First post. Majorly a lurker on reddit, and now that I’ve switched to Lemmy, most likely will continue to stay a lurker.
I know I can download and try all the apps to see what the difference is but I’m curious as to how many people just use their web browser or mobile browser?
Since I’m new, I have no interest to figure out what apps would work for me as all my time is used to figuring out Lemmy, and absorbing the contents.
Would it be a better experience to use any app to learn how to use and navigate Lemmy? The idea of using multiple apps at the same time to find what I like more seems overwhelming.
Edit: typo
Apps are generally more optimised for phones, and thus work a little bit better (with the exception of www.wefwef.app). But if you like the website, you don’t have to use apps.
wefwef might be a webapp but it’s very mobile optimized (: feels almost native and it’s just like Apollo
every app needs your username and password to log in? and it’s fully open source on github…
What does this mean? Wefwef is amazing, easy to install, and provides one of the best Lemmy mobile experiences right now, in my ever so humble opinion.
I meant that, wefwef is the only non-app that is well optimised for phone.
wefwef is a progressive web app. It’s something inbetween a native mobile app an a traditonal web app u would load in your browser(aka the user interface of your homepage). They have certain advantages but also disadvantages like performance and dependemcy on specific browsers etc. Basically everything you download from app stores like Google play are native mobile apps everything else runs in a browser or some container of it (roughly summarized)
I know. That’s one of the things I find so amazing about it. It’s so fast and snappy for me, even on a low end, $200 Android phone. Most PWAs I’ve used are pretty janky, even from big companies. I like that it stands out as the lone Lemmy PWA as well. It’s easily accessible (can be installed in Firefox and its derivatives, Chrome, Edge, Safari (most Chromium browsers? Not sure) and is platform independent. I even put it on my Windows PC. With Windows snapping, I can put it over to be half-screen, and it’s a perfect feed for me, with its own icon, that I can just leave open. I did give up trying to make it work in Desktop Firefox though, and used Edge because it was so easy. I would rather I was using FF, but I like Edge enough anyway. Then you get sidebar search as an added bonus to search things and not be taken away from Lemmy to do it.
It’s probably just that the majority of users here are here because their Reddit app stopped working yesterday! So they’re used to a certain app and are looking to fill that hole
The biggest annoyance for me is hitting the back button in my browser as it doesn’t remember how far down I scrolled on the page.
There are lots of other little convenience things but that’s what prompted me to download an app.
That’s what started me too. Then it snowballed as i tried every other app available to install. And now i cannot go back.
Sorry for the late reply. I was jumping from instance to instance.
Thi is now my app ranking
- Connect for Lemmy
- Jerboa
- Liftoff for Lemmy
- Firefox browser (mobile eeb display for lemmy is underrated)
- Wefwef (it has no block instance and user option, yet)
Apps have a few advantages not the least of which are Push notifications, individualised UIs, additional functionality like swipe to upvote etc. Webapps are ok, native Applications in General just have greater flexibility and access to more features of your Smartphone.
You’re not missing anything by not using apps, as other people said, many people came here because reddit apps stopped working and they’re looking for replacements.
I never used apps on reddit, old.reddit on desktop was by far the best experience for me, I don’t intend to use apps on lemmy either.
desktop browser is the best! if you wanna write a quality comment that links to sources and quotes people, there’s just nothing better. I couldn’t imagine writing anything useful on some app on a touch screen. and even when I zombiescroll on the toilet, the mobile browser did fine with old.reddit. and no extra software clogging up my devices, that’s a massive benefit for me.
