Hi all, keeping this post short, I am working on a new Lemmy app for iOS and Android, heavily inspired on the Infinity for Reddit app.
The app is very much still a work in progress, but I’s like to share some screenshots and a few MVP functionalities already implemented:
Already implemented:
- Anonymous browsing;
- Login;
- Multiple accounts support;
- Account switcher;
- Post cards
- Sorting posts by Lemmy’s sorting options (Active/Hot/New/etc…);
- Listing posts by Lemmy’s listing options (Subscribed/Local/All);
- Upvote, downvote (and counters), comment counter, save;
- Mark post as read;
- Infinite post scrolling (keep on scrolling, app loads more posts in the background);
What’s next before I make it available in the app stores (MVP):
- Post view (see post’s comments);
- Add a comment to a post;
- Create a post;
- A sexier selected account card on the sidebar;
What’s still to do before I can call it a beta version:
- Profile view;
- Community view (rules mods other details);
- Search;
- Dark mode;
What’s to come after:
- Custom theming/Material You support;
- Advanced post filters;
- Community groups (Add communities to a group, see posts only from selected group);
- A video player with controls over speed playback and maybe quality if possible;
- Alternative posts view (compact card, list, etc)
- Other cool misc options.
Dreams:
- Kbin and Mastodon accounts support.
Keep an eye for future posts, I may be able to announce the MVP by the end of this week if everything goes well, but I can’t promise anything :)
EDIT:
This post got so much traction than I had predicted. Thank you so much for all your comments and ideas! I tried to reply to as many as I could.
I also collected from this post a bunch of good suggestions from you which for now I am keping track of here: https://brunofinger.notion.site/brunofinger/Beyond-45cabaae7f724cd5ad2b77d902e9a97e
The app name probably will be “Beyond” as suggested by a couple of users here, and really like this idea as it creates a sort of symbolic link to Infinity as the inspiration for my work by the famous “To Infinity and Beyond” phrase :)
Happy to see some new apps on the horizon! Android user here and happy to beta test when the time arrives.
No name suggestions… and that’s probably for the best ;)
If it’s inspired by Infinity, you should call it Beyond
I m glad you mentioned it! after I posted this on Tuesday night, I came up with the same idea! To Infinity, and Beyond!
this makes too much sense not to
I was 100% for Lemur, but Beyond is an excellent name. It’s slightly grandiose but vague. Like I always thought “Apollo” was a great name. It’s a cool word and it doesn’t really mean anything in the context.
Please, however you name this app, don’t call it “X for Lemmy”. Just call it Beyond. Or just Lemur, or whatever. I hate when all these devs triple the length of their app name by adding “for Reddit” or whatever at the end.
It could have a different name on the app store than the actuall app, ie. on Play Store Infinity is named “Infinity for Reddit”, but when instaled the app is named only “Infinity”, I was considering a similar aproach, what do you thinkl?
Seeing that Bruno wants to make it compatible with Kbin and Mastodon too, I agree that calling it Lemur is probably not the best choice. I think giving it a name that would be searchable on search engines would be quite useful so choosing a neologism might be your best bet for a name.
Underrated comment
Thank you for this.
Lemmy definitely needs more and better apps.
But just a curiosity question if you don’t mind. You said that your app is heavily inspired by Infinity which is already open source, so why not just fork that and modify it to work with Lemmy?
I think swapping from one API to another is not just a drop in replacement; it might be easier to start fresh from the ground up.
Disclaimer: I am not a developer so I honestly don’t actually know
Am a developer, and there’s a few patterns to make this sort of thing easier, but Lemmy/kbin is pretty different than the reddit APIs as I understand it with the federation aspects, so swapping wouldn’t be THAT easy. Doable, but not a drop in replacement.
It’s the age old “writing code is easier than reading code”
Oh absolutely this. Far far easier. It’s a sign of a good dev who can come in and improve things without needing to rewrite everything. That said, refactors are fun as hell.
