Spyke

Post launch day chat

Afternoon everyone,

I wanted to go over a few points related to pricing, stats and the roadmap


Pricing

  1. Sync for Lemmy is completely free with ads (the same as Sync for Reddit)

  2. You can remove ads in the account picker or drawer for a one time fee of ~$20

  3. Sync Ultra also removes ads but it's not required

  4. I'll be working on regional prices over the coming weeks


There are now 24k installed users up from 100 the previous day!

I'm going to be spending the next few days going through all of the comments / messages and fixing any crashes.

As always thanks for the support and hope you're liking Sync!

Lj

Edit: testing edit

View original on lemmy.world

I just wanted to say I'm sorry for the backslash you're getting for charging money.

I'm also sorry people expect it to be $1 because the Reddit app was $1 back in 1825. I genuinely believe it's children complaining, because no functioning adult would complain about a price increase when rent has tripled or quadrupled since the $1 Reddit app. It's also annoying to see that people think that saying they bought the Reddit app for $1 and enjoyed it for 10 years is an argument. It goes to show it was severely underpriced.

It must be frustrating to have that type of response. Lemmy users seem to be really entitled when it comes to software, and the response you're getting scares me for the future. I really hope the Boost developer doesn't cancel his app after seeing how entitled Lemmy users are being right now.

What frustrates me more is the people complaining are continuing to use the free open source apps. Like great, you already have an alternative you prefer. Shut up. Stop bringing others down.

I wish you the best. Thank you for choosing to develop for Lemmy. I have my eyes on Boost, but I'm gladly using your free tier for the time being.

Thanks again!

176

LJ,

I too am a reddit refugee. I like what you've done with this place.

:)

But we have to talk about pricing and privacy.

Pricing: tbh I see not much wrong with the 20 bucks. But I do think that you should take 2 bucks from that and donate one to the lemmy org (this is not reddit, nobody is getting paid, the lemmy devs also need an incentive) and the other one to lemmy.world because that's the instance you're dumping us all on. Hosting is not free, lemmy.world costs money and probably a lot of time to run. Being a reddit admin is a payed job, being Ruud at lemmy.world most certainly is not.

In this way "we" are giving back to the Foss community and it should silence a lot of critics. In that way you don't look like the evil capitalist earning a quick buck over the back of free labour of the foss community. I think that's 2 bucks well spent.

Edit: same goes for ultra subscriptions of course, a similar percentage should be fed back to the lemmy org and lemmy.world.

Privacy: since you're using admob and I forgot the other one, privacy is out the window. That's a big issue for the Foss community we're all relying on. Maybe it's wise to point out that once you pay for sync all that tracking that admob and the other one (not you I hope) does is out the window.

Edit edit: maybe you could also add a yearly reminder to donate to the users favourite lemmy instance.

136
lemmy.world

Yeah man...I am a dev myself but $20 to remove ads is just too much, especially without regional pricing.

90
dzoncreply
lemmy.world

I think the pricing is fine if the quality matches it. Considering how much time we spend on our phones it could be great value for money.

I'm very curious to see how the advertising option works out for you, as currently I'm not aware of any lemmy sites with sustainable finance models.

38
uberricereply
feddit.de

I wouldn't call it financially sustainable. It pays for the servers, not for the labor.

No offense to beehaw, they're doing great work.

25
lemmy.world

That level of transparency is incredible, lowkey considering making an account there...

7

Also worth noting at the time they said it was temporary and due to the lack of sufficient mod tools available in Lemmy. If mod tools improve that could change. But yes, right now it's definitely something to think about with world being a massive instance that m with a lot of larger communities.

11
rbitsreply
lemm.ee

I definitely wouldn't, you'd lose out on half the content on lemmy

7
lemmy.world

Yeah, I read about that too, but what if I make an account on an instance that isn't world or beehaw? Would I see content from both?

5
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

They like to keep a really tight walled garden. That's why I left, I want to decide for myself which instances to block.

5
lemmy.world

I wonder if that's shared with lemmy.world or if that data is just for the Mastodon service?

2

You joke but the moment Sync supports at least my kbin account to login, I'm sending you that $100 lifetime ultra upgrade with love. Posted from kbin.social on the browser, because I can't yet login on Sync for Lemmy.

12

Thank you for adding a one time payment option. Much appreciated.

6

You asked us and we told you to make it, so I'm pleased. I haven't cancelled my sync for reddit subscription. Will that keep going to you, or will it cancel at some point?

5

I bought Reddit Sync Pro way back when you gave out coupon codes for a discount when you first created it. (just found my receipt... November 2013 for ONE DOLLAR!!!) Used it for what was probably a decade for that low initial price and watched it just get better and better over time.

I assume that I'm going to be using Sync for Lemmy for a decade, and I have zero issue with the upfront ad free cost.

Aside from regional pricing issues, I think some of these potential customers just don't realize how much they're going to be getting from you for this price.

Ultra Lifetime is really tempting...

4
lemdro.id

$20 once, for an app you're going to use daily for the foreseeable future mind you, is not the unreasonable take that people on here seem to think it is.

You get what you pay for, and Sync has proven it's track record with the Reddit app already. This isn't just some random app dev asking for money on his bejeweled clone.

27
Serinusreply
lemmy.world

It's $100 once. The $20 option is a yearly subscription.

Edit: Some misunderstanding. It's $20 to remove ads, and $100 to get all features. Maybe the $20 subscription is for full features and removing ads?

-5

You have completely misread the app. The "Sync Ultra" is not the same as the one-time "Remove Ads" option.

If you want "Sync Ultra" for a lifetime, it's $100 or w/e it's listed as, that comes with all the extra features listed in the app. If you just want to remove ads and use the app without the Ultra features, you only have to pay $20 once.

4

Re: your edit

Yes, the subscription option has a monthly/yearly/lifetime structure set at $2/$17/$100 respectively. Each of those unlocks all the Ultra features (which includes removing ads).

Which is separate from the one time payment of the $20 to only remove ads.

2
lemmy.ca

Agreed. $5 MAYBE, $20 is out to lunch. And a subscription model for full features? Nah get outta here with that, that MIGHT be worth $20. The direction app development has gone over the last few years is a huge disappointment

-48
GinDaHoodreply
lemmy.world

$5 as a one-time payment is not enough for a single developer to sustain his livelihood on.

And ultimately, "worth" is based on what the market decides.

