Lemmy apps on iOS
NOTE: For more up-to-date list, see the iOS section on this post from ![email protected]
There has been quite a few posts regarding Lemmy apps for iOS, and their installation process might not be straightforward since they're PWA or beta. Here's a list of apps mentioned and their links:
⭐ Released
Voyager (formerly wefwef) (📱PWA)
- To install, open link in browser and follow instructions
- Community: [email protected]
- NOTE: Currently used by lemmy.world for mobile site: https://m.lemmy.world/
Mlem
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
Lemmios
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
Thunder
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
Avelon
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
Arctic
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
🚧 TestFlight Beta
⚠ Note that apps below are potentially abandoned, please check each community for updates
Olympus
- TestFlight
- Community: [email protected]
Lemmotif
- TestFlight
- Community: [email protected]
Echo (closed alpha)
- To join, fill out form: https://forms.gle/QXFfjgBP2uzJGfHm6
- Community: [email protected]
⛔ Abandoned
⚠ Apps below seem to have been abandoned by lack of community posts/new releases
Liftoff!
- AppStore
- Communtiy: [email protected]
Memmy
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
Bean
- AppStore
- Community: [email protected]
569
Comments131
Mlem is Great! But what really surprised me is wefwef, hands down the best PWA I’ve ever seen
wefwef is seriously one of the best PWA I’ve ever seen. I’m interested in trying out mlem once it goes live on the App Store
Why do you want to wait for the App Store version? FlightTest is made by apple, no jailbreak, no illegal things. It’s a separate App Store where you need an invite link to access an app. And here is the Link
You’re right, I don’t have a good reason not to use it other than preference. I used to be on beta for everything when I was on Android and when I switched to iOS I decided not to.
So why is that your preference? You didn’t really say.
Well I did mention why in my previous reply. I used to be on beta for all my apps but I got tired of things sometimes not working and having to update all the time and/or missing features. So now I prefer stable, more feature complete App Store builds. It’s just my preference.
Sorry Dumb question but what’s a PWA vs TestFlight?
PWA- progressive web app
An app that is actually just a webpage that behaves like an app and runs through safari. A TestFlight app is a full regular iOS app but in beta so you install it from the TestFlight app like a different App Store.
Think when a new call of duty or other video game releases early in beta access. Same idea with TestFlight. Memmy is in TestFlight (I’m using it rn) but is being submitted for normal App Store release now.
PWA- progressive web app
An app that is actually just a webpage that behaves like an app and runs through safari. A TestFlight app is a full regular iOS app but in beta so you install it from the TestFlight app like a different App Store.
Think when a new call of duty or other video game releases early in beta access. Same idea with TestFlight. Memmy is in TestFlight (I’m using it rn) but is being submitted for normal App Store release now.
This posted twice
It’s a shame Mlem doesn’t have an iPad version. This makes it unusable to me
Give it time, it’s on their backlog. They’re building everything crazy fast.
The iOS app is still in beta and only on test flight. I don’t even think it’s been in development for that long. Give it time.
Looks like it’s already being worked on now. https://github.com/mlemgroup/mlem/pull/167
Now is a native app too on testflight!
wefwef is actually crazy good for a web app. feels as close as we’ll ever get to having Apollo for Lemmy
I‘m using it right now and it is so snappy. Feels like Apollo all the way — it’s crazy.
It’s actually insane how similar it feels to Apollo, like even the swipe commands on comments are the same
Wow, this just changed the user experience dramatically for me!
It’s ridiculous how good it is. I thought Elk was good for Mastodon, but wefwef is … wow.
I'm using wefwef as well and it's legit a Apollo clone which is awesome! Now just need more people to come over to here and Lemmy will be even better then Reddit since it's part of the fediverse
wefwef is like Apollo-lite so it’s not surprising that it’s so popular. It follows much of the same design language but not quite as buttoned up or full-featured as the more mature Apollo.
It was an easy transition for me since I was an Apollo user.
“It follows the same design language” is an understatement. It’s a straight copy. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, though I have some questions with regard to Christian Selig’s intellectual property rights here, if any.
Is there a way to filter communities? That’s one piece I haven’t found but desperately miss.
My first thought upon loading wefwef was “I wonder if the Apollo guy is pissed.”
lol Christian probably doesn’t care; he hasn’t announced his own app, which makes me think he’s out of the game.
Yeah, definitely an attempt to copy. I agree.
Very impressed with wefwef. And somehow it’s the only client I’ve found that has swipe-to-fold-comments. A required feature IMO.
Memmy and Thunder both have tap to fold and swipe to vote / reply as well.
I wish we could configure the swipe gestures so that swipe left is to vote instead of now where its swipe right to vote.
Using wefwef right now, feels pretty good and not a change from Apollo. Looking forward to see its progress
Wefwef is shockingly usable considering it’s a PWA. Only thing that’s reminding me this isn’t Apollo is the occasional need to tap again before scrolling.
Just waiting for the AppStore release!
