Pretty nice but unfortunately scroll performance is extremely choppy like many other Flutter apps. Also, like many other Flutter apps, it can’t use system font stack. Still, on iOS, this is probably a better option than many other open source clients. On Android, I like Glider[1] and Harmonic[2] a whole lot more.
Scrolling is extremely smooth on my iPhone 14 Pro.
The app, though, feels like an Android transplant. No tap to scroll to the top, odd widgets, and no rubberband scrolling. The tip bubbles are also very “Google”.
That said, while it’s not for me, it appears to be very solid for Android users (or people who are, to their benefit, less picky than I am).
Harmonic is great, been using it a long time now. Prior to that I used Materialistic... I'll give this other one a try but I've been totally happy with harmonic, so it'll take a lot to move me I think.
I like glider too but they did a redesign at some point which I didn't like (too many buttons taking up space on the screen) so I'm still using the ancient version :)
I used to use a client app like this. But after I switched phones, I never re-downloaded it and have found that using the browser works just as good for such a simple application.
I'd love actually an "app" that was just the bookmark manager for launching the browser.
Chrome, firefox, etc on android all either push me to use piles of shortcut icons w/folders (cluttered and exhausting to manage), or click through a hierarchical menu thats 20 clicks away.
You can always just "Saved to home screen" from Chrome on mobile, and then create a shortcut folder with your collection of "web" apps. I've been doing this for the past couple years for a few local restaurants that use Square for direct online ordering, in order to shortcut the link to their ordering site.
I've come to view this as a feature, personally. It means I'm a lot slower to respond to things, but it helps me to avoid getting drawn into heated conversations.
I am obviously not the target audience for this, because it seems to be the opposite of what I want: I'd much rather just have a text-only homepage than anything with thumbnails.
I'd really love an iOS app for Reddit that made the site look more like this one (or like the old `.compact` version did).
I bounce between Hack and Octal (I like both for different things)
This looks decent but it misses a feature that I won't give up from Octal which is Apollo-like swipe left->right anywhere to go back (and reverse to drill back into the story you were on, which Octal doesn't support).
There is an option that changes the behavior for the swipe at the root level. Agreed this would be really nice to also work within a story to go back by using left -> right. Leaving the options to reply with a long press.
Other than that I do appreciate the reader settings and this is one of the better ones. Most are just readers — this allows logging in.
Another thing, editing of comments is a bit odd. It said a comment was updated but wasn’t? Logged into the site and didn’t see the change.
> Apollo-like swipe left->right anywhere to go back (and reverse to drill back into the story you were on, which Octal doesn't support).
The feature is also present in HACK! It's called "Full screen swipe to go back" (you really need to search for it, the settings list is kind of messy). Also the reverse you mentioned is implemented.
I just find that Octal not as "tight" UI-wise. Hack feels a little too dense and I'm completely unable to hit the upvote/downvote/reply buttons reliably, I just have to long-press to bring up all the options.
I like Hack's notification replies and showing karma for comments you wrote. The UI just feels too tight to me and I can't quite explain it, it's just harder for me determine where one comment starts/stops/indention/etc. Maybe I could fiddle with the settings enough to get it to where I want but Octal had almost everything I wanted out of the box and I didn't need to fiddle with settings as much.
I like the compactness of the UI, really well done!
I was trying to build the app locally, but it's failing:
```
wojtek@Mac Hacki % flutter run
Launching lib/main.dart on iPhone 16 Pro in debug mode...
Running Xcode build...
Xcode build done. 51.3s
Failed to build iOS app
Error (Xcode): lib/blocs/stories/stories_bloc.dart:254:15: Error: Property 'isEmpty' cannot be accessed on 'List<int>?' because it is potentially null.
Could not build the application for the simulator.
Error launching application on iPhone 16 Pro.
```
This app feels so much more responsive than what I've been using. I think the login option should be a little easier to find (maybe visible when tapping the person in the corner instead of hiding in the Settings option).
I really love the display options for something as minimalist as Hacker News or as detailed as Reddit.
Really exceptionally done. Great work. Is this a free trial? (How) do you plan to monetize?
Do a lot of people use HN clients? It never occurred to me to look for one.
Looking at the feature list here, most of them I can already do (comment, vote, submit, etc.). Some of the other features I feel like would degrade my experience (polls, notifications).
If you are someone that uses a 3rd-party client to access HN, can you sell me on the killer features (of whichever client you use)?
Am I missing out?
I actually use Hacki, and in fact was a bit surprised to see this listed here hehe.
