Boost for Lemmy is now live

Some of y'all have no appreciation for independent app developers
I'll take my downvote now
- Really, it's cool that some want to make their apps for free with no ads, but I'll support devs who put in hard work to make a good app, it's ridiculous to think that they don't deserve some sort of compensation.
- The same behavior happened when sync came out. Endless complaints about an app being from on app store with the option to pay the hard working developer for their work.
  Do they go on public transit complaining that see ads there too? At least when you pay for the app the ads go away forever.
  
  Sync launched with a subscription, and only after the kickback from that did it add a one time charge option. An option priced much higher than Boost, by the way.
  People were right to push back on that.
  Also, the public transit example doesn't fit here. If I paid for the bus with my bus fare, or through my taxes, yes, being upset about the ads would be ok, because I already paid for the service. Same way I wouldn't appreciate ads in the backseat of an Uber.
  
  I don’t really complain about seeing ads in apps i didn’t pay for, but I do complain about seeing ads on public transit and in the world in general. I don’t want the world plastered with ads.
  Hell they’re on the motorways here which seems ludicrous.
- Is boost not developed by an independent developer?
  
  It is
- Not having read anything else, I'm guessing ads
- I think you're confusing "independent" with "works for free."
  I haven't switched at this point because Connect works well for me, but people's work has value.

Instantly bought the ads removal, Boost was THE reddit app for me. I'm stoked to see it for Lemmy.

It's like coming back home <3
- yep, just finished setting it up. really excited

My first ad:
- Fuck why would anyone use this over FOSS apps that dont spread google adware/spyware
  
  Because it's not a choice of FOSS or not, it's a in choice of quality of the app. Apps like Jerboa or Thunder are very far behind Sync and Boost. But if you enjoy those, then more power to you, and definitely no reason to switch.
  
  Because after a $3.49 payment, I never see ads again and this app is noticeably better than the Lemmy apps I've been stuck with until now.
  
  I was just more amused that it was an Adblock ad. It's a pity it is relying on hassling you with ads to get you to pay as I'd happily chip if to help with the development of an app I was enjoying.

I'm shocked and impressed with how much this reminds me of 2022 Reddit. I went cold turkey after the API changes, but installing this and setting up my old theme has been astounding.
Will I give up my FOSS Jerboa for this? I very well might
- I can barely tell them apart, if it wasn't for the @instance.tld they're visually identical!
  
  I've always used the column view for posts and Jerboa did not have that. This felt like coming back home

Dear lord, finally. Something compact, simple, without needless wasted space.
Honest to god right angles.
I've found my permanent Lemmy app.
- What the hell, look at your messages or something 😅
  
  I use reddit/lemmy like a forum. I'll go back to the thread and see the responses later when I feel like it. Stopped looking at my inbox in 2016, no regrets.
  Incidentally, redditors that don't want to turn on mobile notifications are probably going to have to start doing that too, given what they just did to the reddit app.
- This is identical to Jerboa
  
  Pretty sure I saw somewhere the devs took inspiration from Boost for their UI
- How do I make this image you linked bigger? Tapping on it doesn't make it full screen and holding it closes the comment.

Based dev put all controversial and conflicting instances together in the default list.

I'm using Voyager, but giving Boost some attention. We will see which I like better... I didn't like Sync or Jerboa much.
- Try Connect or Liftoff
  
  Connect is incredibly laggy for me, it's code needs some optimization, it's closed source because the dev himself admitted the codebase is a mess.
  Liftoff's ui is just not intuitive, like, at all.
- still using Jerboa since I joined up, and I'm so used to it now that other apps just feel off. I was a rif user in the before-times, and jerboa has the same kind of stripped-down vibe I'm comfortable with

Seeing a lot of complaints about the lack of swiping to upvote/downvote. Which is just hysterical to me because it's just a tap on boost for the vote controls, which is less movement.
- How is two taps, the second needing to be precise less movement than one general swipe?
- Same, I never liked swipe controls. Using Sync the last little bit, I would always accidentally save things when scrolling.
  
