Best Lemmy client for Android?
I tried one called Lemmur that I downloaded off F-Droid, however, it can not find this instance (lemmy.world). I want one that's open-source, and preferably from F-Droid (because screw Google). Which one do you guys use?
Using Liftoff right now. Jerboa was also pretty functional. Thunder seemed promising but buggy. Lemmur is abandoned and got forked for Liftoff.
Liftoff feels like the best user experience to me so far
Likewise.
I'm also using Liftoff and the experience has been quite good so far
Is there any way for Liftoff to allow you to comment on instances that aren't your home instance? Last time I tried it it asked me to log into the instance I wanted to comment on.
If this works, yes.
Check if you have some random instances added in ypur account settings that you are not logged into.
Liftoff is going well enough for me as well. Still miss RiF.
Connect for Lemmy works well for me.
I'm also using connect. I find the searching for communities to be terrible and a couple of other issues, but the bread and butter of reading posts, comments, commenting is very comfortable. I'd recommend it too right now.
I'm actually finding the experience in Chrome browser to be pretty good.
Definately waiting on Sync though.
Connect has some good features, like subscription Favorites, Filters (excluding posts containing filter words), Sort defaults for comments and posts, Text size for comments and posts, and Comment dividers. The developer is active and responsive on the https://lemmy.ca/c/lemmyconnect community. The app is available on Google Play, and is not currently Open Source.
Agree. As someone coming from Sync, Connect is the most familiar, intuitive app I've tried. It's a solid start
Honestly, using https://wefwef.app as a web app is hard to beat right now. It works very smoothly, and I finally understand why all the iOS users mourn the loss of Apollo so hard. Granted, using an iOS-esque interface on an Android device is a bit odd, but the gestures and the layout are just chef's kiss.
The biggest issue with it is that it's getting hammered on the primary domain, so I'll probably move to self-host it sooner than later.
Once the PR for more permissive CORS support gets merged and lands in the popular servers there will no longer be a need for wefwef and other apps like it to proxy requests on behalf of users. I'm personally waiting to properly release my WIP client until then, as I really don't want to take on the burden and responsibility of proxying user data. If you're a developer you can check my current progress here, and here's a short video I recorded that is already very out of date.
I'm on lemm.ee using wefwef and had zero problems in the past few days since I started using it. I think most of the problems come from the instance that hosts your account rather than the frontend of wefwef.
Yes, also wefwef has been having a lot of issues specifically with lemmy.world. I have accounts on three other Lemmy instances and have only had issues there.
Things have gotten significantly better over the past day though. Looks like that big lemmy.world update pushed this morning has helped quite a bit.
I’ve also seen others hopping on other instances of wefwef out there.
I have an instance of WefWef just for my Lemmy instance. https://app.thelemmy.club
That way I can give my users WefWef without having to put any more load on their main server
Connect has an android style interface and the swipe gestures like Apollo / wefwef. It's pretty good for now until Sync for Lemmy comes out.
I keep having to remind myself that I haven’t gone back in time two weeks and I’m not using Apollo.
Using liftoff until sync is out
Part of me feels bad for all of the homegrown Lemmy apps. They won't compare to the reconfigured Reddit apps.
Not entirely true, while I'm a huge fan of Boost and Sync, I'd say that the more options the better.
Different apps for different tastes, just need to remember when Sync made a huge overhaul of the interface, I love the new one, while others couldn't stand it. So LJ made an option to restore the old look of the app.
I'll use any app that remains FOSS so that likely rules out most reddit apps.
I'm assuming it's not a simple port. They'll probably be buggy at first.
Is liftoff homegrown?
Liftoff is great! I am loving it myself
Connect, it seems fairly well made, has some swipe actions that let you vote up/down and save. Lets you switch between instances fairly easily. It's still getting updated too so it seems like its only getting better.
I'm also using this one. It seems okay but as soon as Boost for lemmy is released I'll jump on that.
So, I'm not sure why I would switch instances (I'm very new). Do I need new account on that instance then? I've heard about different front pages or something. I'm still confused.
I downloaded Connect on your recommendation though. Thanks!
