this post was submitted on 02 Aug 2023
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Liftoff!

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A mobile client for Lemmy running on iOS and Android

founded 1 year ago
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I was looking forward to trying Sync today now that it's live, but my enthusiasm was immediately dampened after seeing the "Data Safety" section on the Google Play store.

Liftoff has been great, and want to say thanks for making an awesome app. This will continue to be my daily driver.


Edit: for clarity, because the post got way bigger than I expected.

Sync looks like a fantastic app, and the dev/s should charge whatever they feel is fair for their efforts, even if that's through the usual ads + ad tracking.

My intent was just to post here in /c/Liftoff to thank the Liftoff devs for managing to somehow offer an awesome app without any of that.

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[–] [email protected] 133 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Sync has just updated to allow a one off payment to remove ads. Dawson is also adding a one off payment for lifetime Ultra as well.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Aren't they still tracking after that? Simply hiding ads doesn't make you less of a commodity.

[–] [email protected] 108 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No. The data tracking is because of the Google services ads. An app developer gets no compensation for data tracking, only serving ads which causes the tracking.

[–] [email protected] 73 points 1 year ago

It's been confirmed that if you pay to remove ads, the ad sdk doesn't even get loaded

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's a monetization strategy for the work he's put into the app. I see why people don't like it but I never intended to see a single ad in Sync anyway

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

Ahhh that's a no from me. I'd pay if I like it, but injecting ads into the feed and I'm out. Just trying liftoff now. Seems solid.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I like liftoff a lot. There are a couple of features I'd like to see (such as an option to automatically hide child comments) however they've already added other features I've suggested.

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

Shouldn't some of the ad revenue be going to the Lemmy servers? Seems kinda wack.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I've read elsewhere that this app is his full time job, and this is obviously my opinion, but FWIW sync has by far the best UX of any app I've ever used and I've been using it for about a decade.

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

Weird, I remember him having a job and sync being a side thing. Something the moderators mentioned after LJ pushed that big update on sync for reddit and some users attacked him to the point he took a break.

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

I think that may have been before he went full time on the app, I could definitely be wrong though

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

No but the free version of Sync does because weirdly the dev would like to be paid for his work 🤷🏼‍♂️

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

How much is it to remove all ads?

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

It's $20 to remove ads but there are also ultra features you have to pay extra for