I’ve seen the app Apollo as the center of the reddit protest (it was mentioned and cited more than any other app in relevant posts). I’ve also seen many Lemmy clients in development taking inspiration from it.

As a lifetime Android user I’ve never been able to use it, and I’ve never gotten a proper answer to “why not just use the official app?” What made it different from the official application and other unofficial clients that consequently made it so popular among Redditors?

  • CleffyHeft@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Its got a sleek and easy to use UI, is jam packed with features like customisable gestures, no ads, a great media player and (I think) lots of accessibility features.

    It’s also wonderful that the dev loved his app and continually updated it

    • Art35ian@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      And the Dev was always listening to his users. He’d even personally reply to people on email.

      He was just a good dude. He was the anti-spez.

      • darreninthenet@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        He was even better than that - not many people realised he purposely allowed free posting from Apollo to Reddit groups related to depression, suicide, addiction etc.

        Normally you had to pay for Pro sub in Apollo to be able to post, but he didn’t want to create any barriers for people seeking help so allowed the free app to post to those subs.

      • SavouryVegan@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        we even had a bunch of chats on twitter about random things, animals rights, electric scooters and all that. Just a really good dude.

        • dkn@sh.itjust.worksOP
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          1 year ago

          Woah, I’ve never heard of a dev who makes an application so popular to still engage with the community. Sounds like a great guy

    • Fandangalo@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      This right here. Someone showed me wefwef the other day, and it feels like Apollo if you want the experience. Definitely my favorite mobile app for the fediverse.

      • SmokingMenthols@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’ve been losing my shit over Wefwef honestly, shit is really amazing, especially for a “side-loaded” app on a relatively small service, especially compared to the native reddit app. I’m excited for more features to come, and specifically that there’s just no ads on it, and shit scratches that itch that my iPad baby ass needs. More than anything, I just cannot get over how it allows you different experiences across these connected instances like kbin.social or sh.tjustworks, like an actual full link aggregator, compared to a single continuously self contained site feeding you it’s own content. The link to it is wefwef.app works for Apple and Android

        • jazzbox@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve been trying out Wefwef today and, while I agree it’s amazing, I’m hoping that it eventually develop its own character. I’m very slightly worried a Apollo-clone will discourage Christian from making his own Fediverse/Lemmy app… but primarily it just makes me miss Apollo more :(

          That said, I’m super excited for its future

          • NeilH@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Wefwef is my first experience with PWAs and I’m blown away at how well it works. It feels like a native app and super similar to Apollo in UI which is just astounding. I don’t see why this isn’t a more commonly used “platform”

            • WFH@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Seriously tho. Wefwef is incredible. Every instance should install it and give the choice to its users between the two frontends. PLus it would solve the rate limitation problems as both would be hosted on the same server.

              I use Mlem ATM and I like it but Wefwef is crazy good.

        • T156@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Does that work for this server?

          I had issues with it not loading posts and comments properly, and just put it down to it not being compatible with servers older than 0.18, which lemmy.world isn’t on yet.

          • SmokingMenthols@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, I’m posting from WefWef using lemmy.world for this. I’ve had some issues, but genuinely, nothing that the Reddit app wasn’t doing itself in not loading content for me.

            Fediverse stuff takes an extra second sometimes since it’s not all hosted on a single instance, so it will sometimes take a second try to access stuff. As chronically online, it’s worth the second chance.