Free and Open Source Software @beehaw.org ericjmorey @beehaw.org 2y ago

UPDATED: There are now multiple iOS / Android apps in development for kbin & lemmy!

More up to date and more detailed information at: https://beehaw.org/post/683217

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/71764

The amount of apps being developed for iOS / Android is getting really crazy now and new apps keep popping up every day. Updated list below:

Artemis (iOS, Android, kbin, lemmy): link

Memmy (iOS, lemmy): link

Mlem (iOS, lemmy): link

Morpha (iOS, lemmy): link

Thunder (iOS, Android, lemmy): link

Beyond (iOS, Android, lemmy): link

Limbo (iOS, Android, lemmy): link

Jerboa (Android, lemmy): link

Slide (Android, lemmy): link

Sync (Android, lemmy): link

Unnamed (kbin): link

Most apps on the list are lemmy apps, meaning they don't work with kbin. Artemis is specifically designed to work with kbin, not sure if or when any of the other ones will go in that direction or become interoperable as there are some challenges with the kbin API at the moment. Having said that, a new API is in the works (https://codeberg.org/Kbin/kbin-core/pulls/357) so things should get better with time. Some of the apps are in very early stage of development so it may happen that they adjust OS availability and platform support.

See info in table format with more details:
https://beehaw.org/post/697419

63 comments

Shameless plug (sorry) but I'm working on one too! It's a web app that works on both desktop and mobile: https://slemmy.libdb.so.

It is a free-time kind of project (I work on it after my actual working hours), so it might not grow at the same pace as other newer apps, but I'm trying!

Source code is at https://libdb.so/slemmy, AGPLv3 license.
It is real nice to see how lemmy/kbin, and activitypub in general, is progressing. It kinda.. gives me a bit of hope for the future? Either way, am happy :D
!remindeme

...

Oh...

That's right...

Who ran that bot anyway?
- Somebody get the StabBot guy, too.
lol I'm in the Slide screenshot, hi mom!
- celebrity of the century!
- The slide for Lemmy makes me sooo happy. My mouth is hanging open and I'm just... I cannot freaking wait!! Thank you 🙏
  
  Oh I'm not the author I just have a post on the screenshot. I'm excited to, I want to slay Slide was the first client I tried over a decade ago!
Genuinely did not expect to see Slide on here, now I'm all excited.
One more: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuroneko.lemmy_connect&hl=en_CA&gl=US -- Connect for Lemmy see !lemmyconnect@lemmy.ca

Developer: @kuro_neko@lemmy.ca

Announcement: beehaw.org/post/831266
- The announcement link is a 404
  
  I think this one should work https://lemmy.ca/post/831266
https://kbin.social/m/mlemapp@lemmy.ml/t/74581/Goodbye-everyone
So many developers working on apps for Lemmy. I hope there are just as many dedicated individuals interested in improving Lemmy's source itself.
Gratitude to anyone working on any of these apps. I mean, that is very cool of you to do. We appreciate.
I’m working on a native iOS app called Olympus too(‘: it’s built with all the new SDKs Apple gave us for iOS 17 (meaning only those on the iOS 17 beta will be able to use it). I should have a TestFlight link up by Monday, doing some final smoke testing this weekend before I let all you users try and break it
- Please post a comment to https://beehaw.org/post/683217
- Would love a testflight link once it's up, I'm on iOS 17 Dev Beta.
- Running iOS 17 now and using the web app (vlemmy.net). Send me a link when you’re ready.
Hold on a sec. Slide is actually happening?! I've literally wished for it a day or two ago, expecting nothing!

This just made my day :)
- Right?!? I didn't think anyone else loved Slide. I'm so damned excited!!
I'm glad that we have so many talented developers interested in kbin/Lemmy! Keep up the great work!
Excited to use sync with Lemmy, it's been my main Reddit app for the better part of a decade
- Same here, what a polished experience. I'm glad I found Lemmy.. otherwise I'd be settling for using the garbage official Reddit app.
I’ve been using Mlem and Memmy. I started out liking Mlem more, but Memmy has really been cranking out new versions lately.
- Same here and today the Mlem app has disappeared from my TestFlight list. Another thing worth noting is that Memmy works on my iPad mini. Mlem doesn’t. At least not correctly.
  
