this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Liftoff!

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A mobile client for Lemmy running on iOS and Android

founded 2 years ago
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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.

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[–] [email protected] 75 points 2 years ago (27 children)

You have other free and amazing options that sync has no advantages over. They are all just as good, if not better.

  1. Liftoff
  2. Thunder
  3. Jerboa
  4. Connect
  5. Voyager (my favorite so far)
  6. Infinity for Lemmy. Early development, but still free and no ads

I don't get why I would go for sync, get tracked, watch ads or pay a monthly subscription!

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Hard disagree. I find Sync the best user experience so far, including the best looking UI hands down

[–] [email protected] 32 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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).

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Lol, claiming that Jerboa is just as good if not better than sync is wild!

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[–] [email protected] 74 points 2 years ago (9 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Aren't they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn't make you less of a commodity.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

No. The data tracking is because of the Google services ads. An app developer gets no compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 2 years ago

It's been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn't even get loaded

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But lemmy doesn't have ads?

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 years ago (4 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The race to make a Lemmy app has made some solid contenders step up. There are a lot of legitimately good apps.

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[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 67 points 2 years ago (26 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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, and any trackers are removed if you remove ads or turn off personalized ads. That doesn't mean it's stealing your data, those are regular app functions for apps that have iaps or show ads.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago (1 children)

download camera app

App requirements: Access to files

OMFG THE CAMERA APP IS STEALING ALL OF MY DATA

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 years ago (7 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 years ago (2 children)

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!

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

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)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 years ago

I'm really happy you love Liftoff and it's great that we have so many options.

See how easy that is?

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I was buying into the Sync hype but after trying it I don't see much difference with liftoff tbh

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 2 years ago (10 children)

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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[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 years ago

Liftoff is also very frequently updated. Any complaint I've had has been addressed 2-3 patches after posting about it. They work fast, and they do good work. Big +1 for liftoff.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Indeed. I'm using Jerboa because it supports messages, but all these foss projects are amazing, and Liftoff is honestly the best of them.

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