52

Many of us former Reddit Sync users requested that he make the app for Lemmy, so in a sense we do have a contractor type of relationship with him. Hence why many former Sync users are comfortable paying the amount. I think a lot of people who are complaining about the price are just not the target audience for Sync.

17
leprasmurfreply

You make valid points, however, I'd like to point out that most games on the play store don't cost a lot because the real costly transactions are in-app purchases. It's common, in my experience, for the popular free apps to have IAPs upwards of $100 for in-game currency.

There's also that matter of the no-cost version of the app. It seems perfectly usable, making the ad-removal an optional purchase.

Considering the smaller user-base and the finite economic value of life-time purchases I'd say $20 is fair. But that's my stated opinion and I have yet to put my money where my mouth is.

11

I think you’re mistaking value for cost. ljdawson doesn’t work for us and sync is not work for hire. Lawrence is not a contractor nor do we have an employer/employee relationship so we don’t owe him a wage for the work he has done or compensation for his time. We have a customer/vendor relationship, and the only thing that matters to the customer is the value of the end product that the vendor is trying to sell.

This is a fair response, and ultimately it is incumbent on the developer to create the value-add that justifies the cost.

I suppose my comment is directed at the sentiment that the developer is "greedy" or trying to swindle consumers in an immature market.

9
hogartreply
lemmy.world

This is by far the best app for Lemmy. By a mile. It's a lot faster and nicer looking. That said, pricing feels a little steep. Imagine being able to sustain your livelihood on making an app for Lemmy, an otherwise free service providing no additional content. It's not like we are paying the persons who invest in all the infrastructure for the servers running the Lemmy instances. They provide for the actual service. If a part of the money went to instance servers it would feel way better. Because if they go down, so will Sync.

Not taking anything away from the massive work Lj is putting into this, but pricing do feel a tad off. If 1500 people subscribe he has a yearly income equal to a decent job. If he gets 5000 subs he will earn almost 100 000 dollars a year. Which in Sweden equals to about 2.5 times of a well paid job. That's excluding ad revenue from everyone who don't subscribe or pay for removing ads. Pricing can be fairer without compromising the livelihood of said dev. That's all.

4
sabreW4K3reply
lemmy.tf

That's like saying imagine someone wanting to sustain themselves by running a public transport network. All they do is help you to get to and from work. How can they have so much hubris as to believe that's worth anything?!

12
stephencreply
waveform.social

Exactly. Doing anything, if it requires work and provides value to you, has a value, and thus could be expected to be charged for. Ad-supported software has kinda ruined a lot of people's perception of money and value, expecting everything to be free.

10

I'm gladly paying. Just not 117 dollars for the experience to be ad free which is what the app wants me to pay in Swedish kronor.

3
uberricereply
feddit.de

Wha? A yearly ultra sub is 15 bucks. 1500x15 is 22500. 5000 times is 75000.

And that's not 'the same as a full time job', not by a long shot. Google takes its cut - what, 20%? Then you have income tax, insurances etc, another 20-30% at least, and so on. So, for 5000 subscriptions, he's left with around 42k at the end of the day.

10
hogartreply
lemmy.world

15 bucks? So the conversion rate to Swedish kronor is messed up then. Because my yearly fee is way more than that. If I earned 42k dollars and continued to live in my house with my family we would be insanely well off.

4

This is insane to me. You can live in so many other countries with as high, or higher living standards and live the good life with that money.

1
lemmy.world

I'm pretty sure his calculations were based on the monthly price, as for me monthly shows up as 2.99 per month. I'll also say that including income tax in your calculation is crazy. We all have to pay income tax, but the income told us when we get a job or see a job posting is gross income.

Other than that, if you want Sync for lemmy and willing to pay for it, that's fair. I paid 3 bucks for Nova Prime years ago and I have used it everyday. It came with me to every new phone I owned. I also redesign my layout quite often using it. It doesn't seem reasonable to me to pay that amount monthly when Nova Prime was a one time payment.

4

Nope. Yearly. But I used the pricing for me, in Sweden. Seems the conversion rate is a bit off. Because my price is 19 dollars per year and the price for Lifetime is at 117 dollars.

No app is worth that, sorry.

4

Depends on your country, really.

Yes, in Switzerland you're also told gross income - yet that's not the 'real gross income'. There's lots of other stuff your employer pays for you when you get hired somewhere. For example, in Switzerland, we have mandatory retirement contributions (not like social security, we also have a pension fund seperately from this), that has to be matched by an employer, 1:1.

It really depends on your country, but say in Switzerland, you have to earn a good 30-40% more money when self employed compared to being employed at a company to have the same net amount of money available at the end of the day.

3
stephencreply
waveform.social

If he gets 5000 subs he will earn almost 100 000 dollars a year. Which in Sweden equals to about 2.5 times of a well paid job.

If that is the case, well then in some of the larger coastal areas in the U.S. such a salary is far below what a decent software developer can expect. Cost of living is very high in those areas.

Talking about prices and costs is very difficult in a global ecosystem, because even different regions of the same country can have significant differences in market that change the value of money, even setting aside currency exchange.

9

You are 100% correct. I just went off of my own view and what is good and not where I live.

2

The fair pricing is what the market will tolerate. I'm not saying it's 100% "justified"; even the dev understands that he needs to tweak it for other regions. But the value add is from the superiority of the app experience, which right now is much better than anything else available (for me; of course this is all subjective). In the future, perhaps other apps will achieve parity with Sync, at which time market forces will cause the developer to course correct on pricing.

I'll also add that I purchased Sync for Reddit (Pro) for USD$2 nine years ago. If I get nine years out of Sync for Lemmy that's a bargain at even 10 times the price (which is the current offering).

8

It'd have been nice if lemmy only had upvotes. Maybe I can turn votes off.

2
lemmy.nbsp.one

Whether the pricing is appropriate is purely subjective. I paid the 20 bucks, thank you for your work. Looking forward to see this app thrive, it already works super smooth!

Hope you do not take the inevitably rude comments to heart.

81
DTFpandareply
lemmy.world

Initially, I didn't have a problem with it, but I read some good points in other threads that it is far too expensive for those in undeveloped countries, and that there should be a sliding scale instead of a straight-up currency conversion.

29
lemmy.world

Yup as mentioned I'll be setting these by region over time. But it involves me individually tailoring the price to each country usually comparing it to some metric like the cost of a take away.

