Key takeaways
- On Android, the header shows “Get the app” when Chrome offers to install DáilDex. On an iPhone, use Share, then Add to Home Screen, in Safari.
- The installed app opens on Dex and has five places along the bottom. Dex sits in the centre, raised, because most things lead to a question.
- Pages you have already read stay available when you lose the connection. Dex needs a connection to answer, but the conversations already on your phone can still be read.
- Study works in the installed app once you sign in, so your sources and progress follow you to every device.
- Alerts for TDs you follow, Budget day and Study reviews are built and are being tested. They are not switched on yet. Nothing will be sent between 9pm and 8am Irish time.
- We have not yet finished testing sign-in inside the installed app on real iPhones and Android phones. We will say what we find.
Why an app at all
Most of the questions people ask DáilDex are asked on a phone, on a bus, between other things. A browser tab makes that harder than it should be: it has an address bar that takes space, a menu that is in the wrong place, and no way to come back to the record in one tap.
So we have made DáilDex installable. It is still the same site. The app is the same pages, opened full screen from your home screen, with a bottom bar and a few things that only make sense on a phone. There is no app store version. You install it from the website, and it is the same product.
Adding DáilDex to your home screen
On an Android phone, use Chrome. When Chrome offers to install DáilDex, a “Get the app” button appears at the top of the site. Tap it and Chrome shows its own install dialog. If you have a signed-in account, the account page also has an “Install app” button.
On an iPhone, Apple does not offer an install button, so the steps are manual. Open DáilDex in Safari, tap the Share button, scroll down and choose Add to Home Screen. Then open DáilDex from your home screen. Notifications on an iPhone only work for apps added this way.
- Android: tap “Get the app” in the header when Chrome shows it, then confirm the install dialog.
- iPhone: open DáilDex in Safari, tap Share, choose Add to Home Screen, then open it from your home screen.
What opens, and where things are
The installed app opens on Dex, the chat you use to ask about the Dáil, your TD and the record. The bottom bar has five places. News holds our reporting and articles. My TD opens the TD for the constituency you have chosen. Dex sits in the centre, raised. Study is the place to work through material over time, and it asks you to sign in when you open it from the app. You holds your account, your alert choices, Dex Pro and sign out.
A tap on Dex while you are already in Dex starts a new conversation. That is the same thing a new-chat button does on the website, just easier to reach with a thumb.
Ask Dex from any passage
Select a passage on a news story, a vote or a finance page and an “Ask Dex” button appears just above the bar. Tap it and Dex opens with the passage quoted in the box where you type. Nothing is sent until you press send, so you can add to the question first.
On the website the same button opens Dex in a panel on the page. In the app it takes you to the full chat, which is easier to read on a small screen.
Sharing a link into Dex, on Android
On Android, the share sheet lists DáilDex. Share a link or some text from another app, and DáilDex opens Dex with it placed in the box, ready for you to read and add to. It is not sent for you. This works only on Android, because iPhones do not let apps receive shares this way.
What works offline, and what does not
When you lose the connection, DáilDex keeps working for the things it can do without one. Pages you have opened recently are saved on your device, so you can read them again. An offline notice appears at the bottom of the screen, so you know you are looking at a saved copy.
Dex is different. Its answers come from a model that runs on our servers, so Dex needs a connection to answer. The conversations already on your phone are still there and can be read, but you cannot send a new question until you are back online. Anything you had typed stays in the box.
If the app goes to the background in the middle of an answer, the phone can stop the connection. When you come back, Dex tells you the answer may be incomplete. This is a simple warning for now, not a full recovery. Ask again if you want the whole answer.
Study on your phone
Study keeps your sources, practice cards and progress in your account. In the installed app you sign in to open it, so everything follows you. When cards are due for review, a small dot appears on the Study tab. Where your phone supports it, the number also appears on the app icon.
We are still checking how printing and exporting work from the installed app on iPhone and Android. If something does not work there yet, the website still has everything.
Alerts: built, not switched on yet
We have built three kinds of alert, and we want to be clear about their status: they are not switched on yet. The plan is that you choose them yourself in your account, and each one can be turned off at any time.
The three are: new votes and updates from TDs you follow, Budget day when new measures are published, and Study reviews when cards are due. The text of every alert will be a short fixed line, for example “New vote from a TD you follow”. It will never show a chat, a document, a name of a private person or anything from Study. Tapping the alert opens the right page inside DáilDex.
Alerts for a TD you follow by email arrive as a push only if you also sign in with the same email address. If you only follow by email, you keep getting the email as before. Nothing is sent between 9pm and 8am Irish time. We will switch alerts on once we have tested them on real phones and had them checked by someone other than the person who built them.
Your data, on your phone
Parts of DáilDex are kept on your device so the app can work offline: your Dex conversations, the pages you have read, your Study copy if you use it, and the constituency you chose. Each of these is kept on this device only, and it is removed when you sign out. If you have conversations that are not yet saved to your account, the app warns you before you sign out, so you can keep them first.
Signing out also stops your browser receiving notifications for your account. The rest of your account stays on our servers, as before. If you use a shared computer or phone, sign out when you are done.
What did not change
The website looks the same for everyday use. Two things are new on it. Anyone using Android Chrome sees the “Get the app” button in the header, but only when Chrome offers to install DáilDex. Signed-in people also see an “Alerts” section on their account page, which is where alerts will be chosen once they are switched on. Everyone else sees no change.
Behind the scenes, DáilDex now has a service worker. It is the small program that lets pages you have read open offline. It does not change the page you see when you are online.
What we have not finished
We are being straightforward about where this stands. We have built and checked the app in our test suite and in a browser that imitates an installed phone. We have not yet tested every part of it on real iPhones and Android phones across the range of versions people use. Sign-in inside the installed app on iPhone is the part we most want to check, because it depends on how Safari and the home-screen app share sign-in details.
There are also parts we have planned but not built yet. The chats list is still the drawer you know from the website, not a sheet. Pages do not yet have a saved list or a reading view of their own. Some charts do not yet respond to a tap. We will add these as we go, and we will tell you when they land.
If something does not work, tell us. The app is new, and it is far easier to fix a problem we hear about in the first week than one we find after a month.
- Being checked on real phones: sign-in inside the installed app, notifications, printing and exporting from Study.
- Not built yet: a saved list and reading view for news, a cached TD record, charts that respond to a tap, and a sheet-style chats list.