Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Liftoff. Lemmy app. Do you like the way it works now?

Not a developer, just pure interest as a user. Doing my part 🫡

338 comments

I switched to Liftoff from Jerboa.
There are a few features that either don't exist or I haven't found (jump to next comments thread), but it's worked really well overall.
For context, I use Relay when I'm on Reddit
- Check out Thunder! It's my favorite Lemmy app so far coming from Relay. Similar to Jerboa but a lot smoother in my experience.
  
  I couldnt figure out how to post pictures with that app and there were a few bugs, but then again, it's Lemmy.
  
  Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out
  
  Thank you so much. As a Relay fan, I've been looking for something to fill that space. And lift off wasn't quite doing it for me.
- jump to next comments thread
  That feature is on Jerboa now!
  
  Just started using it today and works well. Previously was using Relay for Reddit and like that feature. Might try liftoff sometime but jeroba is getting the job done so far.
- Kinda same path. Jerboa -> Liftoff >< wefwef 😁
  
  wefwef is called voyager now
- As a fellow former Relay user, I also like Liftoff better. It's closer to what I'm used to.
- Funny, I'm the same in every way. Didn't really have too many complaints about Jerboa but really finding Liftoff to be slick.

It's my favorite of the options so far, I wish I wouldn't default to lemmy.world, but that may be pilot error..
- There are a few default instances in the settings page, and you can add your own as well.
- Yeah, I think you can change the default page in settings.
- You can remove the lemmy.world instance once you've added your own. Long press.
- lemm.ee is awesome for me. maybe you should try ❤️

I'm on Jerboa for the moment, it gets the job done, was more intuitive for me than Liftoff. With that said I will 100% be switching to Boost when it's available.
- 👍🙂
- Just tried Jerboa again. The search is not good. It doesn't have the ability to search by comment, post, or user... Only search for communities. Liftoff, Memmy, and Voyager all have this function.
  
  Fair enough. I'm not at that stage yet, still trying to find communities to join haha.
- It's available now. I got them confused. I have boost not liftoff.
- Yeah I've been waiting for Boost since I joined Lemmy, but I'm enjoying LiftOff so much I'm no longer sure I'll switch when Boost does become available.

Truthfully, it was my least favorite of all of the Lemmy apps. I didn't like it's user interface. Was it recently updated?
- I tried liftoff a few hours ago and same. Didn't mind jerboa, but connect just clicked with me.. I think because the flow is extremely similar to boost.
  I couldn't shake the same feeling I get when using discord when using liftoff. Just no.
  To each their own. That's why there are options.
- It is updated every two days 😁
- Which one do you prefer?
  
  I dabbled with Jerboa, Thunder, Liftoff, Connect, and wefwef.
  I like Jerboa the most.
- Same. It looks and feels like "my first flutter app". I switched to Thunder, which is also made with flutter, but is much more pleasant to use.

The UI is a little too cluttered and messy for my liking but it's a solid app! Love FOSS software
- FOSS software
  I love free and open source software software, too! 😉
- Yeah, it is pretty stable among other options. Definetly good choice usability wise.

It immediately replaced connect for me. Absolutely incredible. I think I'll have to pick around for some actual feedback, but that's a damn good sign so early.
Love the layout, organization and it's immediately captured my entire Lemmy usage.
- There are some stupid things or bugs here and there but it is stable experience.
  
  I wish there was a simple "X" button to hide posts, like RIF had. I know you can do it via Lemmy, but it doesn't seem to work in Liftoff until hours later. Maybe I'm doing it wrong because I'm new, but I've even gone to the browser side and I'm still seeing the same stuff 5 hours later.
  Overall, a very smooth experience. If Jerboa and Liftoff combined into one app, I think we'd have it all.

Coming from the Reddit is Fun app, I tried Jerboa first, thought it was fine, then tried Liftoff and it feels a lot better to me so far. But I'm still new to this universe, so I might try other apps and change my mind! Loving the diversity so far at least!
- I'm also a RIF refugee. Liftoff is the first app I've tried for Lemmy. Overall I'm pretty happy. The updates get better and better. I'm still leaning how to Lemmy, but I really like it so far. One of the few things throwing me off at the moment is that I either can't or don't know how to easily tell what posts I've already seen. RIF would change the color of the text from white to blue. If they can add that then I'll have nothing to complain about.
- fediverse is awesome. check out lemmyapps community and pinned post to find alternative apps 🙂❤️
- do you know if Liftoff supports redgif etc.? it's always annoying in Jerboa when you have to open such links manually instead of seeing it in the app self.
- Also a RIF refugee. I've tried every Lemmy app I saw on Google Play, Liftoff is the one I'm happiest with.

