Using Sync for Reddit as a marketing tool come July 1st is more urgent than building the MVP

3 years ago by Foreverwinter to c/syncforlemmy

First of all, thank you @ljdawson@lemmy.world for pursuing Sync for Lemmy. It’s honestly given me so much hope for Fediverse adoption to actually happen. I do have one thought to share with you to help with success:

Come July 1st pretty much all Sync users are going to open the app due to muscle memory or due to a lack of awareness of what’s happening.

If they see “this app doesn’t work any more” or similar, they are simply going to delete the app and will likely go to the official Reddit app. The opportunity to engage them will be gone.

However, you can use it as a huge marketing opportunity if on that day it says something to the effect of:

Sync for Reddit doesn’t work any more due to the API changes…
However Sync for Lemmy is in development
Here’s how you try Lemmy (and/or kbin) in the mean time…
Keep Sync for Reddit on your phone to receive a notification when Sync for Lemmy is launched

Even if they don’t try Lemmy right away, if they get a notification from the old app saying the new one is ready they will possibly try it at that time (but you need to convince them to keep the old app on their phone)

But the clock is ticking - after July 1st the chance of engaging someone in this way is very low as they’ll likely uninstall the old app. IMO getting this teed up is of a higher priority than developing the minimal-viable-product for the new app.

You likely already have this in the works, but wanted to throw it out there incase you hadn't planned on it already. Thanks again for doing this - I am so hopeful and excited for a viable alternative to Reddit and Sync could be such a huge piece in making it possible!

Originally posted to /r/syncforlemmy but figured I should put my money where my mouth is and post here as well. After all, this is the future!

OtakuAltair 122 points 3 years ago

You'll be surprised by how many redditors you can convince to join Lemmy by just mentioning Sync.

It's very effective. Understandably so; I've always browsed Reddit with Sync and it's probably the single best app I've ever used.

Here's a quick summary of Lemmy/kbin mentioning Sync and Artemis that I find to be very effective to copy/paste to threads with confused redditors. I suggest others to do the same.

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jtablerd 21 points 3 years ago

Upcoming Sync is why I'm here on lem in the first place....just had my 15th cakeday on reddit real bummer to see it go the same way digg did...

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xaxl 8 points 3 years ago

Remember it's just an account on some website and the person behind it is what actually bought it to life.

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AnarchistArtificer 5 points 3 years ago

Yeah, that's what I keep telling myself.

I was actually surprised by how much karma I had accrued when I deleted my account the other day, given that the majority of my comments were deep down in threads or niche communities. Often, I was happier to have 10 upvotes than 500, because the comments that got hundreds (or thousands) of points were generally short and quippy. I much preferred the sincere, expansive discussions though, and that was apparent when scrolling through my history.

Edit (Forgot to finish my point): And that kind of stuff is available in oodles on Lemmy. Hell, if anything, it's easier here, because I feel like it's way more likely anything I write will be seen and responded to. Maybe in a few years, we'll be nostalgic for these times.

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cjsolx 1 point 3 years ago

These will be the good old days, as they say. Lemmy is poised for great things I'm sure, but I don't think it will never be like this again. I'll be happy to be proven wring, though.

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jandar_fett 5 points 3 years ago

I had never heard of Sync, but with the way people are talking about it and it's features, I think it could replace Bacon Reader for me (RIP) and this is coming from someone who uses reddit a moderate amount for niche subreddits, but isn't going to stand for this anti capitalist BS that Spez is pulling, so how I'm here. It wasn't hard, but I appreciate the fact not everyone is as plugged in or aware of social causes such as this or more importantly thst not everyone has the free time to put in a minimal amount of research to figure out how to move to an alternative.

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fluxion 3 points 3 years ago

Ditto, I'm a Bacon Reader man myself but have heard enough good stuff about Sync over the years that I'm pretty confident it'll be a solid replacement.

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AnarchistArtificer 5 points 3 years ago

I've been using the Lemmy app and finding myself quite unhappy with it, but stopping to ask "Is this app actually deserving of my ire, or am I just grumpy because it's not what I'm used to (i.e. not Sync)?". I think it's mostly the latter. Don't get me wrong, Jerboa is nowhere near the level of polish or functionality of pretty much any of the main 3rd party Reddit apps (yet?), it's just that I'm a creature of habit (and so are many others)

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OtakuAltair 3 points 3 years ago

Nah, I agree, Jerboa is just not there right now.

I prefer the webview over Jerboa on mobile at the moment; the higher flexibility outweighs the lower mobile-friendliness for me

I can definitely see it getting great though! With more contribution.

Edit: After using the new latest version of Jerboa (0.0.35), I think I do prefer it over the webview now.

