I have about 5 different apps installed right now, and while I plan to test them all out, curious what people's conclusions are thus far.
Now that Sync and Infinity are out, which do people prefer? Also, how do they compare to the existing lemmy apps?
3 years ago by applejacks to c/android
I have about 5 different apps installed right now, and while I plan to test them all out, curious what people's conclusions are thus far.
Yeah, man. I'm with you and I'm incredibly pleased. My old experience I've enjoyed on reddit for years is finally back and is functionally identical, at least for the basics I missed so much.
Sync is extremely polished. The rest have had their issues for a while.
Not sure how it can be too much money, it's literally free to use. There are ads, but there aren't many and not obtrusive at all. I haven't really noticed them. I'll probably buy the pro version just to throw some money at the developer. Otherwise, I wouldn't mind just using the free version.
There are ads, but there aren't many and not obtrusive at all.
It's the only Lemmy app I know of that has them at all.
Hard pass.
Thunder is better than RIF, then Summit is a close second. The best part about Lemmy apps is how close in comparison they are. After an update one is better than the others, but they're each getting updated multiple times a week.
Like Summit for example, the first week it came out you could only browse, no login, no upvoting, no anything. Now it's pretty damn close to being better than RIF.
Thunder is better than RIF
You take that back, blasphemor! And so far nobody has hit RIF for feel yet, I was a daily driver on it since release.
So far I'm between Liftoff and Sync. Does Thunder and/or Summit offer anything particularly unique by comparison?
I used RIF for 12 years and I think Thunder is pretty close. The only thing it's really missing for me is better comment navigation.
I actually really enjoy the gesture upvoting it has, and it's very customizable. The debs are super active and responsive on github and matrix too.
I am using Sync, and I paid for a year of it. A year from now, I'll evaluate and maybe pick something else. Do I care if it costs a tiny bit of $ for a solid app experience that performs better than the rest, because it has dedicated development resources? Nope. Having read the details on what data is collected, do I have privacy concerns? Nope. Do I think folks have gone a little over the top about certain things? Yes. Bad enough having to leave reddit without making it even more complicated.
Just fyi, the tracking is only for ads and all tracking is gone once you remove the ads through Ultra or the one time payment. I don't expect this to please most, but as someone who has used Sync for Reddit for basically my entire existence on Reddit, I've only paid a couple bucks back then for an app I used every day. So far I feel right at home here and I'm willing to pay after some time and seeing how this goes. The number of options is only growing and Sync is bringing new users to Lemmy either way. I've been through like 6 other Lemmy clients and Sync is still the one for me.
Edit: Several users confirmed tracking wasn't present after removing ads.
I haven't got a single hit on the duckduckgo app tracking. I bought a year, and if I'm still liking it then, I'll probably drop ultra and just go for the lifetime no ads. Not even sure how bad the ads are on free, because I was on my piholed network when I installed it, and paid before going to mobile data.
The cost of lifetime is 6x the cost of one year. I can understand just getting one year to see how things go.
Ultra (subscription) and "no-ads" are two different options...no ads is a one time 20USD. Ultra includes additional features beyond the core app. It also has a lifetime option, which is the very expensive one.
for me is 20 lifetime no ads, 18 for one year ultra.
( in the last update there is now the option for one time pay for no ads )
Not OP, but for me it's the fact that it's super customizable, and still very usable and smooth out of the box. It being FOSS is the cherry on top.
I was using Jerboa for the first month. It's good, functional. However, with all due respect to the penguin people, it felt like working on Linux. Just a bit too utilitarian and function focused.
Yesterday I installed Sync and it was like switching to Windows/OSX. So much more polish, much more pleasant experience.
On Reddit I was using BaconReader - and had no idea Sync looked (and felt) this good. Great UX, though still has some ways to go. The comment font size when typing is super tiny!
As a Linux guy, i disagree. I don't know what version of Linux (or how long ago) you tried Linux. Sync is more like Linux, so many options and features to make it exactly what you want.
