Tapatalk, etc?

I saw in the VBForums: Change is coming.... somebody had asked about Tapatalk. Doesn't look like anyone answered it though.

I've been looking at this mobile app myself since so many forum sites support it now.

From their home page:

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Tapatalk is an award winning app for forums with lot of features. Whether it is the hassle-free photo sharing, instant push notification or advanced features such as discussion Moderation, there are a lot to love Tapatalk.

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From their FAQ page:

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Tapatalk is a mobile app built specifically for forum access. Different from mobile skin or mobile version that comes with the forum system, Tapatalk allows user to have a unified interface to access multiple forums at the same time. With million of Tapatalk users, your forum can be discovered by potential new members through Tapatalk Network and our ranking and recommendation system.

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Any idea whether this or some alternative non-web mobile interface is coming? If so which and when should we expect it?

It looks like the app comes in flavors for BlackBerry, iPhone, iPad, Android Phone, and Android Tablet. Pretty broad coverage, and if WinPhone ever becomes stable and achieves above 3% market share it might get support as well.

Board Express for tapatalk is out for WP8.

I guess this site just isn't going to do anything about mobile access and we'll be stuck with clunky use of desktop-format web pages.

We are looking at mobile solutions and responsive designs on most of our sites. We need to look and see what vBulletin is building in for mobile support.


As to the Windows mobile 3% market share, you might want to research and see what it has now. You might be surprised.... ;)

But but...Brad...it's Windows Phone 7/8, not Windows Mobile 6.5 I believe Tapatalk works on :p

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Originally Posted by formlesstree4

But but...Brad...it's Windows Phone 7/8, not Windows Mobile 6.5 I believe Tapatalk works on :p

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Again - you might want to do some research. While still a tiny part of the market, Windows Phone (not Windows Mobile) is growing market share....

I have heard that tapatalk isnt that great. vB's mobile app is much better. Sure its not free but you can brand it to your forums brand and have ads to recoup revenue implementing it.

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

... but you can brand it to your forums brand and have ads to recoup revenue implementing it.

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Er, Tapatalk has supported this for a long time, if not from the beginning.

Not saying that is a difference, only that its also in there too.

Well either way I guess we're still left, hand in hand, waiting while other forum sites have moved ahead.

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

I have heard that tapatalk isnt that great. vB's mobile app is much better.

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You've got that backwards. Vb's native mobile app is a complete POS. I admin a couple of vbulletin forums and trying to access even vBulletin's own forum via their app is a complete nightmare. Try it for yourself and also compare the experience to using Tapatalk. I've been using TT for years to access many many forums and it's the best by far. Better also than Forumrunner. Tapatalk is free and is very easy to implement so just do it. You can add vBulletin's terrible mobile app too later when you've got money to burn. Nobody will use it, however!

I also admin several vB sites (100,000's posts each site) and I have been researching the mobile options. Depending upon the mobile and forum version there is a big difference and of course administering your own mobile app is allot of work regardless of how well or bad it works. The 5.0 vB version is promising (yet very early in its development) but the older versions definitely not as good. You have to look at all aspects and not just posting/navigating ease. Each site/owner will have different goals to weigh along with its end user use in order to make the right decision for each site.

So why not just fire up Tapatalk in the meantime?

This whole discussion has me baffled. People might be surprised, but I can be quite the Luddite when it comes to mobile apps. What would anybody be doing with this forum on a mobile device? My post count certainly puts me into the 'addict' range, though I ceased to be officially an 'addicted member' a few tens of thousands of posts back, yet I'm entirely willing to set aside VBF until such time that I have a real keyboard under my fingers, a real monitor in front of my eyes, and a real seat under my tush. Are people really so desperate for VBF that they'd need the 24/7 contact that a mobile app allows?

It's all about convenience. With a mobile device, often you find yourself with a few minutes of "down time" while waiting for someone or something. It's a great time to browse a forum or two to learn something or respond to a question. We're not always in front of a computer, but we always have our mobile devices with us.
Trying to view a forum on a mobile device without something like Tapatalk is nearly impossible. The forum text and design is for a large screen and useless when trying to view on a mobile device.

I dont know. I do fine with my cell browsing not just this forum but any other vB forum without any mobile version. :shrug:

Topify is another free mobile app to look into too if we will ever seriously consider an app.

+1 Vote for tapatalk... I would use these forums more if it had that support. ;)