  Okay so I wasn’t the only one who noticed it’s gone from TestFlight. Wonder why?
- Same here. I think Memmy has improved drastically over the last week or so. Well done to the dev(s?), it’s become my daily driver.
Thank you! Bookmarking right now.

Mlem is no longer on testflight, they just announced a change in leadership, so hopefully it continues with development. Seems like it will, given their announcement: https://beehaw.org/post/693759
- That’s strange. I just received an update overnight for Mlem on TestFlight. Maybe it’s just closed to new registrations? IMO it is the most polished of the iOS apps.
  
  It was his last update before changing leadership. IDK what the status will be after that.
  
  Just tried Limbo, though, and loving it!
Reddit posts on lemmy via RSS, multiple clients blooming, nodes welcoming the exodus, the fediverse is thriving. Might be the one thing we can show spez some gratitude for!
Another one just announced
Not only are we gonna get an app..... But we're also gonna get OPTIONS!? Go team!
I've tried a couple for Lemmy so far and Jerboa is the one I keep going back to. I'm excited to see new developments on everything though.
- I've been using Jerboa but I've run into so many things that just don't work. It'll randomly crash when trying to open community links, I can't consistently get back to previous comments that I've made (to view replies, etc), and a handful of other things.
  
  I'm not angry, cuz I understand that this app is relatively new and the platform as a whole is having a lot of growing pains, but I just wanted to say that I have definitely had some issues with this app.
  
  I'm sorry that you're having those issues. I haven't noticed any of those things. I do wish you luck in finding the right app for you.
Pixelfed dev Daniel is also building one for kbin.
Don't forget Summit! They released an Android beta yesterday.

Community and Play Store link
- I just installed it. It looks rather good so far!
Memmy has been working very well for me. Lots of updates very quickly and feeling good.
- My only complaint with both mlem and Memmy is that neither of them show when you’ve got a reply to a comment. In the desktop site you can see the number of notifications in the bell on the top right but I can’t find them in either app. It also doesn’t look like it’s possible to vote on comments in either as well. But they’re making great progress and I keep checking back every now and again
Such an exciting time for the fediverse.
I've been using Jerboa for a feel days and i liked, but sometimes it crashes when i click a link, i also wanna to build my own qt desktop app on the weekends, if everything goes as planed i may upload to github later. I will also take a look on those other apps later
Wow, how exciting! Thank you for all of the links. I'm looking forward to giving each of them a try.
The superior app experience may end up finally tipping the scale on my perpetual indecision between Lemmy vs Kbin.
This is very exciting! I'm looking forward to the growth of the Threadiverse.
That's awesome! These are a LOT of options :-)
It would be nice to have a list of these to check on in a year time when they feel less like an alpha version.
- See https://beehaw.org/post/683217
  
  The link above links to a Google Sheet that's being maintained
Hot take: I think lemmy is better as desktop only, as it encourages a greater degree of depth in terms of conversation. Mobile apps are basically just there purely for monetization by the developers, and they encourage users to engage with their communities superficially (upvote, post an emoji, doomscroll, repeat forever).
- Not wrong. But I like to casually lurk on my phone and either (1) pass the time with non-sense or (2) read up on what's going on so I can at least stay in the know. I use my desktop more so for actually responding and conversing.
  
  I think it's one of those things where on a micro level, it's conceptually fine, and a lot of people say that's how they want to use it. But I've seen reddit basically get destroyed from pivoting away from the desktop experience to focus on catering to predominately mobile users. The consequence of this is that you have shorter comments overall in threads, less incentive to reply to people who are actually trying to have real discussions, shorter lifetimes on how long people engage with a particular post, and, at the risk of being ageist, a younger userbase with a natural interest in shortform engagement and more superficially appealing content. Right now on lemmy communities like Beehaw, a solid post can have days worth of discussion in the comment section. On reddit, if you're commenting after 8 hours, that train's left the station. Obviously, I'm biased and have a strong interest in quality of posts and the discussions attached to them over the sheer quantity of new material hitting your feed. And, of course, part of that is a consequence of user volume, but the fact that mobile is the de facto standard tool for accessing the site magnifies all the problems I mentioned to pathological extremes.
- Don't forget all of the autocorrect mishaps

63 comments