Maybe it's not just the OS vs OS but more like Gimp vs Photoshop. Both accomplish pretty much the same tasks, but one feels way more polished than the other.
Maybe this will work: Sync feels like a Product, while Jerboa feels like a Project.
There are pros and cons to both approaches. I happen to be looking for a clean, pretty app that integrates with my Android 13 theming etc.
I believe that menu is just for the text on existing posts. There is another one for default baseline text size, but modifying it changes everything.
I'm quite happy with all the sizes, except for editor.
i get the idea of your comment but i don't like the examples
Absolutely fair, I don't think that's a feature yet. You could try requesting it, @ljdawson@lemmy.world is super responsive!
You can adjust it here
I've tried Connect, Liftoff, Thunder, Voyager, and Infinity. It's just bugs galore. The back button will take you to the wrong activity, comments won't post (due to the app not the instance), some instances or accounts won't load, and a laundry list of UI or functionality bugs. Liftoff gave me the fewest issues of all of them, apart from using Lemmy in the browser.
But Sync really is polished, and the experience is night and day. I'm a big FOSS proponent, but I don't think it's wrong for a developer to want to make money when their income source suddenly disappears and they need to pay bills (and region-specific pricing is coming soon). The level of customizability, spit and polish in the other apps doesn't even come close. I'm sure they'll get there eventually, but I think it's a mistake to drive away passionate developers who want to help Lemmy succeed.
I've given pretty much every app or browser front-end a fair shake at this point, and I'm gladly choosing Sync for now.
The amount of bitching I've seen on Lemmy over paying the developer for their hard work has been insane. I was happy to pay the measly fee for ultra. This isn't in response to you, just the general vibe I've seen here. I thought we had a more tech-minded space where people might understand the need to monetize these things, but that doesn't seem to be the case lol
measly fee for ultra
you have to take into consideration that not all people have your level of pay, your quality of life and so on. That 'measly fee' is two day's pay for some and they can't afford that. Yes, I understand that the dev has to make a living, but I think it's a bit expensive. And I was paying for Sync (for reddit) since the beginning. I even got Pro for my wife, who didn't use it at all, just to help LJ.
Okay, people who can't afford two dollars per month to pay for something that they use every day are welcome to use another app, or deal with occasional ads. That's the thing, there's a variety of different app choices. The bitching comes off as "I love this app but I want to use it without paying for it or dealing with ads" more than anything else.
It's not about paying the Developer. It's about paying the developer that much. $20 just to remove ads is a lot and a price people are not willing to pay
They're welcome to use whatever other app they want, or deal with ads. Options abound. I seriously doubt the sync for lemmy dev is swimming in cash. We're not talking about shoveling money at a company like reddit, we're talking about supporting a solitary, highly trusted dev who's worked hard to create a great app.
you fail to realize that the dev barely did any work to the app, it's literally a direct port from reddit to lemmy, yet he's recharging people money at a very steep price too and he's running ads on the app when the official lemmy site has NO ads nor does it's official app Jerboa.
I mean, I paid $3-4 for Sync literally years ago. Once. I personally don't have a problem kicking the dude shekels given that I literally paid pennies a month for how much I used it. To play devil's advocate, groceries cost twice what they did 2 years ago. Everything is more expensive across the board and it sucks, but these are the seas we swim in
Except the ad market is down. An ad supported user is going to generate $2-3 in revenue over the lifetime of the app at most. The pro version price should be in line with that. Or at least not vastly more.
I don't mind paying for a good appz even $20, but I just don't know if I will get that much use out of it. If another app comes around and I like it better, that's it.
Everything's more expensive so people are less willing to pay more since they simply not have the money
I think I might have felt differently at a stage of my life where I didn't have nearly as much disposable income as I do now.
Over the past few years, I've adopted the attitude of trying my hardest to pay for the things that I would be genuinely disappointed if they went away.
I have system-wide ad block, so the $20 or whatever for Sync actually bought me nothing other than the knowledge that if LJ decides to pack up Sync and go and work for a FAANG instead, I don't need to feel guilty.
