Hi there! So there’s been a ton of work by a bunch of developers that are really frustrated with Apollo going away end of month.
That’s why I created (yet another) Apollo-like Lemmy client called wefwef - https://wefwef.app.
Right now it’s targetting iOS - you can still use it on Android phones, but it’s untested. An Android theme is in the works!
So, why wefwef?
- Progressive web app — It’s easy to try, and works cross platform. Get the same experience on your phone, tablet and computer. If you like it, add to home screen for a like-native experience.
- Open source! Self hosting and hacking is totally doable
There’s a TON of work to be done, but the basics are there (browsing, commenting and voting). More to come soon! Let me know what you think.
@aeharding Is there a reason why the colours for up- and downvotes are inverted? It keeps throwing me off, especially because everything else looks exactly like it did on Apollo.
Also, would it be possible to add those tiny vibrations when you swipe do up-/downvote? I have swiped too far a number of times now and accidentally downvoted on first try because there is no haptic feedback.
Regardless, I love wefwef so far, thank you so much for your work!
If this becomes a native iOS app, it would be a game-changer!
It doesn’t need to be native.
If that’s the case, apps may as well not exist. But apps still get made, because the world doesn’t work that way.
What would make it game changer compared to what it is as PWA?. Both iOS and Android users can enjoy being PWA without app stores.
By “game-changer”, I meant in the sense of having the most functional lemmy client with the best UI in the App Store so soon after what happened to Apollo. PWAs are cool (good for small startups, less cost, faster update deployment, cross-platform thru web-browser engine), but they can’t or don’t leverage the strengths of the hardware/platform they run on to achieve that without a wrapper or native code. Spotify is a PWA, for example. I just logged into mobile Spotify and most of the core functionality is there, but the experience is better using the native app from the App Store. (I can’t even view my Library with mobile Spotify) Scrolling is buttery smooth, animations for transitions instead of sudden “pop-ins” and “pop-outs” or loading a page (like a web browser). Same with Twitter, or a majority of sites/services with an already established app. There’s a reason they all push you to use the native app instead of the web-browser version. It’s just better, and wefwef can only benefit from it. As a PWA, it’s a good solution until it’s mature enough to be native.
its still a beta. I’d imagine app is probably on the horizon after 1.0
Im actually shocked at how well this works! Never expected a Webapp to be this great! Do you plan to make a native app for iOS at some point? I mostly ask because a lot of my favorite features from Apollo (widgets was a big one, FaceID, lockscreen widgets) are afaik only possible through native right? I would love to see stuff like that in the long run here too!
Regardless, this is really an awesome PWA and I can’t wait to see what you do with it!
If there was an ios native app even half as good as this one i’d be sold, please make an app!!
Would it be possible to modify the sorting feature so that it isn’t universal? In Apollo, unless I’m misremembering, I’m fairly certain the sorting would default back to a set sorting function, usually Hot or whatever the equivalent was. It might’ve been a setting called default sorting method, again my memory is hazy and I can’t exactly go check. I digress. This was convenient bc oftentimes when someone sorts by Top, Active, or Controversial it is only for the given instance they’re currently viewing, and they intend on viewing a specific sorting method generally while otherwise browsing. It would be nice as at least an option, if possible to implement easily.
Yea, fix is coming!
Thanks you’re awesome!
if an app is released, please add a function in the android version to switch between android and ios theme
Hi is there a way to customize gestures?
Not yet!
my gf just asked wtf is wefwef, sounds like porn. explained what it is and now she using wefwef. really loving this early build and lemmy community makes this place even more welcoming.
Hey, out of curiosity, how do you host the official instance? Is it just running on a VPS or some other static site host?
I ask because I’m the dev of another alternate web UI (but for desktop) called Alexandrite, and I’m hoping to refactor and move Lemmy API calls from the server to the client in the near future to avoid scaling issues with rate limits and I’m just exploring my options for hosting if I were to not have a hard dependency on SSR.
Yeah, it’s a vps acting as a reverse proxy for now.
Apologies if this is the wrong thread to ask but is there an issue with the app at the moment? Thought it might be my account so I signed out but even as guest I’m getting this error as attached
Probably just instance issues.
Thanks for your response! Looks like using Lemmy.world directly or using Memmy (where I’m replying now) seems to work okay, I’ll just try wef again later
is there a way to set up “multireddit” feeds like you could with apollo?
Not currently afaik
I’m actually amazed how amazing this PWA feels to use. I’ve always been critical on web apps and preferred native apps, but wefwef absolutely surprised me.
Overall it looks great! Just a couple of notes: the colors for up/down votes being inverted from Apollo keeps throwing me off. Also, the save button doesn’t work. I don’t know if Lemmy really has an option for saving posts, and if not it might be better to not show the save bookmark icon. If I’m wrong and there is a way to find what I saved, please let me know where to find it!
This post should have 2120 updoots ☠️🎺
As someone who stopped using Reddit after Apollo quit working, wefwef is amazing so far! It really does look and feel like Apollo. It’s very helpful with the transition to Lemmy.
Would you be able to add themes in the future like Apollo had? I loved using majestic purple.
Thank you so much for making this!
Themes won’t be implemented any time soon, but absolutely something I’d like to add :)
I would love a version of “compact” that hides all thumbnails. It makes for an even more compact list of text rather than dedicating space for a square thumbnail, many of which are just empty because they are text posts and/or just outward going links, and I do enjoy the visual cleanliness that comes from not having a variety of different squares of colors against a black background lining the right side of the text.
Thanks for all the hard work on this!
