this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2023
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FYI, a lemmy iOS app, Mlem, is in active development, and we hope to be at 1.0 by July 1. It's heavily inspired by Apollo, but, obviously, with changes for lemmy.
Stay tuned and subscribe to c/mlemapp for updates!
Edit: I want to note that, since one of the biggest sticking points with 3rd-party apps has been both accessibility for the blind and deaf and mod tools, they're both on our minds as we design the interface. Getting both right will, of course, take time, but we want everyone to know that we fully intend to make our app usable for everyone.
Been using it for a few days, and it's very nice. Not feature complete, obviously, but what's there is great.
Glad you like it-- there will probably be many changes as soon as it gets updated (we're still figuring out what works and what doesn't). But, and everyone should be aware of this: v1.0's goal is "be functional and stable". Features will get added as we go (hopefully quickly). Apps like Apollo, RIF, etc, are mature, having been developed over years of work and user feedback. And while we can stand on the shoulders of giants like Christian Selig with regard to our direction and goals, we're just getting started.
That said, we're here to serve the community as we are also part of it, so we are doing all we can to build a great app!
This is excellent to hear. If you're still on reddit, you should post this to r/blind, as they've been in limbo about whether their tools will be granted an "exception" to use the reddit API and they may be looking into alternatives for their community.
I'll consider it, but feel free to x-post this there or make your own post. We're not exactly in PR mode right now since these tools and features are still in their conceptual stages and we're still trying to figure out how best to implement them-- especially the accessibility features. We're looking to bring on an accessibility specialist to the team to consult with us, so if anyone would like to help on that front Please let us know by joining our Mlem app chat on Matix.
We'll also be making a wider recruitment post to expand our dev team in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that, too! We're currently a tiny team of passionate volunteers, and there's a LOT to do!
edit: Link to GitHub project iif anyone wants to get a feel for where we are now.
there is also Jerboa on Android for folks who are on Boost, which is also going to inevitably disappear lol
I remember seeing somebody mention a Reddit-like wrapper for the Lemmy API so that existing Reddit clients can be interoperable with Lemmy without changing any code. Does anyone have more information about this project? It would be great if we could use open-source clients like Infinity (what I use for Reddit on Android) with Lemmy without rewriting them.
While I appreciate the effort that can go into building a good app... Jerboa sucks. Going from something like RiF to Jerboa is like having some teeth pulled... and being aware of all the little gaps where your teeth used to be.
I hope this changes in the future, in the meantime, I'm planning to write my own, in the middle of everything else I'm doing.
Ye Jerboa could be better, but like with Mastodon I expect some improvements to arrive quickly and for new apps to appear as well in the near future. Such is open source development lol
Yeah I'm a Boost user and I'm using Jerboa. It's not such a shock going from Reddit to here thanks to Jerboa.
While I'm coping that Christian "ports" Apollo over to work with Lemmy, I love what you guys are doing with Mlem. I'm in the beta via TestFlight and what's there works quite well (even though you can clearly tell it's early days).
I'm very new to iOS development, but if I find the time and motivation I might put in the hours to contribute a feature or two.
He mentioned in his post he isn't interesting in doing that and is instead focusing on his 2nd app. Sad but understandable
Good luck on that, and thank you for your work (saying this as an Android user, but every platform deserves a nice Lemmy client!)
I have the Mlem app but I'm have problems logging in, during login it says I I'm logged into beehaw.org but then says can't connect to beehaw.org. Am I doing something wrong?
it may have to do with the popular lemmy instances being slammed right now. Until very recently, they weren't handling a lot of heavy traffic-- after Christian Selig's initial announcement about the Reddit API changes,, there was a massive spike in traffic from Reddexiters, and, now, again within the last hour since his latest post. Instance admins are expanding their capacity, but can only do so much, being independent volunteers running servers on their own.
Give it time. the servers are a bit bogged down right now.
I just tried it again and it's now working. Can't wait to test it out!
Good to hear. I'm kinda hoping the Apollo source will become public once it closes. Anything that gets us close to that kind of experience would be great.
I'm the UX designer on the app, so the idea is to get close in terms of usability and style while making the app "our own". So, the app will, ideally, feel a lot like Apollo, but without outright copying it.
We want to take the best of Apollo (minus some things we don't like about it), and make something that's inclusive of how lemmy works and operates.
Can we expect these improvements to come to Jerboa as well?
I'm not involved in that project, but it's an open community project. I'm sure you can go to them and voice your wishes.
Thanks for the already great work. It’s a bit barebones right now but easy to use. Excited to see what will be coming to the app!
What don't you like about Apollo? If you don't mind me asking.
well, as a UX designer, there are some decisions he made, years ago, that were based on an older philosophy of iOS interaction design that have since been updated. An overreliance on list display modalities, for example, pull-up menus, and other minor things in the interface which make complex workflows tedious and which can be optimized using more contemporary workflow ideologies. Stuff that, as a solo developer, he didn't have time to address but which, as a new team starting out, we can redesign from the ground up.
We're starting fresh, so we don't have to worry about changing some monolith this that already exists. We have a lot more freedom than Christian does/did. We want to set a foundation based on the best of what we've learned from the greats but with a path for growth for the future for ourselves and our users.
@TheRoarer @BrooklynMan test
@BrooklynMan @mint That's so cool! I'll keep an eye out for it
Testing right now! 👌
Do you need beta testers?
the beta is currently open in testflight, I believe. we'll be forming user testing groups in the near-future.
I'll enable testflight on my new phone and try it out. Hopefully I can provide some useful feedback.
i’m already using mlem, and it’s quite nice! yes, it needs some polishing still, however it’s a great alternative to what i’ve been using for 3 years (Apollo).
Loving the app so far! Exited to see how it develops over time
We need to use TestFlight? It said I needed a code.
really? i was under the impression it was an open beta. hmmm... I'll ask about that.
Maybe I was doing it wrong.
Maybe, maybe not. I'll update my comment when i have more info.
Apologies in the meantime if it turns out you did nothing wrong.
The first time I tried the link from my iPhone(which already had TestFlight installed), it didn’t seem to work. I went back and tried the link a second time, and it did. The link I followed was here:
https://testflight.apple.com/join/xQfmkJhc
I had no problem clicking on the link on my iPhone. Just make sure you already have TestFlight installed.
I just installed it by following the link on the website. The I could simply join the beta and install it via Testflight. No separate code needed. The link was already the invite.
Thanks I’ll try.
Just in case, that was the site with the link: https://join-lemmy.org/apps
Okay I just got it working. My problem was I was just opening up TestFlight manually and it asks for a code. Using the link with TestFlight already installed was key.
@Wenwald @BrooklynMan @mint test
@mint final test
Just want to say I found and installed your app mlem on ios. So far so good. One bug I noticed is on my first login, after I closed the app, it deleted my logged in account. Logged back in and now working well. Forgot to do a bug capture but it hasn't come up again. Amazing work, and really appreciate you helping people get access to Lemmy as a community.