this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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You Should Know

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According to the tracking scanner Exodus (can be found on F-Droid), which keeps an updated database on trackers and runs your installed app against its register, you can track what apps are tracking you and clues of how. Saw that Boost is tracking me and uninstalled it and went straight to Jerboa. Jerboa is pretty similar to good ole' RedditIsFun-app and easy to use, so I am personally recommending it.

From F-Droid:

Exodus (Exodus show you trackers and permissions in apps installed on your device.) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy/

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[–] [email protected] 253 points 3 weeks ago (11 children)

As the other comments are saying, this is made very clear when you launch the app for the first time that it is ad supported, and you can donate a small amount to get all tracking and ads removed.

Love the app and I want the dev to continue development so I paid for the ad free. Devs are people and need money to live too, you know this post was just sensationalized for your own clicks.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 3 weeks ago (12 children)

Lemmings have a huge obsession with shit being both free and adfree, youtube is the most baffling one, they refuse to pay for it, then bitch about the ads, it seems they are entitled to having VoD delivered to them anytime anywhere in the world got completely free.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Counterpoint I think there's a lot of lemmings who put a lot of money into hosting the very server you just posted this comment on.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

I reported this post because it hurts the dev for no reason. Hope it gets removed but the damage is already done. People are stupid.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Don't abuse the report system.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 weeks ago

Same! Boost is awesome and it was a no brainer paying for the ad removal

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago

Ya... I just bought the app. It was like 6 bucks? Totally worth it since I use it all the time and I want to support the dev.

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[–] [email protected] 167 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Yeah there is a dialogue on first launch telling you it's ad supported software and that you can pay a small fee to remove all ads. Your post here is old news about an old strategy and throughout the comments here you claim it's secretive which is false.

It's a charitable reading to say you're uninformed. I would lean more toward you wanting people to be misinformed about Boost, because as others point out, its ad support is called out in multiple ways before you use it, but you don't care. Instead, you choose to call this completely common and standard way of supporting an app "predatory" and "secret", neither of which near truth. Op, is your account the alt of the Sync dev or something?

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (7 children)

Op, is your account the alt of the Sync dev or something?

I wish that was the case. @[email protected] - the Sync dev - has been MIA for over half a year now. Which sucks, because Sync currently has a breaking bug causing it to not show posts as read, making it mostly unusable. I had to cancel my subscription for it that I was happily paying for before to support his work.

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

OP, you suck. This has been (falsely) reported before, and every time it gets shut down as fear-mongering. I really doubt you learned of this, did any kind of source checking or just looked it up without seeing the MANY disproving replies that are always there.

I've seen this enough times, this exact post, to where I'm certain it's consciously done false sensationalist crap. There are several other posts like this about other apps and services that get posted every couple of weeks/months and just like here they always get told off for their idiocy. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a group or person doing much of it, it's the exact same every time.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

What's the explanation? AWS sounds like ad trackage.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

The tracking is still a thing, it's just transparent about selling your location and purchase history data to Amazon and the like... So that makes it OK I guess?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 97 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

You can do a one time purchase to remove the ads and tracking you know, monetising an app without ads is hard.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (5 children)

As a free alternative, it is unfortunately cluttered with ads and tracking features.

Moreover, it employs a predatory strategy by removing these inconveniences only if users opt to pay, despite the existence of equally effective free alternatives.

This approach can confuse (especially new) users, potentially leading them to choose a less favorable option due to lack of awareness.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

For sure, it's worth letting people know if they aren't aware. It's been a while since I installed boost, but I remember there being very clear messages about the ads and tracking, explaining it was to compensate the developer for the time he spent converting the reddit client to lemmy, and with the option of a one time fee to completely avoid trackers and ads.

While I love it when things are truly FOSS, I understand that I pay my barber and my plumber for their time, and I don't have a problem paying a one-off fee to buy software I want. What is exploitative are many subscription models, and all software that takes your money AND still monetises you (looking at you microsoft).

It's good to make people aware of genuinely free alternatives. But I used jerboa, voyager and a few other lemmy clients and I'm much happier with Boost and it was worth every cent.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 weeks ago

It's pretty obvious, nothing is secret here. This strategy has been 1000% standard for like 20 years now.

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[–] [email protected] 83 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

YSK also that the paid version does not have ads or trackers

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago

And, importantly, If your account is paid it never even loads the libraries or initializes the ad systems so there is zero data going to these trackers.

I don't use this app (I use Eternity), but there's nothing shady going on here. Developing an app isn't free and it isn't unfair for the developer to want to earn a living.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

What a cool service, thanks for sharing. You can also check the Exodus database via web if you can't or don't want to install the native Android app.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

That's great info! Thanks for replying

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago

It's also built into the Aurora Store (frontend for Google Play Store)

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (2 children)

I've seen this kind of post about boost several times now. It's just sad that people are just maliciously uninformed. It made me want to support the dev even more. Paying for the ad free version now.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

-complains about people being uniformed.

-Does nothing to inform them.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

Good work bringing this to the attention of others.

I agree that Jerboa is good. If anyone wants another option, then Connect For Lemmy is clean, simple, and updated frequently. I'm nothing to do with Connect, just someone that has tried loads of Lemmy apps on Android, and has settled on Connect.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

i mean, it's just ads. you're blowing this way out of proportion just because of some unintrusive ads.

devs gotta eat. if you prefer FOSS, that's great! i love FOSS software too! but boost is like home to me, even with the ads.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago

There is a reason so many Lemmy apps are abandoned, they were free and free of advertising. Devs need to eat. I prefer the paid app model to support the devs as opposed to ads. The dev of boost has always been open about how ads work.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Thanks. Just uninstalled it.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

good now delete every other app on your phone that contains Google ads

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 weeks ago (3 children)

But that's one less app and there are great alternatives, so why continue using one that tracks you?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 weeks ago (4 children)

I have bought the premium version because it was really cheap so no it doesn't track me

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 weeks ago

You will only pry Boost from my phone over my cold dead hands.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

YSK that, in general, you should only ever use Android apps from F-Droid unless you've got a very good justification for doing otherwise. That's especially true for generic/basic utility apps like calculators, calendars, and file managers, classic games like solitaire or tetris, and Lemmy clients.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I guess I'm just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all. Lemmy is free, signing up on an instance is free, people are posting/creating content for free, moderators are taking care of the space for free. No one's locking in to get "fed" through the entire chain. The arguments about abandoned apps doesn't really compute since plenty paid and advertising friendly apps go under/stop developing further as well (and the entire Lemmy eco-system is free so silly points of "capitalism better"). There's also the crux of "Apps just replace a webpage", they're really not reinventing the wheel here.

But, if people prefer paid apps, if the developers want to construct the apps in that manner, have at it. I do think spreading awareness of what apps are out there is important, and how they operate (this is YSK after all). I also wouldn't spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Voyager is the best Lemmy client on iOS or Android both, with Jerboa being a close second.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 weeks ago (9 children)

ive been on Voyager and i like it very much. is there a known better option, or my first choice was a solid? thanks

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Yeah that's why I use the duckduckgo app tracking protection

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Raccoon is also a great alternative for trackerless Lemmy browsing, I personally prefer it over Jerboa and Voyager.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago

On join-lemmy there is small warning for every closed source app

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Aside from what everyone else has said regarding the ads: Boost is an amazing app and I don't browse Lemmy without it!

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