Sync for Lemmy (beta) is now live for everyone

My excitement is tempered by two things, the ultra cost being a subscription (I get the "why" I just hate more subscriptions) and also the pretty crappy targeted adverts "consent" whereby you have to scroll through page after page of third party vendors to turn off the "legitimate" interest which is, let's be honest their way around consent by just ignoring what you want. That's put me right off in all honesty sorry.

Oh my god it's beautiful. It's so beautiful.

It's like having Reddit back, this is amazing. 🙏

For as long as I can remember Reddit and Sync have been one and the same. I never used Reddit website or app, only ever used Sync to browse Reddit hosted content. I used it a lot. I've missed it a lot.

Between the Lemmy platform and Sync client, to all intents and purposes what Reddit was has been fully restored/migrated.

I know it's early days, but I did not expect to see anything like this so soon and it gives me hope that Lemmy can grow and thrive into the network of people that always made Reddit what it was. Everything that's needed is there - early, a little rough around the edges, but there. And being improved constantly.

Hallelujah!

Oh and please note that bugs should be reported in #sync-support-and-bugs in the discord: https://discord.gg/qYWxqva or the github.

LJ has been working very hard - this is beta 24 from no betas a week ago.

And again, it is a beta - some features like Ad-free IAP and submissions are not there, but they will be in there eventually.

Game. Changer.

I live my life as FOSS-y as possible.

This is the only subscription that I have. $2/mo or $16/yr is not even a blip on most people's radar.

The OG Sync was the most used app on my phone and tablet.

So download, enjoy, and pay the dev! He's phenomenal, approachable, and transparent. This isn't some Flappy Birds knockoff. This is a polished app that allows us to connect with one another more easily. And I'd like to see what features he comes up with next.

It takes a lot for me to trust an app/dev this much. Hopefully everybody else will too and we can help him do even more neat things.

Please consider offering a one-time purchase option for certain version milestones, maybe hosted on patreon or something if you need.

I don't mind paying to support development, I do mind subscriptions unfortunately.

First order of businesses.

IT FEELS SO GOOD TO BE HOME

My god, it's actually like it used to be. Thank you a million times [email protected] <3

What the hell, this is so impressive. I'm blown away! Did not expect this kind of experience this fast!

It's a nice app mostly but there's a few things stopping me from loving it currently

• No lifetime license, I refuse to use a subscription service
• list view mode doesn't have the option to have buttons enabled and always showing
• can't disable auto hide of comment actions
• No way to hide viewed posts
• can't highlight and copy text from a comment It just hides content instead (like why?) Only option is to copy all text from a comment but I don't want to copy all just a small selection...
• No option for top bar, only bottom and side

I feel so at home in this app!

Posting from sync, let's go!

I've only had a brief look, but is there a way to pay for pro (but not ultra) so I can remove ads?

Commenting from Sync! I feel back at home.

Firstly, I'm happy to see Sync return.
I made sure to subscribe to help make developing the app financially viable.

Secondly.. With the Sync beta just going live, I'm already running into my very first bugs.
What would be the appropriate place to report these bugs?

Edit: My question has already been answered by OP:

Oh and please note that bugs should be reported in #sync-support-and-bugs in the discord: https://discord.gg/qYWxqva

Hard to describe how good it feels to have Sync back! Was worried the tablet experience would be left behind but it's as smooth as ever. Thank you LJ! Instant subscription, absolutely no hesitation on that one.

Finally, I can ditch Jerboa.

Very nice! Now I can get addicted to Lemmy properly.

When I saw the restore purchases, I almost thought I could restore the lifetime ultra I got for the reddit app lmao. Hope there'll be a discount when lifetime gets added for old lifetime buyers :)

ALL HAIL SYNC FOR LEMMY

Why am I seeing ads on Lemmy???

Edit: Looks like it's the app itself. I'll gladly make a one time purchase to remove them if that's an option, but another subscription is a no go for me.

The pricing is a bit much, especially compared to other services like Tutanota that actually runs servers and provides a service in addition to developing the applications. $20-$30 for the onetime purchase option would be more sane.

I know I bought Sync Pro for Reddit, but I know that was nowhere close to these prices.

EDIT: Found the Remove Ads option, and that is more reasonable priced.

Maybe an unpopular opinion, but 22€ for the ads-free option sounds a bit expensive to me. I bought Sync Pro for reddit for 3€ in 2018.

contains adds

contains in-app purchases

collects data

shares data with 3d party orgs

Nothing against sync, but this is not what I'd expect from lemmy app tbh. There's a lot of free open source options that don't sell your data.

Asking to be paid for your job is OK, but injecting ads in ad-free opensource service, selling user data? This is just reddit-app-moment in my opinion

Lol first post under the Sync announcement

Is there any way to get ad free without a subscription? I was happy to buy a paid version of the app before, but an ongoing subscription isn't really what I want.

