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.
Here we are, with rabid FOSS fanboys complaining about tracking in an Android app. Probably posting these angry threads from their Samsungs, loaded down with baked in spyware and adware, and acting superior cause they fiddled around on DuckDuckGo long enough to figure out how to install F-Droid and think now they’re elite hackers in total control of their device and data.
If you’re running a stock ROM, you’ve already given all your data away to the manufacturer and Google, at the very least. So don’t come on Lemmy bitching about tracking, when half of you wouldn’t know what privacy was if I beat you to death with it.
You exquisite knobs. You absolute baffoons.
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.
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.
How much is it to remove all ads?
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It’s $20 to remove ads but there are also ultra features you have to pay extra for
20$
Aren’t they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn’t make you less of a commodity.
It’s been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn’t even get loaded
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.
An app developer gets no compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.
That’s seriously splitting hairs. The tracking is part and parcel with the ads, the compensation is for the tracking too.
What I was responding to was about what happens when the ads are removed by subscribing. If the ads are removed, there is no more tracking.
Isnt tracking done by Google service app and not sync itself? I am not an app developer but it doesn’t seem logical for someone to add tracking elements that they have no control over.
🤮 🤮
Luckily there are some decent free alternatives you can use once you’ve cleaned up that puke.
Nice of “Dawson” to think to formally add that after people already signed up for subscriptions and others started calling him out on it. There was no reason Sync needed to release today if that option wasn’t prepared, and if it was seriously being considered, maybe he should of notified users in the app before they started spending money.
It’s still in beta. Beta doesn’t mean feature-complete.
Given the popularity of the app, waiting for perfection wasn’t going to make sense. With sync, I have near parity on features with Jerboa, a smoother experience and what’s lacking will be added.
Also, why put the dev’s name in quotes? It just makes things look hateful. Full name is ljdawson… but that’s the dev’s name.
I’m not entitled to another’s labor for free. Some may choose to give it, but I’m not entitled to it. And if I like something, I expect there’s a cost. If it makes me happy enough, I pay.
But lemmy doesn’t have ads?
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
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.
I like liftoff a lot. There are a couple of features I’d like to see (such as an option to automatically hide child comments) however they’ve already added other features I’ve suggested.
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Shouldn’t some of the ad revenue be going to the Lemmy servers? Seems kinda wack.
I’ve read elsewhere that this app is his full time job, and this is obviously my opinion, but FWIW sync has by far the best UX of any app I’ve ever used and I’ve been using it for about a decade.
Weird, I remember him having a job and sync being a side thing. Something the moderators mentioned after LJ pushed that big update on sync for reddit and some users attacked him to the point he took a break.
I think that may have been before he went full time on the app, I could definitely be wrong though
No but the free version of Sync does because weirdly the dev would like to be paid for his work 🤷🏼♂️
I’m so happy to see Liftoff on the top of the “All” feed today! Especially with synch for lemmy becoming available. Kudos to OP for posting this.
You were the first available third party app and your still the best app. No need to switch to the others. Especially after learning about the other apps user data clause.
Your app works great and it looks great too. Keep it up!
Whoever comes out first with Moderator options will get my money. Hopefully it’s by donation to the developer instead of a app subscription.
Indeed. I’m using Jerboa because it supports messages, but all these foss projects are amazing, and Liftoff is honestly the best of them.
Liftoff is FOSS? It doesn’t say so in its description in the play store, and I don’t find it in FDroid.
https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff
I use Obtainium to update apps that aren’t on Fdroid.
Thanks! Odd that several of the open-source clients don’t mention being so in their play store descriptions.
Same here!
The race to make a Lemmy app has made some solid contenders step up. There are a lot of legitimately good apps.
which is why i dont understand why some are wasting money in subscription and ad removals…
dev’s gotta eat
They do
Because I want to support the developer? Sync has had a ton of work put into it over the last few years, it’s a non trivial task for a developer to commit that much time to a free app. I also hate patreon, so $17 a year is a steal. It’s also literally like a chipotle burrito every 12 months. I think I can fit that into the budget.
Definitely. It’s like we’re the prettiest girl at the dance!
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
To me, it’s that these apps are established and developed into a clean user experience, many with like a decade of fine tuning. These new apps are, to me, not as good for that reason alone.
Of course it’s all preference, but that’s my input on the subject.
I found boost a great app and I was one of the first people (if not the first, my post on his sub is the first instance of it) to tell Ruben to make a lemmy app. I like Ruben because every single time I’ve ever had an issue with Boost for reddit, he responded directly to me and either helped me solve a user error or he would literally patch the app and push an update that included my issue. He’s a great dev and I’m glad he’s decided to continue development else where, and I’m glad to support him in this. While I could easy patch ads out using lucky patcher, I will pay for premium of boost for lemmy as soon as it’s ready
Thanks for your input! To me the three I listed feel very similar to what I had with Boost/Sync, probably because they were inspired by them in their main aspects. Admittedly though for me it’s just some tweaks and I’m happily scrolling away whereas B/S offer a litany of settings to customize every aspect of your browsing and posting experience which is very attractive, especially for more heavy users.
Nice to hear about your positive interactions with the dev. That sounds awesome and certainly is a good argument for supporting him in particular but also other developers delivering quality software be it open source or not.
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.
