Better is mostly subjective, so take this with a grain of salt.

But it isn’t better, not yet. And it may never be.

But, let’s loop you in, Odd one (it’s a book reference, not an insult)

So, Sync started as a reddit app. As you know, reddit fucked third party apps, and made a series of insulting statements to users and mods, generating an exodus that led some people to lemmy.

On reddit, when it was fresh news, many of those app devs that had a reddit presence were asked if they would migrate their app to something else, with the most common request being lemmy (the only option that had an API worth mentioning at the time).

Out of those, Sync was one of the top five android apps. For some, it was reddit, they’d chosen sync and used nothing else.

Thus, you had weeks of build-up after Mr Dawson announced he was going to migrate. Serious hype.

So, the app drops. People check it out. Those unfamiliar with the app from reddit are surprised to find it has ads. Those familiar with it were aware that ad monetization was part of how Mr Dawson made a living. The rest was through various ad free versions, and “ultra”. Ultra was a service that added features to the app on reddit. Here, it doesn’t really add as much because some of what it does isn’t server based, so a subscription fee for those specific features isn’t as attractive. A one time fee has been added to remove ads, and the price point is a matter of upset as well.

Secondary to that, the app is closed source. Again, anyone familiar with the app from reddit would know this. It was known when very fervent requests to migrate were made.

As you may be aware, lemmy runs high to open source advocates, privacy advocates, and general mistrust of anything that doesn’t at least give a polite nod to those principles.

And that’s where the drama starts.

With all of that in mind, you have segments of the lemmy population that are hyped to have an early version of a familiar and well executed app. Those folks are surprised at the sheer venom that has been directed to the app and its developer. A segment of those are very vocal in their defense of the app. Some cross the line into being jerks. There’s another segment that dislikes the app on those principles, another that just don’t like it as an app (or prefer others), and there’s the small but noisy and rude segment that hates the app.

That’s where the drama centers. It is magnified by the fact that the more energetic the opinion is, the more likely people are to voice it, and the inverse.

Most lemmings don’t care much at all, but they’re not emotionally driven, and/or would rather just avoid drama.

My bias: I think it’s rather rude to throw nastiness at a developer that was practically (and in a few cases literally) begged to port his app for lemmy. One can object to decisions made in a civil manner. Sync was not my app of choice, but I found it to be a solid back-up, and Mr Dawson to be a fairly good example of how a developer should communicate.

Now, my opinion on sync for lemmy, as it currently exists. This is pure opinion, and should not be taken as anything else. While I despise ads, it’s a case of “hate the game, not the player”. I understand why app developers use ads, and I can’t say I blame them. The price Mr Dawson has set for a one time ad removal is fair. Regardless of what level of income can be expected from ads, that income is continuous as long as the app is used. The fee represents a reasonable amount for an app that is likely to remain useful just as it is for years.

Now, it is not up to feature parity with core lemmy tools. There are plenty of apps further along in that regard. It is, however, a very well crafted UI and has a long history of being actively maintained as well as moved forward over time. That last assumes the developer doesn’t throw up his hands as a “no win” situation and walk away. I doubt that will be the case, Mr Dawson is a pro. Wouldn’t blame him if he did though, some of the comments directed at him would have been nasty on reddit; here, they’re so far beyond acceptable it’s disgusting. Lemmy is supposed to be better than reddit in that regard.

I don’t do tl;drs because it ain’t that fucking hard to read, but to kinda close things out, it can be summed up as a massive amount of confusion about exactly what the app was, is, and should be.

It’s not. It’s popular because it was a popular Reddit app and a lot of people here are former Reddit users.

Everyone has their preferences but that doesn’t make sync better than any other app. Just different.

It’s a nice app, (first time Sync user) great functionality and design, but the downside is it’s not open source and it has ads and even optional subscription service. Some people think it goes against the whole fediverse mindset, others (long time Sync for Reddit users) defend it as they are looking for the same experience they had on reddit.

That said it’s 100% usable, but if you don’t like this kind of stuff you have half a dozen free alternatives with just as many functions and different designs.

I think it’s just a what you know sort of situation.

If you’ve used sync for years, the interface, shortcuts etc feel intuitive even though that is caused by hours of practice/experience.

Personally, coming from another reddit client, all the Lemmy apps/interfaces I’ve tried still feel a bit awkward even after a month or whatever.

The uncanny issue may also be causing a problem. While Lemmy is different, the basic idea (communities, posts etc) is very similar to reddit. Something that is similar but slightly different can feel uncanny, which is often unsettling/frustrating.

Jerboa is pretty bad in many, many ways; at one point it almost killed Lemmy for me. Sync is at least polished and robust. I’ve not seen ads yet but I wouldn’t be opposed to paying something for a decent client - I used to pay for Narwhal too.

Totally anecdotal but I’d originally quit Reddit back in December and was an avid Sync user. Heard about Lemmy during the reddit drama and could just never get into it. After ljdawson dropped Sync, started to get into Lemmy!

Personally, I disliked Sync for Reddit and did not use it. And, personally some of those quirks still bother me with Sync for Lemmy.

But…Jerboa, Connect, Liftoff, etc. currently also don’t work as well or are as customizable as I’d like. Liftoff is definitely the closest, though, and I still switch back to it after each update to see how it is progressing.

For now though, Sync ticks more of my hot button boxes despite its flaws than any other app I’ve tried (so far).

It’s not. The Sync dev wants you to pay $20 to remove ads from the app. I’m sticking with Connect and Voyager.

Synch for reddit and synch for Lemmy just offer the best browsing experience for me.

That’s it. It just looks the best imo and has tons of settings to make it look even more like you want it to look.

I was really excited about Sync coming out for Lemmy since that was my client of choice on Reddit. I was looking for the same ease of use and app logic that I had been using for years.

The issue I quickly ran into was the revenue model. Pushing ads on a Reddit app made sense, but it feels inappropriate on the Fediverse. I would have gladly paid just to support the developer, but when I see features being locked behind a $100 lifetime subscription, my willingness to contribute sours quickly.

So I checked other clients like Voyager and Infinity, and I discovered I don’t mind the change. Infinity is really good right now, for instance, and that’s FOSS all the way. So I figure, I just changed social networks, why not make an app switch too?

I think the Sync fan base is largely looking for some sort of continuity from their Reddit days. They feel the dev was slighted by the Reddit move to kill third-party apps and they want them to find a new home in the Fediverse. I certainly wish that as well, but I think the dev has some adjusting to do. Fortunately for us, there’s plenty of alternatives if Sync doesn’t do it. And no, Sync isn’t better than a lot of other apps; just more familiar, maybe.

Use infinity for lemmy

It’s free software and yu can get it on fdroid

It’s not. Its just another Lemmy mobile UI, that’s what they all are. I’ll be honest, I was not prepared for how cultish the syncers (Syncs? Syncheads?) are. Next level famboying.

It’s not.

They charge $130+ for an ultra lifetime when its Reddit counterpart was only $10 or under.

They put things like ad removal behind a paywall