I'm very new too but my understanding is that each instance can have it's own specific content. But, you can see all content from any instance if you sort by "all." If you sort by "local" then you will only get posts from the instance that you're logged in to. If you go to subscribed then you'll just get stuff you've subscribed to in that instance. Could be wrong tho lol
This link will help explain migrating from Reddit and what instances are and how they work independently and simultaneously at the same time. You don't have to create an account for every instance. You can follow another instance as a guest, you just won't be able to interact with any comments or upvoting/downvoting. Think of them as separate websites under the same platform that can all coexist independently but still interact with each other. But this helped me out a bunch! https://github.com/amirzaidi/lemmy
Hi, sorry for the late response. You don't need an account on another instance unless you want to interact with people on that instance and you want to use that specific account. I believe you can also use another account on a seperate instance as long as the two instances are federated with each other.
People tend to have multiple accounts on multiple instances because some instances arent federated with each other and thus you don't get the full experience. Take for example Beehaw and lemmy.world. If you have an account with Beehaw the only way to see lemmy.world posts is to have a lemmy.world account or an account on an instance that is federated with world or vice versa.
Another more obvious reason is that since instances are generally privately hosted servers it'd be wiser to have accounts on multiple different instances as opposed to one because things happen and server outages are possible.
I can't figure out how to collapse comment threads tho..
Long press on the center, to open/close a comment thread.
Long press
I was an avid user of Relay, and unfortunately I haven't found anything that mirrors its layout and functionality, so I decided to build it myself. Here's the Github repo and a short recording of the UI which is already out of date. I'll be releasing it once the permissive CORS PR gets merged and lands in major servers.
This looks great! Really miss Relay. Will start following your progress!
Can't wait man. I miss Relay too.
Relay was the best. It will be missed
One of the few things I could never get over after switching to apple was losing out on relay. No offense to anyone that uses other apps on Android, part of the reason android is so great is the variety but relay to me was the best by far without any doubt. I used apollo on iOS and it's good, I'm actually switching back to Android right now because I I just prefer it to iOS so it doesn't matter anymore because I'm looking at Lemmy apps for Android mow, and I'll probably try out wefwef on Android since I like it on iphone but man once you put this out... I don't see how I could use anything else if this is even close to relay, that UI just speaks to me
@vinnythegooch9 that’s interesting, I feel the same way but in reverse. I came back to iOS for Apollo, but Relay was my favorite on Android. What do you prefer about Relay?
Boost for Lemmy will be out soon, just using the website/not using anything until then. Boost was the best Reddit app by far. And yeah, like others said, Sync is coming too.
Wefwef
Definitely enjoying wefwef, haven't opened Jerboa in a while now
Absolutely this.
I've used Jerboa and it was decent, but really lacked consistency or a ui that worked.
Wefwef and connect are my two favorites at the moment.
The iOS theme feels weird to use on Android though, I would love a Material Design 3 version of it. I already looked into creating one, but it's a lot or work
Jerboa is pretty good. Probably the smoothest I've tried. Liftoff is pretty good as well.
I'm waiting for Sync to come out for Lemmy and I'll jump back on that.
I was on Jerboa for a few days when I first came over, then jumped to thunder and Liftoff. The new update for Jerboa is awesome and I'm using it exclusively until Boost or Sync.
Same thing here. Except tonight, (around 8PM GMT-3) I wasn't able to reply to comments from within Jerboa.
Using Jerboa and waiting for sync for Lemmy to come out.
Latest version of Jerboa with a smaller instance is very smooth
I absolutely agree. Find a small instance federated with the big Lemmy communities (Lemmy.ml, Lemmy.world, beehaw.org, etc...) + material theme on Jerboa is honestly better than any Reddit client (and the main app obviously 😆).
not a native app, but wefwef.app is 🔥
I was using jerboa earlier but wefwef looks way better than that. It feels a little slow on the animations for my phone though.
Wef wef is pretty great, very impressive for a non native app
Finally gave it a quick run through... The choices for buttons and swiping are bass ackwards
You can change the tap/swipe behavior in settings.
Connect is great
Using Connect until Sync for Lemmy is released. Long time sync user...
same but for boost
Started with Jerboa, switched to connect.
Connect for Lemmy is my go to. The dev just released an update too with a ton more features. It's working great and I like it more than WefWef.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuroneko.lemmy_connect
Connect dev here. Glad you're enjoying it!
Hello, fellow Canadian from lemmy.ca ! 😀
We've spoken on here a couple of times before. But you're probably getting inundated with users to keep track of everyone. 🙂
You're doing an amazing job. I really like what you've done in the short amount of time!
For me it already has everything I need I think. Now the content on Lemmy as a whole needs to pick up.
Maybe some quality features to consider:
Thanks for sharing. I do like WefWef and the fact it feels like a full app despite only being a Web app.
Boost when it gets available. In the meantime, Jerboa.
