2y ago

Developing a new Lemmy mobile client!

After using Apollo for years, yesterday I decided to completely stop using Reddit for obvious reasons.

I found Lemmy to be a very competent alternative, but the only catch is the mobile situation: it seems that there aren't many good mobile clients for Lemmy.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands and develop a new mobile client for Lemmy.

After a couple hours, I have a good looking and working subscription feed; super glad to see that the API is easy to use :)

What do you think about the look of the app? Any suggestions?

7 comments

I personally don’t like Material design in general, and if I had a choice I’d pick something with Apple’s design principles.
With that said, the more the merrier so I’m definitely rooting for the app. Don’t mean to sound discouraging. It’s just a preference, but I would definitely try it out at least.

@jesusrp98 I would LOVE for the ability to somehow connect/log in with my Mastodon account so I can comment on posts with it. Even if the subscriptions are managed by the main Lemmy account, the ability to comment via Masto is pretty crucial for me

No apple devices here, but still...
AMOLED friendly black theme
easily accessed donation for the instance host and lemmy devs, maybe even include the option to monitor individual user load on the various server instances the user has posted on
integrate, suggest, and/or streamline 3rd party image hosting options. Maybe set a target file size and quality with a jpeg converter to get any images posted as small as useful by default, even prompting a cropping tool initially as a path of least resistance for optimization.
build in a converter for MP4 to GIF to WEBP with a small size and maximum size optimization/compression. Like, for technical utility it can be important to show video, but mp4/gifs are not currently supported but animated webp is and can be uploaded directly/embedded in posts
mod sub activity monitoring separate from other feeds with options to notify by new posts, comments, reports, user, etc.
- Great suggestions there (AMOLED fan here, it will happen).
  A feature that I think it's very important is the ability to donate super easily to lemmy instances. I wouldn't be able to write this comment if not for the support of the rest of the community ❤️

Looks nice, but I wonder if the upvote and comment icons aren’t a bit too small/compact for touch.
Also a question: what do you intend to do differently than the Mlem app?
- I think mainly design, this app will feature Material design, rather than the look of iOS. Going to implement certain features so that it feels right and home in an iPhone.
  However if you prefer the regular iOS theme, there should be other alternatives, like mlem.
  In the end, it's just personal choice, and having multiple options is great for all of us :)
  
  An iOS app without adhering to iOS design guidelines and looking like android wont be popular with iOS users 😉.
  I personally must have iOS design and all bells and whistles. Else it won’t feel at home.

7 comments