1y ago

Appreciation post for Liftoff not collecting user data or injecting ads.

I was looking forward to trying Sync today now that it's live, but my enthusiasm was immediately dampened after seeing the "Data Safety" section on the Google Play store.

Liftoff has been great, and want to say thanks for making an awesome app. This will continue to be my daily driver.

Edit: for clarity, because the post got way bigger than I expected.

Sync looks like a fantastic app, and the dev/s should charge whatever they feel is fair for their efforts, even if that's through the usual ads + ad tracking.

My intent was just to post here in /c/Liftoff to thank the Liftoff devs for managing to somehow offer an awesome app without any of that.

335 comments

I dont get you people. Making those apps is maybe a hobby for some but a job for others. People asked for Synch for Lemmy and the dev WORKED on it and will continue WORKING on it.
Love to see how many of you guys will work for free. And you probably all work for places that NEVER collect any data.
Could I use a free app for Lemmy? Sure, but I want Synch, because I know what Synch has to offer is what I want. I don't need to settle for an "almost" solution. I can use Synch and I gladly paid for it.
- Not to mention that Sync for Reddit had the same exact data advisory tag. The developer has been very open that he doesn't store or sell the data, it is just needed for the free version to work properly.
  
  I think the issue is not with wether the dev collects data, its about the dev using google products, which do collect, store and sell data.
  There are alternatives to Firebase, (i think they can even be self hosted), so its something that can be improved without affecting much the development time or other aspects.
  
  Of course it has the same data advisory tag, they both have/had a paid version of the app. It needs to collect financial information for that. That's data that you have to offer voluntarily for christ sake, and then it checks whether your account is subscribed or not since lemmy itself wouldn't indicate that. Even if it didn't show ads, it would still have a data advisory tag. I can understand people who are extremely privacy obsessed online avoiding any app that collects data, even benign or optional data, just in case, but some people are treating it like sync is spyware just because it has a data advisory tag, which is ridiculous.
- I think OP doesn't mind paying for an app, it's the "collect data" that was his issue. If the free version collects data to send you ads, and there is an option to buy and remove the data collection and ads, then that's probably fine with most people.
  
  That's the way it is being reported. Buy to remove ads and the tracking goes away.
  
  Another thing to consider is that in the past apps could be sold separately with an ad version and an ad free version. So people could flat out avoid having an app that had any ad elements.
  So there now only being an ad version, and then the initial first impression people saw was a subscription model to remove ads rubbed people the wrong way.
  Either way, people can use the app or not, but it's been odd how some people have been so emotional over people choosing to not use Sync. Like one of the top comments in this thread is just someone insulting foss and people not paying for Sync.
  
  I don't you should be forced to pay for it to stop collecting data assuming it does. Just give them non personalized ones instead. Unless that's also what you meant then nvm.
- Check the community

Sync has just updated to allow a one off payment to remove ads. Dawson is also adding a one off payment for lifetime Ultra as well.
- Aren't they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn't make you less of a commodity.
  
  No. The data tracking is because of the Google services ads. An app developer gets no compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.
  
  It's been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn't even get loaded
- But lemmy doesn't have ads?
  
  It's a monetization strategy for the work he's put into the app. I see why people don't like it but I never intended to see a single ad in Sync anyway
  
  No but the free version of Sync does because weirdly the dev would like to be paid for his work 🤷🏼‍♂️
- How much is it to remove all ads?
  
  20$
  
  It's $20 to remove ads but there are also ultra features you have to pay extra for
- Nice of "Dawson" to think to formally add that after people already signed up for subscriptions and others started calling him out on it. There was no reason Sync needed to release today if that option wasn't prepared, and if it was seriously being considered, maybe he should of notified users in the app before they started spending money.
  
  It's still in beta. Beta doesn't mean feature-complete.
  Given the popularity of the app, waiting for perfection wasn't going to make sense. With sync, I have near parity on features with Jerboa, a smoother experience and what's lacking will be added.
  Also, why put the dev's name in quotes? It just makes things look hateful. Full name is ljdawson... but that's the dev's name.
  I'm not entitled to another's labor for free. Some may choose to give it, but I'm not entitled to it. And if I like something, I expect there's a cost. If it makes me happy enough, I pay.

