Sync for Lemmy (beta) is now live for everyone

My excitement is tempered by two things, the ultra cost being a subscription (I get the "why" I just hate more subscriptions) and also the pretty crappy targeted adverts "consent" whereby you have to scroll through page after page of third party vendors to turn off the "legitimate" interest which is, let's be honest their way around consent by just ignoring what you want. That's put me right off in all honesty sorry.

Oh my god it's beautiful. It's so beautiful.

It's like having Reddit back, this is amazing. 🙏

For as long as I can remember Reddit and Sync have been one and the same. I never used Reddit website or app, only ever used Sync to browse Reddit hosted content. I used it a lot. I've missed it a lot.

Between the Lemmy platform and Sync client, to all intents and purposes what Reddit was has been fully restored/migrated.

I know it's early days, but I did not expect to see anything like this so soon and it gives me hope that Lemmy can grow and thrive into the network of people that always made Reddit what it was. Everything that's needed is there - early, a little rough around the edges, but there. And being improved constantly.

Hallelujah!

Oh and please note that bugs should be reported in #sync-support-and-bugs in the discord: https://discord.gg/qYWxqva or the github.

LJ has been working very hard - this is beta 24 from no betas a week ago.

And again, it is a beta - some features like Ad-free IAP and submissions are not there, but they will be in there eventually.

Game. Changer.

I live my life as FOSS-y as possible.

This is the only subscription that I have. $2/mo or $16/yr is not even a blip on most people's radar.

The OG Sync was the most used app on my phone and tablet.

So download, enjoy, and pay the dev! He's phenomenal, approachable, and transparent. This isn't some Flappy Birds knockoff. This is a polished app that allows us to connect with one another more easily. And I'd like to see what features he comes up with next.

It takes a lot for me to trust an app/dev this much. Hopefully everybody else will too and we can help him do even more neat things.

Please consider offering a one-time purchase option for certain version milestones, maybe hosted on patreon or something if you need.

I don't mind paying to support development, I do mind subscriptions unfortunately.

First order of businesses.

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE HOME

My god, it's actually like it used to be. Thank you a million times !ljdawson@lemmy.world <3

What the hell, this is so impressive. I'm blown away! Did not expect this kind of experience this fast!

It's a nice app mostly but there's a few things stopping me from loving it currently

• No lifetime license, I refuse to use a subscription service
• list view mode doesn't have the option to have buttons enabled and always showing
• can't disable auto hide of comment actions
• No way to hide viewed posts
• can't highlight and copy text from a comment It just hides content instead (like why?) Only option is to copy all text from a comment but I don't want to copy all just a small selection...
• No option for top bar, only bottom and side

I feel so at home in this app!

Posting from sync, let's go!

I've only had a brief look, but is there a way to pay for pro (but not ultra) so I can remove ads?

Commenting from Sync! I feel back at home.

Firstly, I'm happy to see Sync return.
I made sure to subscribe to help make developing the app financially viable.

Secondly.. With the Sync beta just going live, I'm already running into my very first bugs.
What would be the appropriate place to report these bugs?

Edit: My question has already been answered by OP:

Oh and please note that bugs should be reported in #sync-support-and-bugs in the discord: https://discord.gg/qYWxqva

Hard to describe how good it feels to have Sync back! Was worried the tablet experience would be left behind but it's as smooth as ever. Thank you LJ! Instant subscription, absolutely no hesitation on that one.

Finally, I can ditch Jerboa.

Very nice! Now I can get addicted to Lemmy properly.

When I saw the restore purchases, I almost thought I could restore the lifetime ultra I got for the reddit app lmao. Hope there'll be a discount when lifetime gets added for old lifetime buyers :)

ALL HAIL SYNC FOR LEMMY

Why am I seeing ads on Lemmy???

Edit: Looks like it's the app itself. I'll gladly make a one time purchase to remove them if that's an option, but another subscription is a no go for me.

The pricing is a bit much, especially compared to other services like Tutanota that actually runs servers and provides a service in addition to developing the applications. $20-$30 for the onetime purchase option would be more sane.

I know I bought Sync Pro for Reddit, but I know that was nowhere close to these prices.

EDIT: Found the Remove Ads option, and that is more reasonable priced.

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but 22€ for the ads-free option sounds a bit expensive to me. I bought Sync Pro for reddit for 3€ in 2018.

contains adds

contains in-app purchases

collects data

shares data with 3d party orgs

Nothing against sync, but this is not what I'd expect from lemmy app tbh. There's a lot of free open source options that don't sell your data.

