I did a poll and nearly 30% of the people who voted said they used Sync! It's stayed around that percent the whole time too!
EDIT: Here is the poll I forgot to put this here like five times lol https://strawpoll.com/wby5A21R1yA
Over a quarter of Lemmy users use Sync (based on a poll)
3 years ago by Xusontha to c/syncforlemmy
mouth_brood 19 points 3 years ago
I don't disagree that they should make some money for their efforts, but isn't every client for lemmy made by a single developer?
ichbinjasokreativ 6 points 3 years ago
Does paying for it also remove the trackers, or just the ads?
RaivoKulli -8 points 3 years ago
You're bothered by the ads? Just pay money for it
lol
RaivoKulli -8 points 3 years ago
How dramatic of you
yamapikariya 43 points 3 years ago
I've been using systemwide adblock on all my electronics for years now so I forget that in app ads are a thing. But yeah, I see your point. They do offer a one time purchase to remove ads.
AbsolutelyNotCats 13 points 3 years ago
That still looks horrible
RIPandTERROR 1 point 3 years ago
Suggestions on adblock for system?
sirmanleypower 1 point 3 years ago
Use a pihole as your DNS server. Applies to all the devices in your network.
yamapikariya 1 point 3 years ago
Well for my phone I used RethinkDNS before I rooted it again. After rooting I use AdAway.
RaivoKulli 0 points 3 years ago
I just ditched apps that show ads so now I don't need a system wide adblock on my phone or computer. Ublock Origin in Firefox is enough
guywithadeathwish 17 points 3 years ago
It's strange, both on Sync for Reddit and Sync for Lemmy I've always seen the space for ads, but never an actual ad showing in that space. So I just get random black spaces between posts
dudewitbow 4 points 3 years ago
Sync on reddit also inserts ads in image gallerys i think.
guywithadeathwish 2 points 3 years ago
Pretty sure you're right there, Imgur galleries used to contain ads when viewed in Sync
vihil 11 points 3 years ago
from someone that used Connect before Sync was available: it works but feels like someone's hobby. lots of issues and quirks to work around. Sync is absolutely perfect and I wouldn't be using lemmy without it.
anonymous_bot 15 points 3 years ago
FWIW you can use list or compact view and it won't show ads (for now at least). Or just pay the pricey one-time fee to remove ads.
jballs 20 points 3 years ago
That must be why I've never seen ads. I see people bitch about it every time someone mentions Sync, but have literally never seen one. Also the dev is a bad ass. I've twice mentioned bugs in release threads and he's fixed them within a few minutes each time.
anonymous_bot 7 points 3 years ago
How much do you pay to remove ads in other apps? Serious question.
blackn1ght 3 points 3 years ago
I had to trawl through the cookie settings and manually disable every single option. After that I no longer see any ads, just a space where the ads should be. Annoying that I had to do that though, with Reddit Sync I'd paid a one off fee I think and never saw any ads.
I get it though. I think this app is the devs main job, and the user base is significantly smaller than what it was for Reddit so he's having to put ways in to recover some income.
blackn1ght 1 point 3 years ago
I could be mis-remembering but I think I did click that, but the "legitimate interest" options were still ticked?
usualsuspect191 70 points 3 years ago
Sync is the reason I left Reddit and joined Lemmy!
That said, the new pricing options scared me away (you can't tag users unless you get the super expensive one? Why? I used to be able to on the Reddit app) so I've been using Jerboa. It's not as good as Sync (maybe 80% as good, for my purposes at least), but it's free and getting better all the time.
usualsuspect191 10 points 3 years ago
You could add a little tag beside their username saying whatever you wanted it to. It was great if you found someone to be particularly helpful or knowledgeable about something and then would see them pop up in other places. I remember tagging that guy who really knew vacuums for e.g.. Or maybe there's some other little quirk. I've forgotten the username of the dude who didn't want to shit for three days here on Lemmy and definitely would've tagged them as such.
Now that I think about it, I remember seeing how many times I'd upvoted people beside their name too (was that in the app or an RES thing?) which is another nice little feature.
