this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2023

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Voyager

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Question: is Voyager going to be a “real” native app anytime soon? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago (3 children)

That question keeps coming up and I’m pretty sure the answer is no. There are other native apps out there, voyager is and will most likely remain a web app.

It’s also not like you can flip a switch and suddenly it’s native. You’d have to rewrite everything from scratch, so there isn’t really a "we already got this far, let’s make it native" happening here.

I do, however, understand why people keep asking for it. There are some aspects to web apps that just feel a bit off, but I think voyager is doing an amazing job at being a web app.

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

That's not completely true, with framworks like Cordova you can reuse the JS code for the native app. The thing is, there's no benefit whatsoever.

Personally I think it's good that it's a PWA. It's the first PWA I use regularly on my phone, I only used WhatsApp and Telegram Web on the desktop so far and this is despite me being interested in Tech. If we introduce our friends to Lemmy and show them how easy it is to install a PWA, a lot of people will understand the PWA context a bit more

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

The thing is, there's no benefit whatsoever.

That's not entirely true of course. A native app allows for certain interaction with the OS that is restricted when it's a PWA.

For example: I doubt the Voyager PWA can interact with Shortcuts on iOS/iPadOS/macOS at all in comparison to some native apps for which the developers integrated Shortcut support.

That said, one of the reasons why I personally like Voyager is that it's cross platform. No more 'What platform are you using?'. One can simply refer to vger.app and be done. Would be even better if you can sign up under Voyager as well.

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

There’s also a bunch of small interactions that simply don’t feel as nice (on iOS):

no taptic feedback
tap status bar to scroll to top doesn’t work
scrolling gets stuck occasionally
swipe back doesn’t always work reliably

There’s probably more of these things, but those are some I keep stumbling across. Maybe some of these can be implemented/fixed, but probably not all.

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

Okay fair point. I thought the main "web to native conversion" frameworks were wrappers like electron or things like react native that might look familiar to web devs but are still somewhat different. If it’s just a wrapper it strikes me as not really worth it, but if actually native ui comes out at the end and you don’t have to make too many changes that sounds like a decent alternative. Do you happen to know how "native" these apps can be and how much effort it is to convert them?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I forgot it’s a PWA except every time this topic comes up. I seriously can’t tell anymore between this and apollo except config options.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks. It’s definitely one of the best web apps I have ever used.

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

Does it really need to be?

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

It doesn't NEED to, but some of us would prefer to have the option without the ones who prefer the other way having to be deprived of that 🤷

[–] SuperFola 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why would you need a native app? Like, what do think would be achievable in a native app that can not be done in a web app, and that you need/want?

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

I already have a problem with having too many browser tabs open plus it's easier to switch between my browser app and another app than between tabs if I want to look something up or something while reading and replying to stuff on Lemmy.

[–] SuperFola 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You didn't install the PWA? It works great and I can switch between voyager/browser easily

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

PWA?

Searches

That sounds like exactly what I need! Thanks!

[–] SuperFola 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Progressive web app. You can install the website as an app on your phone. It creates an icon on your home screen for it and when opening it it's like a separate app, that isn't your browser.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Thanks, I'll do that!

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

I would love to hear why you would prefer it as an app.

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

I detailed why in my reply to SuperFola. Turns out there's a PWA though, which'll do just fine for my purposes lol

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

Its written as a website really, the only way that would work is to make a wrapper for it, and it wouldn't really change anything. It would just be an app that opened a web page.

I guess it would help discoverability since you could put it on the App Store

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

On Android, I use Lemmy via the PWA with Hermit (to keep it out of my browser history) which is an "Advanced Web Browser for Power Users, optimized for Lite Apps & Privacy."

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chimbori.hermitcrab

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Honestly the web app is so well made you don't even realise it's not native. But I get it, a native app would be more efficient on battery. You don't have to run a full on browser in the background

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

A native app for which platform? IOS? Android? Windows? Methinks you know not what you ask.

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

For me personally iOS, but I kept the question generic so it would be applicable to more than one platform.

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

There is very little incentive for the developers to invest a lot of work to end up with an app that can only be used on IOS, where currently the web app can be used on most platforms. I am sure they would far rather spend that effort on improving the current web app.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I think they are planning on making an app for iOS that runs the web app, but uses some of he extra features of native apps to its advantage.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Voyager as PWA is as easy by just recommending m.lemmy.world and install it as PWA.

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

What currently Voyager is ?

I it a web app fake as native app ? A web browser point to only one domain, the webapp itself?

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

Currently it’s a web app

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