I have asked before and I am curious. I do not mean this to crap on people who want an app but I wonder why an app is a desired thing. I use Mbin and Lemmy on mobile completely through my browser and I'm having a good time with both.

[–] Blaze@sopuli.xyz 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Different strokes for different folks

[–] Elevator7009@kbin.run 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I understand that. I want to know specifically what attracts these people with different tastes to an app, and what makes them not want to use it in the browser. I generally don't judge on taste but I do get curious about why peoples' tastes are what they are.

[–] TisI@reddthat.com 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I always have the same thoughts when people say they use browsers. Apps are (in my experience) much more practical to use. Also, I think browsers are an ok option on a computer, but not mobile.

[–] Elevator7009@kbin.run 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In my experience Reddit had to be used with an app if not on desktop, but the Fediverse on mobile feels like the Reddit app (I'm one of the few people who never had trouble with the official app, it was functional for me, so this is not meant as an insult at all. I left and came here over the API stuff only) so I have no need to switch. Much more mobile-friendly. Using the Fediverse on desktop feels a lot like the mobile experience but wider.

[–] TisI@reddthat.com 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Ok, let's talk about Lemmy specifically. The app I'm currently using (Connect) has so many great features like swipe gestures that improve browsing tremendously. Just in this thread, there was a link that I had to use the browser to view that had two images that I needed to zoom in to view and then zoom out to read the other comments. This is something you don't deal with when using an app because it's usually optimized for easier viewing.

But at the end of the day, this is about habits and what you feel most comfortable with.

Have you ever tried an app and thought, nah I don't like it?

[–] Elevator7009@kbin.run 1 points 3 months ago

It's happened before in general, though I cannot remember specific instances. As for Fediverse apps, I do have one for Matrix because I think you actually cannot use that on mobile without an app. Every time I try to open a Matrix link on mobile it tells me to pick an app. For Mbin and Lemmy, I do not need an app because I'm already having a good experience on the browser. Little to no friction or complaints. I also don't feel I need anything more, so I don't want to sink that minimal effort into finding and trying an app. The post that came out talking about a lot of apps not displaying Markdown correctly further discourages me, as I don't want to track it down to find which ones do, and one of the things few apps show correctly is spoiler formatting which I use.

I see it can be about accessibility and solving usability issues on the browser now, which of course will be different for different people. Thanks for discussing with me :)

[–] skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Sync for Lemmy is the reason I'm using Lemmy over mbin right now. The *bin experience isn't bad per se, but native apps just feel a lot nicer to use on mobile.

I don't use any apps on desktop, mostly because there aren't any that look and feel as smooth and complete as the Android apps do.

Also, I feel a bit hesitant as quite a lot of the smap I see seems to come in from *bin servers. Could be moderator actions not federating well? I just need to know for sure that there aren't any spam scripts I need to start evading after a switch.

I did try out kbin very quick a year ago but the difference in CPU usage for basic federation and browsing was quite large. With Lemmy now consistently using 15% of a CPU core on federation, I dread to think what *bin would do to my poor CPU.

Lastly, I've heard some pretty bad experiences about *bin and database issues from people who run both services. Dunno if that's been cleared out yet, but if I ever switch over, I'm going to need to make sure that's been fixed.

[–] jerry@infosec.pub 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was probably the most prominent person who runs both and had database issues with k/mbin. I am happy to say that those are well behind me, largely because of the skill and patience of the Mbin team helping me resolve them.