BBC iPlayer Radio iOS app: your feedback

I'm Senior Product Manager for the BBC iPlayer Radio app on iOS and Android devices.

Two weeks ago we launched the BBC iPlayer iOS app (version 4.3.0). In this release the ability to playback radio programmes from the iPad version has been moved to the dedicated BBC iPlayer Radio app.

This is the continuation of a strategy to provide radio with a dedicated digital home allowing us to showcase the very best of BBC Radio. It follows a previous BBC iPlayer release which moved radio from the iPhone version of the app.

Based on some of your feedback from that previous change, as part of this move BBC iPlayerRadio worked closely with the BBC iPlayer team to ensure that the transition was as smooth as possible and to provide a simple mechanism to bring your favourite programmes with you into BBC iPlayerRadio.

Additionally, we made small changes to the existing BBC iPlayer Radio app (v1.5.4) to ensure an improved experience for iPad users whilst continuing to work on a dedicated iPad version of the app. These changes included:

• Preventing the app automatically showing the full programme guide on rotation to landscape. The full programme guide is still available to iPad users from the "More" button located at the bottom right of the application.

• Providing an alternative "Now Playing" view to iPad users when their device is rotated to landscape.

Since this launch and the removal of radio from BBC iPlayer iPad, we have received useful feedback centering around three core concerns:

1. Why did the BBC remove radio from an iPad app only to move us to an app that is clearly designed for a iPhone?

It is true that the current BBC iPlayer Radio is targeted primarily for iPhone usage and isn't a fully optimised experience for iPad users. This also explains why you cannot find the iPlayer Radio app in the "iPad Only" section of the Apple App Store.

Given this, why did we move iPad radio users from an app optimised for the device to a phone based app?

This decision wasn't taken lightly and was driven primarily by necessary changes required to our server infrastructure. These changes will allow us to provide 30 days availability for our on demand programmes in forthcoming versions of our app, as Andrew Scott recently announced. In order to support these changes we needed to significantly change the way that the applications talk to the platform, so this was the right time to bring all radio into one place to make sure we only did that work once.

This decision was also justified by the current development work being undertaken to provide users with a dedicated iPad BBC iPlayer Radio experience expected to ship in the near future.

2. How do I get out of the landscape "Now Playing" view?

We have had a number of enquiries around how to navigate back or close the iPad "Now Playing" view that is presented when the iPad is rotated to landscape.

With our current release (v1.5.4), the only way to close this view is to rotate your iPad back to portrait. Rotating back to portrait will dismiss this view and allow you to continue your journey around BBC iPlayer Radio.

In the original design, in addition to rotating back to portrait, we did provide a "Close" button that would dismiss this view. However, during our development process we found that providing this feature then left the user being presented with the app in the wrong orientation and provided an awkward user journey. The simplest solution in this instance was to remove the feature, release it to the App Store and obtain feedback from our users.

Given the extremely useful feedback we have had, we are currently reevaluating the benefit of adding back in the "Close" button or an alternative option for a future release.

3. Favourites

The feedback on favourites in the BBC iPlayer Radio app have revolved around 3 main themes:

i. Why do I need a BBC iD account to favourite programmes?

The current favourites functionality in the BBC iPlayer app does not require you to have a BBC iD account to favourite programmes, unlike the BBC iPlayer Radio app.

This decision was made in order to make your favourites portable between the various devices that you may access BBC iPlayer Radio from. This means that whether you access the app from your iPhone, iPad, Android device or from the iPlayer Radio website, your favourites will be there for you. This is also beneficial in the event that you upgrade your device to a newer modal and need to reinstall BBC iPlayer Radio.

ii. I've been experiencing problems managing my favourites

We believe this has now been resolved. If you are still experiencing problems, we recommend logging out of BBC iD and signing back in. You can log out from the bottom of the "More" screen in iOS and from the app menu in Android. In the event that this still does not resolve the problem, please do get in touch.

iii. I can't easily see how many episodes are available to listen to for a favourite programme

We anticipate enabling an episode count next to each favourited programme very shortly within the app. There has been a delay in providing this useful piece of information because the way the app accurately obtains this count from our servers is related to the current work around providing 30 day availability.

Many thanks for your continued feedback around the recent changes. Hopefully this post has gone some way to explain why we made the decisions that we did. Rest assured we are actively in the process of developing an exciting, new, dedicated iPad experience for BBC iPlayer Radio. In the meantime, as always, I value your feedback so please leave a comment or get in touch by email or via our Twitter account.

Ste Brennan is Senior Product Manager, BBCiPlayer Radio