Liftoff is what I've settled on, so far. I've found it to have the best performance of all the Android options.
- Thunder has gotten a lot better, as well. It's now the fastes for me, by far.
  
  Thunder was pretty snappy. I didn't know about that one, so I tried it just now. I'm afraid to say I think I like Liftoff better still, because Thunder uses swipe gestures for a few things and is missing a few "top" sorts, but it seemed like it has potential.
- Yeah, it is pretty fast!

I tried about five different android apps and LiftOff was the one I picked. Looks the best, runs smooth, nice interface, fast with updates. Love it.
- 👍👍👍

So far liftoff has been my favorite and I love the ability to have multiple accounts logged in at once and the ease of browsing from different instances. The UI is nice and clear and it's my favorite from the ones I've tried. I still wanna try boost out!
- Cool! 👍👍❤️

I prefer connect. It has a cleaner ui with less clutter imo
- Connect is good too.
- Same. Connect is much cleaner in my opinion. Still has some clunkiness and I don't like that touching the screen on images closes the image, but overall it's a great start.

I think it's much better now than it was. You can block a community without opening a post. The community and OP are listed at the top. All fonts seen to be customizable. My only current issue is the color around the cards - it's gray and if you're in dark mode it's not as obvious where one end and the next begins. I would like to see color options for that and/or color options for headings. I could switch from Jerboa if they add that.
- We've grown to the point where we want features, not just for it to work. Says a lot about the developers efforts! ❤️

Liftoff feels like a love letter to Relay for Reddit. It's just missing a quick toggle to move thumbnails to the left or right in compact view.
Props for referencing the NoPoop meme in the settings too 🤣
- base 🤣

I'm using it on Linux (Manjaro) I liked it that the dev brought it to Linux world.

I'm not a fan of the bottom navigation. Needlessly takes up space.
CONNECT for me.

I've tried a couple and Liftoff is my preferred app
- i like them all but using liftoff 😁

It's the only app I've tried so I know it's the best one.
- I can't argue with this logic. Truly.
- Such an explanation 🤣👍👍

I'd love options to disable the Tap to Hide feature, and have Make Text Selectable always on.
This is currently my daily driver. Awesome work!
- Awesome work!

I'm not a fan. It's laid out weird, like a Apple app or something. I just couldn't get used to it.
Connect and Jerboa are the two I'm trying to decide between now.
- Try Thunder. Jerboa like layout but made better.
  
  Thunder is great, but it's got some issues I hope they work out. I don't like that you can't block communities in thunder, or if you can its so convoluted that I haven't figured it out yet. I also don't like that it struggles to seamlessly refresh. You'll be scrolling through the feed then two seconds later go through the exact same ten posts you just saw because it refresh glitched.
  On the other hand I think their feed aesthetic is the nicest of the bunch, and they have my absolute favorite feature where you can tap to unblur NSFW and then re-tap to reblur it all without leaving the feed. That is SUCH a nice feature.
  I'm using connect as my main ATM but I'll def jump back to thunder if they can clean up some of the bugs!

The main issue I'm having with liftoff is that I cannot upvote or comment posts from other instances with my lemmy.ml account, so I'm still using jerboa
- It is kinda bad UI decision, not a bug. You should login into your account on some instance and choose through which instance you get content on the top of the screen. After that you will not have problems with commenting. Same thing with search, under search rectangle choose your instance! ❤️
  
  Yeah but that's the same way all other clients work, except that the do it in a more intuitive way and with a less cluttered UI
  
  I figured this out pretty early on but still getting this error. Weird.
- This should not be a problem with LiftOff. I can upvote and comment on posts from any instance. Have you tried the most recent update?
  
