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The Intercooler’s new app is live! 

7 months ago

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Writer:

Dan Prosser | Ti co-founder

Date:

21 March 2024

After months of hard work, our brand new, custom-built app is now live. As well as being a significant upgrade on the outgoing app, it’s an important next step for The Intercooler as we continue to grow our subscriber base and improve our editorial output. You’ll find all the benefits listed below and most subscribers should be able to enjoy them right away, but for some we may need just a minute or two of your time before you can get started.

It is likely your phone or tablet will have downloaded the new app automatically – indeed, you may be reading this on the updated app already. But if you don’t have automatic app updates switched on, simply head to the app store and search ‘The Intercooler’ where you can manually download the new app in seconds by clicking the Update button. The simplest way to tell if you’re looking at the old or new app is to click on an article. Only the new app displays image galleries within articles, which you can scroll through either by swiping left or right on the images, or by tapping the little orange dots underneath.

The Intercooler’s new app is live! 
The new app now displays image galleries, just like the website

If you subscribe via the App Store, head to the Settings page and click the option that reads Link your App Store Subscription (remember to use your App Store ID email address when completing the form). Those who subscribe via the website will simply need to log in using their existing credentials – just click on any article or find the Settings page (look for the cog icon in the bottom row). If you have any issues at all, we’re waiting to hear from you – just email us at info@the-intercooler.com and we’ll answer your queries as quickly as possible.

So why the new app in the first place? Although the old app worked well, it was an off-the-shelf product over which we had very little control. Think of it like a specialist car manufacturer buying in a proprietary platform from some vast OEM: you can change its appearance and functionality a bit, but it will never be a truly bespoke product and it will always come with limitations within which you have to work.

In our case the biggest of these was that the app could not be properly integrated with our website. That’s all changed. This is now our app, built just for us. Its design is more in keeping with our other platforms, articles now carry many more photographs and your comments are fully synchronised across our website and app: comment on a story on one, and it automatically appears on the other. And no more searching around for your favourite writer’s stories: just click on their bio and you’ll see every story they’ve ever written for us.

Furthermore, we will be integrating Apple Pay and Google Pay into our checkout process in the coming days, so if you’re subscribing for the first time or buying a gift subscription, you’ll be able to do so in the blink of an eye. Subscribers can now seamlessly log in across our platforms using the same details, meaning however you subscribe to The Intercooler, both our app and website are ready and waiting for you.

There’s more: while the homepage of the old app was simply a list of our most recent stories, the new one works as a homepage should. Not only does it display our four latest articles and most recent videos, you can also navigate to our various article categories such as car reviews and motorsport content, and check out writer biographies directly from the homepage.

One other major benefit is that our new app is way more flexible than the old one. Because it’s been designed just for us, we can make changes and add features that would never have been possible before. So when you see the new app for the first time, just remember this is merely the start. It will evolve and get even better over time; in the meantime if there’s anything you’d like to see incorporated into the new app, please let us know.

The Intercooler’s new app is live! 

Otherwise, though, the app fundamentally works as before. The Latest, Driven, Features, Motorsport and Universe timelines are all still listed along the top navigation bar, and they present stories in the same way. So no need to spend hours getting to grips with the new app – it should be familiar right away.

We have already put the app through an extensive series of stress tests but such is the nature of these things that we cannot rule out small niggles and teething issues becoming apparent once subscribers begin using the app in their thousands. To that end, please comment below or email us and be assured we will be on the case at once.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoy using our new app and we’re here if you need any assistance with it. This isn’t the only upgrade we’re making to The Intercooler ecosystem in 2024. In fact, as we enter our fourth year, we’re working hard to shift up a gear right across the board, bringing improvements to our own platforms, our rapidly growing podcast and YouTube channel, our social media and more besides. We’re delighted to have you along for the ride.