58

Steam has recommended regional pricing for Steam games, maybe that could be used as a guide?

7
lemmy.world

I'll repeat what I said in some other thread:

I loved the old app, I still love the new app, it’s a pleasure to use compared to the alternatives I’ve tried, and I find the ultra subscription rate both reasonable and worthwhile to support a product I truly enjoy.

Sync is good for me. There’s plenty of other options if it’s not good for you.

Please keep up the good work!

80

I can't afford the lifetime right now, but I will upgrade when I can. I hope this works out for you financially, Sync for Reddit was my most used all.

Have you got a roadmap for Ultra benefits?

(Fuck spez)

4

I just want to say thank you for getting Sync up and running on Lemmy. Please don't let the toxic comments sour your day. I for one is really grateful for what you do.

76

Beta 26 is already a MASSIVE improvement over Jerboa or the web client. Thanks for making this happen so fast!

As for the pricing, I was a paid Sync for Reddit user for YEARS. $20 is nothing for the countless hours of scrolling I got out of it.

63

Going to have a stab at regionalising ad free now.

Reply to this with your country and I'll regionalise the pricing there.

60

I'm seriously impressed with how functional this app is from the start. Like lots of others have said, it felt like coming home given how long I'd used Sync for. Didn't hesitate to pay for the ad free version once that option was added.

55

I'm all on board with FOSS, but I used sync for reddit for years, ljdawson has my support on Lemmy too. I don't mind supporting a good dev. Do I prefer things be FOSS? Yeah, but I have no issues using a closed source product if it works. And sync has always been top notch. Responsive dev, all around good product.

50
WEE_WOOreply
lemm.ee

I believe adding mod tools was mentioned in the Discord. They are also planned to be free without anything being locked behind an IAP

4

I was floored when I opened the beta and found that almost all existing features survived the transition. In a single month! You're a monster that makes the rest of us developers look bad 😉

I know that there's an active ongoing discussion about monetization models and I'm certain that there's room for improvement... but at the end of the day you can't make everyone happy. I just wanted you to know that, as a long-time fan, I sincerely appreciate what's been accomplished here. Cheers! Don't forget to take some well-deserved you time once things quiet down a little.

42

A part from the comments on the images, I think there is a bug with alignment because the first comment has 3 lines instead of one as you can see from this image

39

The backlash has surprised me a bit. I agree the price is a bit steep but considering the userbase is only a fraction of what Reddit has, it's understandable that the price would be higher.

I just didn't expect such negative reactions to either the ad component or the price. A lot have mentioned that it could become a form of gatekeeping for newcomers. I just hope it won't turn out that way.

38

Not to wake sleeping dogs or anything, but uh I don't see any ads. Where are those ads supposed to be?

35

Took me a while to figure out how to sign in with my lemdro.id account.

Maybe it's embarrassing to admit but I must have scanned through that long list of servers five times before realizing I could just type in my own server. Could be helpful to add a line inviting users to type in their own server.

34

Please don't let the controversy get to you, I love this app mainly because I feel back at home. It makes sense that if someone has never used sync, feels put off by the pricing but I think it makes sense purely because of the smaller userbase and the amount of work that goes into an app like this.

I've used some other open source alternatives and they feel rough compared to sync

33

Hopping on to the "I feel at home" train! One thing that really bugged me about the alternatives was that they weren't as smooth and fluid. Like I scroll down and it jumps, I scroll up, it jitters etc.

Sync is the UI and the UX I've missed!

32

I don't have 20 dollars to spend on removing ads for a mobile app. I also previously bought Sync for Reddit Pro. Why is the price so much higher for a client to a service that definitionally doesn't have API charges?

32

Cool, bumpy start but I support your work, you will be instrumental in growing Lemmy. GDPR issues needs to be fixed pronto as it otherwise won't legally comply in the EU.

I've got a bug fix thread here

Keep it up!

31

$30.30 for ad free in Canada. That's wild. It's not even the exchange rate... that's a markup from the US price.

A really hard buy for me. Not sure I'm going to spend that much.

27

It's the best app but the pricing is insane. I mean, maybe you have experience from your other apps and you know this is the optimal price, but otherwise, consider changing it. People are surprised by the high price right now.

If it was me, I would price it like this:

  • Remove ads - $10 lifetime.

  • Ultra - $3 per month, $20 per year, $50 lifetime.

Those sums are realistic and people are likely to find them acceptable. You would get more users instead of less users paying more.

But this is just me and I speak only as someone who never had an app in a appstore. Maybe you know better. But that's what I would do.

27

A nice feature for us new people would be a way to subscribe to a community from the everything feed as opposed to having to click through to the community page.

27

A few things I want to say:

  1. Congrats for the successful launch! I hope this project continues to improve.
  2. The ads aren't very intrusive, they're just banners in-between some posts and I'm fine with that.
  3. This app makes using Lemmy more attractive than using Reddit, which means that the goal of moving me far away from Reddit has been accomplished!

Amazing job so far. Here's to the future of decentralized social media!

25

Just voicing my support for the work you've done so far and am happy to pay the $20. Honestly I was a little taken aback at first sight but thinking about how many years of service I got with the reddit app I'm happy to support the developer. I'll reiterate what I saw another commenter say and it would be nice if a small portion of the fee was used towards to the support of Lemmy as a whole as well. I want to see this continue and flourish. Thanks again to the developer for one smooth app.

23
feddit.nu

Apart from adding missing functionality (posting and searching), these are my top missing features at the moment:

  • Setting to increase font size of replies you are typing
  • Support for the link format [ Community Name ] ( /c/community @ instance )
  • Support for full Markdown (code and spoiler don't work well, for example)
  • Support for connecting to an unfederated community on a remote instance via search (like you would with ! community @ instance . tld on browser)
  • Support for browsing all communities on a specific instance

There are more nice-to-haves I can think of but these seem pretty important.

23

I have one more thing I forgot to add actually: refresh rate of new replies in the inbox as well as how it is displayed. Sync seems to be quite slow when it comes to refreshing inbox. I've been jumping between apps a lot today comparing stuff like markdown support, and often I get an alert on another app, but have to manually refresh the Sync inbox to see I have replies.

I'd also like a ! indicator somewhere in the UI for new replies in your inbox that is visible no matter where you are currently (such as to the left of the Search 🔍 icon in the top bar).

