Arctic For Lemmy 17+

Arctic v1.5 introduces over 200 new features, enhancements, and bug fixes. For a comprehensive overview of the updates, please refer to the changelog available in Arctic's settings.**

New Features:
1. Themes & Customization:
• Full support for custom themes: Create, edit, and switch between themes for light/dark modes with live previews.
• Added 12 default themes (e.g., GitHub, Dracula, Solarized) with import/export capabilities and detailed theme editing tools.
• Arctic settings search: Quickly find and configure settings, including support for deep links to specific options.

2. Markdown & Link Previews:
• Embedded markdown views now support videos, images, tables and spoilers with rounded media corners and improved caching.
• Enhanced Markdown parsing: Faster performance, improved spoiler reliability, and optimized rendering of block quotes, inline code, and nested elements.
• Added new link handling tools, including haptic touch for alternate sources and improved favicon fetching.

3. Media Uploads & Playback:
• Support for uploading videos and media to services like Catbox.moe with account login integration.
• Improved playback for videos (PeerTube, Streamable) and caching for resuming media at previous positions.
• New paging gallery view for media.
• Added options for scaling images or dimming them in dark mode.

4. Swipe Actions & Haptics:
• Configurable swipe action thresholds and bug fixes.
• Added haptic feedback options.

5. Push Notifications:
• Redesigned networking logic to prevent duplicate/missing notifications and improved syncing across devices.

6. Instance Blocking:
• Native Lemmy API integration for instance blocking, with fallback to internal blocking for older versions.


UI/UX Improvements:

1. General Enhancements:
• Improved scrolling behavior to reduce stutters.
• New action menus for posts and comments to streamline interactions.
• Updated link preview generation to prioritize display order.
• Refined post and comment layouts for better responsiveness.

3. Accessibility and Feedback:
• Added warnings for empty comments and clearer progress indicators in inline videos.
• Improved toast messages and gesture-based dismissals.


Performance Optimizations:

1. Memory and CPU Usage:
• Arctic now uses 75% less memory and significantly less CPU, improving efficiency during heavy media usage.
• Enhanced image and video preloading for smoother performance.

2. Caching and Reliability:
• Improved caching for media playback positions, link previews, and embedded content.
• Reduced unnecessary network requests by batching API calls.

3. Bug Fixes:
• Resolved issues with:
• Spoiler visibility in feeds and notifications.
• Link previews loading incorrectly or reloading unnecessarily.
• Layout inconsistencies for media galleries, voting buttons, and swipe actions.
• Markdown elements (e.g., nested quotes, inline code, soft breaks).
• Crashes during post feed scrolling and crosspost interactions.
• Swipe actions overriding system gestures.
• Fixed problems with iOS and macOS UI (e.g., hidden tab bars, widget insets, and gallery resizing).
• Adjusted behaviors for iOS 17+ and 18, including fixing visual glitches, restoring tab bar styles, and resolving media playback issues.
• Added support for trackpad dismissals, improved App Nap integration, and new shortcuts (e.g., Command + Return for submissions).
• Optimized performance for media previews and resizing on wide displays.