Limerino 1.1.4 — Steadier layout, the delay reading, and Live Activities

A steadier layout when the screen changes size, more room for the delay reading on the landscape top bar, and a Live Activities switch that tells you when iOS has them turned off.

The delay reading stays on the landscape bar. With chat beside the video, the top bar now keeps the stream’s delay reading — how far behind live you are — on screen on most iPhones. To make room, the exit button gives up its “Portrait” label first; it keeps its icon, and it still takes you back to portrait.

A layout that holds steady. When the screen rotates or changes size, the video no longer stays locked to an orientation the screen cannot show.

Chat and the message box. The message box stays just above the keyboard, including a hardware keyboard’s shortcut bar, and no longer climbs the screen for a keyboard that is not docked beneath it. When height is tight, the message box and the rows above it stay compact so chat keeps its space.

Live Activities that say why. If Limerino’s Live Activities switch is on but Live Activities are turned off for Limerino in iOS Settings, Limerino’s Settings now says so under the switch and offers Open iOS Settings.

The landscape top bar, in detail. With chat beside the video, the bar across the top of the picture shares the screen’s width with the chat column, so it cannot always hold everything at once, and when it runs short it lets things go in a fixed order. The viewer count still goes first. Until now the delay reading left before the word “Portrait” on the exit button, so it could disappear while the bar still had empty space. Now the word goes before the reading, and the uptime — the bar’s sign that the stream is live — goes last of all. The exit button keeps its icon and its full-size tap target, still takes you back to portrait, and still answers Voice Control’s “Tap Portrait”; the word comes back whenever the bar has room for both. With chat over the video, or with chat hidden, the bar spans the whole screen and has room for the uptime, the delay reading and the word, though on the smallest iPhones the viewer count may still give way.

Rotation and the keyboard. When Limerino has asked the screen for landscape or portrait, it now gives that request back as soon as the screen can no longer honour it, rather than leaving the video locked the wrong way. The message box rests on a keyboard docked along the bottom of the screen and is not lifted by one that is not. Turning your iPhone, typing and watching work as they did.

Live Activities, in detail. Live Activities stay off until you turn them on under Settings › Device › Live Activities. If iOS has them turned off for Limerino, the switch now carries a note — “Live Activities are off for Limerino in iOS Settings. Turn them on there to see them.” — and an Open iOS Settings button that goes straight to Limerino’s page there. Limerino never turns its own switch off for you, so allowing them again in iOS Settings is all it takes to have them back, and the note is gone when you return. With VoiceOver, turning the switch on while iOS has them off reads the note after the switch, and coming back from iOS Settings with Live Activities allowed puts the cursor back on the switch and says they are on. Voice Control also finds the switch by “Dynamic Island” or “Lock Screen activity”.

A second window. Opening Limerino in a second window is off for now.

Known limitations.

• With chat beside the video, the landscape top bar is too narrow for the delay reading on iPhone 16, 15, 15 Pro and 14 Pro, iPhone XS and 11 Pro, the mini models and iPhone SE. The uptime stays; hide chat, or switch to Chat over video under Settings › Video › Chat layout, to see the reading.
• On iPhone 17, 17 Pro, 16 Pro, 16e, 14, 13, 13 Pro, 12 and 12 Pro, the delay reading also leaves that bar once a stream has been live for more than ten hours, because the uptime grows wider.
• While playback is paused, or just after it starts and before the first reading arrives, the bar keeps a space for the delay reading without a number in it.
• In Twitch’s embedded player the delay reading is an estimate (“about 3s behind”), which is wider, so it can still leave the bar with chat beside the video.
• Chat can still step as it settles after scrolling with the reply bar open, and very busy chat can feel slow on older phones.
• Lead moderators cannot add or remove moderators or VIPs inside Limerino, because Twitch keeps that step for its own site and app; use Twitch for those changes.

A Twitch account is required to read and send chat in Limerino.