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TurtleTourParty 1 point 3 years ago

I find Thunder to be more like sync than Jerboa but it's very new

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griff7337 2 points 3 years ago

Same. As soon as sync died today my redditing died with it

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imaqtpie 49 points 3 years ago

For sure, we are still chronically starved of users. Need to play our cards right in the next few months.

In addition to OP's idea, all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way, like ASAP. It's really easy now because all the threads are about reddit sucking and how there is no alternative. But in a few weeks when reddit forgets, it's going to be viewed more as spam to constantly keep bringing up Lemmy on reddit.

If we can make people aware of Lemmy before the app shutdown, it's much more likely that they decide to actually try Sync for Lemmy.

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FlayOtters 19 points 3 years ago

I've noticed myself and others getting downvoted for mentioning lemmy. Other posts mentioning discord or whatever just get ignored.

I don't think it helps to go looking for arguments though. Some people will stay on Reddit. Some will leave. Que sera, sera.

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ewe 11 points 3 years ago

I had a better than expected, but not completely groundbreaking post that you can use as a template. It's for a local subreddit, which are understandably small and generally will just go where the other site content is. Remember that users are not going to quit reddit because of a single sub, they need all their subs or a good number of them to be replicated here before it becomes viable. That work is being done, but I think the best thing you can do is plant the seed of having an alternative community for people who want to leave. If reddit becomes a ghost town, the people downvoting will just move by themselves. Change is hard.

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FlayOtters 2 points 3 years ago

Thank you. I might use some of that in the next few days.

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sneakyninjapants 9 points 3 years ago

all of us who still have our reddit accounts should be going over there and letting people know about Lemmy in a helpful way

Oh I've been trying to, hopefully got a few converts so far. Trying to tiptoe the line between informative and pushy since "horses water and drinking bla bla"

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imaqtpie 6 points 3 years ago

Yeah, good point. I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually. The main problem is I don't feel like I'm getting enough eyes on my comments. The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet.

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sneakyninjapants 8 points 3 years ago

I just to go super enthusiastic and positive with it usually

Honestly the best way to pitch it IMO. It's been such a great experience here I almost feel compelled to proselytize the glory of the fediverse, but if I can't keep it in my pants a bit I'm certain to put people off the message.

The migration/alternative subreddits are weirdly quiet

I've noticed that too the few times I've checked. I wonder how many people there are still regularly tying to do outreach. I've had some luck on the selfhosted sub, of course you'd expect that lot would be more eager to jump on a self-hostable platform anyway. Piracy subs too for obvious reasons lol

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imaqtpie 7 points 3 years ago

Yeah the Piracy community seems like it could become an anchor on this platform, which I would love.

Pirates are generally aligned against capitalism and corporatism, but they are not all in the same boat, politically speaking.

Such a diverse yet similar group could prove very helpful in charting a middle course amongst some of the more opinionated instances.

Arggh!

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NightOwl 4 points 3 years ago

Yeah, piracy has so much activity for obvious reasons. And they constantly get kicked out and stuff and piracy is an area that does require lot of self learning to do safely, so probably the most undeterred.

But, I follow lot of games, tech, and pc related stuff mainly and pretty much only sub that bothered to actually do anything was /r/privacyguides. Which is the instance I am on. So when these tech/pc/game subs you think would more embrace new tech aren't making any efforts to leave I think it's a sign most people including the mods don't actually care about leaving. They actually care way less than most non tech related subs.

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NightOwl 3 points 3 years ago

Best way is just to express excitement that development of reddit app for Android is continuing on a different platform, since many people in /r/Android use third party apps probably due to the demographic that even bothers to subscribe to /r/Android to begin with. All other subs might be more casual users who use stuff like reddit redesigned and don't use adblockers, so this whole confusing cumbersome process is not something they care about. They just go API? What? Third party apps? Uh I don't use that I don't care. Ads? I'm used to it.

Apple is one that has nothing really that feels organic. There's no like hey Apollo for Lemmy is coming out. And Apollo is kind of the only app that Apple users even care about compared to Android where there's so many loved Reddit third party apps. Apple users are very used to subscriptions being sold on Apps too, so having to pay to remove ads and using official apps isn't as big of a concern.

Plus, I don't know that it even really matters going over to reddit to try to mention anything until the app comes out and it turns out to streamline the whole process of signing up and subscribing to different communities outside your instance as opposed to doing the weird !syncforlemmy@lemmy.world entry then wait for it to show up.

State of lemmy right now is something that people who weren't deterred by the research they had to do ended up using. Apps have an opportunity to make it so none of that is necessary, but until then there is no selling point. People who wanted to move have moved, and those that didn't stayed. Ones who are upset are shitposting, but I doubt they actually want to leave reddit since shitposting is also a sign they still want to stay on Reddit and wishing Reddit would roll back changes.