Edit: it is not advertised as much as Ultra, but there is a one off payment option to remove ads, in the sidebar. Which I purchased!

Wow I can't believe how much smoother Sync is than other Lemmy clients!

Feel just like sync for Reddit :D

Thank you!

On another note will there be the option to purchase sync like it was for sync for Reddit?

I can feel at home again with sync.

Just tried it, looks good!

• So many options, the customability is really nice
• There is a premium option to copy subscriptions between instances (not ready yet).
• Live comment refresh mode
• Default font size could be too small for most people. I switched to Medium right away on a 6 inch phone.
• Sports Mode in comments is a fun feature :)
• Search Comments is really useful, I have missed this in other clients
• It has faster and smoother scrolling of comments than other clients, very noticeable.
• Being able to collapse comments by clicking on the number of comments is very useful.

So many options everywhere, it's a step up from previous clients for sure.

Making this client in such a short time is ultra impressive. Will be worth the money if being on Lemmy a lot, and also just to support developers like this who dare to bet on Lemmy.

It's freaky to see how smoothly Sync lets me hop back into a familiar experience, now on Lemmy. It's so clean and intuitive, no unnecessary crap, I love it. One of the best apps I've ever used, from one of the best developers to grace this cursed earth.

I've never spent $100 on a program before, but I've got a lifetime ultra membership now. Excited to see this app for lemmy!

Everyone is free to do what they want, but with the bugs this has, and the ads it contains, and the high lifetime price, it's a hard pass for me

Biggest improvement for me is toggling Settings shortcut: View type > Right aligned voting

Gonna try to see if I can use backup/restore layout from my old sync 🤔

Would it be possible to utilize the cloud backup/restore feature for previous Ultra users to bring all their settings back? At least for any similar rules?

Just bought the remove ads version. It is very thrilling to be back to Sync! I'm so used to this look and interface after eleven years with Reddit Sync. Lemmy becomes immediately more familiar and friendly to my eyes. I enjoy Jerboa just fine but I guess I am just an old guy set in my ways and this is how my favorite mobile scrolling app should look and behave. Seems great for a beta and I look forward to further developments!

Testing a link

Brilliant - I love that we can see where a text link actually points. It's one of the things I've liked least about Lemmy apps so far, sometimes you're potentially clicking blind.

Oh, and we still have the choice between inline and expanded, fantastic! Settings shortcut: Link handling > Expanded comment links

This is fantastic, but I'm not going to sign up for a subscription. I would love to support development and get an ad free version like Pro let me. Will this be coming in the future?

As a first release this is so much more fully featured than anything I expected!! So impressive thanks @[email protected].

My lemmy experience is exponentially better now, great work! thank you!

Hi, I have one question - on removing ads, are the ads trackers removed? Or will the app just not show us ads but still allow the trackers in, letting the ad tracker owners keep tabs on our browsing and serve us ads in places other than Sync for Lemmy?

Didn't realize how much I missed the slide to upvote. This is great. I know the whole subscription thing but whatever, I don't want ads and it's a tiny yearly payment. I'm in for the year and let everything work itself out.

Feels great.

I feel like LJ should seriously reconsider switching the colours on the logo and up- and downvotes in accordance with Lemmy's layout

A world of difference. What a good day today!

I haven't seen any ads? Am I missing something?

If there was any chance for me to go back to reddit, it's definitely gone now. Awesome app so far!

This must be the most upvoted post on Lemmy

Some things never change 😂 (I know this is not sync's problem).

If you pay for Sync, IMO you should give to the instance which hosts your lemmy account as well as to the Lemmy dev(s) (yes Dessalines is a tankie, but you should separate the artist from the person)

I would love to pay for Sync, alas I don't have Google services on my phone. I know this day will never come, but a non Google pro version would be great (some pro versions I bought without Google play: Folder sync pro, Tasker, Fairemail, KWGT, Poweramp, xprivacy...)

The app is really great

Feels like home.

Was about to complain that I was hoping for remove ads version instead of premium sub shenanigans, and ljdawson had already pushed an update.

Take my money 🤑💰

This is sooooo nice! Really appreciate all the hard work.

So exciting! For some reason it says "Coming soon" on my Galaxy Fold tho

This is my first action on the app.

I'm already impressed after having logged in and scrolled 2x screens doomscoll style, how the repeating threads aren't coming up.

I'm sold.

Going to wait just a bit longer before signing up for premium, but that will probably happen before next week.

I love it. Can't wait to remove ads (because it seems IAP is not here yet?)

Alright, feels like home again!

Great news.

