Appreciation thread amidst other app hype
Just want to say thank you to Connect dev Kuro for making Connect for Lemmy. Amidst all this hype for Sync and Boost, Connect remains ad- and subscription-free without compromising quality. This app is bomb and I won't be veering off to competitors anytime soon. Bonus points for being Canadian too! 🍁 Thank you!
Edit: adding donation link to buy dev Kuro a coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kurononeko
620
Comments84
Thank you for the support. I think Connect is 90% feedback driven at this point haha. My goal has always been getting more people using Lemmy so monetization isn't really a focus for me as I'm doing this for fun. Sending you love back fellow canuck!
As a foldable user, one of the things I was most excited for Sync, is their ability to adapt to the foldable display both on the inner and outer display. For example, when you are using sync on the outer screen then open up your fold, it utilizes the "extra half" of the screen to work as another pane for viewing content without interrupting what you're doing on the left side. Do you have any plans to implement something similar?
Possibly, it sounds like a 2-column layout similar to a tablet? I know Tablet UI has been requested a lot lately.
Yes, exactly that actually.
I saw that Google is pushing developers towards making tablet friendly UI and if they do, the app gets shown on the featured section of the Google Play Store.
I tried Sync for a bit, but I agree with the other posters that the pricing model is a little outrageous.
Have you considered adding a donation option through google play? I'm not sure what the process is like, but it might make it easier for people to donate.
Permanently removing ads in Sync is just 20$ though; I wouldn't call it 'outrageous' for such a feature-rich app. The more expensive options are there if you want to further support the dev.
Ah I must have gotten it confused with the lifetime ultra, which was $100
$20 starts putting it in the category of productivity apps like Lumafusion which is $20 on sale which is a pretty solid video editor on iOS. Or Procreate at $13 for a really good drawing app iPadOS. So when looking at Android it is definitely an outlier in price for a social media app. And those apps mentioned are one time purchases and straight up paid apps, so there's no ad integration built into the app that needs to be disabled to begin with which makes it feel premium from the get go.
Most expensive app I spent money on was SeriesGuide X Unlock key which is $24.99 to I think get notifications. SeriesGuide as a base though has no ads and is open source, and feature rich even without the Unlock key. So that I felt better about supporting, since it wasn't to remove ads and I liked their approach better.
Isn't the 20 dollars a yearly subscription though?
Not yearly. The ad removal option is permanent.
No, there is now a simple "Pro" version IAP, which is a one time purchase and removes all the ads. "Ultra" is the subscription, it comes with a couple of perks besides ad-free.
Oh ok I don't remember seeing that option yesterday, just the ultra.
I just looked because I was confused as well.
Sync Ultra is a subscription which removes ads and has additional features ($1.99 monthly, $16.99 yearly, or $99.99 Lifetime). Just to be adfree is a one time payment of $19.99 Freedom Units.
A hundred dollars for lifetime! Wow!
Just chiming in to say you've made a great app and all the updates have been nothing but quality. Thanks for the hard work! Do you accept donations?
E: just saw the donation link further down in the thread. Thanks again!
Thanks man! Every post I see with a recommendation I see your comment "yeah I can do that". I love it! Keep up the good work. I too will be staying
Love the app! Feels really similar to rif for me.
You've made a very fine app, especially impressive given how quickly it's come together. You should be proud!
I have to admit, I'm a leech when it comes to entertainment. I always use adblockers (even on Twitch) and have never spent a single cent on mobile apps. However, I donated to Kuro because he's a boss and Connect is the best Lemmy app. All hail the king!
Edit: Here's donation link - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kurononeko
Can you share the link to the donation page?
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kurononeko
Yes please share donation link. Would love to contribute to coffee fund!
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kurononeko
What a great idea, can you point me to where I can donate?
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/kurononeko
Thank you for posting the link, adding myself to the pile of people who donated
So how does that work? Just saw I need to type in my mail and what do I need afterwards? Is paypal doing the trick?
I think you put in your debit/credit card info after that. I didn't see PayPal on their FAQ page.
