Sync for Lemmy is live on Google Play Store

Sync was my Reddit app of choice for over 5 years, and after 30 minutes on Sync for Lemmy, my brain is fully convinced I'm back on Reddit. Supposedly this is just a Public Beta, but the only bugs I've found so far are the fault of my Lemmy instance, not Sync.
Sync for Lemmy should honestly just be the world's default Lemmy app.
- OMG long-press to peek is so satisfying. And small things like image viewing. So easy with one hand double-tap slide, while connect had me pinching like a caveman.
  And comment drafts.
  Looking forward to the lifetime unlock.

It's like having Reddit back, this is amazing. 🙏
For as long as I can remember Reddit and Sync have been one and the same. I never used Reddit website or app, only ever used Sync to browse Reddit hosted content. I used it a lot. I've missed it a lot.
Between the Lemmy platform and Sync client, to all intents and purposes what Reddit was has been fully restored/migrated.
I know it's early days, but I did not expect to see anything like this so soon and it gives me hope that Lemmy can grow and thrive into the network of people that always made Reddit what it was. Everything that's needed is there - early, a little rough around the edges, but there. And being improved constantly.
Hallelujah!

That privacy policy though. Not the best
- That's what I'm saying! It might be technically excellent, but one of the reasons I went away from Reddit is also to escape the aggressive data collection
  
  Checked out connect because I have read about the private policy. Dunno who copies who, but connect almost looks the same and doesn't collect anything afaik.

HE SAID THAT THERE IS ALREADY A ONE-TIME PURCHASE SUPPORTED VERSION SUBMITTED TO PLAY STORE THAT WILL REMOVE THE ADS.
Patience. Some people, man. Geez.
- The price might be a problem though. The option to remove ads currently costs 22.99€.
  
  Better than the same every year
  
  Needs to be regionalised yet
  
  What, it costs 2€ for a month

I really wish the dev the best of luck. But personally, the idea of trying to make something lucrative and introduce ads (& the accompanying trackers) on top of something that people joined because they rejected that in the first place just doesn't sit right with me, especially given that we have awesome apps like Voyager and Memmy that are purely donation-driven.
- Those options are nowhere near the level of polish of Sync.
  Nobody HAS to use it. Ultimately if you want a choice of premium apps there has to be some incentive for a developer, or multiple in some cases, to basically go full time to develop it. Talented devs don't usually work for years on end for no pay, and I would be surprised if donations ever become significant enough to compare.
  
  Exactly. The level of polish Sync has is unmatched in the android space and well worth the money for me.
- I personally think that a sign of a healthy technology platform is one where some people can make money from it, while the platform itself remains open. To use Linux as an example, it's wonderful that it's open source, and it's great that Red Hat can be a profitable company based on Linux. It's a good sign and it helps the Linux ecosystem thrive due to RH's contributions.
  For Lemmy there are plenty of free apps - no-one is being forced to use Sync. I'm happy to pay for something that provides some more polish to my Lemmy experience, and doesn't require anything of anyone else.
  
  I paid for the sync app on Reddit back when it was like $2 or 5. I'm not paying $99 to remove ads. I know there are dev costs, but there aren't any API costs here right?
  I'll still use Sync here until I see what Boost brings over it's released.
- I haven't seen any ads yet . But I will definitely be willing to buy the pro version again like I did with Reddit .
  
  Haven't used the app yet as I'm not really sold yet but the Play Store and the app's own privacy policy mention them:

It's live for me. It appears that the paid version, "Sync Ultra", requires a $2/month subscription, or $17/year. Seeing as lemmy APIs are free, I am confused why this is so expensive? o_0
- I mean it takes the developer time and effort to make the app, and he doesn't benefit from any ad-revenue. It's just paying for some nice features to support the work and effort of an awesome dev.
  
  Why come so many other excellent free apps but this one ads and money tho
  Also why need data?
- To show some support!
  I mean, we're already browsing ad free on here and many developers are making their apps in their free time. I get that this are expensive times, but if no-one would subscribe to such apps. There would be much less developers.
  
  So how would you feel about Lemmy instance hosters adding ads, harvesting user data to sell to third partiess, making paid subscription models to remove said ads they added and then charging for API access?
- I'm confused how $17 is considered expensive. If that was a monthly price it would be expensive. $17 for a year? Cheapest subscription I've ever paid for, and I'm happy to do it as a subscription to continually support the developer.
  
  Well it is cheap for people living in developed countries but in developing countries where the exchange rate vs the dollar is high and the average income is lower, the cost of the subscription is substantial. Yes we should support the developer but unfortunately this subscription model is unfeasible for some people.
  
