I was looking forward to trying Sync today now that it’s live, but my enthusiasm was immediately dampened after seeing the “Data Safety” section on the Google Play store.
Liftoff has been great, and want to say thanks for making an awesome app. This will continue to be my daily driver.
Edit: for clarity, because the post got way bigger than I expected.
Sync looks like a fantastic app, and the dev/s should charge whatever they feel is fair for their efforts, even if that’s through the usual ads + ad tracking.
My intent was just to post here in /c/Liftoff to thank the Liftoff devs for managing to somehow offer an awesome app without any of that.
I dont get you people. Making those apps is maybe a hobby for some but a job for others. People asked for Synch for Lemmy and the dev WORKED on it and will continue WORKING on it.
Love to see how many of you guys will work for free. And you probably all work for places that NEVER collect any data.
Could I use a free app for Lemmy? Sure, but I want Synch, because I know what Synch has to offer is what I want. I don’t need to settle for a “almost” solution. I can use Synch and I gladly paid for it.
I think OP doesn’t mind paying for an app, it’s the “collect data” that was his issue. If the free version collects data to send you ads, and there is an option to buy and remove the data collection and ads, then that’s probably fine with most people.
I don’t you should be forced to pay for it to stop collecting data assuming it does. Just give them non personalized ones instead. Unless that’s also what you meant then nvm.
That’s the way it is being reported. Buy to remove ads and the tracking goes away.
Yeah, I’ve been really disappointed in Lemmy’s response to sync. I thought this community was supposed to be technically minded but in every thread on Sync, the top comment is repeating disinformation about tracking and there’s tons of people tearing down the developer.
I get not wanting to use an App that has ads, but people are getting downright toxic over an App that no one is forcing them to use lol.
Where are the disinformation? Show me how I can have the ad-free version on my phone that doesn’t have Play Services and I’ll be very happy.
The fediverse has a very high percentage of users who are FOSS zealots. These people would rather drink rancid gnu piss from Richard Stallman’s sweaty jock strap than deal with commercialized software. After you’ve been around them long enough (1996 in my case) you learn to tune them out.
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Hard disagree. I find Sync the best user experience so far, including the best looking UI hands down
I’ve been using Voyager until today. It was a fine app, but anyone who thinks it holds a candle to Sync is off their rocker. Sync has more features, runs far more smoothly, and looks a hell of a lot better.
Exactly. I don’t think many of the people who are claiming Sync is no better than others have actually used and thoroughly explored Sync, even for Reddit.
The customization options are incredible. Beautiful UI. Backup options. Filters. Settings that are fine tuned, and separate per account. It feels like years of work and polish, compared to weeks or months for others. Others work fine (fan of Liftoff), getting better, but I’m blown away with Dawson and Sync. The “ad outrage” is disappointing and silly to me at this stage (literally day one).
I prefer Infinity
(Sadly the Lemmy version is not ready yet)
Yeah, the free apps have really raised the bar. I think there’s a lot of passion out there for the fediverse and non-corporate social media.
I haven’t tried Voyager yet, but it sounds like I should give it a shot!
Lol, claiming that Jerboa is just as good if not better than sync is wild!
Isn’t that down to what one individually consider “good”?
I find notepad-style text editors better word processors than Microsoft’s online Office system. It’s not because notepads are technically better or more visually appealing. It’s because I value not being tracked more.
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Yup! That’s why nobody can like whichever client they prefer. Having different opinions is completely incomprehensible and utterly baffling. Why wouldn’t everyone love the same?
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Summit (#1 in my heart), also lemmotif is in early development but has promise.
Whoa summit is pretty nice. I’ve been using Connect but maybe not anymore.
Fucking love Infinity. Amazing what the devs are doing in a short amount of time
ROFLCOPTER
claiming these are just as good as sync just tells what you expect the apps to do
but what I’ve seen and (a lot of the other posters) is that sync is a whole lot smoother than all these apps and is the most feature-rich client
if getting tracked is your main problem in using sync, just use nextdns or pihole to block connections to google servers or pay up (currently only using google, I wish there was some other way)
I’ve read sync for reddit stopped connections to google after paying upWhat does liftoff have that the others don’t?
For one, it handles account switching much more smoothly than most apps I’ve tried.
While viewing a post, commenting, searching, or posting, you can choose your originating instance from a drop-down. Most other apps have to reload your feed and/or relaunch.
It’s been really helpful for me whenever an instance is bogged down or acting funny, and I can just hop over without losing my place.
Oh man I didn’t even see that in the menu. That is handy.
