Native Apps

Experimental native apps are built and made available on GitHub at:

• https://github.com/ctm/mb2-doc/releases/latest

Native Apps are just one feature Coming “Soon”, but they have enough caveats that they get this, their own, section in this manual.

All the native Mb2 apps have been made using Tauri.

Caveats

Microsoft Defender will object to the Windows Installer

If you run Mb2_x86-setup.exe, you’ll be told:

Windows protected your PC

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.

More info

and only given a “Don’t run” button in the lower right of the warning window.

“More info”, however, will be a link and if you click on it, you’ll be told that the Publisher is an “Unknown publisher” and be given a “Run anyway” button. So, you’ll have to click “More info” and then “Run anyway” if you want to use the native Windows app until we get recognized by Azure as an official publisher, which is something we’re in the process of doing.

Lobby <-> Table switching is horrible on phones and tablets

The macOS and Windows native Mb2 clients use a separate window per table. The iOS and Android Mb2 clients have little controls that allow the player to switch from any table to the lobby and from the lobby to any table. That aspect is very clunky and I’ll replace it with a better lobby after more people use the native apps and complain.

No per-device table view preference

Mb2 can currently display a table in four different ways, regular text, compact text, “original” graphical and “experimental” graphical. Experimental graphical is meant for tablets and phones. If you’re going to try a native app, you’re strongly encouraged to use the Prefs panel to select the “Experimental” table view. FWIW, new users and old users who haven’t used Mb2 in a while all get the experimental view by default.

iOS requires UDID

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you will be able to download the .ipa file that contains the Mb2 client, but it won’t work for you unless you supply me with your UDID.

Android has only been tested on arm64

I only have two android devices. Both are arm64. Tauri also builds Android for arm, x86 and x86_64. You’re welcome to try them, but I haven’t.

No Linux

I’m a big fan of Linux. I first installed it from floppies. My old email address ctm@ardi.com was in the Linux kernel but only for microscopically small changes. However, I do not have any experience with modern Linux GUI apps. Tauri can build Linux apps, so eventually there will be a Linux builds.

More

There are several issues tagged as Tauri in Mb2’s issue tracker. I’m sure as more people use the native apps that the list will grow, but painful issues or popular requests will typically be fixed soonest. The issue tracker will typically have a lot of nits just so issues don’t completely fall through the cracks.

The Filenames

The latest builds are at https://github.com/ctm/mb2-doc/releases/latest

There’s no need to run older versions. They probably won’t work and I’ll be deleting them soon.