That's a weird way to spell "Sync"😂
Jerboa's been working pretty good lately.
Jerboa is by far the most feature-rich and least glitchy that I have used.
I've only used Jerboa so I can't compare BUT it reminds me a lot of RIF which is what I've used for the last like 7+ years?
Yea it's definitely the closest to RIF so far
Hmm I had a lot of trouble with jeroba, liftoff is working well for me at the moment though.
I had a lot of issues with Jerboa being buggy and randomly crashing personally, but that could've just been my experience. I switched to Connect for Lemmy and haven't had any issues (and it looks better imo)
I chose Jerboa because back at Reddit I was using an app called Joey. Just wanted to be consistent
For me jerboa was the most buggy one I tried. I am using connect now and waiting for sync because that was my Reddit app.
Sony Xperia 1 III. Aside from server issues in the first few days this month with Lemmy the Jerboa app has been working well. Seems fairly close enough ish to RiF for me. Really probably has a lot more going on than RiF ever did. Some mild stuff to get used to but overall a good experience. Was happy to see the ability to change the post sizes to smaller so I can see more at a given time.
Yeah, Lemmy in general was buggy the first week of the mass migration from Reddit, but they seem to have that mostly resolved.
Jerboa is the best I've used so far, though hopefully Boost will be even better when that's released!
Boost for Reddit was an absolute top tier application.
I'm thinking about going for liftoff but it wants you to have an account on each server / instance. It doesn't get the idea of how federation is supposed to work
I have the iOS version, you only need to sign in on one instance, but you can also view other instances without logging in, which i think is a good idea. For example you can add beehaw, which is not viewable on lemmy.world
Even though Wefwef works really well, I'm so comfortable with Boost after using it for years for Reddit that I'm super excited to get that user experience back on Lemmy!
Liftoff so far has been the only one that let me log in and also works consistently. I haven't tried connect but I can vouch for liftoff at least. I'll probably be trying sync for lemmy whenever it comes out though since I loved sync for reddit.
Just started using Connect and it's great! I moved from RiF and it's pretty similar. My one request is a way to easily switch to the next/previous parent comment like you can do in RiF
I'd hope the actual app doesn't look like the screenshots... doesn't give a good first impression of attention to detail when the app preview in the screenshots are quite visibly squashed to fit the vertical height of the device frame they've placed them in to.
The screenshots are horrible and I almost did not download it because of them. I'm not a big fan of cards and so I use list mode. I did the same in RiF and I was able to make Connect look pretty similar.
Thank you everybody! I ended up getting Jerboa, since it's available on F-Droid. It seems to work pretty well. I'll be trying all your other suggestions out as well.
Use Obtainium. Much better than F-Droid when it comes to apps like these that are constantly being updated.
Relevant discussion: https://lemmy.one/post/392829
From a productivity POV, Jerboa is the most developed & is built with one of the most secure languages (Kotlin) but from a security & privacy perspective browser (Eg. Mull-Fenix) is best suited, the constant login may be annoying but as long as you use a password manager it shouldn't be a hassle.
Nevertheless recommend downloading the update from the GitHub repository & use an RSS feed to constantly check for any development.
F-Droid has the tendency to take time to update the apps.
Regarding the RSS feed you need to generate one since GitHub doesn't make it easy with the type of link they used, Feedless (FOSS) will help with that.
As long as the app is storing the auth token received from the lemmy instance securely it makes no difference whether you login once or multiple times.
I'm currently on Jerboa but I'm going to switch to boost as soon as it's available
Enjoying Liftoff as of now. eagerly awaiting Sync for Lemmy
Connect has quickly become my favorite.
I keep getting errors when trying to visit new communities. Definitely growing pains, but its much more full featured than the rest, from what I've seen.
Tried it again today. It's so much better than before.
Thunder for sure. Its freakin fantastic.
For sure. Love Thunder. Jerboa crashes every time I open it. I've installed, reinstalled, cleared cache, nothing helps.
Connect is really great.
I've been using Connect and just found "Hide read" and "Mark as read on scroll past" in the settings. Those were the last bugbears I had. Loving it so far
Agreed. I'm really enjoying Connect and wefwef is pretty great for a web based app, too.
Agreed.. connect for Android is great app. Or you can just use the web app
I tried only Jerboa and Liftoff. Liftoff has a customizable UI, all the features I need, and tells when a post or comment was made (unlike Jerboa).
I left Liftoff because it has a block user button, but I didn't see a block community button. I havent updated it for several days, so that could be there now.