2
discuss.tchncs.de

I think the biggest complaints are about the tracking stuff. That was a surprise to me as a long time user.

22
kenbw2reply
lemmy.world

I'd like to pay for an app where I'm not the product

Is there a possibility of a paid app which doesn't include the sharing of my data?

5

From what I understand if you pay to remove ads the Google Ads library is never intialized, which was the only thing collecting data

7
Taeye0nreply
lemmy.world

To be fair it's not like the dev himself is tracking you guys, it's just how Google ads works. Nothing out of the ordinary.

45

Nothing out of the ordinary on commercial platforms where the user is the product, like Google, Facebook, or reddit.

Here on Lemmy (where most development is done out of charity, and servers are run by donations) it IS the outlier.

-4

Hey mate,

Yeah I'm another one who followed you over from reddit.

I think I maybe need to play with Lemmy a bit more - it's a bit confusing. Is there a map? A general guide or explanation for the ignorant?

Also, cheers mate - you must have put in a shit load of effort in a very short time to put this together. Fast development since the reddit API bullshit. Respect. An I paid ultra cos I like your work

21
lemmy.ca

Glad to see it live!

I agree that $20USD for ad-free is a bit high, but on the other hand I used Sync for Reddit for roughly 10 years and paid $2.50 at the time.

So I consider it a way to give back for the great experience I had in the past.

And we got used for mobile apps being dirt-cheap, but most of us don't have any issue paying even more for sitting in a dirty movie theater for a 2½ hours movie with a popcorn and soft drink.

20

Yep - I bought sync way back in the day and paid less than $5 for it. Used it for years and years across multiple devices until I switched to iOS. I got my moneys worth for sure - $20 seems like a bargain.

9

That was my reasoning too. The $0.99 I paid for Reddit Sync Pro (before reddit made him change the name) in 2014.

4

Thanks for your work on converting Sync to use Lemmy! I've tried just about every App for Lemmy, and Sync seems to certainly be the most feature-filled one so far.

As far as pricing goes, I don't see a problem with experimenting on price and seeing what people are willing to pay. To the people saying $20 is too much... we are talking about removing the main source of revenue in the app, forever. That's a pretty tough thing to figure out the 'right' price for, and might take some experimentation. If I was the developer, you can bet I'd start the price high though, rather than too low.

20

I had not used Sync for Reddit as I was a Boost user but now that I've installed Sync for Lemmy I'm enjoying it. It's very polished, smooth and easy to use. I think it will great once it's feature complete.

In a way you have a headstart over the other new apps and it shows. I'm sure rewriting the back end is not fun but at least your already had the UI.

I think the pricing model is fair. Free with ads for those who want to try it, one time fee for those who don't like subs, and a low cost sub for power users.

Send like most people have an issue with €20. Perhaps they were expecting €10 but that's less than €1 per month in just the first year, nevermind all future updates. €20 seems fair for a lifetime unlock.

20

I got the lifetime sync ultra subscription for the reddit app for 34.99 after getting the ad-free version and then the pro version because I really liked it. I only used it for half a year, but hey, I guess that's the gamble you take with lifetime subscriptions. I now see that the lifetime subscription is €114.99?! Is this a mistake? What is going on here?

If I compare it to the 18.99 a year price, it'd take over 6 years to break even. If I compare it to the old 11.99 price, it'd take over 9.5 years. I just don't understand the logic here.

20

Can you add an option to use the device haptic engine, like the ones on Google Pixels, instead of the vibration motor for swipe actions?

19
lemmy.nz

Does anyone know how to get the coloured vertical lines back to show different levels of threads in comments sections? Or if that isn't a feature any more, can they please become a feature again?

18
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

Dude the fact you can link directly to settings in the app is really innovative. I don't think I've ever seen any other app do that.

Wish I could link directly to Android settings for my parents. Would save me a million years.

6

I end up sending screenshots with giant red circles everytime my folks forget stuff; I feel ya 😂

As for app feedback: Everything is grand, thanks! *except * I'm bummed that tagging is an Ultra-only perk.

2
monkeyreply
lemmy.world

It's such a little thing, but linking directly to a system setting is so cool to me. For those wondering how to do it, you can long press on a setting and it'll copy the link into your clipboard, already formatted to easily paste somewhere.

17

I found out earlier and now I keep trying to find an excuse to do it! 😂

5

In the settings it's under Comments > [Style] Show colorful comment indents.

12

The price is perfectly fine. I had Sync Pro for Reddit for nearly a decade for only a few dollars.

Though I’m no longer on Android, when I return, Sync for Lemmy will be my first purchase.

Thanks for your hard work!

18
lemmy.world

Loving it so far! I think everyone freaking out about the pricing needs to chill out and just use a different app.

There's one thing I'm curious about and wasn't able to find in the settings. Do we have the ability to turn off the red/blue highlighting on the action area for a post we've voted? I don't like how it looks and find that the font color for the vote count is perfectly sufficient for me to know that I've upvoted and downvoted.

17
lemmy.world

I'd also like this, I think highlighting the 'points' with the vote color is good enough for me.

8
lemmy.world

One thing I didn't see mentioned yet: I quite liked the "go to random NSFW subreddit" function in the old app.

Would be cool to see that function again.

17
FlipTheEggreply
discuss.tchncs.de

Oh thank you! It's weird speaking publicly about pornography habits, but this single feature is probably the most responsible for the diversity of content I've consumed, I really love it!

12

Seeing how Lemmy is open source it would be worthwhile to see if there's a way to build random/randomnsfw into Lemmy itself.

4

If this service could automatically discover and connect an unfederated remote community to your home instance in the background and then just show it to you in the frontend it would be unbelievable.

3

Seriously, I used RedditSync Pro for 10 years, since 2 months I'm trying Connect/Jerboa/PWA/etc and yesterday I tested Sync and how boy it's so fast and clean. I bought it, thanks LJ!!!

17

How come some responses end up above the comment they're responding to? Is this a setting I've got wonky? I'd like them to flow logically. Example:

17

Lj, i appreciate the work and am loving being back to a familiar feel. I was wondering if there was a quick way to hide instances that i don't want to see on my feed. I typically hide other language posts simply because i can't read it or would the auto translate feature of ultra take care of this issue for me?

16

Thanks so much for your hard work! I can only contribute through ads, but plan on going ultra when I'm able.

