Hi there! So there’s been a ton of work by a bunch of developers that are really frustrated with Apollo going away end of month.
That’s why I created (yet another) Apollo-like Lemmy client called wefwef - https://wefwef.app.
Right now it’s targetting iOS - you can still use it on Android phones, but it’s untested. An Android theme is in the works!
So, why wefwef?
- Progressive web app — It’s easy to try, and works cross platform. Get the same experience on your phone, tablet and computer. If you like it, add to home screen for a like-native experience.
- Open source! Self hosting and hacking is totally doable
There’s a TON of work to be done, but the basics are there (browsing, commenting and voting). More to come soon! Let me know what you think.
Im actually shocked at how well this works! Never expected a Webapp to be this great! Do you plan to make a native app for iOS at some point? I mostly ask because a lot of my favorite features from Apollo (widgets was a big one, FaceID, lockscreen widgets) are afaik only possible through native right? I would love to see stuff like that in the long run here too!
Regardless, this is really an awesome PWA and I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
If there was an ios native app even half as good as this one i’d be sold, please make an app!!
I decided to use this for now instead of the other iOS apps. It feels less clunky than most app. I’m still waiting on Artemis to come out of alpha to commit to anything.
For real! I would definitely be all in on this.
Overall it looks great! Just a couple of notes: the colors for up/down votes being inverted from Apollo keeps throwing me off. Also, the save button doesn’t work. I don’t know if Lemmy really has an option for saving posts, and if not it might be better to not show the save bookmark icon. If I’m wrong and there is a way to find what I saved, please let me know where to find it!
Nope, saving is soon!
I’m actually amazed how amazing this PWA feels to use. I’ve always been critical on web apps and preferred native apps, but wefwef absolutely surprised me.
Thanks very much! 💙
If this becomes a native iOS app, it would be a game-changer!
It doesn’t need to be native.
If that’s the case, apps may as well not exist. But apps still get made, because the world doesn’t work that way.
What would make it game changer compared to what it is as PWA?. Both iOS and Android users can enjoy being PWA without app stores.
By “game-changer”, I meant in the sense of having the most functional lemmy client with the best UI in the App Store so soon after what happened to Apollo. PWAs are cool (good for small startups, less cost, faster update deployment, cross-platform thru web-browser engine), but they can’t or don’t leverage the strengths of the hardware/platform they run on to achieve that without a wrapper or native code. Spotify is a PWA, for example. I just logged into mobile Spotify and most of the core functionality is there, but the experience is better using the native app from the App Store. (I can’t even view my Library with mobile Spotify) Scrolling is buttery smooth, animations for transitions instead of sudden “pop-ins” and “pop-outs” or loading a page (like a web browser). Same with Twitter, or a majority of sites/services with an already established app. There’s a reason they all push you to use the native app instead of the web-browser version. It’s just better, and wefwef can only benefit from it. As a PWA, it’s a good solution until it’s mature enough to be native.
As someone who stopped using Reddit after Apollo quit working, wefwef is amazing so far! It really does look and feel like Apollo. It’s very helpful with the transition to Lemmy.
Would you be able to add themes in the future like Apollo had? I loved using majestic purple.
Thank you so much for making this!
Themes won’t be implemented any time soon, but absolutely something I’d like to add :)
This app looks lit, it almost feel illegal to have Apollo like experience on Android LMAO.
Definitely looking forward to a more native android theme although I’m sure it’s not a priority rn
This is just one more truly amazing experience in the fediverse. I didn’t know an experience this great could happen so fast, and in a web app. Thank you!
Wow, thank you! 😊
Lots of credit goes to Ionic (https://ionicframework.com)!
Two quick feature requests.
- Cannot see how to make a top level post on a community. I am commenting from wefwef here, so that is clear.
- Can you enable a “pull down to refresh” in the web app? Maybe this doesn’t make sense, but for me in iOS, it is just second nature and feels weird when it doesn’t stretch and bounce.
Oops, I think you found a bug where pull to refresh isn’t working on feeds. I’ll fix that.
EDIT: Pull to refresh on feeds should be working now. Might have to open and force close the app a couple times to force it to update.
And new creating a new post in a community is also coming soon! 😊
@aeharding Is there a reason why the colours for up- and downvotes are inverted? It keeps throwing me off, especially because everything else looks exactly like it did on Apollo.
Also, would it be possible to add those tiny vibrations when you swipe do up-/downvote? I have swiped too far a number of times now and accidentally downvoted on first try because there is no haptic feedback.
Regardless, I love wefwef so far, thank you so much for your work!
Awesome app. Came from boost for reddit. This is so well done for a webapp. Made my move to lemmy a lot less of a hassle than I expected.
Oh yeah first post on Lemmy.
Screw reddits money grabbing owners.
Likewise. I actually like the ios theme, even though I use android
I didn’t know web apps could work this well. Fantastic work so far. Do we know how Christian feels about this?
my gf just asked wtf is wefwef, sounds like porn. explained what it is and now she using wefwef. really loving this early build and lemmy community makes this place even more welcoming.
My first post post Apollo shutdown and am really happy with wefwef! Feels very familiar, and I’m actually excited for a fresh start getting away from the dumpster fire Reddit has become. Happy to be here!
Hey, this is amazing work! I’m using it right now as a standalone app on the macOS Sonoma beta and it feels really good. The biggest problem I’ve had with Lemmy so far is that most instances use the default frontend, and I just don’t really like it that much. This is a lot better! Can’t wait to see what you do with it.
Wow! So far the best client I’ve tried for iOS, and also the best PWA I’ve ever used! Congrats :)
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