Sync for Lemmy is now live for everyone to try

For those offended by subscription for ad-free experience and data collection, consider Connect for Lemmy. No data collection and no pay-to-browse scheme.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kuroneko.lemmy_connect&hl=en_US&gl=US
- Connect dev here. I can promise Connect will never have ads or subscriptions.
  
  Connect is a good app, but it just isn't as polished as Sync yet. I will stick with Connect for the time being though.
  
  I sincerely don't know why would someone downvote your comment.
  
  Thank you. I'll donate. Would you consider making it open source? I used to be a fan of Sync and had their one time payment for ultra version. But this current release is subscription only and I don't want to any subscription. Again thank you. The app is great so far.
  
  I will be donating to you. $20 to remove ads is nonsense.
- I'm okay with paying the subscription fee. I purchased Sync for Reddit Ultra back in the day with a one time payment and that was great, but it was one of the most supported apps I have ever bought in all my years of using computers and phones. For several years, I got a well supported app, and I felt like I got a steal of a purchase. I don't feel that the annual fee for Sync forLemmy is a cash grab by LJDawson, especially if the app just keeps getting better and better. It's already the most polished Lemmy client out now.
- People are willing to pay for a better experience.
- Yeah, connect is good, I'm using it right now. Wish it could be open source though.
- don't like the excessive padding and lack of stuff everywhere tho, feels so empty.

I was not a previous sync user, but it seems to be a beloved app. Although...
I am somewhat surprised at the use of personal data in the privacy policy.
I understand a guy's gotta make a living, but with all the hype, I'm not sure I expected this.
- On top of all that there's an ongoing subscription service to use the premium features of the app. I'd happily pay $10-$20 one time for the app, but there's no way in hell I'm paying monthly for a bit of scrolling when Jerboa does the same stuff with no ads for free.
  
  Lj has states he intends to introduce a one time payment for ad removal in the near future. People getting huffy over a 6-pack a year fee can rest easy soon enough.
  
  There is now a one time payment option to remove ads
- It says it'd collect "device information" and "Usage data". What does that even mean?
  
  I'm a dev so can shed some light. It's likely linked to a service called Firebase, which gives many tools to track how people use your app. You can run tests against sections of your user base to determine the best way to apply certain features before rolling them out, as well as crash reporting and the ability to see "user journeys." These "journeys" are often used to determine how to better structure an app so that users can get to where they want to go more quickly. It's a way of collecting user feedback without asking for user feedback. It's incredibly useful for feature development and bug fixing
  Now, given they have ads, they're probably using Google adsense which is likely linked to firebase, so Google may get some information on how people use the app in order to increase revenue per impression. This is largely automatic
  
  Where you look, what you look at, how long you look, and where you ~~click~~ tap.
- yeah same here, sticking to jerboa for now. I hope it's not going to be the same for boost for lemmy.
  does anyone know if the privacy policy is only for the "free" version of sync? app store says the free version has ads too, I guess you can buy it at some point to get rid of them.
  
  Even with ads Sync is a thousand miles ahead of Jerboa in terms of usability and experience. I'll happily have ads to not have an objectively worse experience
  
  Same , i was not using it previously , but i can see the privacy policy is not good ! There are good open source apps !
- Probably for the ads?
- I owned a Sync license but never used it, I preferred Relay. I think I had five or six licenses for Reddit apps including Relay.
- it's only used by third parties like admob.
  if you're a paying user, admob library is not loaded at all, and crashlytics can be disabled in the settings.
  
  Thank you for the clarification.

Can't wait to try this out. I understand the apprehension some people have but I was a loyal user of reddit sync for many years.
- Am trying it and I like it a lot so far !

I'm disappointed in it and will go back to one of the ad free, free apps...
- Yeah, it looks like an excellent app, but I refuse to deal with ads on Lemmy. As the app is great I would happily pay a one time fee to remove ads, but it seems that the only option is a subscription, which is a no go for me.
  
  He's still debating a pro tier with ad free IIRC

now I'll have to double check if I'm on reddit or lemmy, love how similar the experience is :)
edit: jumped ship!!! im now on infinity for lemmy!! didn't know this was a thing. holy moly now I REALLY have to make sure if I'm on reddit or lemmy since I still have infinity for reddit installed
- if you're in sync, you're on Lemmy. isn't that why most of us are here?
  that said it DOES feel like home. 😁
- I can't find it on play store
  
  find what? infinity?
  https://codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/Infinity-For-Lemmy/releases/tag/v0.0.7

How the heck do you log in? Cant find it anywhere.
- On home page, top left corner the three lines, then top item on the menu it produces. Ive got sidebar enabled fyi, I'm not sure if that effects what I'm seeing.
  
  Thanks. How the heck did I not see that "add account". I think because it looked like a title, not an item.

I keep getting a perpetual loading visual and it just states pending =(. I can't wait to get my sync back!
- Cancel and restarting the download did it for me.
- It's been an hour since this comment but just in case anyone else has the same, canceling and restarting allowed it to start downloading. For some reason the automatic attempt just hung on my device.
  
  Yes, I finally figured it out about 3 m8n ago! Thanks for the help!

- I'm confused.
  Were you not aware that almost every app on the play store is a limited licence? Like, you can't move over to Windows and expect the license to carry over by default. You don't pay for an app on Google's store and automatically get it on iOS as well.
  What you wanted would have required rebuilding the app to not use play services to verify that it was paid for. While it would be nice if a developer does that, exhibition expecting it to be the default approaches absurdity when it is most definitely not the norm.
  You making the decision to degoogle is great, but that's your choice. Expecting a developer to bend over backwards and rewrite part of their app for that is just silly. It's fine to ask, nothing wrong there, but calling someone greedy because they said no? That's not cool at all.
- The Play Store maintains your list of purchases. The dev would have had to build a new APK just for you with ads disabled.
  On top of that, the APK wouldn't be tied to you, so you could distribute it to others, possibly preventing sales. I'm sure you wouldn't do that, but others might.
  So yeah, it's possible. But it's reasonable for the dev to say no.