Sync VS FOSS thing isn't over yet? Let everyone use what they like the most. Let everyone be the judge of their own data and how it is being used. For god's sake, live and let live folks
- We're on the Liftoff community. And it's his opinion.

All I've learned from today's drama is some of you people really love apps. People getting enraged over which apps people are using..
Lemmy really seems to attract even more terminally online people
- I mean a lot of the people on here seem a bit more on the technical side, so it'd make sense imo
  
  You'd think that, but so many of these users complaining don't understand how ad serving works. They're acting like this is some outrageous conspiracy to gather user data by the dev himself, or are being willfully ignorant about the proof that none of ad tracking SDK even loads when you use either the one time removal or the subscription.
  I really thought that most of the early adopter crowd for a federated service like this would be at least mildly technical. But no, that's a stupid assumption in hind sight.
  
  Often times people on the internet think they are more techy or correct than they are. The other issue is this makes other users feel like the are actually less techy but the truth is an internet search can teach you a lot about how the Internet works.
  My issue with the Lemmy community is that they think FOSS some how makes things more private and secure when that is indeed not at all how privacy or security works and there is enough evidence to suggest you are not secure no matter if it's FOSS or not FOSS.
  There is also a mentality that paying for something makes it harmful or bad.
  My argument for this is, "you will bother to pirate a game like Zelda for free because you love Zelda so much but then complain about Nintendo being bad because it walls things off. Zelda however would not exist without Nintendo and paying for Zelda would pay the devs to continue making Zelda even if it also means giving Nintendo money. So your logic is play a game you love but don't contribute to that game because you hate Nintendo?"
  The same can be said about the sync drama. You want FOSS but can openly admit Sync looks nice and operates nice but you won't pay a price for something that seems better. Well the good thing is you don't have to. Sync isn't a problem because people want to pay money for an app that works. You are the problem however if you want to dictate how people use browse the web with an app of their choice.
  FOSS is great. Lemmy wouldn't be here without FOSS but Lemmy's users decreased because Reddit's downfall and the community of users that came have talked about how poor some of the FOSS Lemmy apps are. However, they love Sync and sync also brought more people to Lemmy. People who are willing to pay. People who are making your platform more well known. An app like Sync is also offering a smooth experience and introduction to Lemmy and people will pay for things that work nicely.
  
  And a lot of us are only trying lemmy because of reddit killing 3rd party apps, which were great apps. Now using lemmy through infinity and it feels good

I think it's a little uncharitable to Sync to characterise it like this. Yes, it collects personal data to show ads. However, you have the choice to refuse or pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely. It's the nonconsensual nature of data collection that robs users of their agency that makes it problematic.
Devs need to eat and donations are not always a realistic revenue scheme. With the one time fee, Sync has signalled it cares about its users and not just value extraction like Big Tech. I will probably pay that and be happy.
I like Liftoff, I also like Sync. I use both atm.
- I totally get that, and the sync dev seems like a good guy who should charge whatever he feels is reasonable for his time. To an average end user like me though, it feels a bit like there are 5-6 booths offering bananas for free, but then someone set up a booth right next to them selling bananas for $20 a pop or requiring me to sit through a sales pitch.
  I just wanted to show my appreciation for the guy at my favorite booth who is doing it for free when they really didn't have to.
  
  Okay, but in this scenario one guy offers it for free because he helps to grow bananas as a hobby with a bunch of other guys who also help, and he doesn't need to sell the bananas to make a living, while the guy offering bananas for money grows bananas himself or just with his family for a living and so selling them is how he can afford to make more and also put food on the table. You can also have his bananas for free too, as long as you're okay with the bananas having stickers with sponsored brand names on them. I can understand not wanting to pay for something when there are free versions available, and the prices can be a bit high for some people atm, assuming they don't change in the coming days, but the guy selling bananas for money isn't forcing you to buy his bananas instead of getting the free ones from other booths, he's offering his bananas for people who are willing and able to pay for them or willing to tolerate ads on them to support him. Presumably you didn't feel the need to thank liftoff before the stuff with sync happened, so it doesn't come across like you're just thankful to liftoff in general, more like you're doing it because you're unhappy with sync.
  