There's "Block community" in the three dots menu.
Jerboa has gotten pretty stable since the exodus, I also have Thunder and Liftoff installed, but mostly switching between Jerboa and Thunder.
I like those two last ones because they kinda have a Sync feeling to them, will definitely buy Sync once it's ready!
Liftoff for me, patiently waiting for Boost to be released since it was my main client for Reddit.
2nd liftoff, just wish I could add my kbin account.
Thunder and Jerboa are the best so far. Both have had updates in the past few days that have polished things.
Thunder user here and I can vouch for it, though it still needs some improvements of course.
Plus you can sort of follow communities in Jerboa now.
Connect has been working well!
I'm new to Lemmy, but so far the client that I liked the most is wefwef.app which i am using right now
It's not really an app, but a web-app, but it still works
(Sorry for my English, I'm not a native speaker)
Your English is fine dude
oh, thanks
I’ll second http://wefwef.app. It follows iOS design but you can use it on any device that supports PWA including Android.
Connect for lemmy has gotten better now that i can hide posts without interacting with them.
Boost!
Sync is on the way.
I'm currently wait listed. Is there a way to get Boost now?
As someone who has 6 lemmy apps installed, and constantly cycling between them, I'd say for now connect and liftoff are the best although each has issues that the other migitates. I'd say you won't go wrong with either option, with it mostly being personal preference.
As a former user of infinity for reddit connect feels a bit closer layout to what I was used to, but liftoff seems to have a slightly better ui.
Have you checked out Infinity for Everything?
Connect is doing awesome!
Liftoff works best for me. Looks good, feels good. Tried a few and it just snapped.
I've been bouncing between Liftoff and Connect. I loved Sync for Reddit so I'll be using that when it comes out, though I also tried and liked Boost, Joey, and Infinity for Reddit.
I tried Jerboa but it was missing quite a few features at the time, but it's also really new so that wasn't a problem.
I do spend most of my time on Kbin so I just use the mobile web interface.
Joey was my go to. Do you know if the dev plans to make a Lemmy based App?
I haven't seen anything but I haven't looked into it either. It would be nice to see because I used Joey before I switched to Sync. But I always like trying out different apps.
I am having hard time picking one.
I think I am gonna stick with Liftoff; the UI is good and it also has all the features you need for a social network.
Lastly, the developers are working like crazy.
I liked the UI but the dark theme colors are bad
I believe it would be a easy implementation of better dark mode. We will see :)
Try wefwef.app. It's a PWA, and you can easily set it as an icon on your home screen. Supposedly it looks a lot like the big iOS app (apollo?) that started the reddit blackout. Has nice swiping gestures. Works an absolute treat.
Really impressed with wefwef - one of the few webapps that rivals a native app.
Jerboa is my favorite right now, but I'll be buying Sync as soon as it's available.
Wefwef is my top choice right now and Connect is my second favorite.
Wefwef looks too iOS for my Material You Android
Yeah, I do agree that it feels a little out of place on Android, but currently I have been using it because it still feels polished and I haven't had many bugs with it. Lemmy clients in general are in their early days and many are quite rough around the edges. I've had a lot of bugs with most of them.
Connect for Lemmy has a Material You style to it and feels like at home on Android. It uses your current Material color scheme and feels a bit similar to Sync for Reddit.
using it right now on Android and while it's alright for a PWA, it's still a PWA.
Would much rather a smoother experience of a native app without the jank.
Jerboa since yesterday had been super smooth and error free for me. I prefer it to connect but they look similar
Wefwef has a web based app that works better than a lot of clients I tried on android.
Jerboa is my favourite, has been really smooth for me + the material you design makes it look so good!
I tried several and found wefwef to be there best
I've been using a few, but so far I've found Connect to be the smoothest and more to my liking. I was a long time Sync user, so I'll be picking that up once it eventually launches.
Jerboa is working waaaaaay better than the previous versions. It is at last quite stable as of v39.
I have tried a lot, the three min ones I keep coming back to are jerboa, connect and liftoff. They all have pros and cons and I like each and alternate between them. Liftoff is a continuation of lemur by the way. Lemur was abandoned but someone else picked it up and develop it further, providing frequent updates.
I'm using jerboa right now. Got it from fdroid and it works really well!
My current main is Thunder. Like all the rest it also has bugs, but none of them are particularly bad and the GUI is super slick.
Agreed, Thunder has been great. I just wish I could have vote/reply buttons on comments instead of only swipe gestures...