I use it on my phone for three particular reasons:
1) Good dark color-scheme (easier on my eyes when I'm inside)
2) Adjustable font (HN default is way too small for me on a small phone screen)
3) Easily collapsible threads (you just tap anywhere on the comment
Everything else is irrelevant to me, as I barely comment. I'm more interested in the reading, most of the time, and the app helps with that.
The default design is rather unergonomic (you're less likely to downvote by tapping on the wrong closely located button if you want to upvote since you can have the more frequent upvote action in a convenient side swipe gesture, but the less frequent downvote in a separate hamburger menu - things like this you won't get from reading a feature list) and ugly (fonts, padding, colors) , but if it doesn't even occur to you, then maybe you won't appreciate all the improvements, so maybe not missing out?
- Make the preview text length configurable, I'd like to read more of the original post before I dive into comments
- The search is rather annoying. I found the post on hn web then it took me a while to find it in the app to comment on it. Maybe implement a filter on the main page for precached stories?
- A bit of styling / spacing / coloring would be nice. For example the stories feel like they blend into each other. The app is monochrome by design but I think a bit of color could guide the eye on content heavy views
Readit News
[1]: https://github.com/Mosc/Glider
[2]: https://github.com/SimonHalvdansson/Harmonic-HN
The app, though, feels like an Android transplant. No tap to scroll to the top, odd widgets, and no rubberband scrolling. The tip bubbles are also very “Google”.
That said, while it’s not for me, it appears to be very solid for Android users (or people who are, to their benefit, less picky than I am).
unfortunately that's not true
https://github.com/hidroh/materialistic
Chrome, firefox, etc on android all either push me to use piles of shortcut icons w/folders (cluttered and exhausting to manage), or click through a hierarchical menu thats 20 clicks away.
I'd really love an iOS app for Reddit that made the site look more like this one (or like the old `.compact` version did).
The mostly-text HACK is my favorite iOS client for that reason, so if you use iOS you might enjoy it too. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-yc-hacker-news-reader...
This looks decent but it misses a feature that I won't give up from Octal which is Apollo-like swipe left->right anywhere to go back (and reverse to drill back into the story you were on, which Octal doesn't support).
Other than that I do appreciate the reader settings and this is one of the better ones. Most are just readers — this allows logging in.
Another thing, editing of comments is a bit odd. It said a comment was updated but wasn’t? Logged into the site and didn’t see the change.
The feature is also present in HACK! It's called "Full screen swipe to go back" (you really need to search for it, the settings list is kind of messy). Also the reverse you mentioned is implemented.
I like Hack's notification replies and showing karma for comments you wrote. The UI just feels too tight to me and I can't quite explain it, it's just harder for me determine where one comment starts/stops/indention/etc. Maybe I could fiddle with the settings enough to get it to where I want but Octal had almost everything I wanted out of the box and I didn't need to fiddle with settings as much.
I was trying to build the app locally, but it's failing:
``` wojtek@Mac Hacki % flutter run Launching lib/main.dart on iPhone 16 Pro in debug mode... Running Xcode build... Xcode build done. 51.3s Failed to build iOS app Error (Xcode): lib/blocs/stories/stories_bloc.dart:254:15: Error: Property 'isEmpty' cannot be accessed on 'List<int>?' because it is potentially null.
Could not build the application for the simulator. Error launching application on iPhone 16 Pro. ```
I really love the display options for something as minimalist as Hacker News or as detailed as Reddit.
Really exceptionally done. Great work. Is this a free trial? (How) do you plan to monetize?
Looking at the feature list here, most of them I can already do (comment, vote, submit, etc.). Some of the other features I feel like would degrade my experience (polls, notifications).
If you are someone that uses a 3rd-party client to access HN, can you sell me on the killer features (of whichever client you use)? Am I missing out?
- text larger than 12pt
- tap targets larger than 8px across
- collapsible threads without scrolling back to top level comment
Just basic fixes for HN’s broken mobile usability is enough for me to never directly use this site outside of a desktop anymore.
I use it on my phone for three particular reasons: 1) Good dark color-scheme (easier on my eyes when I'm inside) 2) Adjustable font (HN default is way too small for me on a small phone screen) 3) Easily collapsible threads (you just tap anywhere on the comment
Everything else is irrelevant to me, as I barely comment. I'm more interested in the reading, most of the time, and the app helps with that.
- Make the preview text length configurable, I'd like to read more of the original post before I dive into comments
- The search is rather annoying. I found the post on hn web then it took me a while to find it in the app to comment on it. Maybe implement a filter on the main page for precached stories?
- A bit of styling / spacing / coloring would be nice. For example the stories feel like they blend into each other. The app is monochrome by design but I think a bit of color could guide the eye on content heavy views