I hope that, when you look through comments, you don't take the negative ones too seriously. You've done so much for us. I hope you're proud. :)

16

First time posting on Lemmy as a whole.

Thank you for making this app, been a Sync user for years and you made the hop to Lemmy seamless.

Already paid for ad-free and cannot wait to see where the app goes from here.

16

Lawrence, you're awesome, thanks for making it happen! I paid to remove ads.

15
lemmy.world

It's priced in a way that allows me to work on this full time. If Lemmy suddenly had 10X users I could bring the pricing down.

57
uberricereply
feddit.de

I find the pricing totally fair. You're doing a great job.

Keep in mind lots of the complaints of 'too expensive' come from one of two groups - either people from low income countries, or young people.

If you asked me to pay 15 bucks a year for sync when I was 16? Hell no, I'm not paying that much money for it!

Now, at 27, it's what I earn in like 20 minutes at my job. I think those 20 minutes A year are more than worth what this app offers.

19
Shoopreply
lemmy.ml

Bruh, if you're earning $15-$20 every 20 minutes, you're earning almost $94-$125k/year assuming 8 hours, 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year. That's a lot more than most and has nothing to do with being young or in a low income country.

Not exactly fair to frame it like that. Fwiw I'm a long time sync for Reddit user who had the pro version.

3

Yup, that's my yearly salary range. That's normal in Switzerland for an electrical engineer with a masters degree.

Even if it's an hour or two of your salary, do you not think that sync is worth that much to you a year? It takes LJ a lot of time to develop.

Oh, and keep in mind this is with what, 1700 hours of work or something a year. I have vacation, public holidays and so on.

6
lemmy.world

Get ready for early adopters to be upset at you when you lower the price. There's probably no winning with pricing.

9

Almost like everything in the world works this way.

Games, software, hardware, etc.

3

Okay well when it does have ten times the users, please bring the price down. Then I'll give you some money. You've earned it! Just... not that much, I can't afford it.

1

I'm a user of Sync for Reddit Pro. I hope we can have more price options to remove the ads starting from a lower amount. Let's say, $5, $10, $20, $30 and maybe a custom amount (>$5). In this case those who are willing to pay $20 can remain to do so or even more but others can now support the developer by the amount they feel fit.

15
lemmy.world

Not sure if you wanted feedback here, but here it goes. First, thank you, I missed my Sync.

  • When clicking my profile page, it would be nice if comments and posts both displayed by default, instead of just posts. I believe this is how it worked before.
  • When clicking a past comment to view, I would like to display context (all parent comments) by default. I don't think I saw a setting for this, but could be wrong. Right now, each parent comment to display is an individual click.
  • Upvote/Downvote counter

That is all I have for now. Cheers!

15
Coelacanthreply
feddit.nu

Agree with all these. Though I'd love some flexibility in how up/downvotes are displayed. Having tried Jerboa and Kbin a bit, I realised that I actually usually prefer seeing a combined score as default; it's better for my mental health to not know I'm getting downvotes.

Having the option to toggle would be good though. And/or showing the breakdown of up/downvotes if you long-press a post/comment score.

8

it’s better for my mental health to not know I’m getting downvotes.

I was thinking about this point yesterday and agree 100% hahaha. It really depends on where I'm at mentally that week. Multiple options is usually the best option!

7

Thank you for working so hard and fast! I know there's a lot of people talking down about it being closed source and optionally costing money, but as a long-time user and patron it's completely worth it for the quality of experience you're able to deliver!

14

A few things I've encountered so far:

  • I can't submit/post anything. Is this normal? https://imgur.com/pHeOIm5

  • It would be nice to be able to have settings apply app-wide and not be user-specific. It's workaroundable with backing up settings through one account and restoring from the second one but a native solution would be nice to have.

  • Hidden posts only seem to apply to the feed and not carry over when viewing specific communities.

  • Didn't find any way to search comments.

  • Not receiving any notifications.

13

Incredible work. It's amazing having this app come with us.

Thank you for this 🙏🙏

I hope the negative posts aren't too discouraging; some of the foss community here seems to be oddly toxic. If you don't like it, don't pay for it.

13

The app crashes every time I try to select an account or try to login. On some occasions I do manage to login but my feeds and communities are empty.

Also, $30 CAD for ad removal? Sorry but that's too much for me.

13

I never used sync for Reddit, I was (and remain in my heart) a die hard RIF user. I appreciate the work you've done so much and more than ANYTHING the ability to have multiple columns again. It's sync for me now.

13

$20 is to much imo. I would gladly pay 10, but for 10 more might as well stick with my DNS block.

13

Are there any plans to re-implenent the "Sync" feature that the Reddit app had?

Just curious because I need my offline reading!

12
  1. I'll be working on regional prices over the coming weeks

Glad to hear that, until then I don't mind the ads. They don't make me wait to see a post or hindering anything.

12

It's so nice to have this app back!

One quick thing, comment threads can appear out of order when using "top" as the sorting mechanism instead of "hot"

You tend to see child comment chains detached from their parents.

12
Terrreply

So far I've seen it happen everywhere where the parent comment has less karma than its reply.

I hope this helps debug it.

5

Thanks. Also, there's no language selector on comments so some communities will not let you submit comments.

2

LJ! So happy to have Sync back. I'll happily pay for ad-free. It feels silky smooth so far. I don't see any bug reporting available in the app; should we just do it here? If so, I've noticed that "sort by top" in the comments sometimes will chop off the first comment.

12

Splurging $20 on a Lemmy app with my country's currency devaluation is not going to work for me. Nothing against you or the app, the app is amazing and leagues ahead of the competition. But I'm not even sure if Lemmy will be the replacement for Reddit and how it'll all pan out after the hype wears off, so I'm going to wait for regional pricing for this one.

12

Any chance there will be a separate Sync for Lemmy Pro app available? I'd prefer this method as I had with Sync for Reddit Pro instead of the in-app purchase.

12

It's such a pleasure to be back, it's a wonderful app.

Can't thank you enough.

Pricing: I'll be happy to contribute (hell, I even have some Google survey credit rotting there), but honestly the current price is too high, and I don't mind a few ads. My opinion is that with a price point around 5 € / year you could have a lot more people jumping in to remove ads, or at least it would be fine for me.

12

Thank you for Sync! I'm very happy with the experience so far!

One of the best polished apps for Android ever, and certainly the best for Lemmy.