  Swiping gestures are generally annoying imo. I also find them a lot more prone to accidents
- It's not about reducing movement, it's about 1-handability when you're holding your phone in the other hand and can't reach across for an upvote. Sync sold me on it instantly when it finally came out.

Hello from boost!
- First comment from Boost!
  
  It's just so good.

Yes it is, I'm commenting on it right now. You can import all your app settings from the Reddit version of the app too, if you still have it installed, or you still have your config file lying around. It's what I have done so I have a pitch black theme lol.
- Not a glowing review that this is accidentally not a reply to a comment. :p

Today I was finally able to download Boost for Lemmy. It looks really good. I inmediately bought the ad-free version. There are still some key features missing: the ability to hide posts, the ability to open community links and when I logged in for the very first time, the app semi-crashed and everything went dark. I had to restart the app and log in again. But apart from that, I really like it.
- It also "crashed" and restarted for me on first boot, but has not done so again. Working nice and stable.

Yes! I've been waiting for this and it doesn't disappoint. SO good to have the Boost look and feel again 😀.
And the upgrade price is the best you'll find on any Lemmy app, it's great value. If you haven't paid for the app do it now.
I used Boost for Reddit for years, paid of course, and so paying for Boost for Lemmy is a no brainer.
For a 1.0 release it's great. Show Ruben the Dev that this is worth his time and pay to unlock today! 👍
- I'm on sync, but gave boost a try. Seems pretty good and the price is definitely better than sync~~. Is there am AMOLED dark mode? Couldn't find one.~~ Found AMOLED. Boost is looking pretty nice.
  
  You have to turn off dynamic color then can pick the AMOLED black theme.

Nice, but seems to lack swipe actions, otherwise I like it almost as much as Sync.

I miss the hide button near the bottom right of the screen. I love to remove all the read posts with a single button.

Nice! Installed and purchased the ad free version immediately.

Great news for Boost users! I'm still using Sync and Photon the most but love how many options there are for Lemmy.

Boost has been my favorite for a while and I've been waiting for this to make the switch. This is my first time using Lemmy. Instant rocket boost from me!

Using it right now. Feels smooth.

Used boost for reddit until that shut down, going to use boost for lemmy!

I'm brand new to Lemmy using boost now!
- Welcome!

Congrats @rmayayo@lemmy.world!

This finally got me in for reals. 🤠

I launched the rocket as soon as possible 🚀
However, two important functions on the Connect app work better. I've tried leaving comments for Boost dev.
Inbox does not clear when tapping ✔️✔️
Sidebar shows lists of instances and if there are any notifications for each instance
Hoping for some tweaks to Boost for those issues.
Otherwise the apps are extremely similar in function and customization. I'll continue to use Connect until those 2 features work.

You can't change the primary background color outside of theme presets? That means I can't make it dark and pink, which is a deal breaker when I have such a gorgeous Sync theme going. I'll keep it downloaded, though. There were things I liked about it for reddit. I may come back around.
- Sync's theming is unmatched
- FF6EC9?
  Asking for your theme

No thanks, I used to use boost for reddit and I loved it.
But now on lemmy, there are FOSS apps that are just as good I'd rather donate to.

I love Boost, I bought it for Reddit. However, I got used to Connect now. The swipe to upvote and hide are intuitive to me now.

I wish it had swipe to up vote and downvote but other than that I love the aesthetics.

We ballin

Restore purchase feature needs to be added, couldn't "rebuy" it on a second device.

I was a Boost for Reddir user, now I'm using wefwef. Works for me, not sure if I have a reason to go back to Boost.

The pricing is way more reasonable than sync. I'm still sticking with connect but at least this dev is not asking for much.
- Long term sustainability is going to be challenging. The Lemmy userbase is way smaller than reddit's regardless, and for 3.50 EUR one-off it will be challenging to cover future development efforts.
- Yeah, I'm still on Connect as well. At this point, I see no reason to change, despite being a Boost user for years with reddit.
  If it ain't broke...
  
