Phone and offline

Filmina is the same on your computer, tablet and phone, and what you do on one is there on the others. On a phone it changes shape so everything stays within thumb's reach. And if the internet drops, what you write or record isn't lost.

On a phone

On a phone there's no side bar: what you use most sits in a bar at the bottom, with Home, Study, Practice and Materials. Next to it, in a separate purple circle, is Record class, which opens a note with the transcript alongside; you stop the recording from there. As you scroll down a screen, the bar shrinks to its icons, and scrolling up brings it back. Tapping the tab you're already on takes you to the top.

At the top left is your account, with the same menu as on a computer: Your time, Settings, What's Filmina missing? and Pro. Next to it, on Home, the pill that switches between Home and Calendar; on the other screens, the space, which you can switch right there while staying on the same tab.

At the top right, More (the three dots) holds Mina, the study block timer, Search and background sound: tap it and they fan out. While a study block is running, the three dots wear the timer's ring, so you can see at a glance how much is left.

Everything else from the sidebar has its own place. The Study plan sits at the very top of Study. In Materials, what Mina builds (the notebook, summaries, maps) goes in cards at the top and your files in a list below, with Select to pick several. Add floats at the bottom right and opens Upload a file, Take a photo (your notes or the whiteboard, which go to the notebook), Record class and New folder.

Reading on a phone

In the viewer and the reader, three things stay at the top: the back arrow, the file name (tap it to see the others) and Tools, the three dots. Tools slide up in a sheet from the bottom: Note, the side note; the file's Summary and Mind map, which say Create if they don't exist yet; Share; Sound; Timer; and Other files. Next to the three dots, only things that are telling you something appear: the timer while it runs, the sound while it plays or a recording in progress.

With the phone upright, the slide sits at the top and Mina sits below, with what she's saying, the question when there is one, and the player. Slides come in a vertical strip: you move from one to the next by swiping up or down, one at a time, and the slides above and below peek in at the edges. Swiping sideways doesn't change slides.

With the phone sideways it looks like it does on a computer: the slide on the left, as tall as the screen, and Mina on the right, with the script and the player. How the viewer works is in Listening to explanations.

Pinching doesn't zoom the whole page. On the slide, it enlarges the slide itself, up to six times, and once it's enlarged you move around with one finger; going to another slide resets it. On what Mina is saying, it enlarges the script's text, not the screen: the lines rewrap and the size stays that way on that phone. To go back to the usual size, pinch the other way.

In the reader, a PDF also zooms with a pinch, and comments open from the Comments button in the dock, as a list. Everything about the reader is in Uploading and reading files.

Tablets and styluses

On a tablet held sideways, the sidebar sits on the side as it does on a computer, with taller rows for your finger, and you can collapse it down to its icons. Only your account stays at the bottom: sound and What's Filmina missing? move into its menu. On a tablet held upright with a narrow screen, Filmina looks like it does on a phone, with the bar at the bottom. The sidebar is covered in Spaces and Materials.

With a stylus (Apple Pencil, S Pen or a Wacom tablet) you write by hand in a note, or on top of a slide or page with Draw on top. As soon as Filmina sees the stylus, your finger stops writing and moves and zooms instead, so a resting palm leaves no marks. The tools, the eraser and the lasso are in Drawing.

The lock screen and headphones

While Mina is explaining, the lock screen, your headphones and a connected watch show which file is playing and which slide it's on, and from there you pause, resume or go to the previous or next slide without going back to Filmina. With an audio or a video in the reader, those controls are the browser's own.

While you record a class, the screen doesn't turn itself off, so an hour-and-a-half lecture doesn't get cut off because the phone locked. See Recording a class.

You can add Filmina to your phone's home screen and open it like any other app, without the browser bar. How to do it on each phone, and what it adds once installed, is in First steps.

Offline

Filmina lives in the cloud, but an internet drop (a subway ride, a flaky wifi) shouldn't cost you what you were doing. When it drops, a notice appears at the bottom, “You're offline. What you write is kept and syncs when you're back.”, and it goes away by itself once the connection returns. Meanwhile:

• Notes are saved on your phone or computer (“Offline: saved on this device”) and upload by themselves when the connection is back. A new note that didn't get created yet is created when you're back online, or the next time you open Filmina.
• Handwriting is also kept on the device until the connection is back.
• Recording a class keeps going: whatever is recorded offline waits and is transcribed in order once you're back, for up to half an hour without a connection.
• A file that was uploading waits and finishes by itself when the connection returns, for up to ten minutes, as long as you don't close the tab.
• A question to Mina that didn't go through stays written in the box, ready to send when you're back.

What you've already seen stays visible. Slides you went through look the same, with the text of their explanation, and the audio plays if the browser had it saved. Also, on a good connection, when you open a presentation Filmina downloads the upcoming slides ahead of time, so a drop halfway through lets you keep moving through them. The explanation isn't fetched ahead: only the one you ask for gets made.

What truly needs the internet waits and says so, without showing it as an error: an explanation that doesn't exist yet (“You're offline. The explanation picks up when you're back.”, and it carries on by itself), Mina, uploading, practice and the plan.

Filmina also opens offline, with the last things you saw: your spaces, your files, your exams and the notes of what you'd already opened. When the connection comes back, it catches up by itself. If nothing ever loaded in that browser, it says “No internet connection” with Reload.