Like a lot of us, I came over to lemmy after that whole Reddit API thing. I had started using Reddit shortly after AlienBlue came out, and with Apollo I was a cemented user. I enjoyed the discussions and the communities, but for me it’s all about the UX. Life is too short for crappy apps, and I hate using webUIs on my phone.
It was shortly after that that the first iOS clients for lemmy started shipping, and I think I might have tried them all. I still have six or seven installed on my phone. They all have their problems, and they’re all different. A couple of them are decent enough that they’ve become the only two that I use, but because both have their own (and different) warts, I’ve just been going back and forth.
So, thank you for what is obviously a lot of hard work, and thank you for making it available to people. You are a very talented developer and designer. This is now the only app I need.
Arctic
Thank you so much. I’ve been receiving a lot of helpful feedback and praise since the AppStore launch. It’s amazing to see Arctic go from a simple idea, to an official launch with so much positive feedback.
I have a similar background having been on Reddit for about 10 years, watching AlienBlue come and go, and then I had used Apollo since day one until the API changes came about. I obviously pulled a lot from Apollo into Arctic, which if in being honest, I feel a little guilty about. I’d like to keep the familiarity of Apollo, but update the UI enough to stand on its own.
This has been a very rewarding experience for me. I’ve been an iOS developer for over a decade now, and I’ve never actually published any projects on the AppStore until now. All my projects have been for personal use or Jailbreak/backend related. I made a bit of a name for myself in that scene, but something about going the official route just feels great.
Thanks again!
I obviously pulled a lot from Apollo into Arctic, which if in being honest, I feel a little guilty about.
Sorry to respond to such an old post, but I wouldn’t feel guilty about this. Christian said he absolutely did not want to convert Apollo to Lemmy, and that he was done with the project. I’m really glad that you’ve made an app that feels so familiar and comfortable for me coming from Apollo, I wouldn’t use Lemmy nearly as frequently without your app.
True. Let’s hope this app gets the recognition it deserves. We should help by rating it on the App Store.
Avelon is still better. Only app that can hide the ui while doomscrolling.
Avelon and Voyager have been my main two. There’s always going to be variability in user preferences, and if there was a feature request system for Arctic I’d certainly have some strong suggestions, but for an app that just dropped it’s remarkably mature.
Yes, users will always have differing preferences. I encourage everyone to try the available clients and find which one suits them the best.
I don’t have an official feedback system set up just yet. For now I’m just asking everyone to submit a post here, or ask me in a comment reply/message. I’ll setup a request form on GitHub over the weekend so we can keep requests organized. I try and respond as quick as I can, and I’m almost always happy to any requested features, big or small.
Putting gif/video scrubbing behind a subscription was not a good move for Avelon IMO. Also, I’ve seen complaints from paid users that Avelon hasn’t been getting updates and features as frequently as it should. Whereas Arctic is continuously being developed.