DoomBot5 6 points 3 years ago
For example, I had a tag labeled "don't click" for the guy on reddit that had that weird spinning Pikachu hyperlinked on the period at the end of his posts. That tag saved me from wasting so much time.
Justly0250 2 points 3 years ago
If only the developer of Relay had jumped to Lemmy as well.
AnActOfCreation 2 points 3 years ago
Thunder is the closest I've found to Relay!
usualsuspect191 2 points 3 years ago
Interesting, I might have to give that app a try!
BeigeAgenda 16 points 3 years ago
Even if I'm not using Sync, I am happy that Lemmy has a great app that draws Reddit users, and a smorgasbord of apps to choose from.
pivot_root 16 points 3 years ago
That's probably why people are mad. I've seen lots of comments to the effect of they don't want Redditors here because they'll "ruin" Lemmy.
Sync makes it harder for them to gatekeep.
Spliffman1 13 points 3 years ago path: 0 3592924 3599466 3600523 3601560, hotness: undefined, score: 13, children: 1
pivot_root 6 points 3 years ago
As a former Redditor myself, I'm not going to be able to answer that question. I do agree, though: users don't magically come out of nowhere.
BruceTwarzen 8 points 3 years ago
I wish i could lot in on sync...
DoomBot5 3 points 3 years ago
Heck, lemmy is barely supported. The dev just bootstrapped the lemmy API into the reddit app and published it as a beta. We were all happy for that, but it will be a while before it's a polished lemmy app.
burgundymyr 2 points 3 years ago
I'm not mad, I just prefer open source software that doesn't collect my data. What are your favorite things about sync that I can't get with Jereboa?
echo64 9 points 3 years ago
If you aren't the kind of person that says things along the lines of Sync is bad because it has an ad supported version which is optional but it shouldn't be optional for some reason, then we aren't talking about you.
to answer your question, sync has a nice and modern user interface that is enjoyable to spend your time with.
Jerboa is... functional, Sync has design and thought behind its interactions and user experience. If that's okay with you, then that's fine. But I wasn't happy there.
Deftdrummer 51 points 3 years ago
Sync is great... Lemmy as a whole? Lots of work to do. Shit is pretty stagnant around here.
raevn 34 points 3 years ago
Like Lemmy is to Reddit, FOSS clients are to paid alternatives.
The only way I can see to stay clear of business practices I don't like is to support the FOSS model.
I'm not saying Sync isn't a good client, or that the dev has anything other than the best intersts of his users in mind, it's that at any point a decision can be made which you have no control over. Service models for software, for example, very rarely seems to be in the users interests.
Give the FOSS clients a shot, they are also constantly improving!
thanksforallthefish 27 points 3 years ago
I installed both Jerboa and Liftoff and ended up on Sync.
I run Linux and 99% foss software on PC and same on phone.
Sync was the only android client I tried that was usable. The keyboard bug in jerboa was maddening
rainerloeten 8 points 3 years ago
You could try out Eternity. It's a fork of Infinity for Reddit and has great UI/UX design. Though not using latest M3 design guidelines it's lightyears ahead of Liftoff, Thunder, etc. imo (which I couldn't stand personally - tastes vary ofc!)
You can get Eternity from F-droid when you enable the IzzyDroid Repository (included in droid-ify, a much better fdroid client than the official one)
JustEnoughDucks 2 points 3 years ago
Just installed it. Long time infinity user, now a jerboa user after the switch.
Eternity looks great! The biggest issues I had with other apps is the unchangable Instagram layout where even with a log phone I can see maybe 1 post at a time. Then I also like seeing the community icon to know where the post is.
Compacter comments where you can easily see levels, but it doesn't load every child comment all the time at once. Both jerboa and eternity are the only FOSS apps that fit that bill 😊
WashedOver 3 points 3 years ago
I was similar with Jerboa first then Sync despite being mostly a Bacon user at Reddit. I tried Sync just before the Hoopla started.