  Man, that's Ferrari. That's how they operate. You can buy lots of cars, but you can't just walk into a dealer and buy a Ferrari.
  You can sit and be fucking mad at Ferrari, or just choose to say "that's an expensive thing for a dumb privilege", ... and drive an Audi instead.
  
  I think @Laticauda@lemmy.ca has already made a good point regarding your example.
  I'm not judging you or anything, just that the appreciation could have been shown without comparing it to Sync. It can come off as a bit combative, when you didn't mean it like that.
  
  And look what you've done. You brought the crazies out. The extremists.
- you have the choice to refuse
  If you're in the EU, of course.
  pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely
  If you already have spyware called Play Services on your phone.
  
  I just used a VPN to the EU and refused. Yeah it sucks that governments don't care, but nothing I can do about it right now.
  As for Play Services, most people will never run a degoogled phone. So, that's that.
  
  More like malware, revoke too much access from it and it insta-reboots your device

Bro, of course it has a data safety section, it offers a paid version so it will need to be able to collect your financial information, and any trackers are removed if you remove ads or turn off personalized ads. That doesn't mean it's stealing your data, those are regular app functions for apps that have iaps or show ads.
- download camera app
  App requirements: Access to files
  OMFG THE CAMERA APP IS STEALING ALL OF MY DATA
  
  Chinese apps do most probably

The race to make a Lemmy app has made some solid contenders step up. There are a lot of legitimately good apps.
- Definitely. It's like we're the prettiest girl at the dance!

It's seriously a great app, so I don't get the fuss about Sync either. I've been a Sync and Boost user before but I'm very content with the apps we already got for Lemmy so I won't throw in another one to choose from.
I've been switching between Liftoff, Voyager and Thunder because they all seem to good to just lose them right now lol
- Sync looks super clean and is probably a fantastic app, but I'm just a little put off by the data privacy. It's like a month or so in the fediverse has spoiled me, and I can't go back to being a product.
  
  Yes, thanks for pointing that aspect out. I get the motivation to collect data to serve ads but I wish to stay with privacy respecting options too and I hope the contributors to those clients see enough donations to make their efforts worthwhile as well.
  
  The data privacy stuff is all related to the plumbing required to serve ads.
  If you pay for the ad-free version none of that stuff gets loaded.
- To me, it's that these apps are established and developed into a clean user experience, many with like a decade of fine tuning. These new apps are, to me, not as good for that reason alone.
  Of course it's all preference, but that's my input on the subject.
  I found boost a great app and I was one of the first people (if not the first, my post on his sub is the first instance of it) to tell Ruben to make a lemmy app. I like Ruben because every single time I've ever had an issue with Boost for reddit, he responded directly to me and either helped me solve a user error or he would literally patch the app and push an update that included my issue. He's a great dev and I'm glad he's decided to continue development else where, and I'm glad to support him in this. While I could easy patch ads out using lucky patcher, I will pay for premium of boost for lemmy as soon as it's ready
  
  Thanks for your input! To me the three I listed feel very similar to what I had with Boost/Sync, probably because they were inspired by them in their main aspects. Admittedly though for me it's just some tweaks and I'm happily scrolling away whereas B/S offer a litany of settings to customize every aspect of your browsing and posting experience which is very attractive, especially for more heavy users.
  Nice to hear about your positive interactions with the dev. That sounds awesome and certainly is a good argument for supporting him in particular but also other developers delivering quality software be it open source or not.

