I do wonder why people are waiting and wanting these proprietary apps. Instead of using the open source ones more in the spirit of Lemmy and waiting for them to improve. These third party apps made sense for reddit since reddit was closed source and the official app was a pile of garbage whose only purpose was making people see as many ads as possible. But that's not true for Lemmy anymore, the official apps are already pretty nice and open source, so improvable by everyone (including Sync/Boost developers).
But I guess going from reddit to Lemmy is already a large break and people want to not have to change more than necessary. And Sync/Boost devs want to continue making money makes sense of course as well. I'm interested to see how all that goes.
because they are a lot more polished and feature complete. I come from boost, and use liftoff now, and I like it a lot, but there are still several things I don't like. I loved boost for its look and features, including the tons of settings that I set once and was perfect until the end.
I can only speak for myself here of course, but it doesn't matter to me if an app is open or closed source. What matters is having a nice experience. I am currently very happy with Liftoff and I didn't even know it was open source.
If another app comes along with new or better features, I will try it out and maybe even switch, regardless of whether it is closed or open source. And if they have an attractive pay model for interesting features, why not?
We need to see how it all plays out. What about the Lemmy instances themselves? Especially the larger ones need to make money too. Can they survive solely on donations like Wikipedia, or do they have to run ads at some point in the future?
I think people feel some sort of allegiance to the devs too. I loved boost when I was on reddit. It was a smooth, user friendly app. People compare stable boost/sync to unstable alpha lemmy apps. They don't realize that boost and sync will have growing pains too.
For me, it was how amazing Sync's navigation was. I found myself trying to use Sync's gestures in other apps--they're THAT intuitive and reliable. I'm honestly surprised Google or Apple haven't poached the developer to work on making the UIs of their built-in apps work more consistently.
For now wefwef is really good and does everything I need this type of app to do (mainly adjustable font sizes for my old man eyes with a minimalist interface which I prefer over the information overload that most seem to prefer, different strokes and all).
What's the offical Android app for Lemmy? I've only tried the web app on Lemmy.world which has a pretty awful UI.
Jerboa
"Devs want to continue making money"
What's was the revenue stream with reddit? Was it all donation based or was it like a Boost/Boost Pro model.
Oh no, they made loads of money. I hate to quote spez the fuckwad: https://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ceo-app-founders-apollo-riff-made-millions-using-api-2023-6?r=US&IR=T
No dev was talking against that, so i guess that point is correct.
Apollo made 500k a year alone from subscriptions, i have no clue what they've paid for the API prior though, but these guys are loaded.
I'm not absolutely sure, but I think it was ad banners for free users and a possibility to remove ads with a one-time fee.
I'll have the open source, thx
I thought Sync for Lemmy was going to be open source... Or was that just wishful thinking by the user community?
Wishful thinking.
I think the difference here is that we know the interface and trusted developer choices of those apps.
I'm currently using Connect for Lemmy right now and I'm still excited for Sync because I've used it for years.
But each update for Connect so far has been extremely good with quite a few features added. It's also incredibly straightforward to use. So at this point I'm curious how Sync will step into the ring.
Hell, it could have all the same features as Connect, but add previewing with a hold and that'd be an amazing thing for compressing posts. But also Sync can cater to left-handed people like me with its customization.
You've described the exact situation I find myself in: long-time Sync user, using Connect (and honestly enjoying and appreciating it) but anxiously awaiting Sync for Lemmy.
Yeah, Thunder is FOSS and is working great ....
It's been neat seeing the subtle UI changes and seeing new features get added in. Thunder may end up being my daily driver.
Can't wait for the Boost app!! It was such a great Reddit app, so I'm eagerly awaiting the Lemmy version.
I've been waiting for Boost, but Liftoff is so good I'll be tempted to keep using it even after Boost its available.
I've actually been super pleased with Liftoff so far of the 3 apps I've been using. I feel like Sync would have to bring a lot more to the table for me to switch at this point. Though, I am excited to see what new things each developer will bring to the realm.
I'm waiting for Boost, but so far Jerboa has been great, I might keep using it even after Boost comes out, we'll see.
Boost for me.
Connect is awesome, but I am just so used to the UI and way Boost for Reddit works. When Boost for Lemmy is out, I will feel at home.
I also find that Jerboa and Connect are both great apps, but the features are fragmented across them (connect needs jumping between comments with volume keys!). Where Boost is the best of both worlds.
Idk why, but i found wefwef after trying jerboa, thunder, and liftoff and somehow wefwef is the only one i found great in UX. Been an infinity user before and wefwef only improved upon that.
Wefwef (Voyager now??) Is much better than infinity imo such a sleek app🥰
I am really loving thunder as i am strongly reminded of redreader
I just find Boost's design very very appealing. I would go as far as saying its my favorite Android App in General. I don't really care if its not FOSS. I don't use Lemmy because its FOSS but because Reddit sucks now. But I have to say wefwef is also very clean.
