this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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Sync for Lemmy
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I keep hearing people mention all of these apps, and I've tried most of them (I'm on Android, and besides Sync, I currently have Liftoff, Connect and Thunder installed; I had Jerboa and the Voyager PWA, but removed the former due to bugs and the latter due to slow startup).
Honestly, none of them feel as polished as Sync. They do offer pretty much the same functionality, sometimes even better, but the UI and UX of Sync is just smoother.
Maybe it's just that I'm used to Sync after using it for reddit for many years, but in any case I thought I'd put this out there in case others were feeling puzzled as I was from all the mentions of other apps suggesting they can replace Sync without any quality loss. Sure, maybe not functionality-wise, but to me the user experience is just as important.
Edit: for reference, here's an album of screenshots comparing the same views in Sync, Liftoff, Connect and Thunder (yeah, I'm a fan of the compact list view): https://imgur.com/a/MvawTYm โ there are pros and cons to all of these, but IMO the sync experience is the one with the best design and UX polish. Happy to hear your thoughts, though!
This x1000
I tried basically every app going on Android and they are all either buggy as fuck, unintuitive or janky in some other way. The user experience was just horrible.
I really do not understand all the people claiming Sync has an equivalent. It just does not right now in terms of a polished user experience.
Honestly it's just Linux vs Windows kinda situation to me. No matter how many nerds tell me Linux can do everything the same and is more customisable and better, it's just a worse user experience. Windows is far more intuitive and polished and there is a reason it has the market share it does.
Funny comparison to make considering that these are Android apps, running on the Linux kernel.
The comparison serves only to highlight the importance of presentation and consistency. Those other apps might get there some day, but they're not focused on a polished experience from the outset. Thats sync and it's legacy. Experience and ease first. Honestly feels closer to an iOS app. And thats a very good thing.
Yeah, but I'm using Sync exactly because I'm using Linux lol. Much more convenient and polished, and there's no such thing as intuitive UI, there's only UI you got used to.
I really wanted to stick with voyager, but just switching between inbox and posts was just a crap shoot. Sometimes it would switch, sometimes it was acting as a back button... Then you'd lose your scroll position in posts... Just very alpha feeling
That said I hope they keep going! Competition is always good!
It may be the 11 years of using it on Reddit, but Sync already works how I expect it to. Just things like hitting the preview takes you to the link instead of the comments, or how tapping the community name on a link takes you to the community. Every other app just doesn't behave as intuitively or efficiently.
Thanks for this, it's really helpful. Confirms that the Sync interface just feels right to me.