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/faq
Connect is the best app available right now. Thanks to the dev
Connect is the only app that is very close to RiF. it has the wonderful next/back buttons and the layout can be configured very similar to RiF. i love it!
Can you share your settings? There's a RIF-shaped hole in my heart which I'd like to fill.
sorry for the late reply. i have not changed that much. e.g. in Post Customization set "Reversed List" so the pictures are on the right side like in RiF. Show Post Bottom Bar, Show Upvotes and Downvotes, etc. You have to experiment a bit but you can let it look like quite close to RiF. it just needs some more work like e.g. moving up/downvotes to the left and the general layout.
I have mine configured like this to mimic the RIF layout
What about Liftoff?
as far i can tell it has none of the RiF features. it has no prev/next and parent buttons. it has some weird design decisions like hiding a comment thread on tap, etc. it does not scratch this specific itch. connect does.
Yeah, I am trying connect atm and I'm pretty convinced so far
While I await Boost to see if it's as good for Lemmy as it was for Reddit, I might just find myself having to stick with Connect as it's just been too useful of an app that keeps getting better every time I wake up to a new update.
Like many have said the block instance feature as well as the ability to block communities without entering them IMMEDIATELY made Lemmy a significantly better experience and for that Im forever grateful
I used to use Sync for the other site, but despite all the hype for Sync for lemmy I don't feel the need to try it when Connect meets all my needs.
I've seen people using other apps wishing that their app had this feature or that feature. Well Connect already has that built in! Spread the good word, lemmings!
Right. Handed. Voting.
I was excited for Sync, installed it this morning and already uninstalled it because Connect is so much better. I am still curious about Boost, simply because I still use it for Reddit, but it will have to be really good to get me off of Connect.
I'm the same as you. I installed Sync too since I used that for Reddit. But Connect is already doing everything Sync did and for free. Sync is asking for some hefty prices. ($26 CDN to get rid of ass!)
I uninstalled it. I'm happy to stick with my Canadian made app anyway. 🇨🇦
The feature to block an instance cut down 90% of porn in my feed when I blocked lemmynsfw.com
It's stupid that Lemmy cannot block an instance natively. Thank you for adding this.
While I agree it's a great feature, I think the reason it's missing from the platform by default is that the intended way of achieving this is joining or starting an instance which doesn't federate with the instance you don't want to see. Many design choices that might seem annoying at first look to be intended to push users towards smaller, more specific instances rather than big ones. This prevents any one host having too much control over the platform as a whole.
I would consider this option if there was a way to create and fully configure an instance hosted on my phone in less than a hour.
Couldn't agree more!
Agreed. I tried using sync this morning and just ended up back on connect. There are a couple of things like how hidden posts work/scroll past that I prefer how connect handles them. Id say sync has ever so slightly more polish on the ui front? maybe? but im super happy with Connect. Great dev.
I was going to install Sync to give it a whirl but after reading some feedback, and hearing the dreaded "ad" word, I've decided to stick with Connect instead.
Thankfully the ads aren't always in your face and they aren't disguised as posts either like Reddit loves doing, so you can easily ignore them, but I get why people don't want ads.
I tried all the others and ended up with connect in the end. I like the look and feel of it, it just works with me. Thank you very much for developing this and keeping it available for us as FOSS and not tracking us!👍
Just switched from Jerboa to Connect yesterday and it's so much better. Also, ain't no way I'm getting Sync if they want my data.
Yeah, I don't mind (non-personalized) ads actually, but the personalized data Sync was asking for is too much.
Right? I understand needing some ads to generate revenue, but the data ask turned me off.
I saw this app mentioned in that app post. Glad this exists. I was willing to pay for a lifetime sub of S. again, but not at THAT price. Especially after buying a lifetime sub for the last one that got me through a couple of months (which was a risk I was willing to take). This client looks great. Wouldn't mind a purchase here, will probably donate soon.
Yeah, I've been waiting to see Boost and Sync come out, and in the meantime Connect has matured way more quickly than I would have ever expected. I think it's top of the heap of Lemmy apps now for me.
New to Lemmy and have just installed both apps (Connect and Sync). Can someone quickly and briefly list what makes Connect better in their opinion?
