Introducing Video Bomb - a new unofficial Android app for Giant Bomb

Hello fellow duders! I've built a brand new Android app for Giant Bomb called Video Bomb. It's completely free + no ads and has feature parity with the other clients (streaming and offline video, Chromecast support, video search, etc.).

* Google Play Store (download)

* Screenshots

Some feature highlights + why you should consider using it over other apps:

• Design: Fully material + uses plenty of animations (check out the screenshots).
• Video Progress API: Uses the new video progress API to sync your progress so you can continue watching on giantbomb.com by going to Videos > Continue Watching. It works even if you're offline then come back online.
• Video preview when scrubbing through videos.
• Preview video size before downloading.
• Improved download manager which allows pausing + resuming downloads.
• Uses ExoPlayer, which is the player that powers Youtube on Android.
• Built with the latest Android APIs (supports multiwindow, circular icons, app shortcuts, and more) + libraries.
• Link handling: Clicking a GB video link can be opened in the app.
• No permissions: Don't need them so I don't request them. :)
• Active development: The other GB Android apps haven't been updated in a while and I'm committed to keeping the app up to date + adding more features.

I'll be monitoring this thread for any feature requests, bug reports, and general feedback. Thanks for checking it out + any feedback!

I will try this out! thanks for sharing!

@turul Thanks for checking it out!

Thanks! This is awesome!

Awesome! Looks great on that gif!

First question: is there a dark mode/night mode?

@forcen: There isn't currently, but I'll add it to the feature list! Having one would definitely make it easier on the eyes at night.

@trision: Great! Every app/website needs a dark mode.

Tried the app and it works great. I had some trouble logging in to the site in my default browser but that's my phone being weird. You should expose the URL to the site with the login codes instead of just the text "go here to get a code".

For example if you don't feel like typing in your password with your phone and just want the code from your PC then you don't know what URL to use on your PC. The link just redirects you to your login screen so you can't copy it or see the url.

Just a tiny nitpicky thing.

@forcen Good point. I've changed the wording to expose the URL and it'll go out in an update tonight. Thanks for the feedback!

EDIT: It's live now.

Dumb question: Besides chromecast , would it be possible to add casting to smart TV:s ? No idea what protocol is used, but my Samsung TV shows up in the youtube and netflix app, but not in any other app that has cast features. (Or maybe it's because those apps are also installed on the TV, that would make more sense ...)

@void: If your phone and TV supports Miracast then you could display your phone screen on your TV wirelessly via that but that's about it. If it supports Plex then that could be an option but getting a chromecast is the easiest option by far. Get a 2nd gen.

For me the only thing that's missing is making playlists and a dark theme. Besides that, you've done some fantastic work. Really appreciate the multiwindow support and ability to sync progress with the site.

@rongalaxy Thanks for using the app! Dark theme is on the way (seen a lot of demand for this). I've added playlists to my feature backlog, but not sure when I'll be able to get to it.

@void Hmm maybe. I think you might be right that it has to have those apps pre-installed, but I'll look into it.

This is a great app! I have been using it for about a month now and love it. Keep up the great work!

How does this compare to the Video Buddy app I already use /that was endorsed by Brad?

@cooljammer00: I'm biased, but I think Video Bomb compares quite favourably. Video Bomb has a number of features Video Buddy doesn't (see the OP), a ton of efficiency improvements, and I plan to add plenty more features soon (Video Buddy hasn't been updated in over a year).

@official_thomas: Thanks! Glad you're enjoying the app.

This app needs a swipe left/right to mark video watched + hide. Especially If I'm going to give up all my saved watched state in other similar apps, *hint* *hint*.

Great work, @trision

I actually think the site works great on mobile, but this seems neat and very well made so I'll give it a shot!

Continue watching feature! I'm in, downloading now!

edit: One thing, if it's possible add the continue watching category to the app, that would be great. That's all I wanted. :))

Being able to sync progress between the app and the site is a pretty great feature, really like the app.

