Our last update brought huge growth of over 4,000+ new actors, but raised some painful audio issues for some users. Here’s what broke, what we rebuilt, and why we’re working harder than ever to get this right for actors.
TLDR;
Linus has grown fast over the last few weeks, with thousands of new actors joining the app.
With that growth came the uncovering of some pesky bugs, and some negative reviews.
Instead of patching over it, we rebuilt the whole thing, and the new update is now out.
We’re reaching out to anyone who had a bad experience, making it right, and continuing to build this tool into something we are proud of : )
About a month ago, we released Linus version 2.3.2. It was a huge upgrade for us, and for a lot of actors it solved problems they had been running into for a while.
Then something wild happened. Linus started to grow quickly in the American market, and more than 4,000 new actors joined the app in the last three weeks. That was incredible. It was also the exact moment when a small bug can become a very real problem for a lot of people.
Above: New weekly users since launch
Our five-star reviews grew from 55 to 108 during that same period. We are genuinely proud of that. But our one-star reviews also went from 0 to 11, and behind those numbers were actors having a stressful experience at the worst possible time.
A small group of users started running into audio problems. Some actors recorded self-tapes and discovered that the take had no sound. Others had trouble hearing the AI voice, or found that line recognition did not behave reliably enough in the middle of a tape...
As actors, we know how awful that is. When you are putting down a self-tape, you are already dealing with time pressure, nerves, lighting, framing, performance, notes, redirects, deadlines, and all the usual chaos. The last thing you need is a tool that is meant to help, making the situation worse.
That is not what we want Linus to be. Linus exists to help you make self-tapes and learn your lines. If it fails right when you need it, we take that personally.
As soon as we understood the issues, we started working around the clock. We hoped the answer would be a small fix. A line or two of code would have been great. But when she rains, she pours.
Left: our recent conversation. Cal testing, Alfred coding.
Right: Alfred, dejected, fixing a self tape bug in the Linus Scene Menu.
When we dug deeper, we found that the right fix required a rebuild of the audio system and the way Linus manages audio across self-tapes, line reading, and running lines. We could have patched the symptom. Instead, we rebuilt the part of the app that needed to be more reliable - and made it so much better because of it.
Abov: Cal testing our new 'Linus Studio' which lets you change reader levels after you film a tape.
That work took the last month. The update is now out, and the early signs are exactly what we wanted to see: users who had audio problems are testing again and getting clean results.
We are reaching out to people individually when we know they had a bad experience. If you paid for Linus and the app failed you, we will make it right. That can mean a refund, a complimentary extension, or direct help from us to understand what happened on your device
Even in a hard month, there is a lot to celebrate. More than 5,000 new actors joined Linus in two weeks. Our five-star reviews nearly doubled, from 55 to 108. Actors are using line read, different voices, and self-tape tools in the exact way we hoped they would, and in the last 30 days, the numbers are pretty staggering:
If a small subset of actors out of thousands had a bad experience, that still matters. It is not acceptable just because it is a minority. But it also shows us that the foundation is working for most actors, and now our job is to close the gap for everyone else.
The goal is simple: if you have an audition, a scene, a self-tape, or lines to learn, Linus should make that easier. Not more stressful. Not riskier. Easier!
Every day, we improve Linus - and that's because of the now 5000+ strong community of actors who support it.
We want to thank you to everyone who sent us feedback, left reviews, reported bugs, tested new builds, or told us exactly where Linus fell short. The positive feedback keeps us going. The negative feedback makes the product better.
We are working extremely hard to get this right for you. That is the whole point. Thanks for being on the journey, and as always...
Good luck with your next audition. We hope you get the part.
– Alf & Cal
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