A guide that points at what to press

First-time users had trouble finding where to import a game or save. In 1.4.0, a guide points to each control in turn so users can learn by doing.

Until now, the only guidance a first-time user got was a line of text on the empty library. Where to save after importing a game, or where to turn on rewind or Find a value, had to be found by tapping through the screens. A feature learned once and then left alone for a while had nowhere to be looked up again.

The guide was designed for learning by pressing the controls yourself. It dims the rest of the screen and points to the button with a hand. Following the guide’s action moves to the next step. Explanation steps with nothing to press have a Next button, and Skip is shown until the final step.

A step moves on not when the screen is touched but after the action finishes; a save step waits for the save to complete. So the guide advances the same way whether you tap, choose with a keyboard or controller, or use VoiceOver or TalkBack. Leaving the guide does not break it either: closing the pause menu before saving goes back to the step that opens the menu.

No games come with the app. So Getting started waits in the library, pointing at the import button, and continues to the pause menu and saving the first time a game is opened. The cost is that the guide cannot be followed to the end before a game has been imported.

The game pauses while a guide is shown over its screen. The dimmed area ignores touches, and the controller selects the guide’s buttons. Play continues when the guide over the game screen ends.

The highlight was chosen by comparing ten candidates, built as moving previews in the app’s colors and pixel size. Brackets stand at the four corners of the control and step out and back one pixel at a time while a hand points from the side. The motion changes in steps eight times a second, and stops when reduced motion is on.

People who already have games are asked once after the update whether to see the guide, and are not asked again whichever they choose. How to use, at the top of About and help in Settings, replays Getting started and the four feature guides at any time. How far you have got is not included in offline backups or Drive.

Following the guide to the end on a real device with VoiceOver, TalkBack or only a controller has not been checked yet.