What app are you using to browse Beehaw on Android?

AskBeehaw@beehaw.org – 20 points – 2 weeks ago

I've been using Sync for a while, but it repeatedly hits an error when I try to submit posts to Beehaw. I have not tried other instances, but I am assuming this issue is specific to Sync. Getting really sick of drafting posts and then having to discard them because the app errors out 🤦

Boost for Lemmy, one of the most fully fledged apps IMO due to the long dev time put into Boost for Reddit. I also just like that it's a solo dev from Portugal, don't care that it's not FOSS because of this.

I'm using boost too. Seems to be alright

I wouldn't care that much either that it's not FOSS, however I do care that it's filled with trackers, similarly to Boost for reddit

From what I understand they are removed from the paid version.

Isn't that the same app (in the store), though?

From my understanding apps are able to have versions for their free and pro apps without having to keep them separate. The dev has stated that all of the trackers present in the app are google trackers for him to get revenue from ads and are stripped from the paid version. I only know this cause over the years on his reddit app it would come up from time to time, one memorable example when someone was complaining about getting NSFW ads in the app and how any self-respecting user would use an app that showed those ads... Turns out they had ad personalization turned on and their history shared some light about the sorts of sites they were searching for lol.

What, yeah, definitely points against having tracking. But also small time developers don't have to follow FOSS when they just want to provide a good service for free with ads, and Google Play Store is the easiest way to make that happen for him. He made enough from Boost for Reddit monthly that it negatively impacted him during the API change. Maybe I'm a fool for having some trust here and there, but I also just don't care too much.

But, I know others do so that's why I always mention that as a possible shortcoming and let people decide from there.

Sorry about the late reply.

I don't have access to an apk of paid Boost for Lemmy, but this is what Exodus Privacy has to say about it: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.rubenmayayo.lemmy/latest/
The app does not have Lemmy in the name, but I assume it is the Lemmy version because of its package name

You can also check it locally by
a) installing App Manager from F-droid, and when they boost app's details are opened, use the Scanner feature. It is a larger action button in the vertically scrollable button bar below the app name
b) export the APK to your computer, and use JADX from github to disassemble the APK. you should be able to see the layered packages and source code of the embedded trackers.

Yes, what you described is app flavors, and is a feature of the android sdk. However, the dev probably didn't remove the dependency incisions. Even if they now don't issue a specific initialization call at app startup, the tracking frameworks have registered their own content providers and broadcast receivers in the androidmanifest file at build time, which will be started at app startup before other components of the app.

I use Connect. It's perfect for me and has lots of customization options. I love it! Raccoon is good, too, I just prefer Connect.

Firefox. I'm using the normal website interface.

I moved to Connect this week, coming from Liftoff and Thunder. It feels stable in an old tablet. No obvious issues yet.

Liftoff... but I wouldn't recommend it.

It hasn't been updated in a long while, it has some even larger missing features, and some extra bugs.

Sync... was actually one of the few to update for some Beehaw-apecific bugs some time ago, you might want to contact the developer with your issues.

I keep it as a bav6for when Liftoff fails, the draft feature is pretty nice, and it has better search.

As someone who used Sync exclusively in the reddit days (and uses it here as well), while the dev is generally open to suggestions, he tends to take loooooong breaks, even between betas.

That means bugfixes and features do eventually come, but sometimes not before someone has moved onto something else with more active development. The funny thing is that when those updates do come, they come in speeding. Like multiple updates per day on some occasions.

I'm surprised you're able to continue using Liftoff at all. It doesn't work what-so-ever with any instance (like you can't log in) on any version of Lemmy beyond 0.19. I finally retired using it when my primary instance updated.

Yeah... Beehaw is still on 0.18.4, guess my days of using Liftoff are coming to an end sooner or later.

Beehaw won't update so you are fine

Ride that pony as long as you can, friend. I still hope that the dev will come back 🥹

Looking into it, seems like Liftoff is a fork of Lemmur, which was a nlnet project [1] that got archived "due to lack of interest and political differences" a few months after the funding ended. Can't find who's now in charge of the Liftoff org on GitHub, so it's hard to tell who should come back 🤔

[1] https://nlnet.nl/project/Lemmur/

Raccoon! ❤️❤️❤️

Jerboa. I love it.

I alternate between Jerboa and Summit because Jerboa looks nicer, but Summit has more features and a much better search function. Tho I am not happy with Jerboa's last update that changed how votes are displayed and there's no options to go back to what it was.

Edit: lol Jerboa just updated and added an option for the old score view.

Just the lemmy website in firefox for android.

I use connect to browse.

I tried sync for a little but honestly it's very underwhelming compared to the reddit version. Nowhere as smooth plus dev is constantly disappearing for months on end.

interesting you say that, bc i think i'm gonna do the reverse. Sync for browse and Connect for post. Maybe your way is smarter, but i paid for the premium sync so idk. sunk cost fallacy or something lol