this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Programming

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Hi all, keeping this post short, I am working on a new Lemmy app for iOS and Android, heavily inspired on the Infinity for Reddit app.

The app is very much still a work in progress, but I's like to share some screenshots and a few MVP functionalities already implemented:

Screenshots

Already implemented:

  • Anonymous browsing;
  • Login;
  • Multiple accounts support;
  • Account switcher;
  • Post cards
  • Sorting posts by Lemmy's sorting options (Active/Hot/New/etc..);
  • Listing posts by Lemmy's listing options (Subscribed/Local/All);
  • Upvote, downvote (and counters), comment counter, save;
  • Mark post as read;
  • Infinite post scrolling (keep on scrolling, app loads more posts in the background);

What's next before I make it available in the app stores (MVP):

  • Post view (see post's comments);
  • Add a comment to a post;
  • Create a post;
  • A sexier selected account card on the sidebar;

What's still to do before I can call it a beta version:

  • Profile view;
  • Community view (rules mods other details);
  • Search;
  • Dark mode;

What's to come after:

  • Custom theming/Material You support;
  • Advanced post filters;
  • Community groups (Add communities to a group, see posts only from selected group);
  • A video player with controls over speed playback and maybe quality if possible;
  • Alternative posts view (compact card, list, etc)
  • Other cool misc options.

Dreams:

  • Kbin and Mastodon accounts support.

Keep an eye for future posts, I may be able to announce the MVP by the end of this week if everything goes well, but I can't promise anything :)

EDIT:

This post got so much traction than I had predicted. Thank you so much for all your comments and ideas! I tried to reply to as many as I could.

I also collected from this post a bunch of good suggestions from you which for now I am keping track of here: https://brunofinger.notion.site/brunofinger/Beyond-45cabaae7f724cd5ad2b77d902e9a97e

The app name probably will be "Beyond" as suggested by a couple of users here, and really like this idea as it creates a sort of symbolic link to Infinity as the inspiration for my work by the famous "To Infinity and Beyond" phrase :)

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Happy to see some new apps on the horizon! Android user here and happy to beta test when the time arrives.

No name suggestions... and that's probably for the best ;)

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Thank you for this.

Lemmy definitely needs more and better apps.

But just a curiosity question if you don't mind. You said that your app is heavily inspired by Infinity which is already open source, so why not just fork that and modify it to work with Lemmy?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think swapping from one API to another is not just a drop in replacement; it might be easier to start fresh from the ground up.

Disclaimer: I am not a developer so I honestly don’t actually know

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Am a developer, and there's a few patterns to make this sort of thing easier, but Lemmy/kbin is pretty different than the reddit APIs as I understand it with the federation aspects, so swapping wouldn't be THAT easy. Doable, but not a drop in replacement.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's the age old "writing code is easier than reading code"

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Feel free to suggest names here :)

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I don't have much of an imagination so I asked Bing AI:

  • LemmyGo: A simple and fast way to access Lemmy on your mobile device.
  • Lemur: A cute and catchy name that plays on the similarity between Lemmy and lemur, a type of primate.
  • Lemo: A sleek and modern name that sounds like a combination of Lemmy and emoji.
  • Lemix: A name that suggests mixing and sharing content on Lemmy.
  • Lemyx: A name that uses an unconventional spelling to stand out from the crowd.
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you wanted to stick to Infinity's space-ish theme, I think Lagrange would fit pretty well (though there is a Gemini browser of the same name)

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Or a synonym of Infinity like Boundless or Eternity

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I like Lemur! Maybe Lemiverse?

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lemur is already the name of a Lemmy app that died :/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

It was Lemmur, but close enough to not get my vote.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I'll suggest they keep the 'Lemur' name.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

My love of Infinity is what pushed me off the Reddit train so I'd be pumped to have a Fedv equivalent!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (5 children)

If it's inspired by Infinity, you should call it Beyond

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

Great to see more apps in the works. Do you plan on making the app open source?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm really glad you're working on this. @hariette is making Artemis for Lemmy and kbin, and soon the world will have another app for Lemmy. More apps == more better, IMO. Your app is looking great!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Post cards was the first thing I turned off in RIF. I don't want a photo gallery, want a concise list of threads and maybe a small thumbnail at best. Thread title, domain of post's link,, how many comments and upvotes and the pertinent things to click, in as efficient a format as possible.

Do that and you can get like 10 posts per screen would makes browsing and scrolling very efficient.

Now, if you want to make it god-mode then add tabs at the top for queuing up stuff to peruse in detail.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Infinity was the only way I interacted with reddit. If you can get kbin support, I will be all over beta testing this

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Infinity was my absolute favorite, I shall watch this app with great interest 😁 lemme (Lemmy?) know if you need any additional testers

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

@brunofin If it will only work with Lemmy, you could honor the original by naming it Lemfinity. If it will also work for kbin, maybe Threadfinity. Good luck.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I like those suggestions.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Please start a sub for the app so we can subscribe to follow development and join a beta program when ready.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you're interested, I can put this in the stickied thread on [email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Looks good. I can't wait to try it out. I'm liking Jerboa so far, but having more apps competing to be the best would be great.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

The merrier the better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This app looks great! (Lemur is a great name, you should stick with it.)

Are the screenshots from the Android app? It definitely looks like it, but I was wondering if the iOS version would lean towards iOS UI design rather than Google guidelines.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Will it be open source like infinity?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I see no reason why not

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Could become super popular, good work!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I have been testing both [email protected] and [email protected] and both still have some bugs to work out, but they are progressing quickly. Memmy for instance had 2 updates just today, looking forward to seeing what comes out of testflight first.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Please add support for sorting comments as Top, New, Hot, Best etc too. Thank you so much for your work.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Very excited to see this! Any place/site we can follow progress and maybe get access to a TestFlight link once available?

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Perfect, now all that's missing is an overpriced API.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Community groups (Add communities to a group, see posts only from selected group)

That feature can't come soon enough, not only in mobile apps but also on the website itself

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Always happy to see more apps pop up 🙏 the more the merrier!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Love, I use infinity and keep the style for lemmy will be a big upgrade. Also think about make the app FOSS and on FDroid.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (3 children)

honestly as of now I see no reason why not open sourcing it, I still didn't upload the code anywhere yet but probably will chose gitlab

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I thought i've seen a 'Lemur' or something like that a few years ago :D Only beta I guess

Keep up the great work!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (5 children)

I love to call out awesome work in the ecosystem when I see it. If you're interested in alternative communities to those on Reddit, then go check out @brunofin 's new #lemmy client for Android and iOS that he posted about over on https://beehaw.org/c/programming.

https://beehaw.org/post/647773

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Loved infinity when I used it. Good luck!

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you addressed this in the post and I suck and missed it, sorry! But I’d love to test your app out on iOS when available. Thank you :)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Same, except Android here.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Looks great! good luck op

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Awesome! Good luck in your project!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Can’t wait!

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