Liftoff is great, it’s true. Sadly, it lacks the only feature I’m after : hide read posts on scroll. Saw requests for this not being answered, so I guess it’s not coming.
Great app I admit, but a hard pass for me because of this.
I’d love this to be added too.
I want it to scroll to the comment in the post. I’m always manually trying to find the context of a comment by scrolling and looking.
Yes, this is really handy every time world gets attacked. I still have my world account set as my main, but it’s super easy to just switch over.
A better question is, what does Liftoff lack that others don’t?
I miss being able to hide posts, for example.
In Sync settings under View Type, you can enable the option to hide a post from the main feed view. In fact, there’s a lot of additional features that can be enabled and customized, the options menu is enormous and it really can be customized to your personal preferences.
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I used Sync for a long time on Reddit, but there didn’t seem to be any free clients (with no ads) there.
I like “no ads” a lot more than I like “a very slightly better UI”, and the free ones for Lemmy offer enough for what I need. I don’t know what a paid one could offer over that to convince me to buy it.
Infinity is coming? Is it similar to the reddit version? And where can I see updates for it?
Yep! Here’s the website where you can find it right now: https://codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/Infinity-For-Lemmy
You can download it from the Releases section manually or install and keep it updated with Obtainium
I tried adding it to Obtanium, but it says “could not find suitable release”
Hmm, that’s strange, I’m on version
0.13.22and my phone’s architecture isarm64v8a, what’s your setup?Enable the prereleases slider
This solved the issue, thanks!
thing is, with all you list (and sync) the key thing is there is CHOICE
Nobody is forcing anyone to use Sync. If you don’t like the model it uses, then use something else that better fits what you want. People in this thread are acting like its compulsory to use sync.
BUT. what sync will do is bring people over from reddit. Sync for Reddit was hugely popular and there are tens of thousands of people that used Sync for years that had not shown any interest in Lemmy. Sync will bring some of those to this community which can only be a benefit to everyone.
Don’t like it, don’t use it.
And for me, font is just too smal and hard to setup in Sync. And slow.
Jerboa wins again.
You can edit that in settings, but I appreciate that a new app has a learning curve.
Sync has just updated to allow a one off payment to remove ads. Dawson is also adding a one off payment for lifetime Ultra as well.
Aren’t they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn’t make you less of a commodity.
No. The data tracking is because of the Google services ads. An app developer get not compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.
An app developer gets no compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.
That’s seriously splitting hairs. The tracking is part and parcel with the ads, the compensation is for the tracking too.
Isnt tracking done by Google service app and not sync itself? I am not an app developer but it doesn’t seem logical for someone to add tracking elements that they have no control over.
It’s been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn’t even get loaded
But lemmy doesn’t have ads?
It’s a monetization strategy for the work he’s put into the app. I see why people don’t like it but I never intended to see a single ad in Sync anyway
Ahhh that’s a no from me. I’d pay if I like it, but injecting ads into the feed and I’m out. Just trying liftoff now. Seems solid.
Shouldn’t some of the ad revenue be going to the Lemmy servers? Seems kinda wack.
I’ve read elsewhere that this app is his full time job
How much is it to remove all ads?
$100
It’s $20 to remove ads but there are also ultra features you have to pay extra for
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Nice of “Dawson” to think to formally add that after people already signed up for subscriptions and others started calling him out on it. There was no reason Sync needed to release today if that option wasn’t prepared, and if it was seriously being considered, maybe he should of notified users in the app before they started spending money.
Bro, of course it has a data safety section, it offers a paid version so it will need to be able to collect your financial information. That doesn’t mean it’s stealing your data.
download camera app
App requirements: Access to files
OMFG THE CAMERA APP IS STEALING ALL OF MY DATA
The race to make a Lemmy app has made some solid contenders step up. There are a lot of legitimately good apps.
Definitely. It’s like we’re the prettiest girl at the dance!
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dev’s gotta eat
Sync VS FOSS thing isn’t over yet? Let everyone use what they like the most. Let everyone be the judge of their own data and how it is being used. For god’s sake, live and let live folks
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Christ, closed source is not the devil, and if you treat it like it is then it shows you don’t actually know how open or closed source works, or the pros and cons of both types of software.
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God forbid a developer wants to own the code they write and be able to pay their bills doing it.
A fork “can be used” to stab someone in the jugular but it doesn’t mean we need to get rid of all forks to ensure it never happens. People need to be smart with who they trust and who they give their money to. LJ isn’t putting a gun to your head and forcing you to buy his app, but I’m gladly paying for it because I feel like he’s an upstanding guy and frankly he’s just better at building a good UI than anyone else on Lemmy (and yes, I’ve tried at least 5 different apps. Second best was Connect.)