Connect dev here. Sync is a great app and I think the developer did a good job and it's benefitted a lot in terms of polish from being a Reddit app for years. I feel Connect is more or less at feature parity while being just over a month old. Maybe in terms of differences I would say Connect will never track you, doesn't include ads or data collection, and isn't a subscription service. But that's true for a number of open source Lemmy apps too and I also think Summit, Liftoff, and Thunder are really great choices too.
I would say a major feature for me that sync has is to be able to hide viewed/interacted posts on button press.
I also have bugs with connect not marking viewed/interacted posts as read.
But I keep both in hopes that Connect get polished overtime, i mean it takes time to get everything right.
I was not a Sync user on Reddit but LOVED Relay for reddit. Anything that navigates/looks close to Relay I will gladly pay for.
I just re-tested Connect and my marking as viewd bug seems fixed with the last update lol great!
Thank you for the response.
I am not so much into the mobile developing, but as I understand, you are not monetizing this app in any way, just taking voluntary donations?
That's correct
Thanks for being an awesome dev, I did use connect in the interim before Sync. I probably will still use connect to some extent for other accounts, and definitely recommend it as an option for those who don't wish to pay for an app.
10/10
ʘ‿ʘ
Yup. I tried Sync and Thunder but both felt sluggish compared to Connect.
I tried sync and I must say... I don't find it that much better than connect, you can't even hide the replays! I'm pretty happy with connect and I'll keep using it
You can hide them with a long press
Connect let's you hide scrolled by posts automatically so you never see the same post twice! Thank you connect!
There are a two options in settings to do this automatically:
Yeah, thanks for your work. Enjoy your coffee 😉
Yeah! Thx so much for the best Lemmy app around!
Connect was the first app I installed for Lemmy and I've seen no reason to try any others - it's amazing. I was excited for Artemis (for Kbin, Lemmy support due to be added) but Connect is so good I've been using Lemmy much more, even though I hate the web UI, and the functionality of Connect is beating Artemis currently.
I thought I was going crazy. I downloaded Sync. It's fine, but I honestly prefer Connect still. Connect is just so damn good! It's smooth and set up great.
This is a little off topic but I like Connect after 5 minutes of playing around with it... So... Is there a Mastodon browser that's equivalently good?
If like how Connect looks you might like Megalodon. It's a fork of the official Mastodon app with a number of usability improvements and such, I've found it to be a well-balanced app in terms of features and usability/design. I haven't used Fedilab, but I've seen people recommend it before and I'd say it's worth a shot if you like lots of configuration options.
I've used both a lot. Megalodon for a smooth polished app with plenty of features. Fedlilab for every possible feature you could imagine and then 12 more than that, but less polished. I'm sticking with megalodon for now
Thanks, this is awesome! I was using Tusky before, but Megalodon looks a lot more modern to me.
Fedilab is quite good, lots of customization features. You can get it from F-Droid.
Yeah it's great. Thank you for your work
With connect can you block whole instances for example block all @lemmy.world?
Yes it's under settings -> Block List. There you can block entire instances, communities, or users
You can also do it by hitting the 3 dots on a post or comment and select block instance
Awesome! Also someone else mentioned auto hiding of read posts. I can't seem to find that in the settings.
Everything is looking good so far!
Edit: nevermond I scrolled past the "hide read posts" setting like 7-8 times.
Since i found it, i mostly use connect for browsing leemy but the "hide read post" being automatic and not when i choose is a bit of bummer. Voyager having a big button to hide them when i want is the better approach.
I ran into the issue where I would hide read posts, but when I scroll it will load more posts I've already read. I hide them, scroll a few more posts and again I'm seeing already read posts.
So far this has been eliminated in connect(just started using it) also the hide read posts is off by default in connect.
Honestly,there's so many high quality lemmy apps right now that find myself jump constantly between 3-4 apps while i used to mostly use relay and sometimes infinity for browsing reddit. It seems all the lemmy apps are on a features race going on between them and they're all improving at a rapide pace.
I will be sticking with Connect he didn't try to overcharge his users.