Some kind of watch history would be nice, make it easy to find the videos you watched in the app previously. Maybe even possible to view history if videos we watched on the site?

Dang, even The 2nd gen chromecast has issues with GB's HD bit rate. Cool app though! Nice interface. More categories would be great.

Video Buddy has been a bit crashy for me lately, so I'll definitely give this a try. Thanks!

Looks really well-done, nice work. Will definitely give this a try.

Awesome app. Switched over to it. Keeping my progress in videos sealed it for me. Only thing I'd ask is yes, a dark theme. Dark theme on the site is the only true theme, so a dark theme for Video Bomb should follow.

Awesome! Is there anyway to watch live streams on it? Maybe I missed it somewhere. And I agree on a dark theme, it's the best theme.

Video Buddy stopped working on my crappy KitKat tablet some time ago, which was pretty much the only thing that device was good for.

This seems to work on it so thank you very much!

Haven't tried it yet, but the screenshots look very promising. I thought the Video Buddy app was real slick, but eventually the videos would just not play reliably. When i switched to Luchadeer, the main gripe i had with that app was that it's not very easily to browse quickly through a series (because of all the big images tied to the videos)

I haven't tried this app yet, so i don't know if this is a problem, but the videobuddy list always made it real easy to scroll through hundreds of videos in a rapid fashion. I kind of worry that the Luchadeer / Videobomb approach of displaying the images of the videos prominently, will slow down how fast you can browse through a series of videos. But i'll definitly try it out in the near future.

@onemanarmyy: Thanks for the feedback + checking out the app! Mini list item support is 90% done and should be out in the next update (probably out tomorrow). Here's a screencap:

@robothamster: Dark theme is in the works! Live streams are on my feature backlog (interestingly the video player actually already supports stream endpoints).

@twolines: Yeah :( I really tried to work around this (I also have a 2nd gen Chromecast), but wasn't able to so I have to display a warning.

@forcen: Yeah I definitely want to add this as well. Currently, the GB APIs don't support getting video progress in bulk (only one video per request), but once they do I'll jump on it.

EDIT: I'm wrong about this - see alecgdouglas' post below.

@pop: I'll see if I can squeeze that into this next update (probably tomorrow). If not it'll definitely be in a future update (had a couple requests for that feature). Thanks for using the app!

@trision: That's great. I'm switching over to your app :)

@trision: Until then the app should have it's own local history at least.

Nice! Will try it out at once!

Just downloaded. Looks great, keep up the awesome work duder!

@trision: Hey, congrats on the launch of your app!

Check out the https://www.giantbomb.com/api/video/get-all-saved-times/?api_key=[api_key] endpoint to retrieve a list of all videos the user has progress for.

It was announced a bit stealthily in a post here:

https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/api-developers-3017/new-api-endpoints-for-video-1808225/?page=1#js-message-8593035

@alecgdouglas: Oh sick! I completely missed that. Thanks for the heads up - implementing it in now.

The app logo gives me the heebie jeebies.

Great app.

Hey! I downloaded this last week after switching gb apps.

It's been awesome so far! The only thing I would suggest is the ability to choose to download videos to the SD card.

oh woops, seems like my 4.2.2 Jellybean tablet is not up to the task. I'll stick with Luchadeer in that case.

Cool app love the design and the ability to sync between the app and the website. Couple of criticisms would be a dark mode, able to download to SD (got 128g external only 16 internal), making playlists, and more categories for videos. Also one feature none of the other apps have and I do not know if it's even possible but to be able to watch live videos. I know nothing about making apps so there maybe something I am missing but it does link your account to verify you are premium. I Have been out and using the websites' video player on my phone works but it isn't the best.

Awesome! thx.:)

@jamin724: Thanks! I just pushed an update with dark mode + a compact list view since those features were the most requested. Next on my list is SD card support + live videos.

@trision: Awesome

@trision Looks great so far, is there a way to change where downloaded videos are stored e.g. to an external sdcard?