You like eating shit?
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It’s seriously a great app, so I don’t get the fuss about Sync either. I’ve been a Sync and Boost user before but I’m very content with the apps we already got for Lemmy so I won’t throw in another one to choose from.
I’ve been switching between Liftoff, Voyager and Thunder because they all seem to good to just lose them right now lol
Sync looks super clean and is probably a fantastic app, but I’m just a little put off by the data privacy. It’s like a month or so in the fediverse has spoiled me, and I can’t go back to being a product.
Yes, thanks for pointing that aspect out. I get the motivation to collect data to serve ads but I wish to stay with privacy respecting options too and I hope the contributors to those clients see enough donations to make their efforts worthwhile as well.
The data privacy stuff is all related to the plumbing required to serve ads.
If you pay for the ad-free version none of that stuff gets loaded.
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Because people have run analysis on the activity of the app already and the trackers don’t fire if you aren’t on the ad supported version.
All of the listed stuff is also required for serving ads through services like Google and pretty normal for ad-supported apps.
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His dad works at Sync for Lemmy
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To me, it’s that these apps are established and developed into a clean user experience, many with like a decade of fine tuning. These new apps are, to me, not as good for that reason alone.
Of course it’s all preference, but that’s my input on the subject.
I found boost a great app and I was one of the first people (if not the first, my post on his sub is the first instance of it) to tell Ruben to make a lemmy app. I like Ruben because every single time I’ve ever had an issue with Boost for reddit, he responded directly to me and either helped me solve a user error or he would literally patch the app and push an update that included my issue. He’s a great dev and I’m glad he’s decided to continue development else where, and I’m glad to support him in this. While I could easy patch ads out using lucky patcher, I will pay for premium of boost for lemmy as soon as it’s ready
I think it’s a little uncharitable to Sync to characterise it like this. Yes, it collects personal data to show ads. However, you have the choice to refuse or pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely. It’s the nonconsensual nature of data collection that robs users of their agency that makes it problematic.
Devs need to eat and donations are not always a realistic revenue scheme. With the one time fee, Sync has signalled it cares about its users and not just value extraction like Big Tech. I will probably pay that and be happy.
I like Liftoff, I also like Sync. I use both atm.
I totally get that, and the sync dev seems like a good guy who should charge whatever he feels is reasonable for his time. To an average end user like me though, it feels a bit like there are 5-6 booths offering bananas for free, but then someone set up a booth right next to them selling bananas for $20 a pop or requiring me to sit through a sales pitch.
I just wanted to show my appreciation for the guy at my favorite booth who is doing it for free when they really didn’t have to.
Okay, but in this scenario one guy offers it for free because he grows bananas as a hobby with a bunch of other guys who help him with upkeep, and he doesn’t need to sell the bananas to make a living, while the guy offering bananas for money grows bananas for a living and so selling them is how he can afford to make more and also put food on the table. You can have his bananas for free too, as long as you’re okay with the bananas having stickers with brand names on them. I can understand not wanting to pay for something when there are free versions available, and the prices can be a bit high for some people atm, assuming they don’t change in the coming days, but the guy selling bananas for money isn’t forcing you to buy his bananas instead of getting the free ones from other booths, he’s offering his bananas for people who are willing and able to pay for them to support him. Presumably you didn’t feel the need to thank liftoff before the stuff with sync happened, so it doesn’t come across like you’re just thankful to liftoff in general, more like you’re doing it because you’re unhappy with sync.
I think @[email protected] has already made a good point regarding your example.
I’m not judging you or anything, just that the appreciation could have been shown without comparing it to Sync. It can come off as a bit combative, when you didn’t mean it like that.
And look what you’ve done. You brought the crazies out. The extremists.
you have the choice to refuse
If you’re in the EU, of course.
pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely
If you already have spyware called Play Services on your phone.
I just used a VPN to the EU and refused. Yeah it sucks that governments don’t care, but nothing I can do about it right now.
As for Play Services, most people will never run a degoogled phone. So, that’s that.
All I’ve learned from today’s drama is some of you people really love apps. People getting enraged over which apps people are using…
Lemmy really seems to attract even more terminally online people
I mean a lot of the people on here seem a bit more on the technical side, so it’d make sense imo
You’d think that, but so many of these users complaining don’t understand how ad serving works. They’re acting like this is some outrageous conspiracy to gather user data by the green himself, or are being willfully ignorant about the proof that none of ad tracking SDK even loads when you use either the one time removal or the subscription.
I really thought that most of the early adopter crowd for a federated service like this would be at least mildly technical. But no, that’s a stupid assumption in hind sight.