However, I've become partial to having separate accounts across various instances. Sync enforces having separate settings for each account. I can see this becoming pretty annoying. Does anyone else feel this way?

Epic

fuck yeah we back

I hope this encourages people to support the open source clients too. At least in directing them to improve their features and catch up!

Brilliant work!

I would love if there was a way to add multiple anonymous instances to quickly switch between! My main account is on lemmy.world but if there was a way to browse beehaw without an account I would appreciate it

Wow. Even restoring my backup I made with Sync for reddit worked perfectly and now it feels exactly the way I wanted it. I am very impressed how good this app feels.

I have to admit this is amazing. It's like I never left reddit. Can't believe how fast you put this together.

Is it on f-droid? I don't have google play store, I run a totally degoogled phone.

Why is everyone excited about sync...was it something before?

Don't know if the dev will see this, but can you add the ability to go directly to a subreddit (community@instance) or a user (user@instance)?

I've been playing around with the different options for Lemmy. This is by far and away the best. I was using Liftoff for a bit, this will be my main.

Can you make a pro version so I can buy it and send some money your way?

Well, that's nice to watch how people switch from reddit to the Lemmy. Foss internet is the best

Oh man the reddit mobile app is awful. Hopefully lemmy takes off because this app is just so good.

Fantastic! Great to see this live and I can't wait to check it out and learn more about Lemmy. One question, what is the "restore purchases" option for? Does it look for ownership of Sync for Reddit Pro?

Soooooooo freaking happy to finally have the tablet setup that I just couldn't seem to find in any of the other Lemmy apps (so far)!!! I can now have three columns and see so many posts with their smaller but still good sized previews! Was curious how much would be different in moving to Lemmy, and so far everything seems to be much closer to one-to-one than I even thought. Very good work! And back on the Ultra sub as well!

We that have supported Sync before should at least get pro version with no ads.

This feels like a near 1 to 1 copy of the Sync for Reddit app. And I mean that in a very positive way. Sync got me into Reddit, and I think it can definitely do the same for lemmy. I'm very excited to give this a try.

And we're back to our regular sync programming, thank you!

Absolutely unreal how a top tier app can be such a game changer. Fediverse will be bigger than Reddit ever was.

I can post GIFs again! Jerboa didn't allow me to on mobile, which is the only way I use(d) Lemmy/Reddit

sync was hands down the best reddit app. and now, even in early beta, it's already the best lemmy app. lj deserves what he's charging.

I've been using it the past 30 minutes or so and it's pretty good and very feature rich but I might stick with Liftoff for a while just because I got used to it. Some issues I had with Sync:

1. The default font size is tiny, I had to go looking in the options to increase it.

2. It seems like expanding replies of comments is a bit buggy. It seems deep replies are showing before the comments they're replying to.

3. The UI is pretty overwhelming at first. Feels like there are so many buttons and knobs that do a lot of things, a few of which are redundant. That's definitely just me not being used to it, but that's my first impression coming in from apps like Reddit is Fun which are fairly straightforward.

Only been using it for a couple of hours, but have to say this is a super impressive Beta. Might be my bias towards original Sync, but so far this is easily outdoing the other Lemmy clients I've tried (Jerboa, Connect, Liftoff).

This is nice, lifetime price is a little steep for me though, I'd buy it for half price

Is there a way to export my settings from the Reddit sync to this lemmy app?

Now I feel at home

Omg.... I can't even tell you how happy I am about this!! I missed sync. I knew I did, but I truly didn't realise how much I missed it!

This is amazing! Thank you for all the hard work!!

Any chance the Ulta purchases for sync for reddit are going to transfer?

A work of art in dark times.

Some of us don't have Google Play services on our phones, is there a way to remove adds without having to install Google services?

Will there be a sync pro app like before?

it feels so natural now... thank you so much ♥️

Cozy in here

I've been waiting for this!! Been using sync for reddit for what feels like a lifetime now. Bought the ad free lifetime version yesterday for Lemmy Sync. I've missed this app! But the honorable mention is LiftOff I'll be leaving it on my phone for a while too.

I miss this so much :)))

Day 1 Ultra Sub! Loved Sync for Reddit have been trudging along in kbin and Lemmy while this was being worked on. I am so excited... It feels so familiar! Thank you LJDawson!

Just migrated from reddit and writing from Sync. So happy that Sync is back!

Haven't used sync before, but I'm really digging the amount of flexibility in customizing how it looks. Thank you for your hard work in developing this so quickly!

The wait is finally over!

Thanks from saving me from Jerboa!

Ha, I'm guessing everyone and their dog is trying to download it right now! Just seeing "Pending"... :-)

Is the launcher icon supposed to have a black background? Is this to distinguish from Sync for Reddit, or is it to indicate that it's a beta? It looks out of place with other icons, so I hope this is temporary.