Happily paying for Ultra :-).

If I may give a tiny bit of criticism: I can't find a way view or set comment language. Is that expected?

11

Installed and could immediately tell it was a great app. I just bought Ultra Lifetime.

My request would be the ability to collapse comments and to be able to promote certain post options buried in the menu to a button (like bookmark), namely, I use "hide post" a lot, and would like to choose to access it without having to drill into the menu. I recognize others might use other post options more frequently (like share or something), so it would be nice to make that configurable.

Thanks for a great app!! 👍

Edit: thanks to some helpful replies, I now know that I can collapse comments by long pressing on them, and I can hide posts quickly by swiping them to the left!

11

Just want to say amazing app. It's so polished! I'll be using Lemmy much more. I came from boost on Android. I don't see the value in the ad free version yet but glad there are tiered options.

10
lemmy.world

First I want to preface that I actually never used Sync for Reddit, I always used RIF but I wanted to give Sync for Lemmy a shot and see what it was all about.

A few things from my perspective:

  1. So I'm using the combined BottomNavigation style, but finding settings or other options doesn't seem all that intuitive. Some of the things, like how to switch from Everything to Subscribed for my feed, I found by accident. Where to buy the Ad removal was also rather hidden, etc...
  2. The elephant in the room... Pricing... as a developer myself I get needing to make enough money to sustain your projects, and I get that there's a lot less users on Lemmy than Reddit, but the prices for the subscriptions just seem outrageous. The problem as I see it, is that there's already a healthy competition for Lemmy Apps out there today and most are completely free and have no ads as-is. Some may even be operating in the red, but still $2/mo, $17/yr, $100/lifetime still seems a bit much for essentially:
  • No Ads (I've got a PiHole, so honestly I don't see any ads at the moment anyway)
  • Cloud Backup -- backup of what? My login? My app settings? The former seems concerning, the later I don't see much value as I only have a single Phone. If I get a new phone, sure it might save me a few minutes re setting it back up. There's not that many settings at the moment that needed customizing. And adding too many makes the app too confusing.
  • Highlight / Tag users -- Ok this seems interesting but not quite worth $2/mo IMO.
  • Translate text -- I can do this in the web app already just by highlighting a comment. But to be critical here, /most/ of the content is already in English, and I don't subscribe to any foreign language communities at the moment, so this at least doesn't have any value to me.
  • Select text from image -- Ok, another interesting feature but still not quite at $2/mo
  • Push notifications (coming soon) -- I'm really wondering how this is going to work personally, but this is a much needed feature, at least just for private messages. Probably the feature I'm most excited about.
  • Import / export subscriptions -- This honestly needs to be built into Lemmy itself, but there's also a handful of user scripts and other tools other developers have already written that can do this.

Keep in mind I don't have a frame of reference for what the prices were in Sync for Reddit, but cut the prices to about a 1/3rd or 1/4th of what they are now and they seem to be more inline with the value that the app provides over the other apps.

  1. The privacy policy. It's a lot longer than I'd hope for a Lemmy app. I'm assuming most of the data being collected is for advertising, but it's still concerning to me.

I don't mean to sounds critical in all of this. The app is probably one of the smoothest and best looking out there so far, but the value to money ratio just isn't there.

10
lemmy.world

Re pricing.

Ultra disables ads but also you can just pay a one time $20 few to disable ads forever. Ultra is the above and beyond extras.

14
marsara9reply
lemmy.world

Totally understand that. And personally, $20 to remove ads forever, seems reasonable. But the other features under Ultra currently don't add up to the price tag for those features at the moment.

None of the current Ultra features really stand out to me except tagging/highlighting users. Push Notifications will be a game changer but they aren't in the app yet.

5

Right now, subscribing for Ultra is like Patreon. The amount of work to get the app forked from the reddit version and integrated into Lemmy in the span of weeks from a technical perspective is amazing. Support if you love Sync and want it to continue. The features in the Coming Soon will come with time.

4
stephencreply
waveform.social

Well technically it is still in beta so missing features are to be expected at the moment.

4

Missing features are fine. Even then, and maybe it's just me, but Push Notifications + User Highlight/Tagging doesn't seem like $2 worth of value to me. Just trying to call out that the current value-to-cost ratio seems off. And sure there are other features and maybe other users will get $2 worth of value out of those, but in my opinion that's why I won't be buying a subscription, even if I want to support the developer.

4

I've been with sync from nearly the beginning. Ultra for me, no question. I really appreciate Lj's hard work.

3
marsara9reply
lemmy.world

https://www.search-lemmy.com

I also tried building a pet feeder during the pandemic because the one I was using, the company decided to go belly-up. Never got a fully working though.

(At least that's what I've done open-source wise). I do Android development for my day job.

7
sabreW4K3reply
lemmy.tf

Whaaaa, I can't find me or any of my posts 🙃

2
marsara9reply
lemmy.world

Thanks! I think I found the bug and I'll see what I can do to get that fixed here soon. But to keep this comment thread on-topic message me personally if you have any other issues.

3

For some reason I can't post with the app yet.

I figured that the button labeled "Submit" would do the trick. It just says "Coming soon". That kinds sucks, but other than that, I'm loving the app so far.

10

Thankyou for all your hard work with Sync over all these years!! One question I had is would the charges be lessened if we buy no ads now and switch to ultra later?

10

Are you going to implement a discount on ultras lifetime subscription if a user has already paid for ad removal?

10

I'm an Sync Ultra user from Reddit and bought Sync Ultra again yesterday. No regrets.

I don't mind spending a few dollars on a program that I spend as much time with as I do Sync. I've never understood the psychology of people who believe anything more than a dollar for a phone app is too much.

9

I'm really enjoying using the app, it's running very smoothly for me.

9

Please add regional pricing. It's currently ₺650 to remove ads. Considering Forza Horizon 5, a triple A title that costs $60 normally is priced at ₺600, the current pricing is just too much for anything but the NA and EU.

9
feddit.de

Thanks man! I really loved the Sync user experience on reddit and I'm glad it's now here too. In fact, when logged in on feddit.de (which currently isn't prone to outages like lemmy.world) it runs so fast that I sometimes think the content has been loaded from the cache – but it isn't. Really great.

My only wish would be for Sync to respect the setting that I selected on the website to not show any post/comment scores. Not constantly checking scores really helps with digital detox and also leads to me reading posts that I'm actually interested in (by the headline) instead of looking at stuff just because it has a lot of upvotes.