lil reminder that this was posted to the liftoff community. the sheer volume of comments echoing the same “fuck you for complaining, you’re wrong” sentiment would really make you wonder. it’s not like you wandered, drunk, into their community and started shit talking sync.
coincidentally that does seem to be what most of the sync-stans in here have done, though.
- I'll play devil's advocate. Let's look at some facts and the timeline.
  Sync for Reddit has 1,000,000+ downloads, according to the Play Store listing as of writing. It has existed since ~2012 and is well established as one of the best Android reddit apps. To put that number into perspective, that's roughly one Sync user for every 2 posts on Lemmy (https://lemmy.world/post/2581495).
  Liftoff is a brand new app created for Lemmy. Further, Lemmy itself is just becoming known. There aren't many people here.
  Sync announces and releases the beta of Sync for Lemmy.
  Everyone who has Sync for Reddit installed still gets a notification that Sync for Lemmy is available.
  Sync for Lemmy becoming available means that many more people are about to sign up.
  The topic of Sync for Lemmy, regardless of whether it's positive or negative, is at the top of Lemmy's "All" in multiple posts all week. That is happening on a lot of communities, this post on Liftoff being one of them. Naturally, people who enjoy sync are going to see these posts and will want to voice their opinion. Can you blame them?
  I think it is disingenuous to assume malice in the sense that sync-stans are actively searching for negative Sync posts like you are claiming.
  Adding in my personal bias: I think the majority of the anti-Sync conversation is rooted in gatekeeping newcomers to the fediverse. Which is really, really unfortunate. But that's the kind of attitude that exists in online forums like this so that's what we'll get.
  I am using Sync and will continue to. That's my personal choice. Everyone has their personal choice and that means others should fuck off about that choice. This goes for both sides, but I think it's more important for the anti-Sync crowd to hear because right now it seems like they are the ones who are truly up in arms about it all.
  
  OP here, and I honestly didn't expect this post yesterday to get so big, or to cause a debate.
  Sync looks fantastic. Ads and ad tracking stuff isn't abnormal and is totally up to the devs, but I just wanted to express my gratitude here in /c/Liftoff for managing to offer an awesome app for free, without any of that.
  
  to be clear, i don’t think they’re actively searching. the “drunken wander” bit is specifically aimed at people who got here from an “all” or “local” front page, but then started engaging without acknowledging or even noticing where they were, much like a drunk might do after wandering into someone’s home lol
  i do love the response though, very well thought out and structured. thank you for being so constructive on such a hot-button topic.
- I..uhh... I totally did that to the sync community stone cold sober, I just wasn't paying attention. I thought I was still in the memes community. And then I doubled down with a Futurama reference. My bad y'all.
  
  honestly i think a lot of it is just growing pains, for a huge swath of users this is a new and potentially confusing environment lmao
- I've used liftoff, connect, Jerboa, voyager, and sync. For me personally, sync is easily the best app functionally out of all of them, followed by voyager. I liked liftoff better than Jerboa, but stopped using it and went mainly to using voyager because of how liftoff handled messaging which I found frustrating and confusing. Idk if they've changed it since then, but that ship has sailed for me anyway since liftoff doesn't offer anything I want that I couldn't get from sync or voyager. I didn't use connect much because it was very buggy for me so I can't really compare it to the others. Voyager is my next choice after sync, but it still had a lot of issues that I haven't experienced with sync so it's still only my second choice.
  I'm biased, since I've liked sync since I used it for reddit, but I'm not a stan by any means. I'm waiting to see how things play out since the app has only been available publicly for a day or two. Personally, I think if someone wants to make a salty post in the liftoff community about another app that isn't liftoff, then it's only fair that people who use that other app can share their own opinions in the comment section of a post on a public community, particularly when the post specifically brings up that other app as a topic.
- Yeah, there is this feeling of a weird cult movement from them where daring to not use Sync or criticize anything about it is seen as an affront. I could understand the reaction if this was posted on the Sync community. They leap to accusations of you must not pay for anything you cheapskate as opposed to not understanding that some just don't support the current model, so don't use the product.
  There's lot of products that are better than alternatives, but people choose to not use for whatever reasons. Like dare I say it...reddit still when it comes to niche communities.

Yeah, one glance at the terms of use had me uninstalling the app. I don't feel like "decentralized social media" and "sale of personal data" pair well together.
- It's like people are trying to misinterpret.
  Liftoff is strictly using Lemmy's free API and for the developer 5 users or 5M users doesn't make a difference to his expenses.
  The Sync developer is obviously trying to do something more ambitious.
  It's great that we have FOSS apps that do a decent job but we shouldn't look down on developers who put a lot of time, effort, and money into something expecting to make a return on their investment.
  I don't like data collecting either but I accept that if you want to offer a free version - it's inevitable. What I hate is when you're not able to pay for ads to go away.
  But I might be biased as I'm a developer myself and would hate to put 8-9 weeks of hard work into delivering a great app and then get hate for wanting to get something in return for that work.
  