BUG: Auto fill Username and Password is putting the username in the instance and leaving the username box blank. Pixel 5a & Pixel 7 Pro.

Device information

Sync version: v23.08.01-20:30    
Sync flavor: googlePlay    

Ultra user: true    
View type: Small cards    
Push enabled: false    

Device: barbet    
Model: Google Pixel 5a    
Android: 13

They all try to be the king but the ace is back!

And I'm commenting from it. So nice to have Sync back.

[email protected]

Let me buy this one time please.

HYPE! so happy with sync THANKS LJ

Using sync for lemmy now. So far, so good.

Device information

Sync version: v23.08.02-22:21    
Sync flavor: googlePlay    

Ultra user: false    
View type: Smaller cards    
Push enabled: false    

Device: gts7xlwifi    
Model: samsung SM-T970    
Android: 13

Looks good so far. Wish there was a way to copy my old Reddit settings to this one. All that muscle memory I'll have to relearn 😆

Hell yeah!!!! App looks sick, this is my first interaction with a Sync product! Runs smooth and gives lots of settings that I appreciate.

Is there an option to separate the upvote and downvote scores? I've grown used to seeing that distinction on /kbin but it might not be a thing on Lemmy?

This is great. Never used Sync before. Will gladly pay for the app

Congrats on being first to market out of the other polished Reddit apps who are switching - I hadn't used Sync before (I used RIF, Joey and then most recently Boost) but now I'm committed to Lemmy and already loving this experience!

Thank you!!

Why does it collect User/Device ID, messages, payment history and other data? Is there a detailed privacy policy anywhere?

Now I can finally try Lemmy. Haven't been on Reddit for ages and Lemmy is all new to me.

Can anyone recommend a primer/beginner post for starting to use Lemmy?

Typing this from Sync for Lemmy. Love it already! Feels right at home.

I do not mind the subscription costs for the premium version. Yes, in a perfect world a lifetime purchase would be nice. But this isn't a perfect world. Lemmy isn't a casual game that can be considered "done" once it's developed. No, Lemmy and the Fediverse are new and unfamiliar and it is likely there will be significant chances to the ecosystem and this development effort for the developer.

10k downloads in 2 days, hot damn.

Alright post the Murray's

Installed Sync as soon as I could, but went back to Jerboa for now due to lack of a one-time purchase option. Not a fan of subscriptions, I need less of those in my life.

My lemmy usage is about to increase significantly. Thank you so much!

Works pretty damn good if you ask me. I feel like I'm using Reddit again 😊

Let's go! First post using sync! Hands down the best client when it came to reddit.

I've tried literally all of them. ALL OF THEM.

For the reddit clients, they came and went, but sync stayed on my phone and I always eventually came back to it. If that's not testament of a phenomenal app I don't know what is. The competition for the lemmy clients is honestly hotter than I expected but sync remains on top. None so far match the level of fluidity, customizability, and polish sync has.

My usage of lemmy went up by 5x today because of this. $99 feels pretty steep, but eh. Add it to the pile. Pretty sure it's over $300 at this point 7 years in. Lol.

To the years of mobile lemmy browsing ahead.

Now lemmy feels like home. Thanks!

It looks and feels amazing. Thank you for this!

Just a Incredible app It Feel like being back home again and Man Do I miss it. Plus it dodo all over reddit official app and it's just in beta :)

Nice! A post with 1000 replies!

This looks like a great app, but the premium subscription model seems really lame. I'm so tired of everyone indefinitely milking users with monthly fees. My last reddit app was a one-time fee, and I was happy to pay that.

I guess I'll be spending a lot more time on Lemmy now. It's like sync never went away ʘ‿ʘ

I didn't see kbin.social in the list of instances when logging in, and when typing manually, it returns an error. I'm still learning lemmy - is there a reason kbin login doesn't work?

Anyways it hardly matters, this acct is fine too and the app is amazing. Perfect timing with RIF now returning Error Forbidden while logged out (officially dead, rip).

Looking forward to using this more, thx y'all

I've never used Sync before. This is an amazing app you have here.

Ah perfect, I restored a backup from reddit sync and it's like nothing changed, I love it! Can't wait to buy the pro version

hell ya! just installed!

Looks nice and all, but what are those "Sponsored Content" blocks for? Is there going to be Ads soon?

Oh, it feels good to be back in this familiar interface.

Works like a charm !

As a Boost user I'm glad this came out first. I was getting tired of waiting for Boost to release a Lemmy app, this one feels much better.

I'm using Sync right now, it's working great. The level of polish is evident and much higher than the other currently available Lemmy apps.

FINALLY!!!

Im using it RN

This app is great, but the font is a little small

Ahhh. Feels good to be home. Thank you!!