1y ago

What's currently the best Lemmy app for Android?

With all these new options springing up, I'm a little outdated. What's the best app to use right now?

73 comments

I'll put my thoughts on this post as it showed up as I scrolled to get to the one from a day or two ago...I have 5 different Lemmy apps installed right now. Figure that there is going to be a lot of experimentation and work being done right now, so it's nice to see what everyone is doing.
Jerboa - Personally, I really like Jerboa. Being the most mature of the bunch shows. It's well laid out, has just enough UI options, and works. Except that now Beehaw isn't on v0.18.
Connect - Not open source at this time, I get why that matters to people, but not a deal breaker for me. Typing this comment in Connect. Just updated this morning with additional and redesigned settings. There is about a thumbs width of space between this comment box and my keyboard. That's kind of yucky.
Liftoff - I'm hopeful for this one. It LOOKS the best to me, but there's some weird UX issues. Biggest being that the only place to see your replies/notifications is the top of the Home feed with no quick way to get there if you've been scrolling.
Thunder - I can see the potential, but it's not for me right now. No buttons on comments, you have to use swipe gestures. But posts have buttons. Changing UI options doesn't actually change anything 95% of the time.
Summit - You want a zero frills, dark mode way of browsing and interacting? This is that. I'd love a FEW options (like light mode), but it's fast and easy. Uhh...just realized I can't find a way to make a new post...
Wefwef.app - Last one. Really slick looking and responsive, but too iOS-y for me. It also claims to have light mode, but I can't figure out how to switch it. Really polished though.
- I just want one that will allow me to hide a posts so I'm not scrolling past the same things over and over. None of them do it.
  
  This is the feature I need....I can overlook a lot if I had this.
  
  On Jerboa tap once on the comment to collapse it
  
  That would be an amazing feature. I am just switching the sorting options to avoid this issue. Active seems to be the most "stable" sorting, meaning the same stuff stays on top for the longest time. Hot is better, imho, as it fluctuates a bit more. If I can't find anything new/interesting on active/hot, I switch to "new". Tends to be full of irrelevant stuff, but at least it's new.
  
  That's a lemmy feature. Some apps have this others don't (I mean the option to change your lemmy user settings), but you can just log in your instance on a web browser, click on your name, then settings and then disable 'show read posts'. Any post that you vote (and I think open?) counts as being read, so next time you reload your feed you won't see them.
  
  How would you decide when a post should be hidden? Explicitly marked by the user? Upvoted or downvoted? Visited the link or comments? Just curious what the user experience should be like.
- Is there a reason why thunder is only on a weird, very 90s looking app store and not F-Droid?
  
  The apk is available on the github page, so you can just download and install from there.
  
  Izzyondroid (the weird 90s looking store) can be used with the (or any) fdroid client. You just have to add the repository in the settings. Fdroid builds all the apps from source themselves. You need to add a request for packaging and even after that it takes a bit of time until the app is approved. It seems nobody has requested the inclusion yet. Izzy on the other hand takes the developer build binaries and publishes. The requirements are lower to be included here. So apps tend to be in izzy first and then get eventually added to fdroid proper.

I was using Jerboa, but recently moved to Thunder and enjoying it a lot more.
Although the Reddit Sync app Dev said he's going to make Sync for Lemmy, so I'll swap to that once it's released.

I'm still using the mobile website until the apps mature a little bit. it's surprisingly functional.

Waiting for Sync
- Sync is what I used for reddit for years. Is there a timeline for sync for lemmy or is it just started?
  
  See r/SyncforLemmy. The dev stated an ETA of 3-6 weeks for a first release with very basic functionality.

I've currently settled with Liftoff. I got very used to Jerboa and was perfectly happy with it, but the last few updates broke it to the point of unusability for me.
Liftoff isn't perfect, though its pretty good. My biggest gripe is that as far as I can tell there's no button to go straight to the top of the feed, which is really annoying when you've been scrolling for ages and have to scroll all the way back up. Hopefully that will be added soon.

I switched from Jerboa to Connect. I like Connect a bit better. Really excited for Sync for Lemmy, and will likely switch to that.
- Is Connect open source?
  
  Nope
- Another vote for connect. It's my current go to after trying jerboa, liftoff, summit, and thunder. Although thunder is a close second.
- As a kbin user, I'm really excited about Artemis.

I'm enjoying liftoff for lemmy right now but will switch to sync for lemmy once it's out. The reason why is because of gestures. I feel that it's intuitive to swipe to go back and forth between posts and voting.

I've been using Connect for Lemmy and so far it's unbeatable

Jerboa 0.0.36, but there are some bugs that really bother me. But since Sync will hopefully come soon I don't care enough to try others in the meantime, just waiting it out.

I've had the best luck with Liftoff so far. I used Jerboa for awhile until it kept crashing within seconds of opening it. Not sure how much this affects it, but I'm using GrapheneOS instead of stock Android on a Pixel 6
- Is liftoff in the play store? I can't find it.
  