I found the sensitive swipe gestures of Jerboa difficult as there was no way to turn them off so when Sync came along it became the default for me as the swipe features don't cause as issue for me.
mouth_brood 1 point 3 years ago
I'm android and went through about 1 month of switching between clients to find the one I liked the most. Connect was the winner for me. Multiple accounts, hide read, good default UI amongst a handful of other things
burgundymyr 0 points 3 years ago
What keyboard bug? I haven't run into it, and I've been using it for months.
ichbinjasokreativ 4 points 3 years ago
idk if the other commenter experienced the same bug as I did, but for me, deleting characters in the comment text box would also delete the last space. So, for example, if I typed "idk if the other commenzr", and I started deleting the 'r' and then 'z', the text would turn into ""idk if the othercommen". It would just keep going like that. Otherwise Jerboa is fantastic though, but it get's annoying fast.
thanksforallthefish 1 point 3 years ago
Yeah that's the one
thanksforallthefish 2 points 3 years ago
If you type a word then backspace to correct spelling it removes the space from the word before it. Basically smooshing everything together
chaircat 14 points 3 years ago
it's that at any point a decision can be made which you have no control over
This is true for any software you didn't write. Plenty of FOSS software has gone in directions I didn't like.
The only real difference is whether decision makers have a profit motive. That's important, but that said, it's not everything.
Neve8028 5 points 3 years ago
That's really not a valid argument for 99% of users. I'm not going to fork FOSS software because I'm an adult and have a full time job. I don't have the time to learn about the inner workings of the software to fix it. Most users are less tech savvy than myself, anyways. Saying "just fork it and fix it to your liking" to the average person is not realistic.
raevn 1 point 3 years ago
If you're not happy with the software there's a good chance others are also dissatisfied and van make the chage, this happens all the time. Perhaps some of them are children without a full time job and don't mind spending time understanding something ;-) The point I'm making is that the users of the software have an additional option not available to closed source software.
siipale -4 points 3 years ago
But switching clients means wasting your time learning a different app and getting used to different UI. I wouldn't like to switch from Connect at this point even though it's a bit buggy so I think client does matter a lot. Reddit APIcalypse was all about clients and if I didn't care about the client I would still use Reddit with RedReader. Or if I cared even less I would use Reddit app.
FooBarrington 7 points 3 years ago
But I can always use an older APK, at which point I do have control over the changes. I can even inject custom code if I really want to - some people are still using Sync for Reddit with their own API keys.
FooBarrington 4 points 3 years ago
Yes, if I choose to stay on a specific version, I'll be stuck on that version.
And you're stuck with potential security issues/missing regulatory chages, lack of new features....
But you have the same issue with FOSS apps if they change something I don't want. If you choose to stay on a specific version, you will also be stuck with potential security issues/missing regulatory changes and a lack of new features.
krayj 32 points 3 years ago
Jerboa used to hilariously break every time it was updated if your home instance was even a minor-sub-dot version number behind absolute latest. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough. Connect and Liftoff are both great clients, I just happen to like Sync more. But, I do still keep Liftoff installed beccause it's got some outstanding diagnostic tools if you are trying to see all pieces of data related to a post or comment.
n2burns 11 points 3 years ago
I'm pretty sure it's been months since that was an issue on Jerboa. I wouldn't say Jerboa is rock solid, but it's my app of choice. However, as a longtime Sync for Reddit user, I'm happy to see Sync gaining traction. The more the merrier!
krayj 4 points 3 years ago
It may have been rock-solid in the last few months since, but back when they were having their version numbering issues, I was a very new lemmy user and didn't understand what the problem was (not that I should have had to)- the only thing I knew at the time was that other clients that I'd just learned about somehow didn't have the same finicky version number problems as jerboa. It kind of wrecked my entire new-lemmy-user experience - especially since (as far as I know) Jerboa is kind of the semi-official client for Lemmy - it doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles baked into more robust 3rd party clients - it just needs to be rock solid and run reliably as its only job, and it failed.