This attitude would be unrecognisable to my younger self.
I agree with you. I think it's a lot of kids with summer jobs doing the complaining. I've got system wide ad block too, I paid for ultra purely to support LJ because he's earned that trust, and then some, over the years.
It's not just about Sync being the only app with ads or the fee to remove them (whether one thinks it's steep or not is apparently up for debate -- I find $20 steep for a mobile app, full stop).
It's also about the fact that Lemmy is a FOSS system that requires independent instances to run. These instances incur costs. I hope that the people paying $20 to remove these ads are also donating to their home instances. If that isn't happening, we need better messaging to users: paying to remove ads on an app does not support Lemmy itself or any individual instances, though the app and its popularity puts strain on those instances.
I get the idea of paying a dev for their work if you like it -- though mandating it vs. relying on donations is a difference between Sync and pretty much everything else. However, it seems strange that the people pushing to support this single dev who happened to chose an ad model aren't equally pushing for people to support their instances. Sync is useless if everyone just pays to remove the ads but doesn't donate to help with the costs of running this platform, and I wonder how many people who came to Lemmy on the heels of the Sync release actually know that.
I agree with you that we need better messaging to users about instance donations. For the record, I'd also support instance admins who employ an "ads or pay a fee" model. I think it's probably the best option for larger instances. I doubt purely donation based models will be sustainable over time.
If anything, I think LJ missed a trick by not having the option of doing a double subscription (so £3.99), and saying the extra £2 gets split between the instances, weighted by the time you spend time on them.
Sync has always been a superior UI/UX to anything else.
And I'm happy to pay $20 for the developers work. Ads would barely pay him anything anyway.
I feel like all you lemmings are getting way too hung up on the whole ads = spyware thing. It's not the app that's the issue, it's the ad platforms - and those platforms are how he makes money. Don't like it? Pay $20 for a lifetime without ads.
Sync is good because it's a full time job for the Dev. That means the guy needs money to survive. I'm more than happy to help towards that, so I can have a better experience.
I used sync for Reddit for a loooong time, $20 is nothing compared to the value I've gotten out of it.
That's an absolutely understandable point of view.
I'm just disappointed in the people who seem to think they deserve everything for free.
Of course you can use free apps, that's fine! It's great to have options.
Personally I enjoy the experience of using sync compared to the other apps on my phone (my own activity within Lemmy has spiked since it's release!) And for that reason I'm happy to support its development.
Thats because twitters business was advertisement and Musk fucked up one of the most important features for brands. Had they offered twitter premium in addition to verification that got you more features like youtube premium does that would have been fine.
If you can't tell the difference between a small developer and god damn twitter, idk what to tell you other than I guess you do your job for free because paying people for their tallent is bad apparently.
I found all of the prior Lemmy apps to either be missing something, clunky, or buggy. The one I liked most was Voyager/Wefwef, but even then it was missing stuff.
Now Sync is in beta and has bugs, but thanks to past development from Reddit it's already so much more polished than all the others, my Lemmy usage has gone up considerably, I've barely touched Reddit today. It does have ads, but they aren't visible when using DNS Adblocking.
What's this DNS adblocking thing that everyone has been talking about lately?
Basically, whenever you make a request to access something from the internet (say, an ad image), it goes to a dedicated server that tells you "Where actually do I find www.website.com" (the answer is, you find it at address 128.129.130.1, this is the IP address). This is the DNS server.
If you tell your phone to use an ad-blocking DNS server - Instead of "normal" ones like e.g. those provided by Google - , whenever it receives such a request to find the address for you, and the address leads to a server that serves ads, it tells you, "Sorry, nothing found here" and the add is not displayed.
Phones, at least Android, have a setting where you can change the DNA server to an ad-blocking one (a different IP of that server).
Agreed, it's the perfect balance of looking nice and functional
How much inflation has your ass had to deal with? Can you still fit in pants?
Has to buy two airplane tickets for themselves. Thoughts and prayers.
He added the sync pro option to remove ads so I'm good.
