Timer.Coffee 3.8.3 and 3.8.4 — Cupping at home, and a calmer label scan

These two releases pull in opposite directions, and both are welcome. 3.8.3 adds three brewing methods to your recipe library, including an approachable way to taste a single coffee more attentively. 3.8.4 takes the AI label scan apart and puts it back together so it stops looking like the app has frozen — and lets you keep the photos you took.

TL;DR

• Three new methods: brew with the Weber Workshops BIRD, the Cafec Flower Dripper, or explore a single coffee through cupping.

• An honest scan overlay: the AI label scan now says what it is actually doing — preparing your photos, then reading the label — instead of sitting there silently.

• One place to review your photos: see what you shot, add a second photo if the bag needs it, and see the scan cost before you commit.

• Keep your bag photos: an optional switch copies the photos you just took into your photo library, and remembers your answer next time.

• Clearer coffee reviews: one button opens the review form, where you pick your rating alongside the rest of your notes.

• Fixes: today’s brews count towards the community total straight away, review reminders cancel the moment you review, and the Favorites screen no longer greets you with a single grey line of text.

Discover a bean through cupping

Cupping is usually associated with roasteries, cafés, competitions and professional coffee evaluation — but it is also an enjoyable way to learn about coffee at home.

Timer.Coffee’s new cupping method is deliberately simple. It is not a professional cupping panel or an evaluation system aligned with Specialty Coffee Association standards. Instead it guides you through a timer built on James Hoffmann’s cupping recipe, so you are not watching a stopwatch while the coffee develops. The instructions walk you through the practical steps, including breaking the crust and clearing the remaining grounds.

It is designed for exploring one bean at a time rather than comparing a full table of coffees. Once you have tasted it, the brew evaluation tools already in the app are there to record the coffee’s character and your impressions. It is an approachable way to taste more attentively, build your vocabulary, and get to know what is in the bag.

If you want to read the steps before you set a bowl down, the cupping recipe is on the web app — same timer, same instructions, nothing to install.

3.8.3 also adds the Weber Workshops BIRD and the Cafec Flower Dripper, each with its own dedicated icon.

The label scan stops pretending to be frozen

Scanning a coffee bag with the AI label reader used to be an exercise in faith. The photo selection sheet stayed on screen above the dimmed background with its button still tappable, the loading card sat off-centre underneath it, and nothing told you whether the app was working or had given up.

The overlay now covers the whole screen — app bar included — and reports the stage the scan is genuinely in: preparing your photos on your device, then reading the label. If the wait passes ten seconds, a line appears to say it is still working and that a slow connection takes longer. There is no invented percentage and no countdown, because the app has no honest way to predict either.

There is also, deliberately, no cancel button. Stopping the request on the phone would not stop the work already running on the server, and it would still spend one of your monthly scans. Promising nothing is better than promising something the app cannot deliver.

One sheet for reviewing what you shot

Taking two photos of a bag used to mean answering a pop-up after the first shot, and cancelling that second capture dropped you back to the start. Now a single review sheet shows the photos you have, with an Add another photo action beside them — worth using only when important details are printed elsewhere on the bag. Back out of that second shot and you return to the review sheet, with your first photo intact.

The sheet is also honest about cost: each photo uses one scan token, and the confirm button says whether you are analyzing one photo or two. On iOS, picking from your library now uses Apple’s privacy-preserving picker presented as a compact sheet, so only the photos you actually select are ever handed to the app.

Keep the photos you just took

A bag photo is often the only record of a coffee you finished months ago. The review sheet now offers a Keep these photos in Photos switch. It is off until you turn it on, it copies only the photos you took with the camera during that scan — never anything picked from your library — and it remembers your choice for next time.

What lands in your library is the full-resolution original. Previously the app downscaled photos in place before sending them off, quietly overwriting the file you took; the smaller copy is now a separate temporary file that is deleted once the scan is done. And if saving fails, or you decline photo library access, the app says so plainly and the scan carries on regardless — the permission prompt itself is now translated into every language the app supports.

Smaller things

When Timer.Coffee invites you to review a bean after a brew, you now see one clear button instead of a loose row of stars; tap it and you choose your rating inside the full review form, alongside everything else. Submitting that review cancels the pending reminder for that bean immediately, while reminders for your other coffees stay scheduled.

An empty Favorites screen used to be a single line of grey text, low-contrast in dark mode and clipped at the right edge. It now has an icon, a heading and a Browse recipes button that takes you somewhere useful. The community brew total on the Stats screen counts today’s brews instead of waiting for tomorrow, the blog icon is back in the Hub and About screens after going missing in release builds, and the confirm checkmark when editing a grind size no longer sits slightly off from the field.

Update Timer.Coffee, scan the bag on your counter, and try cupping what is inside it.