Dome Watch App Increases Govt. Transparency

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer has released a rebuilt version of his popular app — formerly known as Whip Watch and now called Dome Watch.

Congressman Hoyer’s app provides members of Congress, the press, staff, and the public with news and live updates about what’s happening on the floor of the US House of Representatives. The new version of the app uses a modern cross-platform framework, allowing it to be available for Android and the Web in addition to iOS. It has exciting new features, like live HD video of the House floor.

Mr. Hoyer (D-Md., 5th) can be seen demonstrating the new app here.

“Today, I’m proud to announce a new version of my app, with great new features and a new name: Dome Watch,” Majority Leader Hoyer said. “The updates to Dome Watch build on efforts to ensure that Democratic members and staff – and the House as a whole – are using the latest tools to make Congress more open, accessible, and transparent.”

The app was designed and built by Congressman Hoyer’s leadership office. It has been widely used by those who closely follow the House floor. It has been downloaded more than 50,000 times since its June 2015 launch, and it currently has more than 5,000 heavy users, including most Democratic members of Congress and staff. Dome Watch helps make the House of Representatives more open to the public by making it easy for anyone to follow action on the House floor from where ever they are.

Dome Watch includes several new features:

• Anyone can watch real-time HD video of the House floor.
• It is now available for Android users after the code base was fully rebuilt with an open-source, hybrid mobile app development framework.
• It includes a “Progressive Web App,” so it can be used through a web browser in addition to mobile. The web version includes notifications and uses a real-time cloud database so users can receive updates within milliseconds without refreshing.
• There are new notification icons in the top-left to tell users whether or not it is a voting day, the House floor is active, and the House is voting.

The live vote information from 2.0 has also been fully rebuilt and is now more reliable, accurate, and expansive, like:

• How much time remains in the vote.
• Live yay and nay votes, including breakdown by party.
• Expanded information on what the House is voting on at the time, including amendments, using data dynamically pulled from Congress.gov and the Rules Committee and party cloakroom websites.

Dome Watch maintains its core 1.0 functionality, like:

• Floor updates and daily schedules with custom notifications.
• An always up-to-date version of the House vote calendar, including an option to subscribe to webcal.
• A jobs board that is the best place to follow the latest job announcements from House Democrats.
• Access to press releases and videos from Congressman Hoyer’s Office.
• Custom notifications so users can customize which notifications they want through controls within the app.

Download Dome Watch in the App Store for iOS or Google Playstore for Android. Users who already have the previous Whip Watch iOS app will see their app automatically updated, or can go to the App Store to update the app.

Follow Congressman Hoyer on Facebook and Twitter.

For more information about House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, visit his Leader member page.