That's interesting. All the sync stuff feels the same between sync, summit, and thunder. I guess ymmv
Voyager.
I've just installed the native app, and it's pretty snappy, definitely my favorite Lemmy app.
Same here! Two things I like more on Sync as of now: So many useful options how things look and behave (seriously, the amount of options is insane!) and the list view (I hate the card view, always have, alway will!) is smaller and uses the available space slightly better imo. But I have a good feeling Voyager will improve immensely considering how good it got in the past months.
Yeah, I know! It's just that the list view in Sync is even more smaller. Not by a lot but noticeable to me.
I used Connect until Sync dropped.
Connect was cool, but had a few clunky spots.
I used Sync for years so it was like putting on a favorite pair of jeans
Sync user here. It's the reason that I found reddit usable. The effort that has gone into creating and refining the app is evident. I like it better than the the other apps, because it feels like home to me. I also enjoy the concept of u/spez unintentionally spotlighting lemmy, and literally tossing over the very best that reddit had to offer. Sync is just one of several excellent options already here, or on their way.
The free apps are anywhere from very good to very work in progress. I like Connect the best from what I've used. I expect that they will all improve over time, and have noticed improvements over a short length of time.
I actually enjoy the controversy/buzz over pricing, pricing models, privacy, and so on. This is mostly because I'm petty,and believe that all of this is hastening reddit's demise.
I'm a Sync guy, it has the best scrolling performance on my shitty low end phone. I've tried other apps but all of them still have stutters during scroll but Sync still manages to keep smooth.
I love Jerboa, very minimal which is great for me. If it had a search function it be perfect
I love me some sync... the app is so high quality, and it's the first release, in reddit it was constantly updated and fresh. ljd is a legend
it wasn't "constantly" updated. I feel like LJD got it pretty stable then took a deserved break. After a month or 2 with no needed updates people went absolutely histrionic over it: IS THIS APP ABANDONED?!!?!
Sync, I know there's some people complaining about the prices. But I rooted my phone and use a system adblocker.
I've got an ad blocker built into my router, so in sync I only see the empty blocks where an ad would be. I'm still trying all the different apps, hopefully one if the open source ones become better. What I like a lot about sync is the gesture based up/down voting. Not sure if anyone else has that yet.
Which adblocker do you use?
Jerboa is open source and has been working perfectly fine for me.
Not at all... But it's the only client I've tried. I honestly don't trust closed source, so I guess I'm stuck here. Perfectly fine for me so far.
Same here.
Infinity is AWESOME although I'm not quite sure how to get automatic updates for it yet.
You can install and update it using obtainium. I haven't used it before using it for infinity for lemmy and it works perfectly. Obtainium itself can be installed over android, although I'm not sure it's in the standard repo (I got it from the IzzyOnDroid repo)
Thank you!! Never used obtanium but just installed it and I love it!
There's Obtainium, but the dev said that he's trying to get it released on F-Droid, so I'm waiting for that.
Edit: It's in the IzzyOnDroid repo now.
I'm using Jerboba until things shake out more.
Connect or Liftoff
Sync. It was the exclusive way I browsed Reddit. Having foldable support day 1 was a big push. I have no issues with supporting the developer for an app I've been using for well more than a half decade now.
Voyager, clone of Apollo which is fantastic
Im using the IOS app via TestFlight. Its really good.
Amateur. Just telnet to the port and decrypt by hand.
Infinity by a long way. It's very early though, not really a fair comparison.
I can't find Infinity on the play store. How are people using it?
It's hosted here: https://codeberg.org/...
I use obtainium for it and other Lemmy apps.
I'm using Infinity :D
I will stick with infinity for 99% but im going to check our voyager when it finally comes as a native app
I use Sync because it's just what I'm used to. I've been using it for more than 3 years, but I've also used Jerboa, Thunder, Liftoff, Lemotiff, Connect and Voyager.
Here's what I think about those:
Jerboa is good, maybe a bit laggy and things take a bit to load, but overall good. Nothing that stands out.
