According to the tracking scanner Exodus (can be found on F-Droid), which keeps an updated database on trackers and runs your installed app against its register, you can track what apps are tracking you and clues of how. Saw that Boost is tracking me and uninstalled it and went straight to Jerboa. Jerboa is pretty similar to good ole’ RedditIsFun-app and easy to use, so I am personally recommending it.
From F-Droid:
Exodus (Exodus show you trackers and permissions in apps installed on your device.) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy/
What about “Eternity”? I love it for Lemmy and no ads
Awesome and smooth UI
Big fan Of Sync, but idk if it has tracking
This reads like a paid advertisement.
Or you can buy Boost and get rid of the ad/tracking.
Boost is brilliant and other apps still have catching up to do but the competition is getting better and better.
I’ve used boost for forever in reddit, I used it when it came to lemmy.
But voyager is better.
Will give it a shot, thanks! Though I’m very happy with boost currently - what does voyager do better?
Yes give it a try.
I’m not saying that boost lacks anything. But it’s the feel that I get when using Voyager. I know it’s weird, but, it’s my enjoyment that made me switch.
It really whips the llamas ass
i use lemmy on firefox browser mobile and desktop?
Or just use a browser, ffs.
everything doesnt need to be an app.
especially when its nothing but a goddamn webbrowser, wrapped in an app, with less protection.
They’re not just browsers, they’re accessing the posts via an API and presenting it in a bespoke manner with purpose-built controls.
That’s good because it’s faster and lower-data than a webpage, and it’s easier and faster to use on mobile.
Not every app is just a web browser, that’s a particular kind of lazy app created by the app hype bubble like 20 years ago.
I really don’t know anything about the technicalities of apps, but you should try http://phtn.app/ on mobile, it’s UI is pretty good.
That being said if there was an app for it I would totally prefer that over a webpage in my browserI use it on desktop, despite some bugs from time to time I really enjoy the experience and slick design ! It’s still in early alpha so honestly I am impressed !
That’s very laggy for me, whereas my lemmy app, voyager, is extremely smooth.
It’s building a general purpose UI as a webpage which then has to be interpreted via your browser which then serves the UI up to you. Because this browser has to handle literally whatever is being thrown at it at all times, there is a lot of overhead and extra processes running to make it work correctly.
All of the graphics are equivalent, every line between every element, every button, every image is represented in the same data that the text is, so the phone is interpreting and rendering many times more stuff.
In contrast, a native app takes the bare text & media data and renders it in native controls, so the phone is able take a tiny amount of data and fit it into a template that renders natively on the phone. It’s doing orders of magnitude less work.
Why use a browser?
Just learn how to parse raw HTTP responses. That’s all a browser does, with less protection.
Nope, you can’t actually do that anymore since there’s SSL in the way. I tried anyway, though, just for giggles:
drath@machine:~$ telnet lemm.ee 80 Trying 2606:4700:20::681a:5f3... Connected to lemm.ee. Escape character is '^]'. GET / <html> <head><title>400 Bad Request</title></head> <body> <center><h1>400 Bad Request</h1></center> <hr><center>cloudflare</center> </body> </html> Connection closed by foreign host.Of course I can curl and wget, but that feels against the spirit of hardcore reading the raw data.
I remembered Boost from the good old days a while back and am using it alongside voyager. It’s not as great as I remembered, so I’ll probably stick with Voyager. My home network keeps me safe of ads though 😉
Nice, I’m on the same boat. Voyager is superior to boost
i mean, it’s just ads. you’re blowing this way out of proportion just because of some unintrusive ads.
devs gotta eat. if you prefer FOSS, that’s great! i love FOSS software too! but boost is like home to me, even with the ads.
I’ve seen this kind of post about boost several times now. It’s just sad that people are just maliciously uninformed. It made me want to support the dev even more. Paying for the ad free version now.
-complains about people being uniformed.
-Does nothing to inform them.
Because other users in this thread have already given the relevant info.
I love how this post just contributed to more people paying for the paid version lol
I also just paid for no ads to support
God damnit, I use this app
Consider paying the one-time fee if you enjoy the experience, it will remove ads and tracking. You can also consider other client such as Voyager which is FOSS.
Oh, I paid for it from the start. Guess I’m fine then
An up front paid app for devs trying to make money off of the lemmyverse? Sure, okay. A free version by devs trying to make the world a better place? You’re a literal hero. Devs doing shady tracking like this? Never ever.
