But have you tried Jerboa?

UhBell@lemmy.world to Lemmy Shitpost@lemmy.world – 1349 points –
240

I was using Jerboa up until now and am now using Sync because I used it for Reddit.

....and that's it. I don't understand why this gets so much talk. There are so many options. Just use something. We all want Lemmy to grow so I don't see the problem.

This. I've been using Jerboa ever since making the switch to Lemmy. There wasn't much of a learning curve and it basically does what I want, so I'm happy with it.

Me too, I have no idea where the complaints about Jerboa are coming from. I mean, it shows posts and comments, how radically different are these alternate apps? They all look the same to me!

There's some slight functionality differences and maybe some customization: for example, Relay had swipe controls which were pretty nice.

I wish they'd just fix the bug when pressing backspace to edit comments.

Seconded. Jerboa is much better than lookout liftoff which I also tried, but the backspace bug is irritating

I started off using jerboa. Just installed sync to see what the fuss is about. At the core it's pretty much the same. One thing sync does better, at least on my phone, is smoother loading/rendering of content. There were times id actually use Lemmy web instead.

With that said, my favorite reddit app Boost, is working on a Lemmy client too. So I'm looking forward to that as well.

Am I ditching jerboa? No, not yet.

I put this in a other thread, but am genuinely interested in getting feedback.

I'm currently on Jerboa and downloaded/installed sync yesterday. As a former RIF user, I don't have a horse in this race. I am more familiar with Jerboa, but find the overall feel of both (admittedly, without a lot of use), to be pretty comparable.

That said, I kind of like some of the ideas in Jerboa more? For example, tap to minimize comments and their children on Jerboa is quite a bit faster. I'm kind of sad that both make selecting some of the text in a comment hard and miss the dedicated RIF collapse/expand comment tree button. Jerboa also matches the font size of everything else in my UI better than Sync. For example, the font size of this reply and my keyboard are the same in Jerboa. In Sync the in-app font size is quite a bit smaller.

At the end of the day, I think that both apps are going to be largely comparable for a fairly casual user like me. I bet both offer more functionality than I'm using, but so far I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

You can customize both those options in Sync. I had the same initial issues, but you can switch comment collapse to single tap as well as increase font size.

Sync is very very customizable.

Will have to try customizing it, thanks for the pointer. I'm still not sure what benefits it beings other than a somewhat smoother UX though.

As a former RIF user I like the way the comments look on synch better. Reminds me or RiF

Indenting in jebora does leave something to be desired, lol. I've gotten some good pointers, will have to keep trying sync.

I am exactly your use-case. Was using RIF, then I've been using Jerboa up until Sync was released. I never used Sync for Reddit.

My opinion on the two differs from yours, however. Sync seems SO much better than Jerboa to me. Yep, the font was small but I was able to embiggen it. Everything else seems faster and more intuitive. Jerboa was so buggy for me.

Jerboa was a bit buggy initially, but the only bug I've experienced recently was trying to expand hidden comments in a post with a ton of comments. That caused it to crash. It is slow to load some days, but I've been caulking that up to a slow instance. I could see how an app could work around that problem by not loading the slow instance but that seems... non ideal? Better CX sure, but it means different users would see different content based on what app they're using.

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Another killer features Sync has that (AFAIK) no other Lemmy android apps currently have:

  • long pressing a community in the community list drawers will open that community in a new activity windows, essentially the android equivalent to open in a new "window". Use your phone's app switcher to switch between these "window". There is even an option to allow you to open posts in a new window as well. Very handy if you want to write a comment while looking for some information in another thread, or if you're on a tablet and want to pin multiple sync windows on the screen.

  • Sync will open links to a lemmy post natively instead of in an embedded web browser. Basically solve one of the most complained issue about linking in Lemmy.

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I've tried a few apps (Liftoff, Wifwif or whatever it was called, and now Sync). I've not stuck with any of them, despite the fact I used RiF and later Boost both for years.