That’s honestly a good point but:
- Infinity is written in Java code specifically targeted to Android only, I am targeting both iOS and Android with the same code using React Native (maybe even web in the future but it’s a little more complicated due to CORS);
- I have worked with React for at least the past 4 years, so using React Native now for me feels like almost no learning curve at all, while if I’d be given a Java-based Android codebase now, I’d probably need to spend the first week figuring out the basics :)
Feel free to suggest names here :)
I like Lemur! Maybe Lemiverse?
Lemur is already the name of a Lemmy app that died :/
It was Lemmur, but close enough to not get my vote.
Lemmur may well have died, but its being resurrected…
I’ll suggest they keep the ‘Lemur’ name.
I like Lemiverse. It’s a lot more searchable than Lemur and reminds me of the space theme of Infinity with the lil guy in the flying saucer.
Yeah lemur is a good name. Nice icon with a wee lemur on it maybe ?
If you wanted to stick to Infinity’s space-ish theme, I think Lagrange would fit pretty well (though there is a Gemini browser of the same name)
Or a synonym of Infinity like Boundless or Eternity
Eternity has a nice ring to it 🙏
That sounds good. In my head I was thinking Abyss.
I don’t have much of an imagination so I asked Bing AI:
- LemmyGo: A simple and fast way to access Lemmy on your mobile device.
- Lemur: A cute and catchy name that plays on the similarity between Lemmy and lemur, a type of primate.
- Lemo: A sleek and modern name that sounds like a combination of Lemmy and emoji.
- Lemix: A name that suggests mixing and sharing content on Lemmy.
- Lemyx: A name that uses an unconventional spelling to stand out from the crowd.
Horizon?
I like going the lemming related route…
- Lemmini
- Lagurus
- Muskrat
Or in a different direction: Lemmyn. With a yellow citrus 🍋 logo.
If it’s OK with u/iamthatis, I’d suggest … Mercury (the Roman name for Apollo).
How about LeMobile
How about drawing name inspiration from infinity as well and altering Ouroboros the eternal self-eating serpent.
You might call it Lemmoboros and the logo could be something like this:
I vote for LemmyParty
My love of Infinity is what pushed me off the Reddit train so I’d be pumped to have a Fedv equivalent!
Will it be open source like infinity?
I see no reason why not
Great to see more apps in the works. Do you plan on making the app open source?
Post cards was the first thing I turned off in RIF. I don’t want a photo gallery, want a concise list of threads and maybe a small thumbnail at best. Thread title, domain of post’s link, how many comments and upvotes and the pertinent things to click, in as efficient a format as possible.
Do that and you can get like 10 posts per screen would makes browsing and scrolling very efficient.
Now, if you want to make it god-mode then add tabs at the top for queuing up stuff to peruse in detail.
This is the way. Cards are the bane of UI design.
Good for you, I enjoyed Infinity and am very excited for this client to succeed. Go Bruno Finger go!
Infinity was my absolute favorite, I shall watch this app with great interest 😁 lemme (Lemmy?) know if you need any additional testers
Thanks!
@brunofin If it will only work with Lemmy, you could honor the original by naming it Lemfinity. If it will also work for kbin, maybe Threadfinity. Good luck.
I like those suggestions.
Came here to say this, beaten to it! Lemfinity works for me.
Does it have a name?
It’s probably gonna be Beyond :)
@brunofin Wow this is app #6 now that pops up, added yours to the list in my thread: https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/35655/Several-iOS-apps-for-kbin-lemmy-are-now-in-development
This app looks great! (Lemur is a great name, you should stick with it.)
Are the screenshots from the Android app? It definitely looks like it, but I was wondering if the iOS version would lean towards iOS UI design rather than Google guidelines.
correct the screenshots are from the Android app. I am using React Native to target both platforms with the same code, and for UI lib React Native Paper, which is a Material Design implementation. I am yet to see how it looks like on iOS but I like the idea of the app following the UI patters of the platforms it is running on.
Love, I use infinity and keep the style for lemmy will be a big upgrade. Also think about make the app FOSS and on FDroid.
honestly as of now I see no reason why not open sourcing it, I still didn’t upload the code anywhere yet but probably will chose gitlab
Love it, thank you very much for your work
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