Stiva 1.0.5 is live
Stiva 1.0.5 is live, and it's the first version of the app anyone outside a closed test group can install. Everything before it, 1.0.0 through 1.0.4, stayed inside a private testing track with a small group of testers. This is the one I'm actually calling public.
I wanted to mark the occasion properly, explain a few things about how the app and this blog will work going forward, and be upfront about a couple of rough edges you might run into.
What "1.0.5" actually means
I already wrote about why Stiva doesn't use a subscription, and versioning is the other half of that story.
The first number is the major version, a bump there is when new Premium features actually arrive. You'll still get that update regardless, there's only one Stiva app on your device, but unlocking the new Premium features tied to that major version is a separate choice.
If you unlock Premium on Stiva 1, those features are yours for good, and if you later unlock Premium on Stiva 2, that unlock naturally carries everything from Stiva 1 along with it.
The second number is the minor version, it covers new free features and meaningful additions that don't require a fresh Premium unlock.
The third number is the patch version: fixes, refinements, and the small stuff that keeps the app healthy day to day. The jump straight to 1.0.5 reflects the five internal builds that came out of the closed test, not five public updates, this is where the counting starts for everyone else.
The web won't always cooperate
The web is a massive, ever-evolving ecosystem of layouts and frameworks. While my tests so far have yielded good results, there will inevitably be times when a page doesn't extract perfectly, whether it's a paywall not being recognized, or a cookie wall cluttering the extracted text with unwanted elements.
I am committed to chasing down and fixing these edge cases as they appear. To do that, your direct feedback is the single greatest help I could ask for. If an article doesn't look right, please let me know. Your feedback goes straight to me and helps make Stiva better for everyone.
How this blog will work
I'm not going to force a publishing schedule onto this. Posts here will show up whenever there's something worth saying: a new version landing, a feature I'm about to ship, occasionally a preview of something further out.
Some months that might be one post, other months none. I'd rather write when I have something real to say than pad the blog for the sake of a cadence.
Staying in the loop
If you don't want to check back here, I post the same updates on Bluesky. You can also subscribe to the blog via RSS using the icon on this page.
Extensions and the cloud bridge
The Chrome extension is live, letting you send links to Stiva straight from your browser. A Firefox version is in progress and should follow shortly.
On the sync side, the cloud bridge works with both Google Drive and Dropbox. Stiva has no backend of its own, your cloud storage account is simply the private relay it uses to move articles between your devices.
One thing to flag on Dropbox specifically: while I go through Dropbox's approval process for the app, you may see a notice during login mentioning that the app isn't yet fully verified by Dropbox. This is expected and doesn't affect how the sync works once you're connected, it's part of how Dropbox rolls out access to new integrations as they pick up real usage. I'll update this once the app clears their review.
What's next
The first real feedback from a wider audience is what I've been missing until now. It's the only thing that turns my assumptions about Stiva into something objective, and I'll keep reading and replying to all of it. In the meantime, I'm not waiting around: small UI and functionality improvements are already in the pipeline, and I'll write about them here as they ship.
If you haven't tried Stiva yet, now's a good time.