  I can upvote and comment on posts from any instance.
  I mean you can if you have multiple subscription or if you do it through your main instance, but that's a feature all clients have and I think they do it in a more intuitive way, conpared to LiftOff
  Have you tried the most recent update?
  Yes, I'm on v0.10.7
- Jerboa wouldn't let me log in for some reason

It'll be a little confusing to have both lift off and boost as rocket themed Lemmy apps, but I guess it can't be helped
- as a former boost user, i came here for the rocket
  I don't think it will be an issue since they both have very different designs in their logos

It’s not bad, but the “compact” view is in no way compact. On liftoff on iOS I can see maybe 4 posts versus on Memmy I can see almost double that. The thumbnails need to be in line with the title and content, not just the content.
- Agreed. It will be fixed in the next updates.
- Try the compact view of the thunder app

It's my go-to for random lemmy browsing. If I want to read interesting and/or thoughtful stuff I log in to my home instance where I'm subscribed to all my favourite content, but if I feel like mindlessly scrolling some memes and go where the internet mainstream goes, I use liftoff. Good interface, good speed.
- 👍🙂

I'm using Liftoff until Boost (formerly Boost for Reddit) releases their app. Boost was an amazing experience on Reddit so I have to imagine it'll be equally good with Lemmy. So far Liftoff has been very good though. No real complaints but would love to see more customization options in the future.

I was going to say that I loved it, but right now it's no longer showing me posts on my subscribed account on lemmy.world.
So I'm currently on my backup app, voyager.
- Maybe you should relogin. lemmy.world was hacked recently
  
  I'm having the same issue but liftoff isn't letting me log out and then back in. I had to go to wefwef, or I guess it's called voyager now.

I was an infinity user, so I appreciate Liftoff has similar elements. I'm rooting for the dev!
- Liftoff developers are friendly ❤️

It's one of the better ones so far.
- Same opinion!

Liftoff for me has been fantastic... I was a RIF user...
- For me it is not. But the most usable (voyager, wefwef lacks some basic features still).

Is there no way to hide seen posts or did I just not find it yet?
- You can toggle this preference per account in Liftoff under Settings -> Accounts -> [choose account] -> Show Unread Posts.

I don't hate it by any means. But design wise I always end up back in Jerboa which (to me) seems more old-school and familiar.
I find it hard to put into words, and obviously it's completely subjective, but aps like Connect and Liftoff seem too "fluffy" to me, with UI elements being larger and in-your-face. Whereas Jerboa just kind of gets the heck out of my way.
- I also prefer UI Jerboa concept to concept Liftoff. It is just better.

I like the ability of the "everything" feed
- 👍🙂

Pretty much my only nitpick is that we have no "Commenting as:" and "Posting as:" warnings. It blurs the line between accounts a bit too much in a platform that already adds lots of complexity by splitting the communities and accounts between various servers. Beyond that, its search function is everything I could ask for and it looks great! I'm sure it'll only keep on getting better over time.
- It has really fast development cycle so yeah, it will will definetly be better.

I like it a lot. I tried Connect but it feels clunky, LiftOff feels more refined.
- cool!
- Does lift off have the feature to highlight a comment and then hit a button to go directly to the next parent level comment?
  
  kind of. It has "view context", which doesn't show the parent, but it also has "more context", which will. So between the two you can get what you're looking for in 2 clicks

As a reader it's vastly better than Jeroba but the notifications are hidden in a very awkward way and I haven't seen access to the mod tools yet or figured out how to search for new communities.
- For searching new communities just go to search section, type something and switch in the right side of screen to communities. Better way is to use this site 🙂

I couldn't enjoy Liftoff since it doesn't appear to have gesture support. Connect and WefWef are what I use until Sync for Lemmy is released.
Also, LiftOffs gigantic button at the top is an eyesore. I don't find the UI as well done.
- This lack of gestures actually makes me want to give it a go. I've never once used gestures on purpose, I always just accidentally do stuff.
  Edit: seems pretty sweet!! It handles instances in a really weird way. If you leave the default lemmy.world account available and don't login, you can't interact with posts from that instance even if you are logged in with an account from another instance.
  If I login on both, all of my post and comment history I assume would be split between the relevant account. Weird.
  I really like the UI and performance of the app overall though.
- fair points 🙂

LIftoff is fine, but I like Thunder better.
- For me Thuder has better UI but lacks functionality, f.e. answering to replies is nightmare because no context of comment.
  