Phantaminum 3 points 3 years ago
I have been using jerboa since 3 months ago when I found lemmy. It has worked fin for me!
n2burns 2 points 3 years ago
When Jerboa was having their version number problems, all of Lemmy was having version numbering problems! I couldn't access certain instances because the version number was incompatible with the version number of the instance I am on, Two-Factor broke on a version upgrade, it was a mess. Lemmy wasn't really ready for the Reddit exodus, and neither was Jerboa.
krayj 5 points 3 years ago
When Jerboa was having their version number problems, all of Lemmy was having version numbering problems
Well, not really. This was JUST a problem for Jerboa. There were some other 3rd party apps available for Lemmy and they didn't suffer from the same problems. In fact, it wasn't even a technical limitation of Jerboa itself... if you had previously installed and configured Jerboa when the instance version and the jerboa version matched, and then upgraded your jerboa app when your instance didn't upgrade their version, it magically worked. The problem was when you installed Jerboa fresh and tried connecting it to a slightly outdated instance version - or if you wrecked yourself by clearing your jerboa cache/data folder without realizing that it would behave like it was starting fresh and break. The problem was solely in over-aggressive version checking during Jerboa startup....a total rookie mistake.
That's about the time that half of all Lemmy users suddenly learned about the availability of some competing apps that didn't have the same problems.
ichbinjasokreativ 5 points 3 years ago
Privacy. Sync includes Google trackers, whereas other apps for lemmy do not. I get it though, gotta make money somehow. Still, I'd rather use something else and donate to the dev on occasion.
mojo 11 points 3 years ago
Same, dev said end of August, but that didn't happen. The guy isn't very fast, but he is a solo dev and the end result is pretty good so it doesn't bother me that much. I'm enjoying Sync in the meantime.
cdegallo 18 points 3 years ago
I used Sync with Reddit, so it was a very natural transition for lemmy.
But I also noticed that between it, Connect, and Jerboa, it's the only one that has smooth scrolling in the comments. Connect and Jerboa are really janky even scrolling comments.
sarcasticsunrise 18 points 3 years ago
Sync is definitely my main, with Liftoff being my backup QB. Liftoff is last though?? Really? I don't get that, I think it's pretty great
xusontha 5 points 3 years ago
There are a lot of results under this you can see at https://strawpoll.com/wby5A21R1yA, I just took a screenshot on my phone and that's what fit and didn't feel like doing a really long screenshot lol
Liftoff is pretty great though, I used it as my primary for a while and still use it occasionally
ichbinjasokreativ 16 points 3 years ago
Sync seems great, but it has three Google trackers included, so I'm not using it. Jerboa, Connect and Voyager are great, but they all have some downsides. My keyboard is weird in Jerboa, Connect does not allow me to sort by subscribed and Voyager's comment-upvote system is a bit clunky, being hidding behind another tap. Also, Voyager's UI generally looks like it's made for iPhone, which is not what I'm looking for. But for the moment I'll stick with it.
RalphFurley 4 points 3 years ago
I have the Duck Duck Go app for Android and it has a tracker blocker feature. It has to utilize a local VPN though , so if you use a VPN you can't use that at the same time. But, the app blocks known trackers for all apps. I love it
notnotmike 2 points 3 years ago
Just downloaded Voyager to give it a try, and there's an "Androud UI" toggle in the settings
ichbinjasokreativ 1 point 3 years ago
You're right!
xusontha 18 points 3 years ago
!asklemmy@lemmy.ml, which according to lemmyverse.net is the biggest community on Lemmy so it shouldn't have too much bias
Edit: for some reason lemmyverse.net doesn't show every instance, browse.feddit.de shows it as the third biggest which doesn't change much but still
yata 1 point 3 years ago
lemmy.world has 3 times the amount of users as lemmy.ml. Also lemmy.ml has an application process for becoming a registered user, so there definitely is some kind of bias as to who is registered there.
xusontha 3 points 3 years ago
You do know the difference between communities and instances, right? And you do know how federation works, right? Also, based on where you look, !asklemmy@lemmy.ml is either the largest or one of the three largest communities on lemmy, so I don't think there's much bias in there
synapse1278 15 points 3 years ago
Hello, i am curious to know where you have published the poll to collect responces, as it could wildly influence the result. Which instances, communities, external sites?
pomodoro_longbreak 3 points 3 years ago
It was a "straw poll" (some external poll website) that was posted earlier somewhere around here. I remember voting on it
TheWoozy 15 points 3 years ago
I've got several of these installed and I keep finding myself using liftoff. It's not perfect, but it let's me combine my subscriptions from several accounts into one view. I like that a lot & don't see that option in the other apps.
