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Release Notes and Changelog
App Name | OS| App Version| Downloadable from | Server | Notes | --- | --- | ---: | --- | --- | Beiwe | iOS | 1.3 | Apple App Store | Automatically connects study participants to Onnela Lab Beiwe backend Beiwe2 | iOS | 1.5 | Apple App Store | For open source users to connect to their own servers Beiwe | Android | 2.6.0 | https://studies.beiwe.org/download | Automatically connects study participants to Onnela Lab Beiwe backend Beiwe2 | Android | 2.6.0 | Google Play Store | For open source users to connect to their own servers
iOS 11 is now supported
Other misc fixes and enhancements
Apple iOS -12/14/17
The new release name/number is Beiwe 1.3.0. This is now the standard release in the Apple app store.
As most iPhone users configure their phones to automatically update their apps, Beiwe will be automatically updated on most of your users phones. No action is required. This should be transparent to your users and to your Beiwe study. New participants will automatically download this new version of Beiwe from the app store. The registration process remains the same with the exception that users must choose "ALWAYS" when prompted for location services.
-Beiwe was updated to support iOS version 11. Some changes in Version 11 include a new option for Location Services. When study participants enrolls, iOS options offered for location services are "Never", "While Using the App", and "Always". "Always" must be chosen for Beiwe to work properly.
-Beiwe was updated such that when a corrupt data file is seen, it will throw out just that file and not all the data from that batch.
-an iOS_Log has been added similar to the Android app_log which notes when data collection starts/stops along with other Beiwe and phone activities. This log may be used for data analysis or for troubleshooting any problems seen with Beiwe on particular phones. As phones become more complex and sophisticated and users accordingly adjust their behaviors and preferences in their phone usage, Beiwe's ability to collect data may be affected.
-9.0 will be the minimum iOS Version supported by the Beiwe app. If a study participant is running an older version of iOS, the current version of Beiwe will continue to run and the study participant will be unaffected by the update.
Feature: Added support for survey branching
Other misc fixes and enhancements
Audio Survey Window fix
Survey deliveries fixes
Other misc fixes and enhancements
First Beiwe app release on iOS
Adds optional always-available surveys
Adds gyroscope sensor. Sets minimum WiFi log frequency.
1. Beiwe/Beiwe2 Android 2.4.1 App Update: Significant bug fixes were made to the Beiwe Android app to enable it to run more often and to avoid being shut down. We expect this will significantly reduce the amount of missing data and improve on survey notification delivery.
The new release name/number is Beiwe 2.4.1. It is now the standard release that will download from either the Google Play Store or studies.beiwe.org/download -- depending on which you're using.
Onnela Lab collaborators: If you have research projects in progress, your study participants will be unaffected by this release as we do not automatically update the app. Your study participants will continue to run on the previous release, the 2.2.5 Beiwe app version. If you are in the midst of enrolling study participants and some of your cohort are on the 2.2.5 version while others are on the new 2.4.1 version, the data will remain unchanged so this will be transparent for your study.
However due to the significant improvements made to data collection, we encourage you to update Android users in your study to the new app if it's convenient. To do this, go to studies.beiwe.org/download from the phone's browser and the app will download automatically. The user will be prompted "Do you want to install an update to this existing application?" Choose Yes, Open and Install and the update is complete.
Google Play store Beiwe2 users: In most cases, the 2.4.1 Beiwe2 release will automatically update your installed study participants, depending on the configuration of their phones.
Update: Android 8.0 is now supported. Android 8 and above no longer allows apps to read the Bluetooth MAC Address, which was causing the Beiwe app to hang with a white screen. This is now fixed. The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.2.5 is 24
UI Changes: updates styles, improves error messages, updated text on Registration screens
Feature: restores persistent, individual survey notifications in Android 7.
Feature: improved Registration and Password Reset interfaces and networking.
Bug Fix: fixed bugs with recording received SMS messages and sent MMS messages
Bug Fix: fixed survey scheduling. Previously, if you canceled the next scheduled survey time in the web interface, and the app downloaded the updated survey JSON, the next scheduled survey would still appear, because its timer had already been set. The surveys are now properly canceled.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.2.3 is 22.