  You've been able to pay for ads to go away for about the last 16hrs, the update to B25 dropped last night.
  The original plan was not to release version like that until it was more polished, but the masses have spoken and been listened to almost immediately.
  In terms of data collection, LJD is literally just bothered about Crashlytics.
  
  I am honestly fine with giving these permissions for a free version of the app as I understand the developers need to monetize with ads for the free version. What I would like to see though that the paid version with subscription is another app that does not ask for these permissions. If I am paying for the app to remove ads and/or get additional paid features, the app seemingly still collects that data. As a user I have no way to tell what the developer is doing with that data. Is it only to retain sessions / enable features or is my data being given to third parties regardless if I pay or not
  
  The Sync developer is obviously trying to do something more ambitious.
  Hm, what exactly? It doesn't seem to have any particularly remarkable features 🤨
  
  "Something" is $115 for the lifetime subscription. I paid $35 for the same thing 13 months ago, and it was $3 before that. He didn't exactly build the app from scratch either. It's greed, so I'll be getting the cracked version on Mobilism as soon as it's released
- It asks for consent to personalize ads / sell your data, you can say no. I did, and I just see a black square with "Sponsored Content" in the centre, no ad, probably a bug.
  You can also pay for the version without ads; there's Ultra, but Sync Pro one time purchase will be available soon.
  I used Sync Pro for Reddit for years, it was awesome. Liftoff is great, and I recommend it, but I'm going to use Sync Pro.

We keep looking at this like it's about the apps themselves and not the precedent it sets. paying for a app while possibly neglecting the financial requirements of the instance admins (I set up my monthly payment to .world's Patreon Yesterday) that actually host the content you're looking at on said app.
- And how is it different than reddit?
  We paid for the app (or free app) but zero direct financial contribution to the platform.
  I do not like corporation but it seems disingenous to post like you just did on an app's 'subreddit'.
  
  Mmmm... I deleted my original response because yours disappeared for some reason, but I use liftoff and everybody should donate. That pretty much covers what I said in my original comment. I still don't understand what you're getting at though.
- Is it a silly idea for apps to give a cut to instances people frequent? Genuinely curious.
  
  Too many instances. Financial cat corral.

I'm very impressed with liftoff and lemmy too actually. Honestly it feels like I've struck gold with installing liftoff. I'm not looking for anything else to browse lemmy with, liftoff is all I need. I'm really happy with it!
- "I'm impressed with the rotary telephone and Ma Bell too actually. I'm not looking for anything else to make calls with, the rotary phone is all I need. I'm really happy with it!"
  
  So liftoff being a rotary phone and lemmy a bell. Care to elaborate? What feels like "in no time" apps like liftoff have filled the RIF void for me with much success. I like to give credit where it's due.

Yeah, I would continue using Liftoff and Voyager. Just because we have sync doesn't mean we have to jump ship. I love getting involved with the community over at github.
- Where do you download voyager?
  
  The hard client is on testflight if you're on IOS. Not sure for Android, but you can use the PWA.
  
  https://lemmy.world/post/2613340
  Just released in the play store

I just wish more apps would allow blocking instances. I don't want to hide all NSFW content, but hot damn there is a lot of different porn communities in @lemmynsfw and it is a pain to block each individually.
Sync has this feature. Liftoff does not and voyager(my old daily use) did not.
Sync also does feature markup settings that voyager does not like bold hidden text ¯(ツ)/¯
- Liftoff just implemented blocking instances based on words contained in the instance name, it should be out on the next version: https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff/pull/372
  So you will soon be able to solve that issue.
- Connect allows this, great app.
- Connect has the option. There is also the option to block comments, but it seems to be a toggle for all blocked instances instead of a per-instance basis. Currently I've only blocked feddit.de because I don't speak the language. Don't know what I'll end up doing if I want to block an instance and its comments though.
  