Thunder is very good, but I've been unable to reply DMs and comments from my notifications, I'd have to go to the browser or use another app to reply. I'm almost sure it'll get fixed in the future.
Connect is very, very good, but, and it's a huge BUT for me, every time I'm commenting and I want to change part of my comment, I click on the part I want to add or erase more text but instead of doing that it selects the text from where I was to where I clicked, and it happens with every comment and DM, to fix it I have to copy the whole thing, go back to the post, paste the comment again and keep on writing. I stopped using it.
Liftoff is very good, but I don't like that when I collapse a comment it says "comment collapsed, tap to expand" (that's it, it's just nit picking, everything else is good), I still sometimes use the app.
Lemotiff I can't log in but the idea/design is good.
Voyager is one of the best but sometimes it jumps to random parts of the timeline, I also prefer having an app not a PAW (or was it PWA? I don't remember the correct term)
Lemmur says my instance doesn't exist so I can't even try it.
Haven't used infinity or Boost yet, just downloaded Sync and it just works perfectly.
Sync is great, but I'm not the biggest fan of introducing ads in a service that doesn't inherently have ads - nothing against the dev getting paid. You also can't currently create a new post (just says "coming soon"). I used Sync on Reddit for years, so I'm otherwise pretty biased toward it.
Connect is a close second, for me. It's still a work in progress, but I feel it's pretty close to Sync. Given time, I think it'll be there. The dev is also very responsive. Features are pretty community driven as well - so if you want something, post in the community.
But I have to say, for its lack of polish, Jerboa still comes out on top for me. It's not as smooth scrolling the feed and it needs an option to handle links in-app, but with it being open source and there being a bunch of contributors adding features, every time I think it's missing something, it's just a matter of waiting for the next update. The one from today added DMing, which was the big thing I saw other apps handling better. Plus, I think (other than Sync), it's the only app that handles multiple accounts the best if you want sorting and defaults per account rather than app-wide.
I also still pop into Thunder, Summit, Liftoff, and Voyager periodically to see how they're coming along. And now, I'm including Infinity (and Boost or any others whenever they're ready).
At the end of the day, people are just going to have to try the different apps for themselves to see what works for them.
Tbh I didn't notice the ads haha I have ads completely removed from my device using a private DNS so none of the apps I use show me ads.
I prefer supporting devs via donations whenever I have the extra money but I'm waiting for the lifetime donation for Sync, I not doing aubscription models and I have 0 tolerance for ads.
Like you, though, I'll be jumping from time to time to other apps because what I've been loving about this Fediverse experience more than anything is how every app has been evolving and updating, it's just amazing.
I'm also waiting for Boost and Infinity to realease, god damn this is why I love competition.
Ad removal on Sync is US$19.99. Lifetime Sync Ultra is $99... 👀
Try summit. I'm hopping between it and sync now. Thunder sometimes for the variations in feed but the comment issue persists and is an overall no-go
Shit, forgot to write about Summit, it was one of the ones I liked the most but only when I'm viewing content as a "list" as opposed to "cards", IMO that's when Summit shines more than any other app.
I feel like Summit works more for me as a news site rather than a "social media" app, so I like that a lot. I'm still jumping in between apps atm.
Oh, and Voyager JUST released as an official app in the play store, I just saw the post a few minutes ago.
Thanks for the heads up!
I'm surprised by how much of a big deal apps are for the users. I would have kept Jerboa if it was more stable. I got Connect for no specific reason and don't really see a reason to try anything else... I was still using old reddit and an app called Slide, so I guess I'm some removed user or something. Happy that those apps brings more users tho.
Honestly just using Lemmy in a browser (or Tildes even more so I imagine) I keep wondering why apps are a big deal to begin with. They both work 100% perfectly fine.
It's the same with Mastodon, in fact their official PWA gives a fair few apps a run for their money.
Just using their websites can be a pain when links to content and other users or communities or whatever ends up taking you to a new domain because of the federation. Apps allow everything to stay together, so you can keep interacting as your intended user account.
