This is a short post to demonstrate a common mistake. The screen above is what a new user sees immediately upon opening his freshly-installed app: a list of “What’s New” messaging that assumes the he is intimately familiar with the app.
This is problematic for many reasons. It suffers the same information overload as an intro tour, it exposes things that were either missing or wrong in previous versions and it shows that the product doesn’t understand the user’s state. As a new user, the version and how it has changed doesn’t matter. Because it is all new to him.
If you have “What’s New” messaging, show it only to those who have updated their app, or after sign in (if applicable). Keep it focused on the important changes, and avoid modals that may interrupt existing users who are trying to complete a task. Like any new user onboarding, if it’s worth calling out, make it interactive and unobtrusive.