Dang, Lemmy must be a little wacky today with all the influx. Accidentally did a triple post (from Mlem)!
Yeah definitely some issues right now. Had to delete this post and recreated it because it originally posted just half of the content and my edit wouldn’t go through. I’m seeing lots of duplicate comments as well everywhere
Also noticed a lot of slowness today, especially posting comments.
Memmy is just waiting on official App Store approval.
I’ll try those one first. I’m an Apollo refugee, but I’d prefer to stick with apps that come from the official TestFlight/App Store rather than side-loaded ones. Especially when putting in credentials for a site.
Definitely give wefwef.app a try, it’s basically an Apollo clone for federated instances and it’s PWA so you don’t need to download any TestFlight betas or sideload ipa’s
I’m really enjoying Memmy. I know it’s in TestFlight and still has some bugs to iron out, but overall a good experience.
The mlem community link is same as liftoff
My bad! Copy pasting error. Should be fixed now.
I’d love to try wefwef but it seems to only support 3 different Lemmy instances. I’d like to use it with my own instance.
EDIT: thanks for pointing out that it’s indeed possible to use wefwef with any instance. What an amazing PWA!
You can use it with your own instance. There’s an “other” option in the latest release that lets you plug in the URL.
Indeed, thanks a lot! It worked. Writing this using wefwef 😊
I'm pretty sure there always has been
That would make sense. I’ve only just started using it, so I figured I’d qualify that if they had tried it before and not seen it.
You can, just hit the profile button at the bottom, hit "login" in the top right, then select "other"
Yes, awesome, thank you! Writing this using wefwef 😃
A quick call out since it sounds like you’re hosting your own instance - you can also choose to host a private version of Wefwef for yourself. Their GitHub has instructions around that, and it may improve performance for you as well.
What an intriguing idea! I’ll definitely look into this, thanks for pointing this out!
Anybody else getting “Problem fetching posts” errors after installing Wefwef?
There's an update available for the wefwef app in the settings menu. Updating may help resolve your issue.
Working now after the latest update. Thanks!
lol yes we posted at the same time - maybe they're just getting hammered with apollo expatriates
Yes it stopped working for me a few hours ago.
I am going to give wefwef a try. I was using Mlem at first but I wasn't a fan. Still a bit worried about wefwef as I wasn't a fan of Apollo at all but willing to try!
Thanks for putting together this list!
Unfortunately most of these are Apollo clones since it was very popular. I'd suggest Liftoff if you prefer a different thing. It uses a different design but still nice. Although I haven't tried Thunder so I'm not sure about that one.
No worries, If I don't end up liking this I have many options which is nice.
Memmy TestFlight is full unfortunately :( any word on when it will be released on App Store?
I believe it’s already been submitted for review so it depends on Apple
The latest test update today mentions it’s been in App Store review for at least 12 hours now. So hopefully soon.
It was submitted to the App Store with the last beta update. I predict it getting rejected because of the nsfw toggle. That created trouble for Apollo in the past.
From the Apple App store policy:
Does lemmy support toggling NSFW content (or is it instance based)? I wonder if apps like memmy can leverage this toggle if it exists to pass the App Store review (don’t know much about how memmy currently does it).
Lemmy supports it on your profile, you should see a checkbox for "Show NSFW Content" if you click your username in the top right and then settings (if you're using the default web interface, anyway). I believe this is disabled by default. Instances can also block NSFW for the entire instance, there's an "Enable NSFW" option in the admin settings. This is also disabled by default.
Memmy itself has two settings, which look like they're independent of your Lemmy profile: one which enables or disables NSFW entirely (which is disabled by default), and one which can blur NSFW if it's enabled.
I suspect they'll raise an eyebrow or two with the App Store reviewers, but they do have prior art they can point to as well as that section of the policy you just posted. We'll have to wait and see; I haven't checked myself to see if they passed review or not.
First submissions typically don't pass anyway from what I understand for a myriad of reasons, so don't be surprised if it does get rejected. They'll just update the app and try again.
Liftoff is an amazing app.
Also - your list has the old invite link for Liftoff.
The new update link is: https://testflight.apple.com/join/jKENkGjX (as seen in this post from 3 days ago) (respectfully)
Yeah overall Liftoff is still the best IMO. It brings a few fresh design choices and rounded functionality and reliability. It has been improving rapidly. It’s not perfect but it’s at the head of the pack. Wefwef is extremely good for a web app but that ultimately has limitations.
Thank you! Link is updated
is anyone else having an issue with wefwef not loading posts? i can see all of the communities i'm subbed to, but wefwef won't show my lemmy profile or user posts.
wefwef is now having issues with lemmy.world
Switch to a different instance
good shout. i just submitted an application for beehaw. really dig their community ideals.
I’ve been using Mlem and the latest update seemingly has an Apollo inspiration behind it. I will probably be sticking with it— in fact, it’s now in the place on my home screen where Apollo has sat for 7 years. Really sad to have to do that but Reddit is now effectively dead to me.
This is the post we needed!