I honestly didn’t know this and I’d consider myself pretty technical, just not very familiar with serving ads. This is really cool, how’d u learn this?
Right, and that’s totally fair. But one might expect a more tech savvy userbase to at least try and understand what’s going on or being said by other users. Instead, there’s just a lot of parroting going on, which is disappointing and also kinda needlessly harmful to the app’s / dev’s reputation among the users here.
If you used the DuckDuckGo browser, it can act as a fake “VPN” to intercept and block tracking requests from other apps on your phone. Multiple users have shown in the comments of a bunch of different threads that none of the tracking links are firing off when you load / use the app if you’ve already paid for either the one-time support or the subscription model.
I’m very impressed with liftoff and lemmy too actually. Honestly it feels like I’ve struck gold with installing liftoff. I’m not looking for anything else to browse lemmy with, liftoff is all I need. I’m really happy with it!
“I’m impressed with the rotary telephone. I’m not looking for anything else to make calls with, the rotary phone is all I need. I’m really happy with it!”
So liftoff being a rotary phone and lemmy a bell. Care to elaborate? What feels like “in no time” apps like liftoff have filled the RIF void for me with much success. I like to give credit where it’s due.
Yeah, one glance at the terms of use had me uninstalling the app. I don’t feel like “decentralized social media” and “sale of personal data” pair well together.
It’s like people are trying to misinterpret.
Liftoff is strictly using Lemmy’s free API and for the developer 5 users or 5M users doesn’t make a difference to his expenses.
The Sync developer is obviously trying to do something more ambitious.
It’s great that we have FOSS apps that do a decent job but we shouldn’t look down on developers who put a lot of time, effort, and money into something expecting to make a return on their investment.
I don’t like data collecting either but I accept that if you want to offer a free version - it’s inevitable. What I hate is when you’re not able to pay for ads to go away.
But I might be biased as I’m a developer myself and would hate to put 8-9 weeks of hard work into delivering a great app and then get hate for wanting to get something in return for that work.
I am honestly fine with giving these permissions for a free version of the app as I understand the developers need to monetize with ads for the free version. What I would like to see though that the paid version with subscription is another app that does not ask for these permissions. If I am paying for the app to remove ads and/or get additional paid features, the app seemingly still collects that data. As a user I have no way to tell what the developer is doing with that data. Is it only to retain sessions / enable features or is my data being given to third parties regardless if I pay or not
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And yet you expect to be able to use the software they produce for free
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It asks for consent to personalize ads / sell your data, you can say no. I did, and I just see a black square with “Sponsored Content” in the centre, no ad, probably a bug.
You can also pay for the version without ads; there’s Ultra, but Sync Pro one time purchase will be available soon.
I just wish more apps would allow blocking instances. I don’t want to hide all NSFW content, but hot damn there is a lot of different porn communities in @lemmynsfw and it is a pain to block each individually.
Sync has this feature. Liftoff does not and voyager(my old daily use) did not.
Sync also does feature markup settings that voyager does not like bold hidden text ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Liftoff just implemented blocking instances based on words contained in the instance name, it should be out on the next version: https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff/commit/8d7a447afd605d677c6a28d9a9ee22154e32bbe2
So you will soon be able to solve that issue.
Connect allows this, great app.
Connect has the option. There is also the option to block comments, but it seems to be a toggle for all blocked instances instead of a per-instance basis. Currently I’ve only blocked feddit.de because I don’t speak the language. Don’t know what I’ll end up doing if I want to block an instance and its comments though.
Thunder has this and so does liftoff (at least the latest versions I am using through obtainium).
Instance blocking would be really nice. There are also some bot instances that mirror content from reddit, and while I get the appeal, I’d rather not have it in my feed. I’ve just been blocking the bots individually.
Sync and connect both have block instance options.
BTW if you have blocked communities, that is account level and will travel with you when you install one of the other apps.
I’m pretty sure instance locking is app based and not tied to your account.
Yeah, I would continue using Liftoff and Voyager. Just because we have sync doesn’t mean we have to jump ship. I love getting involved with the community over at github.
Where do you download voyager?
https://lemmy.world/post/2613340
Just released in the play store
Thank you
I was buying into the Sync hype but after trying it I don’t see much difference with liftoff tbh
Most of the hype is from former users of the reddit version. I used sync for reddit for probably the past 7-8 years so it’s super exciting to have that same user experience on lemmy. It’s definitely a bit more refined and polished than other lemmy apps but it doesn’t inherently provide any major features that other apps don’t. I really enjoy it for lots of the small QOL features, personally.
