Nice job! Will you be releasing an Android version?
Thanks! As of now I don't have any plans for Android. It's a native iOS app written in Swift, so that would require building a new app from the ground up.
Readit Newshnand commented on Show HN: HackerNewt – Breadth-first exploring HN client for iOS apps.apple.com/us/app/hac... · Posted by u/hnand
Highlight “new comments since last thread visit” without altering thread structure?
Thread structure won't be altered, new comments will be marked like here https://github.com/devandsev/HackerNews-Support/wiki/Guide#a... and you'll be able to iterate over them.
Direct link to the video https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/17564071/236939878...
Love this! I regularly hit the minus button on the top comment to see what the next top-level comment is. Your interface shows me the most popular top-level comments so I can choose from among them. That's great!
A couple thoughts:
• I can't tell what the hashtag button is for
• The numbers in the lower right corner of each stack seem like they refer to the number of sub-comments, but in my brief experience this doesn't seem to be the case. Is this a bug, of have I misunderstood what these numbers refer to?
• I'd prefer to be able to tap a comment stack and have it open up. I get that swiping isn't that hard, but I typically one-hand and would prefer if mere tapping did the same thing as swiping (and I can't think of what else a tap would mean, so it shouldn't cause a conflict to have this as an option, right?)
• There's no way to reach the settings from the discussion view. The presence of a ... icon makes this confusing, because that's where I'd expect to be able to change settings and such. I would suggest adding Settings to this menu, as an alternate way of reaching it.
I know some people are upset about the freemium model, but I think you threaded the needle just about right here. You don't actually disable the night mode functionality in free mode — you just make it not a permanent setting. It would be slightly better if you were more explicit about when the temporary setting will expire, but I really don't see how someone can complain about how you've done this. You let people access every single functionality so they can try it out. Unless you're making this a pure hobby (in which case there would be less upkeep, support, and ongoing development), you can't rely on a tip jar.
Thanks!
> I can't tell what the hashtag button is for
It's demonstrated in the guide [1]
I have to think about how to explain the feature in the app without overwhelming the user. Always open to suggestions!
> The numbers in the lower right corner of each stack seem like they refer to the number of sub-comments, but in my brief experience this doesn't seem to be the case. Is this a bug, of have I misunderstood what these numbers refer to?
It's the total number of comments in the subtree (including all the child subtrees and their subtrees and so on).
> I'd prefer to be able to tap a comment stack and have it open up. I get that swiping isn't that hard, but I typically one-hand and would prefer if mere tapping did the same thing as swiping (and I can't think of what else a tap would mean, so it shouldn't cause a conflict to have this as an option, right?)
I think it could be a frustrating experience when you mistap upvote or any other button, expanding/collapsing the stack instead. I will try it to see how it feels, it just might be one of those things that look good only on paper, and once implemented it'll be just an extra option that everybody ignores. There's also a good argument for that - accessibility [2], but there are alternatives for the tap gesture.
> I would suggest adding Settings to this menu, as an alternate way of reaching it.
I figured that on average users go to settings only a few times, mostly when they initially set up the app. Adding an entry point on the thread screen would increase the complexity, support and testing efforts, but further down the road when other things are ironed out it can be a good improvement.
[1] https://github.com/devandsev/HackerNews-Support/wiki/Guide#a...
[2] https://github.com/devandsev/HackerNews-Support/issues/1
Nice work :) Your on-page hierarchical navigation looks like something you could do with existing navigation view transitions, disclosure groups, or an outline view, though the sticky header solution is cool. What UI patterns did you consider and how did you settle on this one?
Thanks! I wanted to read comments in a breadth-first manner, and I knew from the start that using Apple navigation solutions wouldn't work for me, the visual change on the screen between two states would be too big and distracting.
I made a few prototypes, experimented with omni-directional scrolling (comments don't change their relative position to each other, but you kind of move the viewfinder and it sticks to the edges of subtrees), color coding in different patterns and nothing felt good. I gave up and a few months later when I was thinking about a different problem, I just had a light-bulb moment about this one, mind works in mysterious ways I guess. It was unnecessary complicated at first (like dragging the designated "borders" with the comment staying fixed in one place), but I simplified it in the process quite a bit.
It looks pretty straightforward now, but I think a lot of people would be surprised to see how many tricks are there for it to actually look and feel that way.
As a user, I've found utility in apps that offer all features and customizations for free, but reset your preferences every time you start the app. It's like a demo except it never stops working and you can see the maximum amount of value the app can provide you.
That's how my app handles customizations - they just get resetted once in a while, but you can use them without paying, Premium just makes them permanent. I wonder if it's not obvious from the UI and people think that you can't use them at all.
Feature suggestion: a countdown so you know how many more times you and someone can reply to each other before you hit the limit and have to start repeatedly editing your last comment to carry on the conversation.
Do you have more info on the max comment depth by any chance? I did a quick search and, unless the info is outdated, it looks like there's some kind of anti-flamewar mechanism in place, but no set max depth https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11429230