Asking to be paid for your job is OK, but injecting ads in ad-free opensource service, selling user data? This is just reddit-app-moment in my opinion

Lol first post under the Sync announcement

Is there any way to get ad free without a subscription? I was happy to buy a paid version of the app before, but an ongoing subscription isn't really what I want.

Edit: it is not advertised as much as Ultra, but there is a one off payment option to remove ads, in the sidebar. Which I purchased!

Wow I can't believe how much smoother Sync is than other Lemmy clients!

Feel just like sync for Reddit :D

Thank you!

On another note will there be the option to purchase sync like it was for sync for Reddit?

I can feel at home again with sync.

Just tried it, looks good!

• So many options, the customability is really nice
• There is a premium option to copy subscriptions between instances (not ready yet).
• Live comment refresh mode
• Default font size could be too small for most people. I switched to Medium right away on a 6 inch phone.
• Sports Mode in comments is a fun feature :)
• Search Comments is really useful, I have missed this in other clients
• It has faster and smoother scrolling of comments than other clients, very noticeable.
• Being able to collapse comments by clicking on the number of comments is very useful.

So many options everywhere, it's a step up from previous clients for sure.

Making this client in such a short time is ultra impressive. Will be worth the money if being on Lemmy a lot, and also just to support developers like this who dare to bet on Lemmy.

It's freaky to see how smoothly Sync lets me hop back into a familiar experience, now on Lemmy. It's so clean and intuitive, no unnecessary crap, I love it. One of the best apps I've ever used, from one of the best developers to grace this cursed earth.

I've never spent $100 on a program before, but I've got a lifetime ultra membership now. Excited to see this app for lemmy!

Everyone is free to do what they want, but with the bugs this has, and the ads it contains, and the high lifetime price, it's a hard pass for me

Biggest improvement for me is toggling Settings shortcut: View type > Right aligned voting

Gonna try to see if I can use backup/restore layout from my old sync 🤔

Would it be possible to utilize the cloud backup/restore feature for previous Ultra users to bring all their settings back? At least for any similar rules?

Just bought the remove ads version. It is very thrilling to be back to Sync! I'm so used to this look and interface after eleven years with Reddit Sync. Lemmy becomes immediately more familiar and friendly to my eyes. I enjoy Jerboa just fine but I guess I am just an old guy set in my ways and this is how my favorite mobile scrolling app should look and behave. Seems great for a beta and I look forward to further developments!

Testing a link

Brilliant - I love that we can see where a text link actually points. It's one of the things I've liked least about Lemmy apps so far, sometimes you're potentially clicking blind.

Oh, and we still have the choice between inline and expanded, fantastic! Settings shortcut: Link handling > Expanded comment links

This is fantastic, but I'm not going to sign up for a subscription. I would love to support development and get an ad free version like Pro let me. Will this be coming in the future?

As a first release this is so much more fully featured than anything I expected!! So impressive thanks @ljdawson@lemmy.world.

My lemmy experience is exponentially better now, great work! thank you!

Hi, I have one question - on removing ads, are the ads trackers removed? Or will the app just not show us ads but still allow the trackers in, letting the ad tracker owners keep tabs on our browsing and serve us ads in places other than Sync for Lemmy?

Didn't realize how much I missed the slide to upvote. This is great. I know the whole subscription thing but whatever, I don't want ads and it's a tiny yearly payment. I'm in for the year and let everything work itself out.

Feels great.

I feel like LJ should seriously reconsider switching the colours on the logo and up- and downvotes in accordance with Lemmy's layout

A world of difference. What a good day today!

I haven't seen any ads? Am I missing something?

If there was any chance for me to go back to reddit, it's definitely gone now. Awesome app so far!

This must be the most upvoted post on Lemmy

Some things never change 😂 (I know this is not sync's problem).

If you pay for Sync, IMO you should give to the instance which hosts your lemmy account as well as to the Lemmy dev(s) (yes Dessalines is a tankie, but you should separate the artist from the person)

I would love to pay for Sync, alas I don't have Google services on my phone. I know this day will never come, but a non Google pro version would be great (some pro versions I bought without Google play: Folder sync pro, Tasker, Fairemail, KWGT, Poweramp, xprivacy...)

The app is really great

Feels like home.