They just feel too early stage. Eg, Wifwif was super sluggish and I accidentally cancelled multiple long comments I typed up by trying to scroll, which is a big oof. With Sync, I noticed the comment hierarchy was messed up and when I went to post about that, I couldn't do it from within the app because posting isn't supported yet (feels like a big thing to be missing).

So for now, I'm still just using the website. And not with the PWA, because support for multiple tabs is really great and avoids weirdness with scrolling when going back.

Side note: why do literally no apps support tabs????? Number zero feature request I've ever had, for every single app. I even noticed that Sync has a long press to open posts in background, but it's only for posts and it is rather convoluted cause it's more like opening a second instance of the app. The back button goes to my Android home screen (not back to Sync) and it is hard to navigate to what you just opened.

Mobile Chrome's tab groups feature is absolutely amazing. I hate using "normal" tabs anymore, cause the tab groups having the tabs accessible at the bottom of the screen is unbeatable.

Most of us were like that, but the sudden excitement we all had for the app release caused a counter-surge of people annoyed at our excitement and sometimes exaggerated statememts, which caused a lot of us to dig in our heels against the backlash in defence.

Add to that a user base used to no ads and no fees, with a user base who is okay with either, you've got the perfect ingredients for the mud soup we've found ourselves in.

Because third party apps are literally the point that drove a lot of people to Lemmy in the first place. It's classic selection bias.

I've been using Liftoff but Sync feels a lot more polished except what it does with the comments sometimes - showing child comments with no parent. Liftoff would show the parent comment so I don't know what's up with that.

Long time RiF user but no LiF 🤷‍♂️

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I never thought I'd be in an environment where FOSS user is the majority demographic.

I feel like I'm hanging out in a crypto community where Bitcoin maximalists are the majority... I hate it.

thats a perfect description. even the linux subreddit wasn't this rabid about Foss

And now they're stuck on the ever-worsening platform while it gets better every day here

Join us, you know in your heart that you want to 😈

I ended up getting banned from /r/Bitcoin, I might end up getting banned from /c/linuxmemes

Wait you weren't joking? What do you mean you've been seeing bitcoin maximalists?

No, I'm saying the FOSS maximalists act exactly the same as Bitcoin maximalists and that kind of closed mindedness is just bad for whatever these people like (open source software and crypto in their cases) as it just pushes people away.

You wouldn't convince people to try a hobby you like by sending the weirdo that insults anyone that doesn't like that hobby to talk to them... Well the weirdos have a platform now and they're loud as fuck and they're part of the group that's in majority so they get tolerated!

Heck, I was just arguing with one that called those who use closed source software "closed source cucks"...

Use Linux too but know exactly what you mean. This kind of people are fucking annoying and drive other people away

I remember being like that as a teen. Unfortunately, Linux has had an air of elitism around it for a long time, possibly since its inception.

Huh. Not sure what it is about this beard style and superiority but this Pic and this discussion remind me of https://xkcd.com/743

Occasionally people are just smug and superior because they are right.

I mean, in fairness, the open standard Office Open XML format did win out.

But that also went public in 2006. Open Office XML, the not-so-confusingly named alternative, is practically extinct.

We should probably start emailing all the Lemmy devs, client devs, etc. and shaming them for using GitHub since it's not open source and open source options for source control are available. /s

Reminds me of the persecution complex people have about vegans. Like, they're actually right and you kind of have your head up your ass.

Damn..... But i like hamburgers!

-Sent From SyncForLemmy(tm)

but bacon

smh

As my vegan brother said, "if God didn't want us to eat cows, they wouldn't be so slow and delicious."

I'm a sync ultra user. My sense of superiority is only eclipsed by my ignorance of what FOSS stood for. But seriously use what you like. I just want lemmy to grow.

Yeah, I have used sync for years. Decided to switch to Lemmy once sync announced an app in production. I used Jerboa and Connect in the meantime, but now that Sync is here, it's like sinking back into a warm bath.

I'm here because of Sync, and if it is good that I am here, it is good that Sync is here.

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I installed sync yesterday and am having a really hard time getting it to work as well as Jerboa. i feel like I've been in every setting, but the layout and UX just doesn't seem nearly as good. It just feels like everything is multiple extra actions to do the same thing in Jerboa.