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imaqtpie 2 points 3 years ago

All good points, I largely agree. I still think it's important to spread the word on reddit right now and use our momentum.

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hoshikarakitaridia 37 points 3 years ago

absolutely agree, get them here and make this community even more vibrant

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Aeoneir 36 points 3 years ago

"I'm going to be adding a preload Sync for Lemmy popup in sync over the weekend along with a shutdown notice."

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Prometheus 55 points 3 years ago

Those fuckers

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solidsnake2085 16 points 3 years ago

Funny thing is that I don't see this popup in sync.

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nepenthes 7 points 3 years ago

It only happens when you access a reddit link from mobile without a default app to open reddit. They are trying to force the shite app on everyone, which is amusing b/c all it does is make me give LJ more energy

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ

It should just ask if you want to continue in [browser], but I think reddit flagged any posts about apps to have this popup/last ditch attempt.

PSA: get past it by clicking "desktop view".

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Da_Boom 7 points 3 years ago

Or old.reddit

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bloubz 6 points 3 years ago

That's the point. The mods are passing to NSFW because it's a pain to view such content on Reddit

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Foreverwinter 5 points 3 years ago

Right?!

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Lightning66 32 points 3 years ago

I think grabbing more users right now is of utmost importance. If the fediverse needs to grow, now is the chance.

Mastodon had a big spike when Twitter went awol. And nows the chance for lemmy.

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alex 30 points 3 years ago

referencing users on Lemmy is not at all the same as reddit, since there are multiple instances.

there's no automagic function for tagging (at least not on the web there isn't - that's probably why you couldn't find one), you just have to do it by hand.

ie. [@foreverwinter@lemmy.world](http://lemmy.world/u/foreverwinter) becomes: @foreverwinter@lemmy.world

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Foreverwinter 11 points 3 years ago

Awesome. Thanks for the tip @alex@geddit.social !

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sabreW4K3 30 points 3 years ago

I don't think it's a bad idea to say that Sync for Reddit is shutting down, if you would like to follow new projects by LJ, please click here for Patreon or here for Lemmy or something along those lines.

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OtakuAltair 7 points 3 years ago

Honestly, I think it needs to be more aggressive than that, as bad as that may sound.

Something like:

"Reddit's new API policies has made it impossible for Sync for Reddit to continue.

Click here for Sync for Lemmy, an alternative to Reddit, instead. You will be notified when it is out in [estimated time for prototype]."

Would probably be more effective if the app remained the same, and you didn't need to download a separate Sync for Lemmy from the playstore; do we know which one's happening yet?

I wonder if this would even be legal though.

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deadhead 21 points 3 years ago

This is a great idea, smart recommendation

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BaileyCarruthers -18 points 3 years ago

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gk99 18 points 3 years ago

Imagine trying to spam a clear scam link in a forum filled with tech nerds and power users. Like in what universe does this actually work lmfao

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llama 17 points 3 years ago

Since we're only talking about a week timeline here, would it be possible to update the sync app with a list of popular Lemmy instances and a way to view your favorite one from a web view within the app? That way people could still use sync in the meantime while native features gradually get rolled out.

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OtakuAltair 3 points 3 years ago

This is an amazing idea if possible!

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redballooon 3 points 3 years ago

I wouldn't do it. If the user experience is bad, they'll uninstall it "because they tried and it sucked". Then they won't even go back.

I like the suggestion from OP.

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xaxl 13 points 3 years ago

Imagine if it just seamlessly continued working after a short account signup and translated your Reddit subs to various Lemmy ones where it could.

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Marxine 14 points 3 years ago

That'd be magical, but isn't easily feasible.

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rog 11 points 3 years ago

I would respectfully disagree.

The people who were susceptible to coming over to lemmy as it is are already here. Those who think its too complicated or whatever will stay on reddit.

I think the key to wider lemmy adoption is by focusing on the product, not so much the marketing. While it obviously helps for people to know about it, which many people now do, it doesn't matter if they come check it out and its a confusing ghost town.

Getting these apps out and filling the platform with communities and content is, I think, much more important than trying to drag people here kicking and screaming.

As the platform becomes better, the people will come.

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OptimusPrimeRib 19 points 3 years ago

I disagree the more people that know about it the better. My friend is an avid reddit user but uses the basic app and regular reddit (not old.reddit) and he never heard of lemmy.world until I told him yesterday. If people know about its existence they will know its an option. He is considering switching as well after telling him.