'''4/6/18 Beiwe 2.2.5 - Android 8 Fix '''
We are releasing an updated Beiwe Android app after receiving reports that the Beiwe app was hanging with a white screen on the new Android 8 (Oreo) operating system. Android 8.0 and above no longer allows apps to read the Bluetooth MAC Address, as Google announced in this blog post (https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2017/04/changes-to-device-identifiers-in.html). Beiwe will now write a blank Bluetooth MAC Address when the app isn't able to read it.
The new release name/number is Beiwe 2.2.5. This will become the standard release that will download from studies.beiwe.org/download.
If you have research projects in progress, your study participants will be unaffected by this release as we do not automatically update the app. Your study participants will continue to run on the previous release, the 2.2.3 Beiwe app version. If you are in the midst of enrolling study participants and some of your cohort are on the 2.2.3 version while others are on the new 2.2.5 version, the data will remain unchanged so this will be transparent for your study.
If you have a study participant that upgrades to Android 8, they will need to upgrade to Beiwe 2.2.5. To do this, go to studies.beiwe.org/download from the phone's browser and the app will download automatically. The user will be prompted "Do you want to install an update to this existing application?" Choose Yes, Open and Install and the update is complete.
'''12/14/17 Beiwe 2.2.3 - Two Bug Fixes '''
The new release name/number is Beiwe 2.2.3. This is the standard release that will download from studies.beiwe.org/download.
If you have research projects in progress, your study participants will be unaffected by this release as we do not automatically update the app. Your study participants will continue to run on the previous release, the 2.1.3 Beiwe app version. If you are in the midst of enrolling study participants and some of your cohort are on the 2.1.3 version while others are on the new 2.2.3 version, the data will remain unchanged so this will be transparent for your study.
If your study participant is running Android 7 and is prone to deleting the survey notifications then you may want them to upgrade to Beiwe 2.2.3. To do this, go to studies.beiwe.org/download from the phone's browser and the app will download automatically. The user will be prompted "Do you want to install an update to this existing application?" Choose Yes, Open and Install and the update is complete.
Android 7 has a new feature that puts all the Beiwe notifications into a folder in the notifications window. You need to click on the folder first then click on the individual notifications to get to their corresponding surveys. A problem with this new feature is that if you press "clear notifications", the folder is deleted along with all the Beiwe notifications. In the past, all Beiwe notifications were permanent (could not be cleared) until the survey was taken. We have fixed this problem in the new version of the app. Beiwe notifications are not collected in a folder and are not cleared until the survey associated with the notification is taken.
Beiwe was not showing all sent and received SMS and MMS messages. This problem has been resolved.
New feature: Beiwe now supports survey branching
Bug Fix: Fixed a bug in the error reporting code that could cause Beiwe to crash.
Bug Fix: Fixed issue in which extremely slow network behavior could cause Beiwe to enter a non-responsive state when trying to upload data.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.1.3 is 16.
Note: the production app was updated from 2.0 directly to 2.1.3, so versions 2.1, 2.1.1, and 2.1.2 were never released for general download. Therefore, anyone upgrading from 2.0 to 2.1.3 should read the changelog entries for 2.1, 2.1.1, and 2.1.2 as well.
Bug Fix: Fixed extremely rare crash in the app UI.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.1.2 is 14.
Bug Fix: GPS and WiFi data scans should run more consistently, especially when running with problematic permissions under Android 6.
Data Stream Changes
GPS now provides additional information in the app log about the availability and quality of GPS data at the start of each recording session.
WiFi now provides additional information in the app log if WiFi is disabled on the device when a scan is triggered.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.1.1 is 13.
Feature: Beiwe has been updated so that researchers can attach conditional display logic to survey questions.
Feature: Survey questions now support Markdown formatting syntax.
UI Change: In order to support conditional question display logic, survey questions are now viewed one-at-a-time.
Fixed: A potential hang condition if a user exited an audio survey before data encryption was complete has been resolved.
Fixed: An issue where, under certain study data stream configurations, the app could hang if a user pressed either of the Beiwe App Menu's Call buttons has been resolved.