  Here's the github link for the latest release:
  https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff/releases/tag/v0.9.18

I've tried most of the Android apps available and Jerboa is the one I like the most. It functions and looks just as a expect it to.

I'm using jerboa for now, I intend to investigate in a couple months to find the best one, things are changing way too rapidly right now and I'd end up going through so many and that can't be great for security.

On Android...
I am eternally grateful for the welcoming start to fediverse apps in Jerboa.
Connect is visually nice in places, but not a fit for me (so far).
I'm REALLY enjoying functionality of Summit so far - don't know how to submit a new post in a community in app though and it's driving me crazy that I may be missing something obvious...

I currently use litoff and jerboa
- Which version of Jerboa are you on? 0.0.36 broke sorting for me, and I had to downgrade to 0.0.35

I prefer using a firefox PWA but I have the scrolling bug no matter what browser I use - the page keeps jumping to top when I'm trying to read.
So I've started using liftoff this morning and so I agree with others in this thread, it looks the best to me. It's not as smooth but I find it each much easier to tell which post comes from which instance than with connect. The community icons and titles are larger and the cards seem more separated.

Currently using Jerboa, which works well for me. Haven't had any of the issues people are reporting. Might switch to Sync when it comes out though.

Thunder is my favorite so far, still rough but the next update should be great.

The kbin mobile site as a PWA :)
- I've kind of gotten into PWA's phone wide. I went through my app list and replaced as many as I could. I had to go back to one or two apps when the webpage didn't cut it, but it's working pretty well. As a side effect, I had also cut down on my Google search usage about a month ago and I have noticed that ads (within Facebook at least) have gotten a lot more generic. So apparently the walled garden that hermit created is working.
- No saving/bookmarking 😞
  
  Normal Lemmy site can be used as a PWA and you can just login and do what you want. Also Jerboa works fine for reading and marking. So could use that to read and mark, and then do replies with PWA. That is what I do.
  
  Upvoting saves a post to your favourites
- Yes, I just use the normal Lemmy site presented as a PWA or just my workstation to post and comment. Use Jerboa for browsing and marking. Works fine for that, but seems to be less then reliable for commenting.

Jerboa is fine for me, I've been using it for about 2 weeks now. Last update also added a bunch of new functionality which is awesome. It's still in alpha but seems to be on track to become a great app.

been using Connect for Lemmy, it seems pretty decent so far.
- Your comment is duplicated. I just had the same thing with a new post. I'm also using Connect. Sometimes it seems the UI doesn't respond so you press again, I guess.

https://wefwef.app is the most polished ans iOS-like app I have found. It's basically an open-source clone of Apollo for iOS.

Any that are optimized for tablets yet?

Liftoff and thunder. Liftoff has the feature of showing combined feed from multiple accounts so you can see things even when instance are defederated.

I was using Jerboa but I've been having problems with it over the last few days and was getting annoyed. I saw this morning that there was another app, Connect for Lemmy. I've deleted Jerboa now because the connect ui is much nicer and hasn't been crashing so far.

On Android...
I am eternally grateful for the welcoming start to fediverse apps in Jerboa.
Connect is visually nice in places, but not a fit for me (so far).
I'm REALLY enjoying functionality of Summit so far - don't know how to submit a new post in a community in app though and it's driving me crazy that I may be missing something obvious...
- I also use Jeroba, as it's in the FDroid repos. I'll look into those others you mentioned, but I'm quite happy with Jeroba so far.

Give wefwef.app a chance. it's a pretty good progressive web app inspired by Apollo

Jerboa js nice but i'm currently on wefwef.app, also nice, it's a web app

wefwef.app is pretty good if you don't mind PWA's

Jerboa is working well for me so far.

Here's a post on Mastodon that links to their blog where they describe different clients.
https://writing.exchange/@erlend/110616473377954593

Jerboad has been my go-to. I've tried liftoff, connect, and some of the webapps, But I found that jerboa has worked most reliably for how I use Lemmy.

Impatiently waiting for Beyond. Until then I've settled for Connect, as it's a pretty active community that shapes the app with it's suggestions and feedback. It's nice to be a part of that.

I've been playing around with several apps. I really like Thunder and Liftoff. Currently giving connect a try and liking it as well. Will definitely move to sync when available though as it is my app of choice for reddit.

I was using jerboa for the last couple of days but today I tried thunder again after it didn't work last time. I really love it. It comes really close to baconreader, which I have used for the last 11 years. I really love tapping comments to minimize them but still being able to read the parent comment. The only thing I would like is an option to sort comments, but as far as I know, no other app allows to do this

Jerboa seems to be more than usable for now, UI isn't as pretty as others but it's pretty functional

I've been really happy and surprised at how well https://wefwef.app works. It's a PWA and is slick as snot.

Liftoff, but I can't rate it in the store for some reason
- Maybe because it's in early access. You can't search for it either - you have to get to it from the play store link in the project readme

73 comments