I’m not sure if you’ve tried this PWA called Wefwef but it feels like a fully featured Apollo client for Lemmy already. You just go to the site and add it to your home screen. No beta to sign up for. No TestFlight link. Just add the PWA.
It’s good. It’s really really good.
30 mins in and I’ve set up a Lemmy account, logged into Wefwef, added a bunch of subscriptions and now it’s about 85% like I’m still using Reddit. Amazing, and considerably better than I could have hoped for
Wefwef is great! I love the Apollo-export upload feature lets you find similar communities on Lemmy.
The only thing missing for me after testing for 2 days is the swipe to go back a screen. You need to reach ALLLLLL the way across to the left edge of the screen and drag it ALLLLLL the way to the right to go back to your feed from a post. In Apollo I had it configured to only need a swipe from about the middle of the screen to the right edge. It’s very hard for me to reach that far comfortably and my muscle memory is all messed up right now. I keep doing the short swipe and I upvote someone’s post instead. If they can add this I will be extremely happy.
Edit: Also, I just realized after posting this comment that Apollo also had a feature where you go forward and backward a screen by swiping left or right on the bottom section. Extremely useful as well.
Pretty impressive! Not Apollo but close. Dismissing images is not as fluid.
My biggest question is, will it eventually be an actual app?
I honestly think that it doesn’t matter - this PWA is so polished I’m forgetting that I’m not using a native app.
It’s an actual webapp, so no, it probably won’t unless they convert the codebase to react native.
I’ve only found a few things that I’m missing from a native experience and I’m sure it can be fixed.
Most annoyingly is the “scroll-to-top” by double tapping the top of the screen doesn’t work.
Otherwise I think in terms of smoothness it’s better than Mlem.
This. People want and need a real app on the official stores to migrate from Reddit. I’m using Connect right now for this reason, but I hope it gets better
The one complaint I have is the lack of a native app; it doesn’t run as smoothly as the other Lemmy clients do on my phone.
It’s already amazing on my tablet though!
When I scroll on Mlem it has a lot of microstuttering on my iPhone 13 pro max.
If you’re on Android it’s likely different. I’ve always had a much harder time getting good framerate on browser on Android phones than in mobile Safari, although the former usually have less crazy layout issues.
I installed the web app from Chrome. It works smooth enough, but it lags specifically when I type a comment. I don’t think there will be a native app.
Yes it is really nice but still browser based at the end of the day, therefore will not be a go-to for me.
Memmy has been good to me so far
Whatever you do, don’t look at what technologies Memmy uses.
I’m on android, but this got me curious.
What technology does memmy use, and why is it a concern?
React native, so it’s not really a concern. Just poking fun.
Oh no, is it react native? I haven’t looked as deeply into memmy as I have other betas.
Truly waiting for a proper native app
Why?
Native apps can utilize the feature of the host OS whereas using a library like react native that compiles down into different code depending on the target platform for that build, will be limited to what react native provides integration with.
There are sadly many things and as new feature come out those too can be underutilized.
I’m really generalizing here but if you look into it with that context, you’ll see what I mean.
I’ve experienced this personally and professionally as I am a senior software engineer and have done my share of app development
Mlem is also nice
@fades @African_Grey do you know if any more beta slots have been upened up for Memmy? I’m trialing Mlem right now but there’s no iPad version
New favorite way to use lemmy.
Great design, feels responsive, works everywhere…
PWAs are great, and for 99% of use cases are more than enough. We need a fake App Store that “installs” PWAs in people devices in a transparent way.
Also let’s hope Apple is forced to open iOS to alternative rendering engines and complete full features browsers.
And for a final irony boost, the PWA thing is the “”””original”””” vision for smartphones, at least according to Steve Jobs during the original iPhone keynote. Full circle and stuff.
PWA App Store https://appsco.pe/
+1 wefwef.app my favorite so far
It is certainly pretty close and has made moving over to Lemmy just that much easier for me when using my phone.
I don’t really mind the regular interface but just got very used to the Apollo way of things and its nice to have it available.
I just installed Mlem and Memmy. Both have a very nice UI and are smooth. I am leaning towards Mlem though. I like swiping right to view my communities.
Edit: I was an Apollo user and reddit does not feel the same without Apollo.
I tried those 2 as well but Wefwef is really better despite being a web app.
Yeah it’s my favorite so far as well!
Memmy and Mlem are great native apps
It is. It doesn’t hide read posts, but that’s the only major thing it’s missing.
There is work done one this to hide post, it just needs reviewed and approved. Might need more for read part.
The dev updated it like daily, I’m sure it’s coming
It seems to work well enough. I could use a little more information density, I wish I could turn off thumbnails, and a bunch of other nit-pick-y things, but it’s a good start.
Not sure if you are asking for a compact view? Because it does have that.
I have the compact view on and the font set to as small as I can. I would love to see the thumbnails turned off and some other extraneous info removed or compacted more. I need that information density!
I just want a text only app for Lemmy/kbin. No thumbnails, profile pictures, in app preview of posts, or inline comment images.
I just want post titles, self posts text, and comments.
This is uncanny. Thanks!