Mastadon was much better for that like. I haven't touched lemmys web interface on a while. Not a fan of its look or UX personally, so I don't know if they fixed that.
Wow, good to know, thank you.
During reddit days, boost was the last app I used till I jumped here.
I'm using sync. Used sync for years on Reddit and I like the product, vision, and direction the dev delivers.
Memmy is Apollo like but only available for IOS for now.
Yeah, I'm using Voyager as well, but if Christian Selig would decide to retool Apollo, and bring it out for Lemmy, it would instantly introduce MILLIONS to Lemmy. That product was huge.
I guess that was Reddit's problem, the 3rd party clients attracted eyeballs on their own. Reddit no longer owned these eyeballs.
Sync is more polished, but Infinity has a much better layout on the Galaxy Fold. I'm using Infinity for now, but hoping it improves quickly.
Neither is as good as Reddit Is Fun for foldables, unfortunately. That had a perfect interface IMO. Much better than Apollo too.
One thing that really bothers me on Infinity is that I see no way to show the parent of a comment that I am looking at. It only times you the option to show all other comments, but not the parent specifically.
I loved infinity for reddit. Did I miss a memo or something, I thought he decided to try to make the reddit client financially sustainable?
Someone decided to develop a fork. Posting from it right now. You can download it here
Finally, I got around to downloading Sync, and I'm impressed. I'm still going to use Infinity as my main access to Lemmy, but all my other programs were uninstalled, and Sync is now backing up Infinity.
BTW, not saying do it but to those complaining about ads, adguard.dns.com or quad9 dns are both free.
I'm using Infinity at the moment, since it is what I have used with Reddit until the API changes. I've always loved Infinity's swipe actions, and I haven't encountered any serious bugs so far. I'm gonna try and help contribute back to the app when I can.
Jerboa is on f-droid, which makes life easier for me
I'm using connect, it's simple and just works. It was rough when I first came over but had been fine for a while now. I'm assuming they worked out some of the bugs they had at the beginning.
I've used sync for almost ten years and am all in on it until something better comes along. Thunder is very nice too, but it's not sync.
Thunder is very nice but it's very slow to populate comments and posts to the point that it just skips through the comments. I'm trying to decide if I care about the whole sync data collection nonsense or if I want to use a FOSS app instead. I was also using Voyager and it was pretty good.
Edit: thunder doesn't seem to be updating my subscriptions automatically for my secondary account so that's a bummer. I was starting to slowly lean towards thunder as my primary app since it seems to be the smoothest UI experience outside of Sync. Voyager also has a really smooth UI, but it's not a dedicated app. Liftoff is my default at the moment. It just works.
Voyager is now on the play store! I didn't find it as smooth as Sync though.
I'm new to Lemmy and using sync because it works for me. I was a relay for reddit user, but I quit reddit and this is a reasonable facsimile for me. I'm happy enough with this interface but time will tell.
The reddit version of infinity appears to become jittery after you go down a rabbit-hole of sorts (go to a post, go to a different subreddit linked from that post, etc). Linking one place to another was when it started lagging heavily for me. It definitely is an issue though, but infinity was an app which was more intuitive to me brain than other alternatives.
Nothing wrong with someone picking a non-FOSS license for their work. And it's a direct port of an existing closed-source client for Reddit, so there was never any reason to expect a different license.
It's just another option with its own pros and cons. I wouldn't pick a proprietary app if there's a FOSS one that works for me, but I'm happy others have the option to decide for themselves what they value.
I've been trialling lift-off and it's excellent
For the time being I'm sticking with Voyager. Sync is a lil too pricey and Infinity doesn't quite feel finished it's Lemmy migration (was my fav reddit app)
Infinity! It was my go-to client for Reddit, and now it's my go-to client for Lemmy. Most basic things work. There are still some bugs lurking in the app, but it's still in Alpha so that's kinda expected.
The UI is really smooth and customizable, but I guess anyone who's ever used Infinity already knows this.
I'm sticking with Connect. It works great.