But they’re not? The first time you install/open the app it tells you that to be able to serve ads it has to track you to some extent. And if you get the paid version it doesn’t even load the apk for the ads
to be able to serve ads it has to track you to some extent
Yeah but this is just a lie, they just choose advertising providers that work like that
i so want to downvote you
It’s an imperfect world and I don’t blame you.
Voyager is the best Lemmy client on iOS or Android both, with Jerboa being a close second.
I tried and disliked both of those. They worked fine they just felt bad. Bad to digging around for clients.
Boost is the best!
Launch the Rocket! 🚀
Would like to throw thunder_app@lemmy.world in the ring as an alternative
You can do a one time purchase to remove the ads and tracking you know, monetising an app without ads is hard.
You’re being downvoted for providing true information that disputes sensationalism. This place is truly fucking weird
I get that lemmy userbase in general dislikes ads, i dislike ads too but not every dev can go without it on their projects. There has to be some income from somewhere after all.
You can serve ads to your users without being Big Brother and selling users data to data brokers… Unfortunately it doesn’t seems to generate enough revenue anymore :'(
Lol, dude got aa much upvotes as u
When I posted that the comment I was replying to was sitting at
-13Goes to show that the first people to vote on stuff don’t represent the community as a whole
it probably only changed because Rogue made that comment
just like on Reddit, there’s a lot of sheeple here that downvote a comment just because it’s already being downvoted
You’re not wrong but… gestures broadly at the other available apps that don’t do stuff like this
It would also take some huge scandal before voyager seizes to be the absolute king of lemmy apps.
Performance alone i have yet to see anything get close.
Ceases*
Do you get a tracker-free software version, or just an ad-free experience?
The Dev confirmed that the trackers which are part of the ads plugin are not loaded when purchasing the app.
At the very least it is bloaty for being a free alternative and predatory they remove it by you paying for it, when the free alternatives are still just as good.
For sure, it’s worth letting people know if they aren’t aware. It’s been a while since I installed boost, but I remember there being very clear messages about the ads and tracking, explaining it was to compensate the developer for the time he spent converting the reddit client to lemmy, and with the option of a one time fee to completely avoid trackers and ads.
While I love it when things are truly FOSS, I understand that I pay my barber and my plumber for their time, and I don’t have a problem paying a one-off fee to buy software I want. What is exploitative are many subscription models, and all software that takes your money AND still monetises you (looking at you microsoft).
It’s good to make people aware of genuinely free alternatives. But I used jerboa, voyager and a few other lemmy clients and I’m much happier with Boost and it was worth every cent.
As long as you are in the know and knowingly know what you are paying for it’s all good.
I personally wouldn’t because supporting them (by using or paying) will bump them up on App-store popularity lists when you search for “Lemmy” and that would only keep misleading more unaware people.
You’re completely free to support the apps and developers you prefer, but I don’t think I understand what you mean by “keep misleading more unaware people”? The play store listing for Boost for Lemmy says “Contains ads.” and “In-app purchases” in multiple places (for one, it’s the the third line after the name and developer). Its really not misleading anyone. Do you have examples of Boost or the developer claiming it is ad free or FOSS? Or do you mean something else?
I don’t approve of predatory practices, so if you can provide any evidence I would be keen to change my 5 star review and stop using the app.
It’s pretty obvious, nothing is secret here. This strategy has been 1000% standard for like 20 years now.
“predatory”. You are really stretching it. A full screen message is displayed on first launch explaining the options.
I mean if a free software that is funded via ads using tracking for their ads (a required for ad networks after all) is “confusing” to users, I honestly don’t know what to say. 🤷
Also what would be that less favorable option? Paying a dev? What a horrible fate indeed. 😅
Lol, it’s not like they have a monopoly (a big base sure).
What they do is transparent, they let you know upfront, and the price for the app it low.
I’m not saying I like that model, so I don’t use Boost, but this is far from megacorp strategy.
I don’t like them because of the (ad) monetisation with the big corpos, but that’s just me going ‘eww’, not me looking at Boost holding a gun to users saying this is the only way to interact with Lemmy.
(I go much more ‘ewwwww’ when I have to install an apk from Google store, via eg Aurora Store)
Also long live the (un??)dead Eternity, rofl.
Also, always use open sauce repos.
