this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Liftoff!

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A mobile client for Lemmy running on iOS and Android

founded 1 year ago
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I was looking forward to trying Sync today now that it's live, but my enthusiasm was immediately dampened after seeing the "Data Safety" section on the Google Play store.

Liftoff has been great, and want to say thanks for making an awesome app. This will continue to be my daily driver.


Edit: for clarity, because the post got way bigger than I expected.

Sync looks like a fantastic app, and the dev/s should charge whatever they feel is fair for their efforts, even if that's through the usual ads + ad tracking.

My intent was just to post here in /c/Liftoff to thank the Liftoff devs for managing to somehow offer an awesome app without any of that.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I dont get you people. Making those apps is maybe a hobby for some but a job for others. People asked for Synch for Lemmy and the dev WORKED on it and will continue WORKING on it.

Love to see how many of you guys will work for free. And you probably all work for places that NEVER collect any data.

Could I use a free app for Lemmy? Sure, but I want Synch, because I know what Synch has to offer is what I want. I don't need to settle for a "almost" solution. I can use Synch and I gladly paid for it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I think OP doesn't mind paying for an app, it's the "collect data" that was his issue. If the free version collects data to send you ads, and there is an option to buy and remove the data collection and ads, then that's probably fine with most people.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bro, of course it has a data safety section, it offers a paid version so it will need to be able to collect your financial information. That doesn't mean it's stealing your data.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

download camera app

App requirements: Access to files

OMFG THE CAMERA APP IS STEALING ALL OF MY DATA

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Sync has just updated to allow a one off payment to remove ads. Dawson is also adding a one off payment for lifetime Ultra as well.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aren't they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn't make you less of a commodity.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

No. The data tracking is because of the Google services ads. An app developer get not compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

It's been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn't even get loaded

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But lemmy doesn't have ads?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

It's a monetization strategy for the work he's put into the app. I see why people don't like it but I never intended to see a single ad in Sync anyway

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The race to make a Lemmy app has made some solid contenders step up. There are a lot of legitimately good apps.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Sync VS FOSS thing isn't over yet? Let everyone use what they like the most. Let everyone be the judge of their own data and how it is being used. For god's sake, live and let live folks

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All I've learned from today's drama is some of you people really love apps. People getting enraged over which apps people are using..

Lemmy really seems to attract even more terminally online people

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean a lot of the people on here seem a bit more on the technical side, so it'd make sense imo

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

You'd think that, but so many of these users complaining don't understand how ad serving works. They're acting like this is some outrageous conspiracy to gather user data by the green himself, or are being willfully ignorant about the proof that none of ad tracking SDK even loads when you use either the one time removal or the subscription.

I really thought that most of the early adopter crowd for a federated service like this would be at least mildly technical. But no, that's a stupid assumption in hind sight.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's seriously a great app, so I don't get the fuss about Sync either. I've been a Sync and Boost user before but I'm very content with the apps we already got for Lemmy so I won't throw in another one to choose from.

I've been switching between Liftoff, Voyager and Thunder because they all seem to good to just lose them right now lol

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Sync looks super clean and is probably a fantastic app, but I'm just a little put off by the data privacy. It's like a month or so in the fediverse has spoiled me, and I can't go back to being a product.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I think it's a little uncharitable to Sync to characterise it like this. Yes, it collects personal data to show ads. However, you have the choice to refuse or pay a one time fee to get rid of it entirely. It's the nonconsensual nature of data collection that robs users of their agency that makes it problematic.

Devs need to eat and donations are not always a realistic revenue scheme. With the one time fee, Sync has signalled it cares about its users and not just value extraction like Big Tech. I will probably pay that and be happy.

I like Liftoff, I also like Sync. I use both atm.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I totally get that, and the sync dev seems like a good guy who should charge whatever he feels is reasonable for his time. To an average end user like me though, it feels a bit like there are 5-6 booths offering bananas for free, but then someone set up a booth right next to them selling bananas for $20 a pop or requiring me to sit through a sales pitch.

I just wanted to show my appreciation for the guy at my favorite booth who is doing it for free when they really didn't have to.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm very impressed with liftoff and lemmy too actually. Honestly it feels like I've struck gold with installing liftoff. I'm not looking for anything else to browse lemmy with, liftoff is all I need. I'm really happy with it!

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, one glance at the terms of use had me uninstalling the app. I don't feel like "decentralized social media" and "sale of personal data" pair well together.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

It's like people are trying to misinterpret.

Liftoff is strictly using Lemmy's free API and for the developer 5 users or 5M users doesn't make a difference to his expenses.

The Sync developer is obviously trying to do something more ambitious.

It's great that we have FOSS apps that do a decent job but we shouldn't look down on developers who put a lot of time, effort, and money into something expecting to make a return on their investment.

I don't like data collecting either but I accept that if you want to offer a free version - it's inevitable. What I hate is when you're not able to pay for ads to go away.

But I might be biased as I'm a developer myself and would hate to put 8-9 weeks of hard work into delivering a great app and then get hate for wanting to get something in return for that work.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I just wish more apps would allow blocking instances. I don't want to hide all NSFW content, but hot damn there is a lot of different porn communities in @lemmynsfw and it is a pain to block each individually.

Sync has this feature. Liftoff does not and voyager(my old daily use) did not.

Sync also does feature markup settings that voyager does not like bold hidden text ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Liftoff just implemented blocking instances based on words contained in the instance name, it should be out on the next version: https://github.com/liftoff-app/liftoff/commit/8d7a447afd605d677c6a28d9a9ee22154e32bbe2

So you will soon be able to solve that issue.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Connect allows this, great app.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yeah, I would continue using Liftoff and Voyager. Just because we have sync doesn't mean we have to jump ship. I love getting involved with the community over at github.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I was buying into the Sync hype but after trying it I don't see much difference with liftoff tbh

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Thunder's UI is so close. Sticking with FOSS.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Just tried Liftoff. Really enjoyed the interface. Grateful there are plenty of FOSS options out there for people who prefer using them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Liftoff is also very frequently updated. Any complaint I've had has been addressed 2-3 patches after posting about it. They work fast, and they do good work. Big +1 for liftoff.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a bit weird. I installed Sync yesterday but I don't get any ads. I don't have a system wide ad blocker or anything. Note that I don't have GApps.

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