Like, what do you have to do to get a seamless experience in sync?

Years of tweaking my Sync for Reddit app and then just importing the settings in 3 taps. It's not the answer you were looking for, but it's what a lot of us did.

I love Jerboa for what it is, but just switched to the new native Voyager app and am very happy.

Yesss... I agreeee... Use what I like. I will make them use what I like!!!

It's about having the freedom to control your own devices. Proprietary software like Sync takes away that freedom, so it's unethical. We should be complaining about it.

You're going to have to explain how purchasing and using software that is completely voluntary takes away any freedom from anyone. It's literally just a ui wrapper with different visuals and functionality that some people find useful enough to pay for. Entire legions of people protested the removal of these apps from Reddit. Nothing is free, the concept of that is broken.

This is not about price. Nobody is saying that authors can't charge for their software. It's about freedom.

Your computer/smartphone is controlled by the software that runs on it. Libre Software like Jerboa gives you the source code and the right to study it, modify it and distribute it. This means that anyone can verify what the program does and change it if needed. It means that users actually control the program. If the authors added malicious functionality, it would be easy to remove it.

Proprietary software doesn't give you those freedoms. It's very difficult to verify what such program does or change it. You can't really control it, but it controls your device. If it contains malicious functionality, usually you can't do anything about it. That's why proprietary software is unethical. It gives developers power over their users and they often abuse that power.

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Jerboa was really not good

What exactly did you not like? Using it now and it's come a huge way in just a few weeks. Of all the apps I've tried it had the most compact and quick interface.

I feel people had a lot of loading issues when instances were going down left and right which gave Jerboa an unfair reputation through no fault of its own.

As an ex-RIF user, Jerboa was the one I stuck with, I've just switched to the new Voyager native app, partly because there were some minor feature issues, and performance issues in the last week, mostly just the app crashing when running into comments of blocked users and when scrolling longer threads. They also changed the nesting of comments when you select to view them individually from your post screen, didn't like that.

For some reason I could no longer post replies to comments. I could log in, but it kept me stuck on anonymous for some reason. It also had pretty crap sorting ui so I just ended up seeing the same posts for days at a time, and when clicking on links it insisted on opening them in an external browser.

Compared to RiF it wasn't a smooth UX for me. Sync I can tweak and it looks and feels very nice with no issues so far. I'll probably try other options as things mature, but for now this is definitely "good enough" whereas other options weren't for me.

The only thing I'd change about sync UI wise currently is the indentation of the comment actions. When I tap on a comment to upvote I expect it to be aligned with the comment, instead it's always at full width. I keep bookmarking things by mistake.

I never ended up being able to log in. Even after it said they fixed the issue it kept logging me out. And don't get me started on the UI.

Sync ain't perfect. I keep accidentally collapsing comments because I was used to rif which, unlike sync, doesn't collapse comments after a long press. The fact that that is one of my biggest gripes with the app is a huge improvement over jerboa though

woahh you can directly link settings o.O

If you long press on any settings option, a "link" to it will be copied to your clipboard.

And this is what it is for me.

The customization on sync gets me so damn close to what I had with relay that I'm just happy.

I used others, but they were heavily inspired by Apollo and the customization to make them closer to my muscle memory wasn't there. I'm happy to pay a talented developer who can give me my preferred experience.

And I really don't get this raging choosing beggar entitlement to people labor for free

Thank you, but I think you misunderstood. I don't want it to collapse a comment no matter how long I press.j want that to just be a button

Agreed. They were trying their best but when your app stutters it's usually not your fault but the Frameworks.

Not really. If it stutters it's you misusing the framework or doing other things that aren't optimal

My... Friend... Wanted to know where he can download foss because he couldn't find it in the Google app store ..

FOSS is Free Open Source Software. All Lemmy apps except Connect and Sync are FOSS.

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But have you tried Jerboa...

on weed?

Yeah, still liked Connect better

Connect is great but I can't get over how ugly I think the icon is, so I've been using Liftoff instead. Turns out I'm shallow when it comes to tech!