Fixed: A bug where some crash reports may not have been successfully reported has been resolved.
Fixed: A crash that could occur when a user opened a survey has been resolved.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.1 is 12.
This update to Beiwe includes compatibility with Android 6 and several new features.
Feature: Android 6 App Standby has been bypassed to improve functionality on Android 6.
Feature: Android 6 Doze feature behavior is well defined, and the Power State data stream now includes a log for that feature.
Feature: Enhanced (uncompressed) audio surveys have been introduced, as well as additional controls over regular audio surveys.
Feature: There is a new device setting that allows Beiwe to upload data over the cellular connection.
Fixed: Audio survey files now provide a survey ID when uploaded.
Data Stream Changes
Due to limitations imposed in Bluetooth on Android 6+, the Bluetooth data stream may not be reliable. Please review the following to determine if this affects you:
- Bluetooth LE broadcasts (the mechanism Beiwe uses to periodically send out pings to nearby, listening devices) on Android 6 will now cycle through many different random MAC addresses instead of broadcasting the real one. (iPhones have also done this since at least iOS 8, it is an anti-tracking measure.)
- Android no longer allows Beiwe to access the device's true MAC address (some devices will continue to report it anyway, see below). Instead, all devices now return the same default address when queried for the MAC address in the Identifiers data stream.
- We have been able to implement a method to report the correct MAC address for the Identifiers data stream. It is not predictable which devices this will work for, but it should at least be consistent across identical devices running the same version of Android 6. The mechanism we use is expected to be phased out in Android 7.
Power State
- Android 6.0+ now reports when the device enters and leaves Doze mode in the Power State data stream.
- Android 5.0+ now reports when the device enters and leaves Android's Power Save mode in the Power State data stream.
Other Changes
When running under Android 6, due to the nature of the permissions system, it is no longer possible to guarantee data stream content directly after registration. Recommended procedure is to reboot the device after installing Beiwe and providing permissions.
Known Issue: Due to a bug in Android the Beiwe app may not uninstall properly. To bypass this we recommend uninstalling and then rebooting the device if you plan to reinstall Beiwe, or you can manually fix this issue by assigning all necessary permissions in the Beiwe app's settings page in system settings. This issue presents as an immediate crash of the Beiwe app after installation but before registering under a study.
The UI for audio surveys has been streamlined.
The version identifier in the Device Identifiers data stream for Beiwe version 2.0 is 10.
3/24/16 - (Beiwe Android App version 4) Added further device and software information fields to the identifiers file gathered at user registration.
Feature: The Beiwe app now has a built-in crash reporter. When the app encounters a bug that would cause it to crash it, instead creates a crash report. Beiwe then restarts itself so that background data gathering and functionality are not significantly interrupted. This crash report will be uploaded to the Beiwe server during the next upload operation.
Behavior: Because Beiwe now automatically restarts itself, users will no longer receive a notification that Beiwe has stopped working. If the user is viewing the app while it encounters a crash the app will still exit without warning.
11/30/15 - (Beiwe Android App version 1) Added additional data fields to the device information gathered at user registration, additionally added version numbers to that data.
10/8/15 - Bug fix: fixed issue where the device would fail to record GPS and Accelerometer data until the Beiwe service was reset.
10/8/15 - Scheduling logic for GPS, Accelerometer, and Wifi has been made more aggressive, especially when recovering from situations where the device is blocked from recording data streams.
9/23/15 - Feature: the Beiwe app is now compatible with the Randomize Survey Questions feature.
Beiwe2 apps were released for open source users and now are available on the Apple App Store for iOS study participants and Google Play Store for Android study participants. The only difference in the Beiwe and Beiwe2 apps should be that Beiwe2 apps add a new Study Server field on the registration screen so that open source users can connect the study participant to their own server.
New feature allows researchers to enable GPS fuzzing to conceal participants actual GPS location so that GPS information is no longer identifyable in research studies.