Memmy is the winner for me. I give wefwef and mlem sharing 2nd place together.
Helpful. Thank you!
Using memmy at the moment. It’s the most advanced app right now. Wefwef is impressive as it resembles Apollo in an web app but at the end I prefer having a native app for daily use.
I have both but Memmy keeps logging me out and giving me all kinds of upvote errors. Wefwef works better and I think have pretty much the same functionality
wefwef is a shameless clone of Apollo. Mimicry is truly the best form of flattery. He copied from one of the best
Thanks for this dude! I had no idea there was this many out there. Also the link for the Mlem TestFlight on the Join-Lemmy page has the wrong link so I thought it was closed. Thanks for sharing this!
Updated. Thanks!
Memmy and mlem TestFlight links are the same
That should have been fixed earlier. But I am having issues with Lemmy creating and editing posts/comments so maybe it didn’t go through properly. Can you please try reloading the page?
It was fixed btw, just had to reload my app and find the page and viola! Sorted! Cheers.
Great, thanks for confirming!
Wefwef and thunder. Thunder is really fast.
Just downloaded Thunder, but is seems to have the same issue on iPad as Memmy, where image/web previews are reduced down to a short and wide slit of the image. wefwef is the best for iPad that I’ve used so far.
Edit: scrap that, there is a setting on Thunder to view full height images.
Not able to connect to wefwef today. Says safari cannot establish a secure connection. Not sure if anyone else seeing this. On mobile.
Wefwef isn’t as stable as Apollo :/
It’s not wefwef but the instance you joined getting overwhelmed as people move to Lemmy (and particularly lemmy.world)
Aah that’s a good point.
Def going to DL tonight- does anyone know if it works well on ipad?
Works well enough. Pretty much a wider version of the app (I use my iPad in landscape) so it's not using the space optimally, but I can't fault the apps especially since they're all new and focused on iPhones first.
Wefwef is shockingly usable considering it’s a PWA. Only thing that’s reminding me this isn’t Apollo is the occasional need to tap again before scrolling.
A lot of these logos for lemmy apps should steer clear of animal based logos imho, feel like it won’t be as compatible with mainstream.
It’s not ios specific but I’m using wefwef and it’s great.
Nicely done! 👏
You should be able to. Although I always use swipe gestures so maybe it's not working with the arrow buttons?
Understandable. I came from Apollo with the same swipe gestures so I’m used to it. I’m using the TestFlight build instead of the AppStore one and it seems like the new design is changed a bit and comment replies has action buttons that you can tap, so maybe the next release would be helpful
Memmy's out now!
Thank you!
I love Memmy
Olympus for Lemmy also has a TestFlight beta (works currently only for iOS 17 Dev Beta)
There are some more apps announced (Artemis, Beyond)
You can check it out here in the iOS section
https://lemmy.world/post/465785
Thank you! I wasn't aware there's already a post for this. I'll add this link to the post.
Same after version 9 came out a few minutes ago
Mlem and Liftoff have been solid
Arctic was released on the AppStore and the TestFlight gets weekly updates and it’s really great.
Memmy, Avelon and Bean seem to have been abandoned.
It almost seems like the only apps (other than purely web-based ones) that are still being developed for iOS are Arctic, Mlem, Thunder, and Voyager.
Edit: And Lemma had a pretty big update recently, too. I should include them as well.
It’s a but disappointing to still not have any app on the AppStore. I know it’s a long process, but we should take advantage from the current momentum, which won’t last.
the Memmy dev submitted to Apple for review. should be there “soon”.
Amazing!
I agree. Wefwef seems to be working okay, but an actual app would definitely be better
Are all these apps adding upvote/downvote systems? Cause I noticed lemmy on safari didn’t have voting but memmy and wefwef did.
@[email protected], this stickied post could probably use some love, or you might just want to remove the sticky pin. Some of these Apps no longer exist. Example: Memmy.
Thanks! I've updated it a little just by quickly going through the communities. Also lifted the link to lemmyapps up so users won't miss it. Let me know if there's anything I've missed!
Thanks Dee!
I've been pretty happy with Memmy so far.
I personally use Lemma. Great app, still in TestFlight but very promising
Mlem has really come along the last few weeks — looks nice now. And definitely more of an Apollo vibe. I checked out of it (and left the TestFlight) once the dev announced it was abandoned but it’s clearly back now.
And I’m back to using it now since Memmy doesn’t support post deletions yet and a Lemmy server hiccup resulted in a double post. Solid app now
Nice didn’t know thunder was also on ios
Why is Arctic at the bottom?
Mostly when it was released or when I noticed it was released. It’s in no particular order
Please follow the link at the top for updated list
Lemmy on Safari should have upvote & downvote
Why does Olympus require iOS 17 or newer?
Probably because they developed it with the latest SDK and APIs
I usually like dedicated apps, but wefwef changed my mind. It’s by far the best PWA I’ve seen so far.
I'm switching over from android to iOS next week. Can sometime please share an app that I can install via Play Store?
Thunder