Lemmy

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What is happening with the Lemmy mobile apps? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 years ago by suspended@lemmy.ml to c/lemmy@lemmy.ml

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It's my, general, understanding that most people connect to the Internet through mobile apps.

If this is the case, then why have apps such as Remmel, Lemmur and jerboa taken a back seat?

IMHO, it would be a mistake to market Lemmy without these mobile apps functioning properly.

I have forked the three aforementioned mobile apps here and will try to 'drum up' support from developers wherever I can find them.

Please, if you don't feel comfortable talking to me about this here, then send me a private message. Thank you.

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[–] aspensmonster@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

People defaulted to mobile apps over browsers because mobile websites used to suck. That early inertia has allowed mobile apps to dominate and stagnate over time. The internet would be a better place if there were far more functional mobile websites and far fewer mobile apps.

But of course, it is all free software. There's nothing stopping anyone from making a killer iPhone or Android app for Lemmy. Heck, there's nothing stopping commercial entities from attempting to treat the entire stack like a commercial product, assuming they comply with the licenses.

[–] suspended@lemmy.ml 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

mobile websites

Are you referring to websites that are mobile responsive?

Maybe, there are developers out there that could make a mobile app experience 'different' than the browser experience. I believe there are.

[–] adrianmalacoda@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

In my experience, the main reason mobile websites suck is because they do so by design, in order to push users to install an app. Lemmy developers have no incentive to do so.

[–] poVoq@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Exactly this. Companies preferr mobile apps because it allows them to do much more user tracking push their own advertisement etc. To this end they intentionally make it difficult to use their websites in mobile browsers (see Twitter or Reddit), to force people to use apps.

Its really a dark pattern and a website like Lemmy works perfectly fine on mobile browsers.

[–] aspensmonster@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Are you referring to websites that are mobile responsive?

Yes. My general philosophy is that, if it can be done in the browser, then it shouldn't need an app. Leave mobile apps to the cases where the browser can't get the job done.

[–] suspended@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Using Lemmy on a smart phone with a browser should work fine since the site is built to be responsive. However, having a native Lemmy application for Android and iOS could provide opportunities for further feature development that isn’t included with the browser version. That is why I believe it is a good idea to keep these apps going.

[–] erpicht@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What is the point of adding exclusive features to the mobile application? What sort of features should these be? Purely cosmetic?

[–] Echedenyan@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Two examples:

Notifications in real time: not just by email or having to maintain the browser open and without sound.
Sharing using the own sharing dialogs.

However, I personally use the website by now and rely on email notifications.

[–] toneverends@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

"Progressive Web Apps" with "Add to Home Screen" is the tech make this happen I think?

Notifications are supported.

Sharing intents can be registered via web share target, which I think is supported by chromium but not yet by Firefox.

[–] Echedenyan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I have it like that but notifications doesn't seem to be supported or, at least, with the application closed.

Also the sound and light seem to be specific of the whole browser applications as far as I could test right know.

[–] erpicht@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I stand corrected on the utility of app exclusive features. I never considered it, but I suppose I rather like how I don't get notifications through lemmur. Though I understand how that's a hassle for others who want them.