  Connect blocks the comments of blocked instances by default, at least it does for me. They still show up and you can click on them to show the content if you want. There is a setting to not block the comments of blocked instances. I too blocked feddit.de cause of ze german.
- Thunder has this and so does liftoff (at least the latest versions I am using through obtainium).
- Instance blocking would be really nice. There are also some bot instances that mirror content from reddit, and while I get the appeal, I'd rather not have it in my feed. I've just been blocking the bots individually.
  
  Sync and connect both have block instance options.
  BTW if you have blocked communities, that is account level and will travel with you when you install one of the other apps.
  I'm pretty sure instance locking is app based and not tied to your account.

Just tried Liftoff. Really enjoyed the interface. Grateful there are plenty of FOSS options out there for people who prefer using them.
- I was using Liftoff before today, but I finally got fed up with the comment box bugs. I hate to say it, but Sync is the only Lemmy app I've used that isn't a buggy mess or missing core features.

It's a bit weird. I installed Sync yesterday but I don't get any ads. I don't have a system wide ad blocker or anything. Note that I don't have GApps.
- Maybe he uses adsense? I don't know for sure, but i guess that's not implemented into microG
  
  He's using adsense afaik.
  
  😁 ads implemented in microG would absolutely crack me up
- Ads are bugged
  
  I don't get ads either, and I don't even get placeholders. Idk if it's a bug thing or a regional thing for me.

Ugh. Lemmy turning into Reddit with dumbasses.
- so just normal reddit then?
  
  We did it Lemmy
- Well we got what we wanted I guess.

I was buying into the Sync hype but after trying it I don't see much difference with liftoff tbh
- Most of the hype is from former users of the reddit version. I used sync for reddit for probably the past 7-8 years so it's super exciting to have that same user experience on lemmy. It's definitely a bit more refined and polished than other lemmy apps but it doesn't inherently provide any major features that other apps don't. I really enjoy it for lots of the small QOL features, personally.
- i too tried it but.. didn't really liked it that much. i like liftoff way more even if it still can't sort comments of my profile by new.. but i hope this gets sorted out someday in the future.
- I've used both. Liftoff isn't bad by any means, it's in my top 3, but claiming there isn't much difference is kind of ridiculous. Maybe liftoff has everything you want, which is fine, but they're absolutely different apps.

Liftoff is also very frequently updated. Any complaint I've had has been addressed 2-3 patches after posting about it. They work fast, and they do good work. Big +1 for liftoff.

I'm really happy you love Liftoff and it's great that we have so many options.
See how easy that is?

Indeed. I'm using Jerboa because it supports messages, but all these foss projects are amazing, and Liftoff is honestly the best of them.
- Liftoff is FOSS? It doesn't say so in its description in the play store, and I don't find it in FDroid.
  
  Izzyondroidrepo got it https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/com.liftoffapp.liftoff
  
  https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff
  I use Obtainium to update apps that aren't on Fdroid.

Thunder's UI is so close. Sticking with FOSS.
- Infinity for Lemmy is out too!
  
  And Slide

I'm so happy to see Liftoff on the top of the "All" feed today! Especially with synch for lemmy becoming available. Kudos to OP for posting this.
You were the first available third party app and your still the best app. No need to switch to the others. Especially after learning about the other apps user data clause.
Your app works great and it looks great too. Keep it up!

I have tried a couple different apps but Liftoff is the best so far. Quite disappointed in the direction Sync is taking. Developpers obviously have a right to be paid for their work, but I despise the choice of targeted ads or subscription based software.
- You can make a one time payment to remove the ads forever
  
  That's welcome. It has to be added very recently though because it wasn't possible when I checked.
- So both ways for someone to be paid?
  Would you agree to buying one version with no updates (except for bug fixes) ?
  
  I would. Is it a perfect model? No. Is it better than ads or a monthly subscription? Absolutely!
- I'm using sync and they have an option to remove ads that isn't a subscription. I'm not sure if that would prevent tracking but another commenter said it would. I'll probably see if I can get a response from the dev and find out.

