Pocket Guide to America
Changelog
Current version: 1.1.0 – December 15, 2025
Pocket Guide to America — v1.1.0
(Dec 15, 2025)
Version 1.1.0
Released: December 2025
This update expands core content, adds meaningful user features, and strengthens the app’s foundation following the initial launch.
🇺🇸 New Content
- Added the History section, expanding the guide with structured American history content
- Integrated History into Home navigation and content flow
✨ New Features
- Added text size adjustment in Settings for improved readability
- Added a Clear App Data button in Settings
- Added a companion website link in Settings
- Added Recently Viewed, making it easy to revisit content
- Added Continue Where You Left Off, preserving reading progress
- Added Daily American Insight, providing rotating educational highlights
- Retired the Facts card, replacing it with Daily American Insight
🏠 Home Screen & Navigation
- Fixed duplicate History cards appearing on the Home screen
- Resolved navigation errors that caused “Item not found” screens
- Improved routing stability across category and detail views
- Hardened navigation logic to prevent blank or broken screens
🎨 UI & Visual Updates
- Updated the iOS app icon
- Updated the app header (hero) image
- Removed unintended frames, borders, and background artifacts behind images
- Improved Hero image rendering so only the intended image is displayed
- Improved icon and image rendering consistency across screens
- Cleaned up legacy visual artifacts
🔤 Readability & Layout
- Improved long-form content layout for better readability
- Improved handling of large text blocks across devices
- Continued groundwork for future accessibility improvements
⚙️ Stability & Bug Fixes
- Fixed causes of white and black screen crashes
- Resolved syntax errors and data-loading issues in content files
- Improved tolerance for malformed or missing content entries
- Reduced crash risk during navigation and content rendering
🧠 Content System Improvements
- Cleaned and stabilized the content data structure
- Removed conflicting content references that caused rendering issues
- Improved consistency across internal IDs and content references
- Prepared the content system for future expansion
🛠 Technical Improvements
- General codebase cleanup and optimization
- Reduced fragile dependencies
- Strengthened Expo Router layout handling
- Improved overall app resilience and maintainability
🏗 Platform, Branding & Documentation
- Formalized semantic versioning
- Introduced an official changelog
- Added a privacy-first Privacy Policy
- Reinforced StormLight Foundry branding and ownership
📌 Summary
Version 1.1.0 significantly expands Pocket Guide to America with new History content, meaningful reading and discovery features, visual updates, and improved stability—setting the stage for continued growth.
Pocket Guide to America — v1.0.0
(Dec 2, 2025)
Initial Public Release
This is the “plant the flag” version. Everything below defines what the app is at birth.
🇺🇸 Core Content & Structure
- Comprehensive civic education guide covering:
- Foundations of American government
- Constitutional principles and structure
- Civic literacy and democratic processes
- Political systems and institutional roles
- American history and national development
- Land, life, and cultural identity
- Modular content architecture for long-term expansion
- Structured sections with readable, scrollable articles
- Thoughtfully organized categories designed for exploration, not overwhelm
🏠 Home Experience
- Featured Hero section introducing the guide’s mission
- Quick Access Grid for fast navigation to key sections
- Daily Insight card delivering rotating educational highlights
- Last Read card to help users continue where they left off
- Recently Viewed list for effortless rediscovery
🎨 Design & UI
- Clean, modern, distraction-free interface
- Dark mode–first visual language for comfortable long-form reading
- Custom iconography and thematic visuals
- Smooth screen transitions and subtle animations
- Carefully tuned spacing, typography, and contrast for readability
🔍 Navigation & Usability
- Bottom tab navigation for intuitive movement
- Category-based browsing for structured learning
- Detail screens optimized for deep reading
- Tap-friendly UI designed for casual and focused use alike
⚙️ Personalization & Accessibility
- Adjustable text size settings for improved readability
- Theme awareness and adaptive styling
- Persistent reading state tracking
- Designed for users of all ages and experience levels
🧠 Reading Experience
- Long-form educational content optimized for mobile
- Smooth scrolling and performance-safe rendering
- Content layouts designed to reduce cognitive load
- Built to encourage curiosity, reflection, and return visits
🛠 Technical Foundation
- Built with Expo & React Native
- Stable content data architecture
- Hardened navigation and routing
- Optimized asset loading
- Crash-resistant baseline suitable for long-term iteration
🏗 Brand & Identity
- Published under StormLight Foundry
- Original app identity and iconography
- Clear educational mission focused on civic understanding
- Designed as a long-term reference, not a news cycle app
