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
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.
Agreed on the use case thing - there are so many unnecessary apps out there that are just wrappers for web pages anyway. I find myself using more PWAs at work these days too, which is probably better than using a bunch of Electron apps to achieve the same result.
PWA App Store https://appsco.pe/
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.
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.
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
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.
Yeah absolutely more intuitive than Mlem, but it’s exciting to see Mlem come into shape through testflight. I have high hopes for it!
My troubles with wefwef stems from the fact that I use firefox as my main browser on my iPhone and it has some wonky complications.
Pretty impressive! Not Apollo but close. Dismissing images is not as fluid.
Wefwef is great! I love the Apollo-export upload feature lets you find similar communities on Lemmy.
Yeah, I wish there was a way to do this without Apollo export. I used boost before.
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
wefwef is the best, I really stopped caring about all the other apps being under development. Just mind that using it with Firefox really is absolutely lagging (which is kind of a shame) and that (currently) Chrome gets you the best performance. Feels like a native Android app.
Only problem I have had with Fennec (Firefox but without telemetry and such) is the fact it crashes and won’t start the PWA if the browser isn’t open anymore. Reopening the browser fixes it. Haven’t felt any lag otherwise.
This is uncanny. Thanks!
I just tied wefwef, and it’s brilliant! It really gives the Apollo feel and even allows for multiple accounts for different instances. Feels like coming home 🙂
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’m an Android user and I never used Apollo, but wefwef is just amazing. It works surprisingly well, especially for a PWA. It will be my app of choice at least until Sync for Lemmy is out.
I’m feeling the same way. Can’t wait for Sync.
I’m holding out for Slide for Lemmy as another Android user. But, wefwef is pretty good so far.
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?
Passing my response to someone asking why I want a native app, as it applies to your question as well:
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
So even though you say you are on android, you too are affected if the app you use uses an intermediate library to use one code base to generate builds for multiple platforms - react native being one of the most popular currently thanks to ease of use and lots of existing integration
React native, so it’s not really a concern. Just poking fun.
It’s React Native
It’s essentially a web app inside an app wrapper. There’s not really a concern it’s just the original comment said they were waiting for a native app.
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
Doesn’t matter what platform you use, you too are affected if the app you use uses an intermediate library to use one code base to generate builds for multiple platforms - react native being one of the most popular currently thanks to ease of use and lots of existing integration
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
+1 wefwef.app my favorite so far
I love it. It’s good beehaw doesn’t allow downvoting though because I accidentally would be downvoting a lot as I try and swipe back
