Mine is originally using Baconreader while in the dorm community bathroom doing a deuce and seeing a mention of Sync. Installed and instantly became a user. Later on I had a problem with the app because I was running beta Android. Reached out to the dev and after a few fix attempts an update was posted that fixed the issue. To get that kind of support is rare and is why I have continued to stand by Sync all these years.
Mine is fairly similar. I had been using BaconReader for a while, but was having some persistent issues with it that weren’t being patched out (I don’t remember what the issues were. This must have been around ten years ago). I heard Sync mentioned as a good reddit client, so I tried it out and promptly dropped BaconReader.
I don’t know how long I used Sync with ads, but I know from the receipt that I bought the ad-free version in 2017.