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slinky317 7 points 3 years ago

I don't think people will be dragged kicking and screaming. They've seen the turmoil with Reddit over the past few weeks and are looking for alternatives. This could be good education for them, especially as Lemmy is a bit more confusing compared to Reddit.

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Foreverwinter 6 points 3 years ago

Not sure why you're getting downvoted (or at least mixed votes) for this. I appreciate you bringing diversity of thought to the argument and doing it in a constructive way. This is how we get the best possible outcome: by hearing, and actually contemplating, viewpoints different than our own.

Cheers.

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Spliffman1 5 points 3 years ago

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isdfoa 8 points 3 years ago

+1 this is a super good idea - !ljdawson@lemmy.world

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syphe 8 points 3 years ago

I feel like the communication from reddit was done on purpose so that the 3rd party app devs didn't have the time to put things in place, how cool would it have been if come 1st July the app just points to a different service, with a note saying the app is being renamed and using a different website for content

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JasSmith 4 points 3 years ago

I agree. They didn't want developers to transition users to any other platform. They're bargaining that users will just switch to the Reddit app.

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bfr0 8 points 3 years ago

I think it would actually be pretty cool if somehow you could link configured subreddits that people have saved or subscribed to into a search for Lemmy communities.

Obviously we want to minimize time that distracts you from the Lemmy version, but I do think it would help people pivot into Lemmy communities away from their favorite subreddits.

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the_right_god 7 points 3 years ago

This is brilliant idea

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chrizbie 5 points 3 years ago

YES!!

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I_Miss_Daniel 4 points 3 years ago

Could be a good idea for RiF and Apollo as well, even if they don't plan to build apps for the Fediverse.

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ahriboy 2 points 3 years ago

Sync for Lemmy will have a different icon, maybe up and downvote buttons in the style of Lemmy logo

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gabriele97 1 point 3 years ago

Yep this is a nice idea!

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Spliffman1 -1 points 3 years ago

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OtakuAltair 6 points 3 years ago

Alot of us, including me, wouldn't be here using Lemmy right now if people didn't market it to us.

Even people who otherwise would can't switch if they don't know about it.

Marketing is important; nothing wrong with that on its own.

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Spliffman1 0 points 3 years ago

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OtakuAltair 1 point 3 years ago

Don't worry. The nature of the fediverse means the 'clowns' will coagulate in isolated instances, as they already are.

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Spliffman1 2 points 3 years ago

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primevandal 1 point 3 years ago

its just semantics chill lil bro

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Spliffman1 0 points 3 years ago

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YellowtoOrange -21 points 3 years ago

Is Sync for ios as well?

Sync for android would be great, though since there's already an android app which works (enough), an iOS app should be the priority IMO

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godless 15 points 3 years ago

No it really shouldn't be. There are plenty of apps for both platforms in development, and Sync has always been an Android app, and should remain one.

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glorious_albus 1 point 3 years ago

What's the harm if it's made for iOS?

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lattenwald 17 points 3 years ago

Having limited resources one has to choose the best way to apply them. Sync for Reddit has huge loyal userbase at Android camp, why would one abandon them? Any valid reason at all?

iPhone app might be a priority for apollo and what else do they have there, for the same reasons.

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glorious_albus 1 point 3 years ago

I am not saying abandon them.

I know this is a long shot since lj is a one man army, but if he ever found a team that he could work with, there's no harm in having an iOS app as well as an android one.

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Aux 9 points 3 years ago

Sync is designed around Material Design used in Android. It will look and feel alien on iOS.

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NightOwl 8 points 3 years ago

Resources it takes. I think Sync for Reddit was in testflight for iOS, but of course never got a chance to come out with this API change. There was also Slide for Android that later also took on the task of Slide for iOS then got dropped.

Trying to make apps for two platforms can be difficult. Especially with iOS having their own set of very specific UI requirements.

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glorious_albus 1 point 3 years ago

Yeah, fair enough. I have heard iOS is much difficult to develop for than Android.

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Unfunkable 1 point 3 years ago

Nothing really, at most it'll look odd since Sync heavily leans into Material Design (sometimes better than Google's own apps). I guess it's probably just not worth the time considering how many iOS apps are already in development.

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sotolf 1 point 3 years ago

Sync is developed by one guy, so I don't really thing that's something he would be able to support.

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Dream_state 14 points 3 years ago

There's 7 iOS apps in development and only 4 android ones bruz let us have it 🥺

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YellowtoOrange -1 points 3 years ago

Woah

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hyveltjuven 3 points 3 years ago

If you're referring to Jeroba I felt it was too janky and started using the PWA instead. I really am looking forward to using LemmySync.

To my knowledge LJ is primarily an Android dev so that is probably where he'll prefer to put his time.

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