Prefer connect
I have Sync and Jerboa, and I must say, Sync is polished and smooth and makes it more simple to use. I haven't tried the Infinity for Lemmy but I might test that one out, too.
I had been using Connect a good bit for the last couple of weeks. But Sync impressed me by how polished it feels. So I'm using Sync now.
I'll keep on evaluating others. So far, none have moderator action support. So I'll probably switch to whatever app has that first.
Boost was my favorite reddit app ever.
I am using multiple apps right now. Sync feels really smooth. Summit also comes close in terms of fluidity I feel. I like Thunder and Liftoff as well. Waiting for more improvements on Thunder.
I have been rotating through most lemmy clients on android, and the truth is I haven't been satisfied with any of them, although Jerboa was best of them even though the search was a bit lacking. I used Infinity on reddit and was kinda bummed it wasn't coming here. I found out about this fork 3 versions ago and am not looking back.
Sync is pretty good but its font options are awful on my phone. If I set the comments font size to "huge", it's still smaller than e.g. the clock in the notification bar. And then it's an unreasonably large jump from "huge" to "header".
It needs a simple font size slider instead of preset mystery values. As it is, it's just uncomfortable to use.
Not sure if Sync for Reddit had the same problem since I used other clients more.
Try going into setting and modifying "Base font size" then based off that modify comment and post font sizes accordingly? I had the same issue and the base font size allowed for more precise modification
Oh wow, thank you! Somehow I missed that setting, only seeing the post and comment settings.
The base font size even changes the settings text. My eyes feel young again! LOL
For Sync users looking for the setting:
it's literally a direct port from reddit to lemmy, very little code changes.
Neither. I'm just using my browser for now until Boost for Lemmy is ready. The mobile site is pretty good for moderate usage.
I prefer my own app, but that's a given :P
I did like many aspects of the official Reddit app until they enshittified it, so I'm reusing some concepts it had. It's still in alpha phase, and even then, there's some things I liked that I'm not sure I'll implement. I particularly liked the second tab in the bottom navigation bar when it had your list of subscribed subreddits and an alphabetical scrollbar. That was super awesome. I'll definitely try to add something like that in the future, probably after I get feature parity with the official UI.
I'm avoiding pop-ups by editing the current relevant components. So, when you press "submit", the error message will be inside the form instead of as a pop-up. Or when you report a post, the form appears inside the post instead of as a pop-up. It's much more intuitive to use and I think I can make it faster to use.
I prefer Infinity but I did so for Reddit too so it's just my prefered app in general, Sync definitely seems to have less rough edges! I think the main advantage over fresh Lemmy apps are their UX and Animations, those are increadably hard to get right without years of user feedback!
Where did it release as an app? On the Google Play Store, searching "Voyager" gives a bitcoin app and navigation app.
Yes, it’s on Play Store, here is a link: https://play.google.com/...
Replying through voyager s22u. Buttery smooth.
Maybe it's the old phone?
Wefwef/Voyager still feels superior to me. Will still test sync for a bit but I couldn't find any unique selling point yet.
Yeah same here, especially now that there's a native android app.
Still using the pwa, I feel no need to switch to the app. Will test later anyways.
I have been giving all the apps a go as well. I was using RIF for over 5yrs prior to the switch. I grabbed the sync app as soon as it was available and was so impressed that I immediately bought ultra, mostly to support the developers. I know it's steep, but maybe as more users start using lemmy the price will come down a bit.
So far I am very impressed with sync. I love how granular the controls are even to the point of having different settings for different logins. Account switching is super easy between several alts that I have and I am really looking forward to being able to import my community subscription to my back up instances in the near future. More than happy with my purchase and I hope the developers continue their outstanding work.
Having Infinity I feel back at home. The pre-release is said to be buggy but I have not seen anything yet these last few days.
Not sure if infinity has the same "issues" as sync with the data collection.i will let someone smarter chim in.
I'm using Voyager (!voyagerapp@lemmy.world) and it's near perfect! Only thing that could make it even better is having it as a standalone app instead of a PWA (which currently you'd really have to install via Chrome as PWAs are just slower with Firefox), and aeharding is working on it!