I’ve used both. Liftoff isn’t bad by any means, it’s in my top 3, but claiming there isn’t much difference is kind of ridiculous. Maybe liftoff has everything you want, which is fine, but they’re absolutely different apps.
i too tried it but… didn’t really liked it that much. i like liftoff way more even if it still can’t sort comments of my profile by new… but i hope this gets sorted out someday in the future.
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I would happily pay for sync if there is a way besides the big G
Use a DNS adblocker and support his patreon then.
oh! didn’t know of the patreon page!
I’ll sub to him now thanks
Link please?
Willing to pay and not wanting to support certain monetization models are two different things.
That’s like someone calling someone who buys games but refuses to spend money on microtransactions cheap.
What monitization models? Sync offers multiple options, including subscription or a one time payment, and a one time payment for the ad free option specifically. What other monitization model would you prefer exactly?
When I first took a look it was only ads with a subscription model to remove it. Later got a $20 removal, but I don’t like that it uses stuff like admob for personalized ads over just generic ads.
As for what type of monetization I prefer would be only a paid app without any ad integration at all that needs to be disabled. Or Apollo method of one single app without ads that pushes users towards the paid tier by having the free experience be very limited with one account sign in restrictions, no submissions, filter limits, etc.
Anyways, I uninstalled and moved on to other apps. It wasn’t something that I found vital to use.
People pay. Sync is the greedy one. Fuck ads therefore fuck Sync.
What you think Sync pays to the Lemmy devs and the instances it connects to?
Why do Sync dev need to pay Lemmy and the instance?
The price is for the client, not for the Lemmy platform or instance hosting (which is free, being the point).
Why put ads (on something with no ads) and have users pay to remove ads. And then complain people won’t pay other people who put in the hard work.
That’s some first class disrespect. To both users as well as platform developers.
You enjoy that first class crap.
Edit: It’s official, the $ync army consists of insufferable, ball sucking douchebags.
You are talking as if Sync dev went and plastered ads all over Lemmy web app, Voyager, Infinity, Connect, Thunder etc.
Those are still ad-free, so people who love them can continue using them. Those who want to pay Sync can pay Sync. Lemmy platform remains unchanged. What’s the problem?
You enjoy that first class crap. Edit: It’s official, the $ync army consists of insufferable, ball sucking douchebags.
I do enjoy Sync and I hope to continue to. I ain’t mad but you seem to be, I just don’t understand why.
If people like something, they are always owed it, in it’s fullest form, totally free of charge! Devs can just use a food bank …/s
Some of these comments though…
The problem is that in multiple communities Sync has people spamming their ad infested crap. I can only block so many communities and suckers, including you.
Just wait it out, people are excited about Sync but they are not gonna post forever. Block me if you want, you do you.
You say that as though there aren’t far more posts on the front page of lemmy right now trashing sync than those praising it. Most of the discussion around it is people trashing it, not people praising it
Let people use what they like and get over the fact that not everyone wants to use the same software as you. The fact that you feel the need to block people because they enjoy a piece of software you don’t like says a lot more about you than it does about anything else
I really don’t get why so many people are so bent out of shape about an app they don’t even have to use,
Well, on my feed there aren’t. I do let people use what they want. I’m just pointing out that putting ads (or insane payments) over open source software is a dick move.
Stync is just some front end stuff. If you think it’ll help the platform than throw your cash at it. I think it’s a farce.
“What’s a good temper tantrum without a little homophobia?” - Zeeroover
I will say in Sync’s defense that they have given free access to many Lemmy moderators and the instance admins of Lemmy.world so they are contributing in some way
Nice, the Lemmy mods and Lemmy.world admins can buy a big fucking sandwich with that access.
All code should be free! No one should ever make a living writing code. It makes no damn sense. Writing code is the easiest thing on the planet. Asking money for it is pure greed.
I guess I should have added “/s”. I really didn’t think it was needed. 😅
Not what I said. You can write code, open or closed source, and make a living. Putting ads on an open source foundation is for cockroaches.
Putting ads on an open source foundation is for cockroaches
Literally the Web and Android’s (Googled) ecosystem… is ads on an open source foundation 🤷♂️ and people outside of techie circles couldn’t care less about that, they just want stuff that works.
Is it really worth kicking up a stink over a single app that affects you in absolutely no way? Different strokes for different folks. Unlike the web, you have the choice of multiple good FOSS apps to access Lemmy from, no adblocker extension needed
They really have an army out today. The $ync fanboys.
Believe it or not, I dont think these posts are part of a mass conspiracy to indocrinate the world into the Sync cult. Touch grass, bro.