  While I hate subscription models, I actually paid the yearly subscription for this (fyi $27.99 in Australia.
  One of the main reasons I paid is because I used Sync for Reddit multiple times a day for years and wanted to support the developer. If the fedeverse fails to take off at scale I won't renew for additional years.
  $28 is a small price to pay on my behalf to thank the developer for all his previous work, but also support further development. It's high quality apps like this that help drive traffic to the excellent communities that are reestablishing themselves in the fedeverse.
- Idk what the plan is for Lemmy, but at least in the original Reddit version, ultra cost more because it also includes things like translation services that required third party server space
  There's a simple ad-free version pending approval I think that I assume will probably just cost the usual dollar or five
  
  It costs 22 euro to remove ads for me, I find that too steep.
  
  It's moderately expensive actually at more like $20 (depending on location) but I'm happy to pay it - it's a great app.
- It appears IAP are coming later and I assume they will just disable ads for 5€ or something. Just like the original app.
  
  The option to remove ads has been added - it costs $20 USD. The lifetime Ultra costs $100 USD.
- everything works great without ultra- not sure why you'd need that
  
  I completely agree with someone trying to make some money off of their app, but when it comes to Lemmy I can't agree with injecting ads just so people have to pay to remove them. If it were just about the added bonus features then it would be a lot more acceptable.
  Lemmy doesn't have ads and the instance hosters rely entirely on donations.
  I must say, this is pretty uncool of Sync for Lemmy developers.
  
  It is indeed beautifully designed. By far the best looking client I've seen yet.
- These prices are for Ultra. Ultra is voluntary and only for super fans to support the developer. There will be a pro version that is a one time payment and it removes all the ads and is very affordable. But the developer didn't want to start charging for the Pro version while bugs still exist and is waiting for the Beta to be over.
- Bruh, you can't spare two whole dollars for something you're going to be using every day? Like, I use Jerboa, which is free, but I still signed up for dessalines patreon to support their work.
  The future is either free to use, but put up with ads, or pay a meager amount to support the developers so ads arent required to sustain the product.
  
  Bruh, you can’t spare two whole dollars for something you’re going to be using every day?
  Or, we can just like ...buy it once...like most other software that isn't tied to a first-party hosted service?
  The future is either free to use, but put up with ads, or pay a meager amount to support the developers so ads arent required to sustain the product.
  I'd like to unsubscribe from your vision of the future

It has ads.... Why are people so excited about this? Jerboa is open source with no ads and works perfectly.
- It has ads unless you pay to remove the ads, which is a perfectly reasonable model for an app to use.
- True, but I found Jerboa to be very unpolished and barely worked so I crawled back to Reddit. Now that Sync for lemmy is released I feel right at home.
  
  Was that during the period of time they couldn't upgrade lemmy.world? Been stabe ever since the upgrade was done and the servers tuned. For me it is the most RiF like of all the apps, so I prefer using it.
  
  Connect seems like a nice one
- Personally, I love the UI/UX of it and how customizable it is. For me, it's unparalleled, and I'm happy to pay for it to support the independent developer behind it. But I get that not everyone cares about it and would rather use a different option, and it's cool that there are so many different options to interact with the fediverse.
- There's also Infinity for Lemmy now.
- I like swiping gestures, it has a really nice UI, and I don't mind unintrusive ads in otherwise free software.
- Personally, I like Thunder
- Be cause Sync is a beautiful app with incredible flexibility. Jerboa is fugly.
  If you don't like it, or are a foss purist, don't use it.
- I used the app for years and intended on removing ads as soon as it launched.
- They also cross post on every single instance and tech community so I have only seen 1 million “sync for Lenny” posts…… so far

Now we just need Reddit is Fun for Lemmy.
- Interesting name.
  
  Lemmy is Fun? 👍
- Boost is IMO the best Android Reddit app and they have a Lemmy version coming soon..
- yeah I used RiF for like 10 years, trying Sync for lemmy now, it's not bad, but not as simple and clean as RiF is.
  though maybe it's just that sync is different from what I am used to
  
  Sync is quite customizable. Play around in the settings and you can get it close to RiF. Source: switched from RiF to Sync a couple years back.
- Yea I've used RIF for 11 years. Sync is pretty good but I'm really missing RIFs comment jumping system. Jumping from comment to comment and parent/root was so good
  
  Sync supports comment jumping.