Studies can now be configured to remove the "Call My Clinician" and "Call Research Assistant" from the app
First Beiwe2 release on the Apple App Store. Please see information above for Beiwe 1.30.0 release
- Google Play Store version of the app no longer uses phone call and SMS/MMS logs.
- Allows Markdown URL links to be clickable
- Switches to App Bundle for slightly smaller app download size Note: Onnela Lab is negotiating with Google to be able to return support for phone call and SMS/MMS logs into the Beiwe2 app
5/31/18: Beiwe2 2.4.1 Release - First Beiwe2 release on the Google Play Store. Please see information above for this release
Added two new toggles to the App Settings page for when new studies are created to let researchers:
- enable or remove the "Call My Clinician" button and the "Call Research Assistant" button (on the Forgot Password screen) from apps for a study. The default (which would be applied to all current studies) is to enable these buttons (no change to the current app).
- enable a Fuzz GPS feature so when a phone enrolls in a study the GPS data is anonymized and the study participants actual GPS location is concealed. The Fuzz GPS feature generates a random latitude offset and a random longitude offset. Then, any time it records GPS coordinates, it adds these constant offsets. This means that for any study participant, you still have their complete movement trace, but you don't know their actual starting point (or true coordinates at any time). The random longitude offset can be anywhere between -180 and +180 degrees. The random latitude offset can be anywhere between -1 and +1 degree. Fuzz GPS is disabled by default (and disabled for all current studies that don't have the toggle). If Fuzz GPS is off, there's no change in how phones record GPS data. If Fuzz GPS is on for a study, GPS coordinates are anonymized.
An unused SSH key initiated a github warning in the beiwe-backend repo so this was addressed. GitHub automatically deactivated the SSH key.
The SSH key was included in the beiwe-backend repo as part of the launch script for setting up a Beiwe cluster deployment. That key only gave someone permission to copy the beiwe-backend repository. Since the repository is now public and you no longer need a key to copy the code, the SSH key was removed from the cluster deployment launch script. Note that the key still exists in the repository's Git history, even though it's not in the current version of the code. The launch script was updated to run without the key.
Several other updates were made in the cluster deployment script so it runs to completion and properly sets up the cluster deployment, including:
- Fixed the failure to find a Postgres RDS database (https://github.com/onnela-lab/beiwe-backend/issues/42). This issue arose because AWS added more database types since we first wrote the launch script.
- Fixed an issue which had prevented the Celery task queue from properly running the data batching process (which prevents raw data from being available for download).
- Fixed several other minor configuration problems and improved the testing framework for the cluster deployment launch script, which should make it significantly faster for to maintain.
Backend Updates: Onnela Lab collaborators may notice some minor changes to the Beiwe backend web interface.
a. The Download Data tab has two options now -- "Download Raw/Chunked Data" or "Download Processed (Pipeline Output) Data". Please use the former "Download Raw/Chunked Data". Ignore the second option -- that is currently only for Onnela Lab use.
b. Your study page now shows "Image Surveys" after the normal surveys and audio surveys. Please ignore this as it isn't implemented.
c. Your study page also now shows "Data Pipeline" after the surveys. Please ignore this as it is currently only for Onnela Lab use.
In testing the back-end changes, a collaborator noted that the slider option for survey questions now starts at zero while negative numbers were previously allowed. Other changes you may notice with the new release:
• The Android app used to present the survey questions in a continuous stream. Now, to support branching, it provides questions one at a time similar to the iOS app. • The Android app supports Android operating system version 5 or higher. Existing study participants with older versions of the operating system will continue to run on the old app. Please refer to the release note I provided on 2/28 for more information.
Onnela Lab is adding a branching capability to surveys on the Beiwe Research Platform. This new capability was developed with the support of a collaborator. The new feature release includes updates to the Beiwe backend where surveys are set up and new Android and iOS apps.
When collaborators login to the Beiwe backend, you will notice the new functionality when you setup a new survey. The Beiwe survey branching capability is easy to use and the Beiwe user interface helps guide you in setting up your conditional questions. We urge you to give it a try!
• Survey branching is not compatible with Beiwe's survey RANDOMIZE feature. Survey branching will be disabled if the RANDOMIZE option is enabled.