It's out now!
I'm using both. I paid to have the ads removed on sync and the dev does great work but I think I prefer infinity. I'll probably just throw my donations going forward to this and my instance on the fediverse.
I just downloaded infinity to give it a shot and I find the UI to be a little rougher around the edges. The most noticeable is the layout of posts on the feed - the icons dont look like they are consistent sizes and the lack of grouping compared to Sync (like having a box around both vote and vote count) makes it look more cluttered. I also think the default theme color (the intense blue color) kinda hurts my eyes because it's too high contrast maybe, so changing that was the first thing I did- I think having a milder default would provide a better out of the box experience.
I have no major gripes about the base functionality, they're both functional enough for me but the aesthetics of sync win for now. Also it seems like both sync and infinity don't collapse the comment you pressed and only the replies, making it seemingly impossible to collapse top level comments which inconveniences how I read threads, by collapsing top level comments as I go down the thread - long top comments stay expanded so I have to scroll past a lot more.
Those are my first impressions based on never using either sync or infinity (be it lemmy or reddit) before like this week.
Edit: Just downloaded Connect too, looks very similar to Sync in level of polish so I think those will probably be my top 2
Liftoff.
I'm trying Sync, Infinity and Thunder. I like Sync and Thunder because I like the polished UI. Infinity looks and feels kinda 'old'. But this is just me. All three deliver the feeling of coming home. They work like before, but with Lemmy features like images in comments. It's like Reddit but on the fediverse.
Been using Memmy on iOS but used to use Sync on my Android device. Now I got that and using it more and more. Love the customization features on Sync and this is the first time I truly didn’t miss Reddit.
I keep flip-flopping between thunder and liftoff. I like the visual design of liftoff but thunder feels easier to use .... I could probably fiddle about with their settings and make one that last bit better than the other in either direction but I'm not sure wich way to go. (Posted from Liftoff)
For me, I used to love Sync for Reddit for a long time, until he switched to Material You without a real option to go back. Material You is just plain ugly.
Now that I'm on Lemmy, I stumbled across Summit, which looks good and performs good.
It's interesting to me how I've tried like 10 apps including Sync which everyone raves about and for me one of the least mentioned is best: Connect. The UI is cleaner than the others. The navigation transitions are a little janky but not horrible and I'm hoping they'll smooth out eventually.
I'll give the other apps a shot soon, but I'm really glad to have Sync back. It was the Reddit app of my choice.
If you don't like it, that's perfectly fine. You still have the option to use any other third-party Lemmy app of your choice.
It's already out on the play store . I'm using it.
Also i think they in have it out in fdroid also.
So far Sync seems pretty smooth, but it's also kind of an ineffective use of screen space with too much space around elements.
@lemmy.world
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@lemmy.world
Welcome to the Android community on Lemmy. Here you can participate in amazing discussions and events relating to all things Android.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
1. All posts must be relevant to Android devices/operating system.
2. Posts cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
3. No spam, self promotion, or upvote farming. Sources engaging in these behavior will be added to the Blacklist.
4. Non-whitelisted bots will be banned.
5. Engage respectfully: Harassment, flamebaiting, bad faith engagement, or agenda posting will result in your posts being removed. Excessive violations will result in temporary or permanent ban, depending on severity.
6. Memes are not allowed to be posts, but are allowed in the comments.
7. Posts from clickbait sources are heavily discouraged. Please de-clickbait titles if it needs to be submitted.
8. Submission statements of any length composed of your own thoughts inside the post text field are mandatory for any microblog posts, and are optional but recommended for article/image/video posts.
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The moment I tried Sync for Lemmy I have this feeling of closure, like I finally can make peace with the fact that I'm leaving Reddit behind for good after using it for 13 years (8 years of those on Sync). The only thing that top this is the first time I saw federation in action where people from various lemmy, kbin and mastodon instances talk to each other in the same thread and deciding to jump ship on the spot.
save