Finally logged in with Sync. 😆
I created my account a while ago but not having an App back then was more annoying/cumbersome to use the web front-end. Hence I quickly lost interest.
Learned about Sync today and just started to actually use Lemmy and subscribing to all the different communities.
Awesome to see so many vibrant communities now 🥳.
- Liftoff is pretty great too.
- We joined the same day. I've been a bit more committed though.

Nice. Got it installed and walking through settings. Seems nice so far. Not sure about ultra pricing though..
- I would definitely support the developer if it was a one time purchase. Paying monthly for an app to browse lemmy ain't it for me
  
  There's gonna be an option for that, one time payment to remove ads. Let's see how it goes.
- Living on a third world country, yeah, it's totally absurd pricing. I am not exited about the upcoming pro version pricing either.
  
  I spent some time experimenting with Sync today, but I found that I prefer using Connect for Lemmy. While I appreciate the cleaness of Sync, I don't enjoy seeing ads when there are alternative options available that are ad-free. As well as Connect handling hidden posts better. I may switch between the two services depending on my needs, but I'm more comfortable with Connect for now.

It appears that it is not opensource, unfortunately.
- What made you think it would be?
  
  I didn't think that it would -- I was hopeful that it might.
  
  gestures to the platform we are posting on

I'm a simple man. I see sync for Lemmy posted on 1000 communties and I uplemmy them all.

Hello World!

I already like it.
...just too bad I can't log into my Kbin account yet.

Anyone figured out how to enlarge comment body text?
- Settings shortcut: General > Base font size
  
  That's pretty cool that it generates a link straight to the setting
  
  Oh wow. I REALLY like that feature.
  
  Thanks!

I have to admit I'm totally soured.
Serving ads is not cool, and specifically poisoning the Lemmy instance with all the problems of tying near permanent content to an ad ID is negligent.
No you won't convince me he had to to make a living, or do you not use wikipedia.
- So you want them to make a professional grade app for free?
  
  There are other methods of monetization besides ads. Such as.. selling it.
- Are you really trying to compare an app that connects to a service with maybe 2M monthly users to fuckin Wikipedia, one of the best known sites on the internet that's used worldwide and still has to beg yearly for donations?
  Ads get you free services, welcome to the internet since it's inception. If you don't want ads, pay to not have ads. The god damn entitlement here, telling a guy that he should be working for tips.
  
  The entire body of issues from the ad supported model are legion and documented by people better than I.
  My point to wikipedia is it's a charitable model with substantial overhead. The time of the dev is the product here, there is no overhead beyond the play store scrape.
  He can work for what he wants, but he's shutting where I eat.
- Ads and data gathering are really damn annoying. I'd like to purchase this software, but instead it's just a monthly subscription. I'm posting this from sync, but I gotta say - if there's no update removing this stuff, I'm switching back to jerboa.

Does anybody know if it's possible to either
anonymously "log in" on an instance other than Lemmy.world, or
set up a feed for another instance?
- Under the anonymous account go to settings and search for "Home Instance" and then you can set a new default instance for Anonymous
  
  Swag. Thanks.

And it works great so far for me. Does anyone know if there's a way to fully collapse comments completely to the username/votes?
- Comment Options -> Collapse Parent 👍
- Settings shortcut: Comment options > Collapse parent

Screenshot at postimg.cc
It says it's not available. I have a Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra
- Phone is too old
  
  I have a Samsung Galaxy s23 Ultra
  It's 6 months old.
  The issue was that Google wanted a photo of my ID for age verification.

He'll yeah, brother

As you guys may know, I helped out a little over there, but I probably won't use it much personally since I happen to like the Lemmy browser experience.

Wow, this is very clean! I never used sync for Reddit so I didn't understand all the hype but I get it now. I'm very impressed

It feels like home, although not having a lifetime option for sync is a bummer
- Now available

Have it installed. So far so good. We'll see.

HALLELUJAH

Is it working fine for everyone? For me it crashes after I sign in and opening the app after being closed.
- Works fine for me, but it is still a beta version after all.
  https://github.com/laurencedawson/sync-for-lemmy/issues
  That's the official bug tracker, would help to report your issue there!
  
  New version fixed it!

I literally don't mind ads on my feed, I just want to support the developer as much as possible even tho I'm broke.

It will not let me sign in on the app, Anyone else experience that issue?
- Me too
- I had to change my password... Super weird. There must be some symbol causing issues
- My world account has been having issues in general today so I tried my CA account first when I downloaded sync and it worked fine. Have you tried an account on another instance?

Not for me. It's in sign up for auto install when available mode.