SnipingNinja 2 points 3 years ago
Seeing as you're asking this all over the thread, I have a feature request: can we get poll embed? Assuming strawpoll has an API (or if it's possible on the client side without an API or much of a performance hit)
can 2 points 3 years ago
It allows me to browse an everything feed from multiple accounts.
Therefore for example I could get my beehaw communities in my feed with this account's too and when I open a post to comment it just pulls and submits from the appropriate account.
So for example if it was a submission from lemmy.world it would be pulled from my sh.itjust.works account and would submit my comments from there but a beehaw post would do the same from my Beehaw account without having to actually manually switch between accounts.
I'm not explaining it well. Just get an alt account that's defederated from lemmy.world and try for yourself.
burgundymyr 12 points 3 years ago
It's crazy to me how small the Jereboa usage is. It didn't collect or share data and has a great interface. What are these other apps giving that makes you want to use them? Genuinely curious on what I'm missing out on.
257m 7 points 3 years ago
App seems nice and I have no complaints with it but it's not FOSS and it has ads. It would be cool if there were easy ways to make revenue off of FOSS that dosen't rely on donations so I understand why it would be proprietary.
theragu40 11 points 3 years ago
I used Jerboa until Sync came out.
I liked it fine, no specific complaints I guess except that there was a lot of "jank" for lack of a better word. It just behaved weirdly sometimes, would be unstable, and had odd interfaces for certain tasks.
I would not actively recommend against it, but Sync came along and felt like someone refined Jerboa. It was an easy and natural switch.
fuck_u_spez_in_particular 8 points 3 years ago
Yes this is my main complaint too with Jerboa, scrolling just feels sluggy, I tried to look into the issue/source-code, but couldn't find the source of it. When Sync came out, everything was buttery smooth and I was sold (though I'm not the biggest fan of the interface, maybe I'll switch to an open-source client again, when there's a more robust less sluggish client again).
nudnyekscentryk 9 points 3 years ago
I mostly use Sync but keep Jerboa installed and every so often play with it as well. They are very similar, but Sync feels more fluent and polished, Jerboa has this "Android 2.1" feel to it
GyozaPower 7 points 3 years ago
Well, "great interface" is debatable. It is decent, but far from being comparable to Sync. It feels like an Android app that hasn't received a UI update in quite a bunch of years.
sygnius 1 point 3 years ago
I tried Jerboa and Connect after the Red exodus. They were both alright, but it was still too different from the RIF app that I used on Red. Sync really closed the gap, and feels almost indistinguishable from RIF now.
Trollivier 8 points 3 years ago
When I left reddit, I tried Jerboa for lemmy. Honestly, if Sync didn't become available some time later, I would definitely not be here.
RadButNotAChad 6 points 3 years ago
I use connect because it feels the closest to RiF.
ZambiblasianOgre 52 points 3 years ago
Well yeah, that's generally how polls work.
xusontha 32 points 3 years ago
Well it was more like 4-5k and it is most likely a fair representation of overall users, as it was asked in a general community which is one of the largest and the percentage stayed around the same the whole time
Illecors -2 points 3 years ago
I don't want to be a dick. All I'm saying is running such a poll is tricky as time of day as well as day of the week will impact the results drastically. Add to that the type of audience and then you've got massive skew.
Spliffman1 2 points 3 years ago path: 0 3591849 3591920 3595073 3601762, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
dezmd -4 points 3 years ago
What general community on what instance?
There is no way this poll provides a realistic sentiment thats anything but a pulled out of thin air guess.
Does the poll verbiage differentiate if I have Sync but use Liftoff far more at the moment?
xusontha 2 points 3 years ago
This poll was originally shared in !asklemmy@lemmy.ml then in !voyagerapp@lemmy.world. Given how one of them is one of the 3 largest communities on the Lemmy network and the other is a community for another app, I would say those communities probably aren't biased. There wasn't even a link to the poll on this post until seven hours after this post was created, which was after most of the engagement with this post.
