wefwef is so great

DoomerBoomer@lemmy.world to Fediverse@lemmy.world – 87 points –

I just want to praise wefwef. On iOS it is a great app alternative which you can add to the homepage.

The user experience is very similar to Apollo . Honestly I was a bit afraid if I can switch but now I’m relaxed. This is a great alternative!

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Don’t forget to try Memmy, either when it comes out or on TestFlight now.

So far, so good. Even more haptic feedback than Apollo had, which is always a nice bonus.

+1 to Memmy. Made my switch from Reddit as easy as it can be (UX wise).

Thanks for the suggestion. I will have a look at it

I've been in several apps's TestFlight for a couple of weeks. The author of Memmy has so much energy to work on their app, I think it's the most likely to reach production soon. Mlem is a close second, with a closer feel to Apolo, the others (Thunder and Liftoff!) are still alpha quality for now.

Memmy is full and I can’t login on liftoff 🥲 wefwef is nice but I like an actual app

Edit: I got lift off workin!

I tried it, but for some reason I can’t stand the fake iOS interface. It just feels cheap or something, I like kbin as a PWA much more.

I find it really convincing on my phone, what about it is obviously fake to you?

Yeah, works great for me. I’m an iOS user and seems very much like a continuation of the design philosophy of Apollo

You should try memmy. It’s better and actually an app.

People should stop praising "an actual app" as an advantage.

There is nothing in functionality that a good PWA can't do well for a Lemmy client. It's cross platform and can be used in the browser of your choice, without the lock-in to a single app store.

People are coming from a closed system like Reddit because Reddit abused it's power and now they're asking for apps in a store where another company might do the same. I don't get it.

Yep, if anything a PWA is more in the spirit of the fediverse

An open source app would be equally in spirit, I think.

You’re right — PWAs can be feature rich and versatile. I’m glad they exist.

However, as much as I like wefwef (especially coming from Apollo), I don’t like having the URL bar perpetually taking up real estate like it does on iOS. I’m also much less likely to trigger browser-specific functions if I’m using a dedicated app.

Assuming the Lemmy platform remains open, I don’t have any issue supporting a developer for making a great app for it.

The issue with Reddit is not that devs were making third-party apps for it… it’s with the people running the platform.

The URL bar won’t be visible if you added it on your homescreen.

I think they may be referring to the bar at the top where the URL bar was. In my case at least, and maybe I did something wrong, but mine still has a blank bar where the URL bar was. I think they're referring to that "real estate."

I tested it on both Android and iOS and I still can’t see the URL bar. I even moved the URL bar on top in Safari (I prefer it on the bottom) and still can’t see it. I’m not sure why it’s happening on yours.

I'm using Firefox as my main browser. On Android. Not sure if that matters. In dark mode, it's a grey box. Pretty tiny so it doesn't really bother me. I'm just using wefwef for the time being, until Boost for Lemmy, or something like it, comes out (and is good).

I'd take a screenshot and post it but I'm not sure I really care that much lol.

Yeah, plenty of Android users did say that it doesn’t perform as well on Firefox, so maybe that’s the case here.

I don’t like having the URL bar perpetually taking up real estate like it does on iOS

If you save it to the homepage this doesn't happen. Guide

The issue with Reddit is not that devs were making third-party apps for it… it’s with the people running the platform.

The issue with the App Store is not that devs are making apps and distribute them there... it's with the people running the App Store.

It shouldn’t show the URL, have you added wefwef to the Home Screen?

I tried every app I could find on TestFlight:

  • Thunder
  • Liftoff
  • Memmy
  • Mlem

For the moment WefWef is better than all of them.

I keep those apps installed to keep track of their advancement, because I usually prefer using native apps, but they are not ready yet and WefWef is just so great and works so well it’s hard to believe it’s a webapp

I have constantly praised how good PWAs are and get constant pushback because "web apps suck", when the reality is just that most web apps suck, but they don't inherently.

A well written PWA is a beautiful app distribution model. It just uses standard web browser APIs so it should work on every platform with a web browser, which means it also works with your favourite browser extensions, screen readers, and accessibility devices; it's securely sandbox from the OS through those APIs; it updates itself seamlessly to the latest version with a page refresh; and distribution literally just requires you to self host a web site for free on something like GitHub Pages, no app stores or signing certificates or anything.

I didn't really give them a chance until overseerr came out. Now that iOS finally allows web apps to send notifications I'm a fan.

Mlem is also quite good. I’d say there isn’t a clear favorite yet. All have subtle pros and cons.

Would love to use it but PWAs are not that great on my phone. Oh, the joys of using Linux phone.