  I'm just bothered by the fact that it won't let me download memes lol
- Thunder is what I'm using right now, too. It's the most "clean" looking dedicated Lemmy app I've seen so far. Though I'm most likely going to switch to Boost for Lemmy once it's available. I'm really looking forward to launching the rocket again :D

Just installed it like 10 minutes ago. For an early access app, it's not too bad, easy to get around.
Keep improving and keep it up
Also, thanks
- Developers of this project are awesome people so I assume that it will have bright future!

Best app for my taste, similar to Infinity for Reddit.
- Yeah, it is functional. But I think that it has small in common with Infinity, maybe more with something like Boost or RIF.
  
  Yeah just the general UI, Infinity is certainly much more advanced.
- I wish there was infinity for lemmy :(

I tried it, but the "compact" view is wayyyyy too sparse. I have a phone the size of the moon, I should be able to view more than 3 and a half single-line posts on screen
- Agreed. It will be fixed in the next updates.

Please post this kind of thing in our stickied thread - we get a lot of posts similar to this.
- Sorry, sort for six hours hide pinned comment from me 😬

Would be nice if there was an option in the settings to turn on the ability to see upvote and downvote counts for every post and comment. It's pretty much the only reason I keep going back to Jerboa. I really like being able to see the amount of downvotes something might've gotten.
- Create issue on GitHub (look for similar issues before). Liftoff has ftiendly developers.

I found it yesterday, and I like it so far.
- Give it a go!
  
  I will.

I'm using it right now. I'm torn between it and Thunder. They've both made lots of improvements in the last couple weeks.
- Yeah, speed of development is insane!

I like Liftoff but I miss Reply notifications.
..Nvm I found it
- Yeah, notifications are not there. Waiting...
  
  Check the bell at the top left.

It’s ok. I got it on Android now.
- For me it is most stable experience (wefwef lacks some features but is also very stable).

I love it. The best Option for now.
- Same :D

I keep bouncing between this one and Jerboa. I like Liftoff a little more, as it's easier to handle multiple instances and accounts, but I wish that it had mod tools so I wouldn't have to go my communities in the browser or PC to do anything mod related.
- As time will go on I am confident that mod tools will appear.

I tend to switch back and forth from Thunder to Liftoff and back. I like the layout and gestures of Thunder but Liftoff allows me to share memes directly from the app. That's a surprisingly rare feature.
- Rn the nightly version of thunder allows you to do that.. Because of that, I was doing the sane as you, but with connect.. Now thunder is my main..

I tried it for a while, but ended up yp with Jerboa. I'm not a fan of how it makes you choose which instance to search and view from rather than just contextually basing everything off of what instance you're signed into.

Definitely my favourite one so far! Though I will still be experimenting with newer ones when they come out.
A couple features I'd like to see implemented:
Setting a base instance/account and having links open through that instance. I understand this will put increased pressure on the base instance but from a user perspective this is a massive qol update.
Finding a way to upload videos or converting small videos to gifs before uploading without having to go into a third party source or implementing third party connectivity for this purpose. This is probably out of scope for what the app is trying to achieve, but would be a great addition for content creation on Lemmy in general.
- The first one already happens, no? Before the last few updates, if you opened a link to a community that "via" another instance, you were kinda screwed. You could see it as a "guest", but not interact to it. In the recent updates, if you try to interact with it, it will open a popup to ask if you wanna open it in one of the instances you have an account.
  Dunno if I misunderstood your point, tho.
  The second one is kinda hard, because images already put a lot of pressure on instances storage-wise. Videos would be even more, and not only much more storage needed, but also throughput. I don't really see it happening any time soon, not really because of the apps, but because of the platform itself and its federated nature.
  
  For the first point. If I were to click on a link in the comments which points to another instance, I'm basically taken out of my instance and as far as I'm aware, there is no way to comment or like anything in that post within my account. I have hop out of the post, switch to my instance and then go back into the post. It has happened enough times to be annoying for me.
  100% agree with the 2nd point. Why I said that it's probably out of scope. Maybe if there was a site like Imgur for Lemmy. But it only makes sense if it were federated which I don't know how that would work.
  
  The first one is available in the latest update AFAIK
- Very good points! Maybe you should create issues on GitHub 🙂

Its decent but I would like an option to hide the bottom navigation bar
- In the future releases it will autohide while scrolling.

338 comments