TGIF! Tucker hits the App Store, the Dashboard gets a makeover, and Piper learns five new languages 🐢📖✅**

TGIF, everybody! 🎉

I told myself this would be a quieter week. Then I opened my laptop. 😂

Quietly Sober got most of my attention this week, with a brand new Dashboard look, a new home for the Daily Reflection, a Sponsor Finder that turns pages like a book, and a new version out on the App Store. Bible Breeze picked up word search in every Bible version, and the memory games I showed you as sketches last week are now real code.

🍎 Quietly Sober 2.2.0 is out on the App Store

Version 2.2.0 for iPhone went through TestFlight on Monday, Apple finished reviewing it Tuesday morning, and it's out on the App Store now! 🎉

Tucker is taking this very calmly. He's a turtle. Calm is kind of his whole thing. 🐢

🏢 A little behind-the-scenes note

We're working on week 1 of an expected 8 weeks for forming Quietly Sober LLC. More on that when there's more to say.

🎨 The Dashboard got a makeover

Quietly Sober's Dashboard has a whole new look. There's a bright blue band up top with a ring for each recovery date you track and your day count in the middle, with Tucker right beside it. Below that is a quick check-in with Tucker's colored mood faces and your week at a glance.

Sponsor Finder now sits right in the center of the main tabs, and the layout spreads out into two columns on bigger screens like tablets and desktops.

It went live on the website Wednesday and the full app test suite passed. I still need to check it signed in on a phone and tablet, and no app store build carries it yet.

☀️ The Daily Reflection moved to the front of the line

The Daily Reflection is now the first card on the Dashboard, shown as a Story you can react to and follow.

You can also write your own Story on each day's reflection. By Wednesday the writer got a calmer new look too. Your Story starts out shared with your community, with a notice at the top and a one-tap Make private button that's remembered on every device. If you already wrote privately that day, or haven't joined a community yet, it starts private.

Everything you've written now lives in one place called My Story, which replaces the old Journal.

This is all live on the website with a passing health check. Nobody has walked through it signed in on a phone or browser yet, and no app store build carries it so far.

🧩 One Dashboard, more than one date

Not everybody is quitting just one thing. Members can now pick their mix and set a date for each one, right from the Dashboard or the welcome page. A little row of pills like Alcohol free and Nicotine free sits under the milestone wheel and switches it between them.

Visitors without an account can keep several dates on their own phone until they decide to join.

This went live Monday on the website. A real signed-in walkthrough is still on the list.

📖 Sponsor Finder turns pages like a book

Sponsor Finder now works like flipping pages: swipe left for the next sponsor and right to go back. Neither direction means yes or no, so you can browse without feeling like you're judging anybody, and you can go back to someone you passed.

A short card on your first visit explains how it works. It's live on the website, and I tried the swiping both ways on my iPhone. 🐢

🏅 A few quieter wins

iPhone photos stopped playing hide and seek. Picking a photo from your iPhone Photos library in Safari, for a Sponsor Finder profile, a Story, a Discussions post or a milestone note, used to get silently dropped. That's fixed and live, and iPhone HEIC photos now arrive as JPEG. I checked a photo pick on my own iPhone and it worked. 📸

Website members can now tick "Keep me signed in on this browser" and stay signed in for 30 days while they keep visiting. It stays off unless you choose it, so a shared computer still gets the usual short sign-in.

There's a private Achievements wall that gathers your milestone badges and first community milestones. Only you can see it. It's in the current web release, but I haven't watched it in action on a live account yet.

There's also a public account-deletion request page now, so people can ask for their account to be removed from a browser without reinstalling the app. Not glamorous, but it matters. ✅

🛠️ On the workbench (not live yet)

Community Boards got a lot of building this week, including a "My mix" feed and saved board views. That code is published with its tests passing, but it isn't deployed yet.

Milestone notes are getting bigger too: 2,000 characters instead of 250, the same writing tools as a Discussions post, and up to eight private photos. Built and tested, not released.

On the Android side, a signed build passed its checks and closed testing is the next step. Nothing has gone to Google Play yet.

The Meetings screen is next in line for the same makeover the Dashboard got. The mockup is approved and the build plan is written, but nothing is built yet. A couple of buttons are also getting a glassy new look, not released yet. ✨

🔎 Piper learned to search in five more Bibles

Bible word search now works in every Bible Breeze version. Before this, only the American Standard Version returned results. Now King James, Berean Standard, Louis Segond 1910, Luther 1912 and Reina-Valera 1909 all join in.

That means you can search for a word in the version you actually read, in English, French, German or Spanish, and land right on that verse. It's live, with 181,857 verse links checked. About 4,800 verses with numbering differences stay unlinked on purpose for now. Browser and phone checks are still ahead.

🎮 The memory games left the drawing board

Last week the seven Scripture memory games were plans and mockups. This week they're implemented in code, with your progress kept privately on your device and sharing that doesn't involve scores.

They aren't released yet. A real phone walkthrough comes first.

📅 Build your own reading plan

The new Create Your Own plan builder is live in Bible Breeze! You pick what to build from (a Verse Basket, a ready-made basket, a topic, your saved verses or whole chapters), choose a pace, give it a name, and you can add a few private photos.

No "behind," no "catch up," no streaks. Just a plan that fits how you want to read. 📖

I also tidied up Devotionals so its navigation and look match the rest of the app.

🌐 Moving house (the website kind)

CalvinEllis.dev started moving to a new domain registrar on Monday. If all goes well it should finish in about a week, and nothing should change for you as a reader. Fingers crossed the site doesn't notice it's being moved. 📦

📚 Everybody else gets an honest paragraph

Gabby had a fix for remembering players between trips built locally, but it hasn't been published or released yet, so it's not a player-facing story this week.

For Minecraft, the servers got their routine updates and I updated my records to match how the web server actually runs now. No new player-facing features to announce.

No imaginary road trips or surprise Minecraft expansions. The newsletter survives another honest quiet paragraph. 😄

❤️ The part that matters most

I'm grateful for another week of building, learning, fixing things, and staying sober. Some days the progress is a big milestone. Other days it's one less broken button and remembering to appreciate how far things have come.

One day at a time. One step at a time. Occasionally one very patient turtle at a time. 😄🙏

God is good. Have a wonderful weekend, everybody! ❤️

— Calvin

calvinellis.dev