I care a bit more about Lemmy's future and growth that to fuss about an app collecting information. I don't think anyone complaining about the privacy actually read their privacy terms.
- Yeah, if people don't like it, they shouldn't use it. End of story. It's not really a big deal.
  Use the app you like. Sync is the only one that really works flawlessly for me so I'll support it.
  If people ever want Lemmy to become mainstream, they're going to start support some of the more mainstream features.

Liftoff is superior

Liftoff is one of my Favourite Lemmy Clients. Currently, I'm on Infinity for Lemmy (yes, it's now a thing) but I still keep Liftoff around because Infinity for Lemmy is in a very early stage.

God bless Liftoff and Lemmy. Limitless Peace.

I like that liftoff has a desktop application. I use it a fair amount and it has a pretty good experience. You can tell it's optimized for mobile but it still does well with a mouse.
- desktop
  You mean mobile?
  
  There are Linux and Windows builds of Liftoff.

It's an amazing app, very clean and fast.
- And for "clean" I feel the UI cluttered up.
- As are lots of others free ones?

Whoever comes out first with Moderator options will get my money. Hopefully it's by donation to the developer instead of a app subscription.

Same here!

"Oh, no! It's collects data!" - say people who use search engines, smartphones, navigations, personal AI assistants and social networks created by big tech companies to trade in user data.
- All of those are awful and you should endeavor to use them as little as possible...particularly when alternatives that don't mine your data exist...

🍻👍⛏️ Rock and Stone, Brother!

Why is it PEGI 18 rated in Google Play??!
- There is a lot of porn on Lemmy.
- Because Peggy saw the nsfw instance.
  
  Karen too.

Thank you Liftoff 🙏🙏
You are my app of choice!

Here we are, with rabid FOSS fanboys complaining about tracking in an Android app. Probably posting these angry threads from their Samsungs, loaded down with baked in spyware and adware, and acting superior cause they fiddled around on DuckDuckGo long enough to figure out how to install F-Droid and think now they're elite hackers in total control of their device and data.
If you're running a stock ROM, you've already given all your data away to the manufacturer and Google, at the very least. So don't come on Lemmy removed about tracking, when half of you wouldn't know what privacy was if I beat you to death with it.
You exquisite knobs. You absolute baffoons.
- Yeah and we all know that if you're not using a dumb phone and an Unix machine disconnected from the internet you're an exquisite knob and shouldn't worry about privacy at all and anyone should have the right to access your data.
  What a bullshit take.
  
  You're like a dog, loaded down with ticks, complaining about the single flea on him. That's what you sound like, you know?
- Posted from my LineageOS phone, no gapps, microG, only foss apps.
  I hope you felt good and happy writing your comment, unlike the rabid, angry, superior acting, elite hacker, removed, knobs, baffoons FOSS fanboys.
  
  Yes I did, thank you for your concern.
- It's already getting old tbh
- What's with the insults just because people aren't using Sync? I don't understand the fanaticism of worship that seems to be around it that people react in this manner to those who decide to not use it.
  
  Sync has an extremely fanatical fan base that orbits around its dev on their discord. It's like a whole community, they think of the head dev as their friend, and they get extremely defensive of Sync.
  Because one time a a few years ago a bunch of users complained about a really bad UI change, and the dev was so hurt he stopped developing for a bit. So they took it upon themselves to be his personal goon squad, dispatch from the discord if someone shares a negative post about sync there.
  
  Well, Sync brought more of the yucky Reddit people which were a minority in the first migration.
- People that diss open source are dumbass dipshits. You should be ashamed of yourself.
  Open source software runs most of the Internet and this social media platform. It has provide more value to every one of us than any closed source retail software ever could.
  And yes I do care about privacy. I only run de-googled AOSP phones and my home network has pi-hole and a VPN. So I will go on and on about how FOSS is better, thank you very much.
  
  Exactly where did I diss open source? Did you read my comment, or just jump to the reply button?
  
  Agreed.

Your bank collects your data, though.

Yeah, the sync dev has learned from Spez.
Thanks Liftoff!
Ok ok, was a bit harsh here :)
- Just because he’s trying to earn a living doesn’t mean he’s ‘literally spez!’ or whatever lol
- Huh? Not really, you can't compare a badass good dev with a poor whiney CEO.
  
  I am just really disappointed.

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