Recently I installed all the Lemmy apps I could find, and started using them. Every time I came across a problem, I made a note of it and used that as a benchmark to rate all the other apps. All apps had issues, some annoying, some severe, some catastrophic. In the end, I sorted my app list by score and uninstalled all those that I could live without. I was left with only two apps: Bean and Thunder. Voyager and Liftoff are also pretty, good, but not quite as good as the two I use now.
Bean is exactly what I want out of a lemmy app. I’ve been using it since TestFlight launch and every missing feature I’ve requested has been added. Feels so good to use!
I think Bean has a bright future ahead of it. It’s clearly the bast app for me, but it’s not quite perfect yet. I’m happy with all the features except two:
When I go to my inbox and tap a reply, I’m taken to to a part of the thread that’s approximately correct in a short thread. If the thread is long, it’s getting harder and harder to find the spot where that comment actually is. Once this gets fixed I no longer need the keep Thunder on my phone.
The community grouping isn’t ready yet. It’s a very promising feature, but in its current state it just isn’t good enough yet. I’m really looking forward to seeing it improve in future updates.
I started with Mlem, then Memmy, tried Thunder, Limbo, the Voyager web app. The new Voyager app definitely seems the most polished. I will say though, a new discovery and my primary lately has been Avelon. It is buttery smooth and many options in the settings. One that was missing from Apollo was the “mark above as read” option for posts, which is present on this app.
Thanks for the suggestion. I am trying it out now and it seems pretty solid. I’m not sure the customization features are worth a subscription yet for me, but if they end up adding moderator functions, that might make it my new favorite.
I’ve tried a few, but for now Voyager seems the best (and the most identical to Apollo). Yet, not a single one has my favourite Apollo feature, which was to share (chains of) comments as pictures. I think the first one who gets this right, is the one I’ll settle with (⌐■_■)
Kind of a shameless plug, but you could have a look at !lemma.
The ‘Share as Image’ feature is still work in progress, it doesn’t handle very long threads that well yet, but overall I think it’s working quite well already.
I pushed a new release yesterday, once that’s approved by Apple I will announce (and share) the public TestFlight link!
That form is indeed closed, but it was for the initial closed beta. As soon as Apple approves the newly uploaded version I will make it a public beta and share the link so that anybody can join.
Here is a shameless plug for my own Lemmy app Arctic. It’s not left TestFlight just yet, but it hopefully will soon. It’s a pure Swift based app built with performance and content presentation in mind.
Hey, downloaded and tested for a bit, looks brilliant!
Will there be an option to move the compact images to the right? My wee thumb struggles reaching over the phone to the left and I prefer it to the card look.
Yes, I’ll definitely add that option in. I actually broke a few things with the compact cells while working on some performance optimization yesterday, so I have some work to do on those anyway. I was also planning to add a medium cell option as well.
This will all be included in v0.2.1 which should be out within a couple of days.
Thank you for checking Arctic out, and for the suggestion.
I just tried it, and at first look, it seems great!
There’s one thing that I need to use it long term, and that’s a way to collapse comments to get to the next parent. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s a button or a swipe, as long as there’s a way to skip out of a long comment chain and get to the next parent.
I implemented collapsible comment chains in v0.2.1 which should be out within the next day or two. I added settings as well to choose between (tap|swipe|both|disabled) for the feature. I’ve been testing it for a few days and it seems to be working great.
I’m also working on a feature to automatically collapse low score chains when opening a post, though that needs some work and likely won’t be included in this next release.
My pleasure. I’m really excited for the next release. I have a bunch of new features, enhancements, and fixes in this release that should make the app as a whole, feel more polished.
Depends on the app. Mlem is native, and Voyager is a web view app wrapper. But Voyager definitely doesn’t feel like a web view. It was written to feel like a native app, I’m really impressed. And that’s coming from someone who generally hates web apps.
Did they actually re-code the whole thing to make it native? You can ship a web app via the app store just fine. Only making changes to take advantage of the better system access that provides.
A web app doesn’t magically turn into a native app when you put it on the app store. The way it gets installed, and the system access is different, and better for stuff like notifications…
But the word “native” refers to applications made using the native SDK, which in Apple’s case is Swift. I’d be extremely impressed if the devs re-wrote the entire app in new code. But that would be unnecessary.
You can have non-native apps on the app store. A lot of your apps probably aren’t native. SDKs like flutter, used by liftoff and thunder, make development much easier in exchange for the resulting application running a bit less efficiently. Flutter applications can also run on both Android and iOS, and even desktop, with little additional work.
I used Mlem for a while on TestFlight, while it was good, it didn’t feel great to use, mostly just because of how sensitive the swipe left and right menus were. Voyager feels almost exactly like Apollo for Reddit, so it’s been my main app of choice
Definitely! Having a working and easily accessible app will absolutely help boost Lemmy in popularity, just because a lot of people, including myself will just launch the app and browse for a bit if they’re bored
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