Rethinking Subwave Navigation for Better Discovery

I've been thinking a lot about navigation lately for Subwave, specifically around how we can make it easier for people to discover new channels. Right now, it's honestly kind of difficult. We had tried embedding discovery inside the main feed at one point, but if you're sitting there thinking "I want to follow some more people," it's not really very easy to find. Maybe that's fine for now, but I suspect it's going to be something people want quite quickly.

So I wanted to share what I'm working on for the near future: a redesigned bottom navigation that makes discovery much more accessible.

The New Bottom Nav Design

I've been looking at a bottom nav setup with four tabs plus search. It's a pretty standard toolbar pattern, the kind you'll find in apps like Slack and GitHub. The layout would include:

• Home feed

• Activity tab

• Search

• Profile/Settings

The search functionality is really the key piece here. When you tap on search, you'd be able to browse channels directly. You'd see all available channels, search through them, and even see the ones you're already subscribed to in case you want a quick way to jump to a certain channel.

I think as more channels come through and people start creating more, this is going to be something we need quite soon. Just a personal feeling.

Why Activity Matters

The other big addition I'm considering is an activity tab. Right now, we're relying pretty heavily on email for notifications when you get new subscribers or when people request to subscribe. That's fine, but I don't think we should rely on email only. Having a dedicated activity tab would give people a central place to see what's happening with their channel without having to dig through their inbox.

The Discovery Problem

The core issue I'm trying to solve is discoverability. As the platform grows and more people start creating channels, we need to make it dead simple for users to find new content they care about. Burying that functionality makes it too easy to miss, and I think having search prominently placed in the bottom nav solves that problem in a clean, familiar way.

These changes aren't dramatically reinventing the wheel. They're taking proven patterns from apps people already know and love, and applying them to make Subwave more intuitive. Sometimes the best solution is the one users already understand.