Read about the latest feature releases of the Lurp website and app, like sliders search page and an improved home feed. We also discuss the new authentication flow, and current and future development plans.
Invalid Date, Arvid Renestam
It’s been quite a few months since the last blog post—seven months to be exact. Here’s a look at the progress that’s been made since last time.
In the previous post we talked about how Lurp was going through a huge remake, changing the database and stuff like that. Since then, all the data has successfully been migrated to the new system. The entire backend code has been rewritten for Cloudflare Workers and is now in full use. I also talked about the new auth system, moving away from the Google sign-in system. The implementation changed a bit, with me moving the code into the same Lurp backend repository, but quite successfully so: the new email-code system was rolled out quite some time ago now, and with varying opinions (more on that later). Progress was being made. 😁
Then launched the version 0.9 update. In the last part of the post I discussed “the future of Lurp” and a lot of the things listed there were actually included in this update. We got the updated profile page with tons of fun stats like for example agreeable score and how many comments written and polls voted the user has. We got a new feed tab system with the highly sought-after for-you feed! It was also made possible to like one’s own comment (for some reason people wanted that?) The legal terms compliance was made clearer, and the app got a really nice general speed increase. Lastly, three exciting new things were teased: a Christmas special, a search page, and finally, the launch of Lurp’s new Google Play Store app for Android.
We got a lot to talk about—starting with the account management. With the new login page on the website also came the account page. There you can do stuff like edit your username and other information, like the new description that shows up on your profile page. When you go to the root path of the website, you now get redirected, either to the home page or straight into the web app, depending on whether or not you’re signed in. From the home page, you can simply press “get started”, which will instantly take you to the login page. When you’ve become authenticated, the web app seamlessly boots up and takes you straight into the action.
There have, however, been some major complaints about the new system. It works like this: you enter your email address, go to your inbox to copy the code, paste the code in the website, and press confirm. For me, that was never an issue, but apparently people don’t seem to check their inbox often enough to get that instant feel like I did. The Google sign-in solved this by never making you leave the page—that is, unless you had to verify your sign-in request in some kind of authenticator app, or perhaps don’t remember your password at all. The clear solution would be to have many different authentication options, and that’s often the case in apps, but for me that would simply take too much time to implement. Had I instead gone with an existing auth solution, the case would have been a bit different.
Now, let’s talk about that Christmas special. I posted a video on Instagram showcasing this, which can be viewed here. What was “special” was the new theme, with a red primary colors, a candy cane theme on the poll options, some fun and friendly Christmas music playing in the background (not the song in Instagram the video), and perhaps most obvious, the beautiful falling snow flakes passing through the screen. The concept was simple: after each day, the snowfall became a little heavier. It continued all the way through the year of 2025, and after Christmas, the light snowfall had turned into a full-on storm, being almost unbearably distraction. Fortunately, there was an option to turn off the snow. Of course that couldn’t possibly stop the Lurp community’s vibrant Christmas spirit.
The same month as the previous update, version 0.10 was also released. I really had being working quite manically around that time. The update brought a search page, allowing users to “type whatever their heart desires” and get a feed of relevant posts. Though, the search wasn’t only aimed at posts but also usernames and poll option texts. After last update having made self-likes a thing, now came the more practical comment replies functionality. Instead of aimlessly hoping the right person sees your comment, you could now reply directly to another comment. Finally, the sliders! The point of Lurp is to provide tons of different ways of evaluating opinions. This was the first step towards doing that. You give it a title, click post… and that’s basically it! Then you just wait for people to slide as far on the slider as they think is relevant. A question could for example be: “How much do you like cheese?” For me that would be pretty much in the middle, I think (where left is least and right is most.)
The two updates were very appreciated by the community and really spiced up the beginning of the new year of 2026. So what’s been going on since then? Well, a few things actually. (Crazy, right?) Well, the app hasn’t been getting a lot of new features. But with this entirely new system there were a lot of things that still needed some work. I put a lot of effort into perfecting the existing features. I then dove straight into the world that is SEO: How could I make Lurp more visible to the public? How could I make people’s posts show up on Google Search? (They do that now, by the way.) I also made curated lists of the top posts in certain categories, like the most controversial polls. At last, I finally got started working on the Android app (which since then also has been released publicly.) You can check out the page on Play Store here. I’ll probably make dedicated blog posts for these topics in the near future, so keep an eye out for that!
It’s been quite the journey, and I’ve learned hella things along the way! Lurp is growing and I’m all for it. Coming up are more poll types (rankings, ratings, groupings, stuff like that) and more social stuff like friends and groups. I’ve also been looking into advertisement in order to spread to word—the word of Lurp. Basically, Lurp is getting pretty damn awesome. Until next time! 👋
Lurp makes sharing opinions fun, visual, and effortless. Get started and let your voice be part of the story!