First of all, thank you @[email protected] for pursuing Sync for Lemmy. It’s honestly given me so much hope for Fediverse adoption to actually happen. I do have one thought to share with you to help with success:
Come July 1st pretty much all Sync users are going to open the app due to muscle memory or due to a lack of awareness of what’s happening.
If they see “this app doesn’t work any more” or similar, they are simply going to delete the app and will likely go to the official Reddit app. The opportunity to engage them will be gone.
However, you can use it as a huge marketing opportunity if on that day it says something to the effect of:
- Sync for Reddit doesn’t work any more due to the API changes…
- However Sync for Lemmy is in development
- Here’s how you try Lemmy (and/or kbin) in the mean time…
- Keep Sync for Reddit on your phone to receive a notification when Sync for Lemmy is launched
Even if they don’t try Lemmy right away, if they get a notification from the old app saying the new one is ready they will possibly try it at that time (but you need to convince them to keep the old app on their phone)
But the clock is ticking - after July 1st the chance of engaging someone in this way is very low as they’ll likely uninstall the old app. IMO getting this teed up is of a higher priority than developing the minimal-viable-product for the new app.
You likely already have this in the works, but wanted to throw it out there incase you hadn’t planned on it already. Thanks again for doing this - I am so hopeful and excited for a viable alternative to Reddit and Sync could be such a huge piece in making it possible!
Originally posted to /r/syncforlemmy but figured I should put my money where my mouth is and post here as well. After all, this is the future!
What’s the harm if it’s made for iOS?
Having limited resources one has to choose the best way to apply them. Sync for Reddit has huge loyal userbase at Android camp, why would one abandon them? Any valid reason at all?
iPhone app might be a priority for apollo and what else do they have there, for the same reasons.
I am not saying abandon them.
I know this is a long shot since lj is a one man army, but if he ever found a team that he could work with, there’s no harm in having an iOS app as well as an android one.
Right but you’re saying deprioritize them. I’m an Apollo/iOS user, and while I would love to see sync come to iOS, that should definitely be after it’s completed for Android.
Edit: my bad, that’s not you saying that, and I missed the person saying it shouldn’t even come to iOS.
Sync is designed around Material Design used in Android. It will look and feel alien on iOS.
Resources it takes. I think Sync for Reddit was in testflight for iOS, but of course never got a chance to come out with this API change. There was also Slide for Android that later also took on the task of Slide for iOS then got dropped.
Trying to make apps for two platforms can be difficult. Especially with iOS having their own set of very specific UI requirements.
Yeah, fair enough. I have heard iOS is much difficult to develop for than Android.
Nothing really, at most it’ll look odd since Sync heavily leans into Material Design (sometimes better than Google’s own apps). I guess it’s probably just not worth the time considering how many iOS apps are already in development.
Sync is developed by one guy, so I don’t really thing that’s something he would be able to support.