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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I made jerboa like a month ago, and I’m not an android dev; I had to learn android programming from scratch.
Its not that any of these mobile apps have taken a back seat; I wouldn’t have made making a native android one a priority if I didn’t think mobile apps are important.
The issue is that even though all of these are open source projects, very few experienced coders contribute to them, so I welcome your effort to find more development help. All of the ppl currently working on lemmy, its web app, and its mobile apps are spread very thin.
Even with that said, I’m very proud of all the work put in by these devs, and I have no doubt they will continue to improve their apps, but on their own schedule. If you want things done faster, the codebase is right there.
Jerbora is way better than it’s original alpha release. It’s still not as good as the web version on mobile but it’s really getting there
Certainly, a lot of people use mobile apps.
In what way have they “taken a back seat?” Taken a back seat to what?
They seem to be there for anyone who wants to use them, and look like they’re actively maintained.
I don’t believe those client apps are built by the same folks as Lemmy, therefore whether they “function properly” is purely a concern for their developers and users.
Lemmy is non-commercial and as such “the market” doesn’t work in the same way as an integrated product like Instagram, Twitter, etc.
Taken a back seat to browser development.
Not as actively as the browser development.
They aren’t except for ‘jerboa’.
It’s a concern because most users connect to the Internet through mobile apps.
I’m not addressing the differing world market systems. I’m addressing how most people connect to the Internet.
None of this is actionable or quantatative. If you have an issue with the mobile apps, file bugs.
And in what way does this manifest? They lack features that the web UI has? Why are you bringing it up here instead of filing tickets with mobile apps?
It seems silly to say they’ve “taken a back seat” when they’re entirely different pieces of software written by different individuals. It’s like saying that Chrome development is taking a back seat to DuckDuckGo. They’re different things entirely.
It’s a side project by a Lemmy developer, not an official part of Lemmy.
You seem to have confused and incorrect ideas about how the internet works.
Lemmur does not let me add any instance. Jerboa is barely usable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
What is the point of adding exclusive features to the mobile application? What sort of features should these be? Purely cosmetic?
Two examples:
However, I personally use the website by now and rely on email notifications.
“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.
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.
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.
I suggest everyone eat a big dick and use desktop