Yes, thanks for pointing that aspect out. I get the motivation to collect data to serve ads but I wish to stay with privacy respecting options too and I hope the contributors to those clients see enough donations to make their efforts worthwhile as well.
The data privacy stuff is all related to the plumbing required to serve ads.
If you pay for the ad-free version none of that stuff gets loaded.
thats a shitty blackmail
And how exactly do you know it, is it open source?
“trust me bro”
His dad works at Sync for Lemmy
Because people have run analysis on the activity of the app already and the trackers don’t fire if you aren’t on the ad supported version.
All of the listed stuff is also required for serving ads through services like Google and pretty normal for ad-supported apps.
I was buying into the Sync hype but after trying it I don’t see much difference with liftoff tbh
Most of the hype is from former users of the reddit version. I used sync for reddit for probably the past 7-8 years so it’s super exciting to have that same user experience on lemmy. It’s definitely a bit more refined and polished than other lemmy apps but it doesn’t inherently provide any major features that other apps don’t. I really enjoy it for lots of the small QOL features, personally.
I’ve used both. Liftoff isn’t bad by any means, it’s in my top 3, but claiming there isn’t much difference is kind of ridiculous. Maybe liftoff has everything you want, which is fine, but they’re absolutely different apps.
i too tried it but… didn’t really liked it that much. i like liftoff way more even if it still can’t sort comments of my profile by new… but i hope this gets sorted out someday in the future.
Why is it PEGI 18 rated in Google Play??!
Because Peggy saw the nsfw instance.
Karen too.
There is a lot of porn on Lemmy.
And somebody might say the naughty fuck word
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)_/¯
Thunder has this and so does liftoff (at least the latest versions I am using through obtainium).
Connect allows this, great app.
Instance blocking would be really nice. There are also some bot instances that mirror content from reddit, and while I get the appeal, I’d rather not have it in my feed. I’ve just been blocking the bots individually.
Sync and connect both have block instance options.
BTW if you have blocked communities, that is account level and will travel with you when you install one of the other apps.
I’m pretty sure instance locking is app based and not tied to your account.
Hm… not sure whether it’s app or account based, I think Mastodon has it as account based… or does it? 🤔
Connect has the option. There is also the option to block comments, but it seems to be a toggle for all blocked instances instead of a per-instance basis. Currently I’ve only blocked feddit.de because I don’t speak the language. Don’t know what I’ll end up doing if I want to block an instance and its comments though.
Connect blocks the comments of blocked instances by default, at least it does for me. They still show up and you can click on them to show the content if you want. There is a setting to not block the comments of blocked instances. I too blocked feddit.de cause of ze german.
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/pull/372
So you will soon be able to solve that issue.
Thank you Liftoff 🙏🙏
You are my app of choice!
I think it’s a little uncharitable to Sync to characterise it like this. Yes, it collects personal data to show ads. However, you have the choice to refuse or pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely. It’s the nonconsensual nature of data collection that robs users of their agency that makes it problematic.
Devs need to eat and donations are not always a realistic revenue scheme. With the one time fee, Sync has signalled it cares about its users and not just value extraction like Big Tech. I will probably pay that and be happy.
I like Liftoff, I also like Sync. I use both atm.
you have the choice to refuse
If you’re in the EU, of course.
pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely
If you already have spyware called Play Services on your phone.
More like malware, revoke too much access from it and it insta-reboots your device
I just used a VPN to the EU and refused. Yeah it sucks that governments don’t care, but nothing I can do about it right now.
As for Play Services, most people will never run a degoogled phone. So, that’s that.
I totally get that, and the sync dev seems like a good guy who should charge whatever he feels is reasonable for his time. To an average end user like me though, it feels a bit like there are 5-6 booths offering bananas for free, but then someone set up a booth right next to them selling bananas for $20 a pop or requiring me to sit through a sales pitch.
I just wanted to show my appreciation for the guy at my favorite booth who is doing it for free when they really didn’t have to.
And look what you’ve done. You brought the crazies out. The extremists.
Man, that’s Ferrari. That’s how they operate. You can buy lots of cars, but you can’t just walk into a dealer and buy a Ferrari.
You can sit and be fucking mad at Ferrari, or just choose to say “that’s an expensive thing for a dumb privilege”, … and drive an Audi instead.
I think @[email protected] has already made a good point regarding your example.
I’m not judging you or anything, just that the appreciation could have been shown without comparing it to Sync. It can come off as a bit combative, when you didn’t mean it like that.
Okay, but in this scenario one guy offers it for free because he helps to grow bananas as a hobby with a bunch of other guys who also help, and he doesn’t need to sell the bananas to make a living, while the guy offering bananas for money grows bananas himself or just with his family for a living and so selling them is how he can afford to make more and also put food on the table. You can also have his bananas for free too, as long as you’re okay with the bananas having stickers with sponsored brand names on them. I can understand not wanting to pay for something when there are free versions available, and the prices can be a bit high for some people atm, assuming they don’t change in the coming days, but the guy selling bananas for money isn’t forcing you to buy his bananas instead of getting the free ones from other booths, he’s offering his bananas for people who are willing and able to pay for them or willing to tolerate ads on them to support him. Presumably you didn’t feel the need to thank liftoff before the stuff with sync happened, so it doesn’t come across like you’re just thankful to liftoff in general, more like you’re doing it because you’re unhappy with sync.
🍻👍⛏️ Rock and Stone, Brother!