9

So happy to be back using Sync! I've used Sync for reddit for about ten years so it feels great to be using this for lemmy.

Will there be a return of the feature for automatically hiding posts after voting on them? That was one of my favorite features as it helped to prevent seeing the same posts over and over again.

9

I love the app!

For some reason when refreshing all hidden posts become unhidden. I'm not sure if that's a setting or a bug.

9

One thing is like, is when I click to see the context of a reply, that you'd automatically show my post at the top. 0% chance I know what someone is responding to, especially if it's like a 'lol yeah!' kind of reply.

I know there's a link, bit of it's possible to just eliminate that extra step is be so happy.

Else, this is solid

9

I don't know if this is already the case or not, or how hard it would be to implement, but since Ultra is a superset of ad-free, it would be swell if there was upgrade pricing so you could pay $80 to go from ad-free to Ultra. I definitely want ad-free but I'm not sure about Ultra and so I'm not getting either until I can make that decision to avoid throwing $20 down a hole.

9

The only bug I may notice is the "hide read" feature. After refreshing the page, the hidden posts reappear. I don't know if this also happened back in Reddit Sync or not

9

Where are the ads everyone's talking about? I haven't seen any and I haven't paid anything or will they only start when it's out of beta?

8

I'm seeing your replies to comment showing up a couple times and to the wrong top level comment

8

I bought the subscription before even logging in, because there was no other option and I wanted to instantly support the development. There's an option without a subscription? 🫠

8

It really is tempting to click on that $99 lifetime sub. I kinda feel like I got way more than my money's worth out of Sync for Reddit, and I'll use it for many more than the five years it would take to pay more for yearly subs.

8

Glad to see a one time fee for ad removal, but it's pretty steep. Maybe when the app matures and is not in beta I'll consider it. Thanks for the update!

8

This comment was posted from Sync for Lemmy 🙂. I didn't use sync for reddit (I was a boost user) but trying it out now.

8

I used sync for years and bought the pro version, what's the roadmap for former buyers of the the pro version for Reddit? Will we be able to get a discount for the ad free version?

8

Bought sync for redd years ago. Just bought Sync for lemmy. Lj deserves every cent

7

Huh. I swear ad removal was $13 yesterday. Did that change? $20 is quite an increase over that

7

I've been an alpha testing on sync since the first release. It's amazing how much has been done and improved over time. I loved Sync for Reddit and I'm gutted that Reddit has pull the plug on 3rd apps.

I'm very happy Sync is back, and also Boost is on the horizon. 3rd party apps are what built reddit to be the success it was.

I've paid for ad removal, and likely will pay for ultra when the time is right for me.

I know I'll use this for many years to come and if Lemmy doesn't work out, we can try again somewhere else!

@ljdawson, keep up the good work and producing apps we love! One small thing... will you fix my 2 column portrait bug now? :)

7

My previous comment of praise got eaten by Lemmy. (draft saved, submitting comment, error) is that a sync bug or on the Lemmy side? I was excited that it at least saved a draft of the comment but it doesn't seem to be an option. Feature request?

The gist of my lost comment was that this app is great and I probably never would have found Boost had I come across this first. It's going to be a hard choice when boost finally comes out. Congratulations on a successful launch! I will be switching between this and summit for the time being

7

Loving the app. I've been using Connect for the past few weeks after trying Jerboa and also just storing the website as a PWA on my phone and they just don't compare for me.

Only thing I am looking forward to left is the ability to submit posts from the app. I haven't submitted a lot to Lemmy, but I feel like I'll be able to post more when Sync gets that feature added.

Thanks for all the fish, Lj!

7

I think this setting should be on by default if sidebar navigation is turned on. It's a real game changer for this app in my opinion!

Settings shortcut: Experimental > Sliding panel style drawer

I haven't found any issues with it despite it being experimental. The only downside is that I now want it in every app that isn't Sync...

Edit: If I can make a change request. Could the search bar in the side panel be made into a pill shape like in the bottom drawer? Would modernize the look quite nicely imo.

Device information

Sync version: v23.08.03-16:15    
Sync flavor: googlePlay    

Ultra user: true    
View type: Slides    
Push enabled: false    

Device: oriole    
Model: Google Pixel 6    
Android: 13
7

Appreciate the work on bringing Sync to Lemmy. Long time Reddit and Sync user here. Been lurking on Lemmy for a month but with Sync I feel like I can really enjoy this place. Thanks @[email protected] !

7

Loving the app so far. Is there anyway to view communities by size? My instance has a "communities" page that shows local and all communities by user count. Is this on the roadmap?

7

are there plans to bring the app to older phones like my galaxy S5 i used for reddit until the apps died?

6

Working great so far. I've noticed a few bugs early on (it would crash when launching, but clearing the data fixed it), but perhaps it's been resolved now.

Keep it up!

6

Did my app glitch or something? I installed day one, then a few hours later an update dropped with the option to pay $13 for lifetime ad-free and I immediately paid that. Now everyone's complaining it's $20?

6

Loving the app, I was also an avid boost user but I've been really enjoying Sync! One feature I'd like to suggest is moderator actions, I've installed (what I think is) ever android Lemmy app and none of them have any moderator support. Having this feature would immediately be a big pull to anybody who moderates a community and would greatly help moderating from mobile.

6

I'm having trouble on pixel fold getting videos to autoplay when phone is unfolded and showing 2 columns. It only plays when folded and showing 1 column. Any chance there is a way to get videos to autoplay when unfolded?

5

beehaw is down, it's my startup instance. In Sync how can I switch to my other account/instance? there is no icon, nothing?!? just an "empty screen"

5

Hi, there isn't a submission button yet. So will ask here. Sorry

Pricing will this app make more money with advertising revenue from me or the one off payment?

I am lucky enough to have Google play credit so can pay but just wondering to pay it not to pay?

Thanks for a great app can't wait till it's all up to speed. Ty WP gg

5

Loving this app! Used your Reddit app for ages! Thank you!!!

5

Best app for Lemmy that I've tried so far and I'm sticking to it for now. I used Joey on Reddit and I miss 2 features that Joey had that Sync does not.

Full screen media cards - this allows swiping between full screen posts

And filter out posts - with this I could easily scroll only gif/video or just text posts

Would be if the dev could implement these.

