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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

IU Mobile updated

A new version of the IU Mobile application replaces the old OneStart version of the app and includes many new features, including a search option, push notifications and access to the app across multiple devices.

The app was released in August through the website www.one.iu.edu. Aaron Neal, director of the Enterprise Student Systems team, said his team’s goal when developing the app was to replace the old version with a more consistent experience.

The new website will soon replace www. onestart.iu.edu . Neal said people would regularly complain it was difficult to find things on OneStart. With the new app, users can easily find what they are looking for by using the new search option.

“There is no more hunting for things,” Neal said.

He said one of the perks of the new app is it will be available to use with any device, not just mobile devices.

Another new feature allows users to choose if they want to receive push notifications, Neal said. He said the notifications appear in real time in order to be more effective for users.

“While notifications are not used very heavily right now, this opens up opportunities to push more notifications, such as grades, as soon as they are posted,” he said.

The app will also be available to more than just IU students. Neal said IU has teamed up with the software company rsmart so that other universities will be able to use the app.

Neal said this is great for IU because the University will receive revenue for its work through working with rsmart.

Neal said the new app has achieved a good deal of success. The development team won the Tech Services Award at the TechPoint Mira Awards.

The app allows for the Enterprise Student Systems team to constantly assess feedback, Neal said.

“There is a feedback loop that we do look at,” he said.

Neal said the feedback from the app is helpful to him and his team because it provides insight on what people like and dislike about it.

Freshman Nick Ceryak said he uses the app for its DoubleMap feature, which allows for students to track buses. He said he likes that the app shows how many I-Bucks he has left.

He said he does have one complaint about the app.

“I feel like it just links to other websites,” he said.

Freshman Morgan Papesh said she uses the app to check her IU email. She said the one thing she does not like is that the app sometimes has trouble loading.

“It can be slow,” she said.

Even though both students complained about some of the aspects of the app, they both said they did not know all of the features.

Neal said students might need time to adjust to the new version of the app because it has undergone many changes from the original.

“It provides efficient and direct access to much more content than the original mobile app,” he said.

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