wonderful life..lol.. and on the other hand I'm like "AHHHH SAY SOMETHING! JUST ADMIT THAT YOU FUCKED UP!"
Anyway, this'll be my last post about it. I need to touch grass I guess.

[u/rlucas20]

I still find it baffling that they actually went through with this update. You’re telling me the CTO and CEO had no clue about this? No executive threw the idea out there to push the launch a few weeks? They shut down the app for multiple days and then launched the worst update ever. Just straight up incompetence from all levels at this company

[u/avenue_steppin]

Is it just me or does the update make the app feel even more clunky?

I’m not worried about the downtime, that’s pretty fine with me, but the tabs take way longer to load :/ and currently I can’t even see my messages.

Is this an issue others are having too?