5
lemmy.tf

Will Sync eventually update my profile picture? Or do I have to log out and in again?

5

dude, I have been feeling down since the other site went bananas... I just want to say thank you truly, this is game changer. I'm subscribing to ultra just to support you

5

Sync was what I needed to use more lemmy! :D I don't know if I'm really used to how it looks and feels but other apps don't do it for me at least.

Thank you for all your work!

5

"Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

5

Are you considering making a paid version like Sync Pro was? There were many users who had issues buying the ad removal from regular old Sync for Reddit and having the ads come back up, and I personally prefer getting ad-free, paid versions of apps right off the bat so I rest easy knowing that the any ad tracking code isn't even built into the app at all.

5

The app is brilliant. Only complaint is that the ability to submit posts isn't there yet, otherwise this app would be close to feature-complete.

Did you have an ETA for posts?

5

I'm so happy to be back!

I spent a day in the official Reddit app, and it was miserable. So far I really like Lemmy, the content is much richer than I anticipated, and Sync makes me feel right at home, and the ads aren't too obtrusive (unlike the fucking Reddit app, Christ it's miserable) I think 20 for the equivalent-ish to pro is fair, but I am from a wealthier country, so my reference may be different to others. Ultra seems steep to me as well, but it's still way less than the official Reddit app lol.

So glad for the work you're doing, and excited for a new chapter of happy doomscrolling and community-building.

5

Loving it. I was a longtime user of Reddit Sync, so I'm fully on board the Sync for Lemmy train.

The only thing I've noticed is that after a period of non use perhaps an hour or so, when I launch, it crashes back to my home screen. The only way I can get the app to open is by Clearing all Data then restarting.

4

Is there a way to see if your have unread comment replies without going to check the inbox?

4
programming.dev

Do reddit sync pro / reddit sync ultra lifetime purchases carry over in any way?

4
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

Why would they? This isn't Reddit.

2
lemmy.world

Because the purchased services are no longer available and it would be a pretty good faith acation to take to prove life time means life time

2
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

Life time of the product. Reddit shut them down. You quite literally were provided lifetime service.

If you have issues, speak to Reddit. They're the ones responsible for killing your service. The developer provided support until it was impossible to.

0
lemmy.world

Perhaps you're missing that I am not demanding anything but saying it would be a nice nod to supporters of a product and a good PR move.

But it's good you aren't his PR team cuz you are very bad at communicating.

2
Polarreply
lemmy.ca

I'm bad at communicating because I don't think you should expect someone to give you a lifetime subscription on a new app because you purchased it on an old app for a totally different platform?

You should read the ToS before buying things. It'll save you entitlement.

-1

I was wondering this too, because I bought lifetime Ultra before Sync Reddit shut down. It was a gesture of appreciation though, so I certainly wouldn't expect it to carry over. But since I'm not seeing ads, I was wondering if it might have...

2

Hey. Great work putting the app up so soon. There seems to be an issue every once in a while with loading content regardless of the origin Lemmy server. I'm guessing something on the API end. Is the API host specific instances (i.e. is the host of the sync API currently just the Lemmy.world instance)?

4

Didn't have to think twice to get Sync Ultra lifetime for the amazing value Sync has been in my life the past 10 years. Even paid for previous Sync for Reddit versions. Easy decision. Thanks LJ

4

I downloaded the free version for now but where are people seeing ads btw? I don't want them obviously but I'm yet to see any lol

4

Hey! Loving the app. One thing I'd appreciate is if it showed what instance you're on under or above the "Everything", "Local", and "Subscribed" text. It can be hard to tell the difference between accounts if I have them themed to look the same! For example,

  • Everything
  • lemm.ee

Or something like that

4

sync is awesome. im very happy to sign up for the yearly fee as it's easily the most used app on my phone

4

I'm probably dumb, but I can't find how to change the size of the font of the post. I also noticed that is the same size of the one I am using typing this message.

3

If you have Floating Action Button enabled, you can tap it and move the "Hide Read" button to the top left. After that, long-pressing the FAB should hide read.

4

Yes but it's not on the client, you have to go to your profile settings on the website, I assume this will be added eventually.

2

Thanks for the update! Enjoying the app so far. Looking forward to what you have in store for the future.

Are you putting together/have you shared a more detailed roadmap for what you're tracking to accomplish during this beta phase of the app?

3

Is there a way to set up my subscriptions first instead of everything? I don't mind seeing all, but mostly I'd like to see what I'm subbed to first.

3

There's no clear way to look at all, there's an "everything" but it's not clear if that's classified as "all" like other Lemmy apps

I have sync for Reddit but I won't be paying $130+ CAD for ultra, especially when sync for Reddit cost me less than $10

3

Once we can get hidden posts to stay hidden this app will be perfect

3

Am I missing something or is posting from the community not working? Whenever I try, it shows 'Coming Soon'. But obviously, other people can submit a post (unless they're not using Sync altogether).

3

Awesome app! I'd love to swipe from post to post, is there a configurable option for this, that I've missed?

3

Regional pricing would be great. For my country ad-free price is ridiculously high.

2

Is there a way to make it work with Android's Open by default links? Guess you will have to throw the urls of all instances in there.

2

Is there any chance of changing the profile view to show overview (posts + comments) like it used to be on Reddit vs having them segregated? Having it separated is a minor annoyance of mine

Great work on this app. I used Sync Pro for 10 years, this has blown Jerboa out of the water and has really enhanced the whole Lemmy experience for me

2

For the little arrow on the right hand side of posts. When pushed, the menu options appear under the post for upvoted, downvote, save, etc. What settings do I have to change to make the bar that always show?

2

Will there be any way to allow to import in existing ultra subscription as i purchased one for sync for reddit. Or at least offer some sort of discount.

2

Got it yesterday and love it. Paid already for one year ultra 👍

2

Does anyone know if there's a way to get swipe to open the hamburger menu (the left sidebar with all communities listed)? I found a setting to get it to open from the back button but I could have sworn there was a way in the old reddit sync app to do this

2

First, thanks for your work!

Second, is there a possibility to add user comments in the profile view or this is not available from the Lemmy API ?

2

I would not be surprised to learn that you could make as much profit open sourcing the work and using Patreon instead of demanding users pay to release the shackles.

Do it your way. I will probably pay you when you come out with a widget. But I would have done that anyway. Shoving ads in my face makes me not like you.

-9