Merge release/8.18 into main

[wpmobilebot]

Merging release/8.18 into main.

Via intermediate branch merge/release-8.18-into-main, to help fix conflicts if any:

                            release/8.18  ----o-- - - -
                                               \
            merge/release-8.18-into-main        `---.
                                                     \
                                    main  ------------x- - -

[dangermattic]

	1 Message
📖	This PR has the releases label: some checks will be skipped.

Generated by 🚫 Danger

[claude]

Claude finished @geekygecko's task in 3m 29s —— View job

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Review: Merge release/8.18 into main

• Gather context (diff, commits)
• Verify version.properties bump
• Verify CHANGELOG.md changes
• Sanity-check translation changes (XML validity, placeholder/format-specifier consistency)
• Confirm merge brought over the cherry-picked code commits cleanly
• Post review

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Summary

This is an automated release merge-back. The effective diff against main is release artifacts only — no Kotlin, Gradle, or resource-logic changes:

Area	Change
version.properties	8.18-rc-1 / 9445 → 8.18 / 9446
CHANGELOG.md	+2 lines under the 8.18 heading
16 × values-*/strings.xml	GlotPress translation sync for 8.18

No code drift. The release branch's cherry-pick 259c774 (#5714, video-decoding/stuttering fix) appears in git log origin/main..HEAD, but git diff origin/main...HEAD --name-only -- '*.kt' is empty — ShiftyRenderersFactory.kt, SimplePlayer.kt, and VideoTrackSelectionTest.kt are byte-identical to main (which has the original #5707). The merge resolved this correctly; nothing was lost or double-applied.

Version bump matches the established process. The previous merge-back (8f0089a, release/8.17 → main) set main to 8.17 / 9444 the same way, so main landing on 8.18 / 9446 is expected, not a regression.

Translation checks

• Format specifiers — every added string/plural carrying a placeholder (tv_sign_in_step_scan, profile_try_duration_for_free, tv_playlist_all_archived, tv_podcast_all_archived, tv_trim_silence_changed, tv_playback_speed_changed) uses the same specifier and index as values/strings.xml. No %1$s ↔ %1$d swaps, no dropped or extra arguments.
• Deletions are correct cleanup — the only removed keys are tv_sign_in_go_to_url and tv_sign_in_or_enter_code, which no longer exist in the default values/strings.xml (replaced by tv_sign_in_step_scan / tv_sign_in_step_confirm_code). Removing their translations avoids ExtraTranslation lint noise.
• Escaping — no unescaped apostrophes in any added line (e.g. Catalan correctly uses S\'han arxivat…), so no AAPT build breakage. No stray HTML entities or inline markup introduced.
• Russian plurals ship one/few/many with no other. This looked worth checking, but all 38 existing <plurals> in values-ru follow the same shape (grep -c 'quantity="other"' → 0), so it's the standing GlotPress output, not something this PR introduces. Integer quantities in Russian never resolve to other, so runtime behaviour is fine.
• Arabic picked up ~56 lines vs ~66 for other locales — normal partial coverage; missing keys fall back to English.

Finding

1 non-blocking issue — duplicate changelog entry (inline comment).

CHANGELOG.md:4 (under 8.19, from main) and CHANGELOG.md:16 (under 8.18, from the release branch) now both list "Fix audio stuttering when playing video episodes at high speed in the background". The fix was cherry-picked into 8.18, so it ships there; the 8.19 entry is stale and would repeat in the 8.19 release notes. Removing lines 3–4 would resolve it. Release-note copy only — no impact on the build. Fix this →

Security / performance

No attack surface or runtime cost changes — this diff contains no executable code. String resources add negligible APK size.

Verdict

Looks good to merge. The single finding is cosmetic; I left it as an inline comment rather than pushing a commit, since editing the changelog during an automated merge-back is a call for the release manager. I did not run spotlessCheck, lint, or the test suites — no source files changed, and the repo's releases label already skips most checks.

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• Branch: merge/release-8.18-into-main

[claude]

After this merge, the same fix is listed twice in CHANGELOG.md: once here under 8.18 (correct — it was cherry-picked via #5714 and ships in 8.18) and again at lines 3–4 under 8.19, which came from main where the original fix (#5707) landed.

Since the fix is shipping in 8.18, the entry under the 8.19 heading is now stale and will show up a second time in the 8.19 release notes. Worth deleting lines 3–4 as part of resolving this merge:

8.19
-----
*   Bug Fixes
    *   Fix a crash when showing a bottom sheet after the app is sent to the background
        ([#5709](https://github.com/Automattic/pocket-casts-android/pull/5709))

Non-blocking for the merge itself — it only affects release-note copy.

[claude]

Claude finished @geekygecko's task in 51s —— View job

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Re-review after bd85462 ("Fix changelog")

• Diff the new commit
• Confirm the duplicate changelog entry is resolved
• Re-verify the effective diff vs origin/main is still artifacts-only
• Re-verify version.properties

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Summary

The single finding from my earlier review has been addressed. bd85462 removes the two duplicated lines from the 8.19 section and nothing else:

 8.19
 -----
 *   Bug Fixes
-    *   Fix audio stuttering when playing video episodes at high speed in the background
-        ([#5707](.../pull/5707))
     *   Fix a crash when showing a bottom sheet after the app is sent to the background

The entry now appears exactly once, under 8.18 — which is correct, since the fix was cherry-picked into the release via #5714. The 8.19 bottom-sheet-crash entry (#5709) is intact.

Effective diff vs origin/main (4492b1d..HEAD)

Unchanged in shape — still release artifacts only, no Kotlin/Gradle/logic changes:

Area	Change
version.properties	8.18-rc-1 / 9445 → 8.18 / 9446
CHANGELOG.md	net move of one entry from 8.19 → 8.18 (+2/−2)
16 × values-*/strings.xml	GlotPress translation sync for 8.18

Translation and code-drift checks from the previous pass still hold — no source files changed since then, and git diff 4492b1d..HEAD touches no .kt files.

Verdict

Good to merge. No remaining findings.

I did not run spotlessCheck, lint, or the test suites — no source files changed, and the releases label already skips most checks.

--- • Branch: merge/release-8.18-into-main