The poll asks for which client(s) you mainly use and has the opportunity for multiple, so 25-30ish percent of 4.5k people (1.8k people) voted that Sync is one of their main clients. That doesn't mean they don't use multiple, but it does mean it is by far the largest client used by people in general, even if everyone uses multiple (which I do)
dezmd -3 points 3 years ago
How about a link to the polls directly?
What time of day? how long was the poll up?
This is not a well done poll based on the (lack of) details about it. This is just an arbitrary survey of a small microcosm of users. Making statements like '25%' of Lemmy users are using Sync based on this poll, true or not, is a false conclusion from a limited data set.
/waves poor statstical probabilities around like an old man cane
HotsauceHurricane 4 points 3 years ago
I just started using avelon and boy, is it swell.
donescobar 10 points 3 years ago
Memmy is the most popular on iOS, there are others that are solid but I’ve seen a hard push to monetize them already.
MightyWeaksauce 7 points 3 years ago
I like Memmy a lot. Few bells and whistles but the experience is clean and stream lined with no ads.
acceptable_pumpkin 1 point 3 years ago
Just hoping it gets updated again. Development was fast and furious, then it just stopped.
acceptable_pumpkin 0 points 3 years ago path: 0 3591818 3592494 3593319 3593438 3600636, hotness: undefined, score: 0, children: 0
Spliffman1 8 points 3 years ago path: 0 3598420 3603005, hotness: undefined, score: 8, children: 2
Spliffman1 2 points 3 years ago path: 0 3598420 3603005 3604154 3606427, hotness: undefined, score: 2, children: 0
The_Picard_Maneuver 5 points 3 years ago
That's impressive!
RaulitoElLobito 5 points 3 years ago
Boost for lemmy is now out, might wanna redo that poll.
mayonaise_met 5 points 3 years ago
I use Sync now but it's just not quite RIF. I'm sorry.
Three Cheers for Tildes is closer (same dev) but Lemmy is a bit busier.
TheMadnessKing 4 points 3 years ago
How is Photon UI not included in the poll? Photon is a a web UI and is so much better than current web UI.
TheMadnessKing 5 points 3 years ago
Oops. Missed it.
poissonDistribution 4 points 3 years ago
I'm still using liftoff.
poissonDistribution 5 points 3 years ago
Yes. Laziness.
mintiefresh 3 points 3 years ago
Everybody is eating well with this rich ecostystem of apps.
Sync for life as well xD
itsdavetho 3 points 3 years ago
You can all welcome Boost for Lemmy now too!
shortwavesurfer 3 points 3 years ago
I really like Thunder personally.
whereBeWaldo 2 points 3 years ago
Same here, I thought it was a lot more popular tbh but I guess thats not the case
xusontha 3 points 3 years ago
See if you can find the APK I guess, but if you want a similar experience try checking out the pwa/the actual site for phtn.app, it's a web client for Lemmy that's similar in style to Sync but has more features (I think)
xusontha 5 points 3 years ago
This poll was originally shared in !asklemmy@lemmy.ml then in !voyagerapp@lemmy.world. Given how one of them is one of the 3 largest communities on the Lemmy network and the other is a community for another app, I would say those communities probably aren't biased. There wasn't even a link to the poll on this post until seven hours after this post was created, which was after most of the engagement with this post.
Maybe the percentage is high because it's a good app a lot of people use
syncforlemmy
@lemmy.world
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Welcome to Sync for Lemmy!
Welcome to the official Sync for Lemmy community.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Community Rules
1- No advertising or spam.
All types of advertising and spam are restricted in this community.
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syncforlemmy
@lemmy.world
16479
755
25
👀
Welcome to Sync for Lemmy!
Welcome to the official Sync for Lemmy community.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Community Rules
1- No advertising or spam.
All types of advertising and spam are restricted in this community.
Community Credits
Artwork and community banner by: @MargotRobbie@lemmy.world
go to feed...
After reading this I decided to try it out. Within 5 posts there were ads. No thanks, I'll stick with Connect.
Edit: I was scrolling everything and replied. I didn't see this was in the official community. My opinion doesn't matter in here. I think it's great that sync is successful and I hope it continues. So yea, keep on keeping on.
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