Unless you're an independently wealthy jackass, I'm not sure how you can attack non-FOSS software users. I am a software engineer and I get paid to write software. I write some code for fun at home too and if people use any of my projects Im delighted. But if you want bug fixes and reliability and consistent new features and updates to apis and I have to listen to your bullshit complaints about how XYZ is better, you bet your ass I'm gonna charge for that.

It's like a baker making bread who gives out a few loaves for free at first. You don't get to complain if 100s of people show up demanding free bread and he starts charging them. Maybe communism is a system that demands people work for free, but elsewhere you're entitled to whatever wage the market will bear.

The bread analogy dies at the same point that the piracy argument dies. It isnt truly stealing to make a copy of something.... and it doesnt cost a developer more effort the more people that download their app.

Yes i would download a car.

Years ago, I came to the conclusion that the right way to support yourself being a software company was to provide service, not software. I also believe selling software licenses to for-profit companies is a good strategy. Bug bounties are fine too.

Point is, I think there are plenty of ways software developers can make a living without being closed-source or nag-ware. Most companies do not want their employees spending time fixing bugs in software, and many are fine paying reasonable licensing fees as long as their software group is satisfied with the service - which mainly happens when said IT group isn't having to spend too much time messing with it.

You are right, but I see no reason why you couldn't sell Libre software. People never have to pay for software, they choose to do it. It doesn't matter if the app is proprietary or not.

I'm reminded that in the past every release of a software (at least the major ones) would be a single paid-for release. Obviously the google play model inhibits that kind of sensible monetisation straegy for now (I think).

Think photoshop before, the model that clip studio pro has 'reverted' back to (I support it, but I can't help but remember that time when they bombed twitter with adverts with a deal - that's money that didn't go towards development).

I read your name as rustic titties, and I have never been more disappointed in my whole life...

Disappointed tit.

The Free Software movement has nothing to do with price. It's about freedom. We deserve to have the freedom to control our own devices. Proprietary software takes that away, so it's unethical.

It's shame, if only the ideology wasn't born in an anglophone country maybe this common misconception would have never been a thing in the first place.

LIBERTÀÀÀ!!

Oh no more ways to enjoy the fediverse. Oh no the thousands of users of sync for reddit might come here now oh no this is a disaster!

Not just sync. I was a RIF user.

Hey, you're me! I'm a big fan of Sync (free version) thus far, and I've been able to tailor it as such that it's damn near LiF for me. I love all the options and customization it offers. Big ups to Liftoff too, still use that from time to time

13 year RIF veteran, tried a few but stuck with Jerboa, just switched to Voyager (wefwef.app) as they just dropped their Android native app and so far I'm loving it.

I've been a Lemmy about 2 weeks and I'm practically radicalized for FOSS. I'm about to custom install Arch Linux and burn a Sync user at the stake.

I can't tell if your joking. I also didn't really care that much about open source software before coming here, but now I find myself searching out for open source replacements for the stuff I'm already using.

Jerboa users would find this very funny, if they could see it.

Literally the third post I see from Jerboa for Lemmy this morning.

😡 I see you right now, punk.

/s, well, I mean I'm using Jerboa but I'm not actually trying to be angry lol

Saw this within 30 seconds of switching to Liftoff after Jerboa just crashed lmao

Can we talk about something else

I don't think I've ever been part of an online community that was this much into Linux. I mean I get it, great open source operating system to stick it to the corpos, but it feels like only a certain slice of Reddit came over and it isn't fully representative of the main Reddit population.

Then again we were mostly united about the 3rd party app thing, which a lot of Redditors didn't really care about (otherwise more would be here).

It's basically Reddit from ten years ago.

Fortunately I haven't seen any of the nasty communities yet, but they just might be more hidden.

In other posts, people are. :)

Scroll past the ones you don't want to see, or even block the entire community. You have a lot of control.

Been using jerboa since it dropped, was using lemmur before that and jerboa is definitely brtter. Waiting on infinity though.

I had been using Liftoff and am now trying out Voyager and Sync.

So far Sync is winning me over.

