So Jerboa broke on my phone just now and I didn’t want to stop browsing Lemmy. Unfortunately no suitable alternative was found so I just decided to check if I could open it in my browser and install it.

To my surprise, it worked. And it works really well quite frankly. Sure, the UI is different, but I’m not at all missing any features.

Did any of you guys try it as well? What’s your opinion?

If not, did you even know that was a possibility? It quite frankly never crossed my mind, because Reddit and other platforms always force you to use an app when you open them in a browser.

  • LanternEverywhere@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    PWA = progressive web app = a webpage-based app, as opposed to a native app for whatever OS you’re using.

    for those like me who didn’t know what it meant

  • invicticide@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    I’m also finding it really effective. I only hate that backing out from a post is a crapshoot on whether it preserves my scroll position, resets to the top, or reloads the entire feed.

  • jherazob@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    When you think about it it’s so weird that it feels like a novelty when a website works well as a website without needing dedicated software, but that’s enshittification for ya, has us so used to that artificial barrier that we accept it as normal when it isn’t

  • Noved@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Ive been exclusively browsing on mobile web, same as I did reddit. This layout is much more user friendly forsure.

    • Dee@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Same. Been using the mobile browser since day one and it has everything the desktop version has just in different spots. I don’t see the need for a dedicated app tbh, unless they muck up the mobile version which I don’t see happening… hopefully.

  • anlumo@feddit.de
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    1 year ago

    Installing it as a PWA on my iPhone causes the history buttons to disappear (since they’re part of the browser). This means that if I open a comments page, I can’t get back to the post list again. I can tap on the logo to get to the main page, but my scrolling position is lost, so I’d have to scroll down to find where I stopped scrolling last time.

    Yeah no, still have to use an app.

  • sikhness@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    The Web app is really good! The only issue I have with it since it got updated to 0.18 is that when you click a post link and press back to go to your community, it reloads the entire community and takes your scroll position all the way to the top. It’s really killed the experience on mobile for me and it didn’t do that prior to 0.18 I found.

    Anyone else having the same issue?

  • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Did any of you guys try it as well? What’s your opinion?

    In respect to Lemmy as a whole, I’m trying to exercise a lot patience.

    One of the first things I did was install it as a PWA. It has a sleek UI, but some bugs makes it incredibly hard for me to use. One of the worst is an issue with several of the combo boxes which repeatedly flashing on use. I have to try hitting the appropriate selection multiple times in hopes of it eventually taking.

    I use Jerboa most of the time inspite of the many bugs, but I usually end up having to open the PWA for missing functionality.

    Like I said…

    Lots… And lots

    And lots… of patience.

    • lunarnexus@infosec.pub
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      1 year ago

      Why do people keep saying “install” it as a PWA. Doesn’t that mean going to the web page in a mobile browser?

      • ⓝⓞ🅞🅝🅔@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        A progressive web app (pwa) is installed as an app on your phone. Developers can publish these web application online without users requiring an app store. They run on multiple platforms and devices from a single codebase, giving a platform-specific like experience. They are very light weight and even offer offline capabilities.

  • Aninjanameddaryll@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Yup, and via hermit as well.

    It has benefits over jerboa in that everything works right.

    But jerboa is a better overall experience because of the way it uses the screen in a balanced way. Coming from reddit 3rd party apps, browsers and PWAs are so clunky. Even old reddit suffers from that, though. New reddit at least is visually closer to app layouts.

    Which is tangential. But until jerboa catches up, it’s going to be glitchy, which is annoying in its own right, like some community links just crashing the app.

  • Littlejth@lemmy.littlejth.com
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    1 year ago

    Agreed! Only deal breaker I can see for me is that using a PWA with Safari in iOS instead of Memmy means that when I open a link and go back it starts from the top again. Obviously doesn’t occur when I can open a new tab in the browser but still definitely annoying.

    • o_o@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Agreed! This is annoying for me as well, but still I like it a lot. Better than Reddit, even.

    • Prof. Sweetlove@beehaw.orgOP
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      1 year ago

      Yeah it’s quite unfortunate with iOS. I’m on android but afaik iOS just doesn’t support all the PWA features.

      Which is super interesting in its own right, because when you look back at the first iPhone, Steve Jobs actually announced at first that it wouldn’t have a Software Development Kit for native apps and all applications will be web based. They obviously didn’t stay on that path, but I find it quite ironic.

  • CleoTheWizard@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Oh yeah I tried it. And it even worked better than jerboa in some ways until jerboa had some updates. It still has some features that jerboa doesn’t have, like opening links to other instances within your own instance (that’s a huge problem right now for me). So yeah the webpage version is still competitive with this app but probably not for too long.

  • aranym@lemmy.name
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    1 year ago

    0.18 will also massively improve the user experience for y’all (whenever Beehaw updates). They ripped out the old websockets architecture, which eliminates all of the weird glitches like upvotes disappearing or random posts popping up in your feed.

    • Beej Jorgensen@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      I’m looking forward to this. There’s a related bug that drives me crazy when it repeatedly executes an uncommanded scroll-to-top-of-page that should get fixed with the websockets purge.

  • wafer@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’ve never understood the appeal to make a standalone app when a solid PWA can be just as good.

    • u_tamtam@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      PWA, like most web stuff, has a low barrier to entry but is extremely hard to make look and feel right. Check out the other comment about controls flashing. Native apps do not just have better development tools, they save you from having to reinvent whole kinds of wheels.