  For me it just have too many bugs that aren't being fixed.
  Nothing major, just little annoying things like if you edit a comment it closes out of the thread. Or if you make a comment it scrolls to the top of the thread. Why?
  I've just tested it and boost doesn't do either of those things.
- Idk about you, but I paid less than the max it shows for the price in my country on the Play Store. It may be down to localised pricing or maybe I paid during some promotion.

Has anyone figured out how to change the default feed? I'm not subscribed to any communities, so I always open to a blank page before switching to all.
- Settings, general then subscriptions

I'm really happy with the interface to be honest, I was using Voyager up until now but Boost is my new go to!

And thus begins my journey into lemmy

Best app. I want it on iPhone.

the old app that still retains its old feature from Reddit that have been reborn and it is first Lemmy client that support widget. wow!!

I was waiting for this app to release before I even signed up to be honest!
- Welcome!
  
  Thank you:D

Thank shit lol. I'm a kbin guy so I'm still gonna wait a while for the kbin API to come out before I can use it with my main account, but at least its out and I can use it with a compatible one in the meantime! I left Sync for Boost (with Reddit lol) and I'm glad this is here now.

Just got it! Really happy that the developer made it. For some reason boost on reddit still works though.
It was nice to switch over to my preferred view that I have been using for years now.

First post from Boost for Lemmy! 👍

Been using it for a bit and it's exactly what I love to see from rmayayo! Stellar stuff!
- Some examples!
  Image uploads right to server!
  Photo uploads are what I've missed most. I hope a kbin API comes soon so he can add support for it as well.

Blessing from the lords

It looks exactly like Jerboa, but its smoother.
- I think it's the other way around: Jerboa takes heavy inspiration from how BaconReader and Boost worked. I remember a while back switching to Boost because it was basically BaconReader but better and more modern and more reliable. I was using BaconReader in like 2012. Boost for Reddit itself was launched in 2016 iirc.
- Jerboa was inspired by Boost

Like it so far, will save up rewards to get it ad-free

But cannot be used if you have 2fa set up on your lemmy account.
- Not sure what MFA provider you're using, but worked fine for my account with GAuth. Though, I'm currently trailing both Sync and Boost (the latter was my preferred reddit client)
  
  Theres nowhere to enter my code on the log in screen.

Using it now. It's great!

Excellent!

I'm so back

Alive as their abusive data collection.
- Saw that, isn't it strange to never have seen that from any other app then?
  
  Hey Ruben! Long time Boost user and I was wondering if there is a community for your lemmy app? I was active in the previous one :)
  Also, might I suggest a small addition for my favorite feature, the image uploading! To add alt text to images for accessibility.
  it's possibly to create image captions with a simple [reference image](reference.url) tag by adding ![reference image description/alt text](reference.url) and I could definitely see just a little extra space for adding it :)
  Here is the accessibility thread discussing it which will have better info: https://beehaw.org/post/686974
  Thanks for everything you do!!
- The dev has responded on that issue
  
  What did he say?

Source code?

Nice no privacy app.
- Don't be cheap and pay a few bucks. Disables all the tracking.
  
  Behold the sketchy invasive advertising platform I have selected with which to extort you.

Hard pass
- It's a one time purchase if you do purchase it
- It's not for everyone for sure especially if you're looking for something FOSS. I'd rather use a FOSS app, but it was my Reddit app of choice for a really long time and I'm happy to give the developer a one-time $3.50 purchase to have that experience back. I can barely tell I'm not on Reddit.
  Even if it's just a stopgap solution, I'm all for Reddit app developers porting to Lemmy. Right now the open-source Lemmy apps all lack a lot of polish, so having paid options that offers a more polished experience for people coming over from Reddit is a plus for the platform's engagement as a whole.
- Yikes. Yeah I'll stick with Voyager.
  
  Or pay the dude a couple dollars to disable any tracking and remove ads for life?
  Why are you FOSS nerds so against paying people for their work?