I've been using liftoff to pretty good results

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Listen I love the Foss apps, but sync is so fucking good. I use multiple apps for different reasons, I did the same with reddit. I just really missed sync.

As long as FOSS and paid versions of something can exist at the same time and the paid thing is actively trying to push out the FOSS stuff, I have no issue with a paid option.

Voyager for me (previous name was wefwef). Works like a charm.

They just dropped the Android native app for Voyager too.

Can I ask, what the heck is FOSS?

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I'm switching between Connect, Infinity and will try Sync. I'm waiting for Boost, and hoping that developer/s of Joey will make client for Lemmy

After Sync released I tried even more other Lemmy clients because of all the other recommendations in the Sync discussion threads, and there are definitely a lot of great Lemmy apps.

But as an old Sync (for Reddit) user myself I also get the feeling of familiarity using the Sync Lemmy app, with the customizability to even adjust what each "step" of the swiping gestures does, while using other Lemmy apps I mostly feel like I'm locked to "getting used to the app". So I understand why some people are so happy to use Sync again.

That being said I do agree that it feels expensive to pay even for ad-less, and people may not like that the free version has ads. I will probably pay just for ad-less (not Ultra) once I have figured out if I like any of the other Lemmy apps better (or not.)

Sync is great and the best polished Lemmy app, but I like my Infinity. Been using it for years now and I'm even a patreon of Doctile Alligator

I tried Infinity too, while I miss swiping to upvote and reply to comments, the swipe to move between previous/next posts was interesting, so I'll have to test it more to see if I like it!

There actually is swipe to upvote

Ah, found it now, thanks! I guess because swiping anywhere by default just went to the next post, I didn't expect it to have an option for swiping the comments too.

I'm using Sync for lemmy

edit: I tried it these days and I don't like it, I'm switching back to the webapp

The amount of shilling Sync receives makes me worry that something is up with it. It's not normal that I even believe some bots and sock puppets are involved. I'm not touching it with a long stick until someone does some proper security analysis on it. I'm not dumb to fall for peer pressure. Good luck, guys!

I’m not touching it with a long stick until someone does some proper security analysis on it

How would that happen? It's proprietary software, we don't have access to the source code. And that's the whole point. We can't verify what it does and we can't modify it.

The alternative is Free/Libre Software. That's what Lemmy is, Jerboa and many others. Their authors publish the source code and let their users study it, modify it and distribute it. Because they are not trying to hide anything from us. That's the ethical way to make software.

Security analysis doesn't require the source code. TikTok was repeatedly analyzed without it being open source.

Perhaps you are right, but it's way more difficult, takes a lot of time and requires a different set of skills. If there is spyware in it, it would be illegal to remove it and distribute a patch for other users. So even if you find something, there is not much you can do about it.

It's not very practical to add spyware into Libre Software though, because it wouldn't be hard to find and it would be very easy for users to remove it.

FOSS for Lemmy

It's just very popular - I used it for reddit. It had a lot of installs on play and was recommended often on reddit.

It's just good. I used it for years, and even bought the Pro version of the reddit app. The main feature for me is the performance. I don't have a high end phone and Sync are the only one with a consistent scrolling performance (no dropped frames).

Tried Jerboa... wasn't a huge fan, now I'm using Connect

That's funny. I hated how Connect refused to play nice, and moved to Jerboa.

My only complaint with jerboa is that it keeps forgetting my login details.

I use a password manager. I don't know what my lemmy password is. I just know it's really long, so logging in requires owning up a second app, searching for lemmy, copying my password, going back to jerboa, and then going through the login flow.

KeePass2Android has a software keyboard with integration with the pass DB and it detects what app you're typing into (and websites too with browsers using the right API), and you can put the app name in the password entry to have it autofill

That was happening to me for a while, but not anymore. IDK if an update fixed it. Try updating and then restarting phone?

The number of bad takes in this thread has convinced me that Lemmy may really succeed

As long as we can all agree that the people using the web UI are fools and/or masochists

(sent from Infinity)

The web UI still have two features no other apps (afaik) currently have: autocomplete when mentioning someone's username (useful for e.g. summoning bots), and selecting comment language (useful for replying to posts that somehow marked as English-only, and the server's language auto-detection somehow think your comment is not written in English and rejects it)

I'm a Synckie but If I'm not a Synckie then I'm gonna be a WefWefian all the way.

Edit: my comment was to design to induce a bit of vomit so if you did, 100% normal.

Jerboa is buggy I'm using Thunder

Honestly, it's improved a ton, I haven't run into any bugs the last few weeks

The only bugs I really encounter are the occasional crash when expanding comments on random oddly specific threads.

I'm actually kind of excited to see where all of these apps will be in another year or so. There's so much potential!

Yeah, I'm glad there's a bunch of options! I know I have some oddly specific preferences and I'm sure others do too, so hopefully there's something that'll mostly acomodate everyone.

I use both to this day, they're both buggy, but getting better.

Love Thunder but Sync has been looking so damn sexy like damn girl

No mark as read posts while you scroll and hide read post FAB icon/toggle for both sadly, a feature that I use a lot.

Jerboa had both in its latest alpha release on github, you should check it out.

I know it supports hide read posts as a button within their menus, but are you sure about marking as read while you scroll?

Yup, tried and tested on the most recent alpha. I can confirm it works.

I've read it tracks users

source?

Boy do I have to bad news for OP about how advertising & marketing works in the for profit world.

Boy do I have good news about my cat because it's her birthday 🎂🎈

But have you tried Infinity?

Ooh, did infinity come to Lemmy? That was my app for the old site for... I dunno, time is weird... a couple of years?

I've been enjoying liftoff over here. It's been solid enough that I stopped looking.

I've been chilling with Liftoff. Until Infinity for Lemmy gets to a more usable state, that is.

I tried jerboa, I didn't like it. Seems to basic and didn't really function for me(was likely due to actual server issues rather than app issues though). I'm now on connect and pretty content though.

No problem with proprietary alternatives at all, it just feels contradictory to use such thing in a FOSS environment

Eh, it's all just personal choice (until someone starts scraping Lemmy for LLM or otherwise mining for data).

  • sent from Firefox on Windows on VMware on Linux

Hate to break it to you but that's likely already happening. Everything here is 100% public and pretty easily accessible.

I actually think it's the best combination, as long as the protocol is open

At the end of the day I think peoples' systems should be made with open-source components, like firmware and OS, and then they can choose whether to put closed-source apps on it or not.

That being said, I personally moved away from proprietary social media (except youtube) mostly because they're proprietary, plus ad tracking, so I don't like the idea of throwing it all away just to put another closed-source app on my phone. But that's just me

i started with jerboa then landed on voyager and i've been happy with it since

quite literally only gotten better with every update

tried jerboa and thunder (and wefwef/voyager or w/e) now I'm using sync

Jeroboa is the first one I saw. So that's one I got. It does everything I want a lemmy app to do so havnt really bothered with any others.

I installed a handful and gave each of them a half hour. Jerboa won for me at least.

Jerboa user here,

Stop infecting other communities with this trash argument. Sync dev can do what he wants, sync dev should donate some money to Lemmy dev. If you don't think he should then you shouldn't donate to sync dev.

Thanks!

Using Jerboa as my daily Lemmy driver with Sync as a backup.

#SyncMasterRace

That'll be $3 for mentioning Sync. Please remit within 14 days.

That'll be $3 for mentioning Sync. Please remit within 14 days.

EDIT: Dangit I mentioned the name too

If I have a choice, I prefer to not use software created by fucking tankies, thank you very much

Lol dude has no clue where he is

It’s a squad of trolls, there’s other users throwing around the same terminology despite most users probably not even giving a fuck about politics.

You can ignore them tbh they’re the stage prior to the fuckin homeless dude screaming in the street about some psychotic ass conspiracy theory. Wave to the animals in their cages

I'd use free software written by Satan himself if it was good quality. In this case just make sure you set "makes_user_communist" to false.

... dude, you're on lemmy. The same folks that made Jerboa made lemmy.

And are they actual tankies or are they just communists? -- because those aren't remotely the same thing.