Hi there, me again 😄 coming to you with another release. This release adds in some initial support for creating posts and comments, as well as a whole bunch of other things!
To see the full details of this release, check out the GitHub release announcement: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/releases/tag/v0.2.1%2B5
For those on TestFlight, the update should automatically install on your device. I have not personally tested this, so if someone could let me know, that would be great!
There is also a discussion page here for any general discussions about this release if anyone is interested: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/discussions/43
Thanks again for all the support so far!
I’m writing this from it :)
Seems to be coming along very well. The subscription button is wonky, it doesn’t always register the tap, and doesn’t show whether or not it was successful in the way the usual “pending” does.
But, links actually work! Even lemmy.world links that sometimes time out will take you to the community if you back out and try again
The full height images option is awesome.
The layout is easy to navigate, andn the dark theme is very well balanced.
It’s gonna be sweet watching an app grow :)
Holy shit! I missed the slide functions on comments! Right to up/down vote, left to save/reply. Bloody brilliant!
Love that part haha.
The subscription button is wonky, it doesn’t always register the tap, and doesn’t show whether or not it was successful in the way the usual “pending” does.
This is usually due to network delays, and should improve as the instances improve! However, I do agree that it is a bit difficult to tell whether you’ve successfully subscribed/unsubscribed to a community. An idea here is to maybe provide a toast notification whenever the action was done successfully/unsuccessfully
But, links actually work! Even lemmy.world links that sometimes time out will take you to the community if you back out and try again
This is still a bit of a WIP but I did try to support some of the common use-cases that I saw. However, if you notice that something is not being redirected back to the app, feel free to open up an issue on GitHub so that it can be tracked!
Thanks for trying it out!
Excellent app so far. There’s a couple of things right off that bat that the app needs imo:
- Tap comment to collapse the chain/thread
- Small main screen view where images/previews are on the left or right side with the title of the post next to it (a la Apollo, and now an option in Memmy)
- Swiping down/up on an image should close it
Tap comment to collapse the chain/thread
Fun fact: you can actually tap on the top part of the comment (where the username is) to collapse it!
Small main screen view where images/previews are on the left or right side with the title of the post next to it (a la Apollo, and now an option in Memmy)
I agree, having more types of views is something that will be worked on - just haven’t had the time to actually do it yet 😅
Swiping down/up on an image should close it
Right now, you can swipe right to close the image! But I do agree that having more ways to dismiss the image would be good/more intuitive
Mine is stuck on a spinning loading wheel loading posts
I’m using the lemmy.world instance
Yeah, the loading times is something that I want to improve a bit more in the future. There’s a lot of different factors that play a role in why it takes a while to load:
- Instance responsiveness and how fast the server responds back
- If there are a lot of images being loaded, then it also takes a bit of time, especially if you’re using the “full image height” setting
- Optimizations in the code to better handle loading/caching data, etc.
This will hopefully improve as instances get better at handling loads, and once more optimizations are made in the code! 😅
The loading times have actually gotten better since I’ve used the app more
It’s down to 5 seconds now which is reasonable
One issue I’ve noticed is that the app does refresh itself and open up like you’ve opened the app after closing it if you leave it open in the background for too long
I have turned off background optimisation just to test and it still happened
The loading times have actually gotten better since I’ve used the app more
Thats good to hear! This could potentially be due to some images/media being cached, so there’s less things that the app needs to fetch (or maybe the instance is less busy so it can respond to requests faster)
One issue I’ve noticed is that the app does refresh itself and open up like you’ve opened the app after closing it if you leave it open in the background for too long
This is most likely due to the system clearing out memory for other apps - I have yet to do any profiling on the app, so I’m not too sure how much memory it uses on average
I’d also suggest the ability to edit comments be added if they haven’t already because I couldn’t find any way to edit a comment I posted
Editing comments is not here yet, but will get around to it once some other features are completed (greater focus on accessibility, initial inbox features, etc.)
If you want, you can create a new issue on GitHub for this so that it can be tracked!
Just as a small question, will this version be compatible with Lemmy backend 18 that will be released tomorrow?
I have not yet tested this on v0.18 yet, but if anyone knows an instance that is running v0.18 and can test it out, that would be great!
Lemmy.ml is .18 I think, I’ll give it a try tomorrow (EU time)
I like it. I’d really like it if it supported true black / OLED black mode and kbin.
For the OLED black mode, there’s an issue on GitHub created for it already! I’m not sure when I’ll be able to get around to that but if anyone wants to take a crack at it, this is the link to the issue: https://github.com/hjiangsu/thunder/issues/18
Does it support Kbin?
It doesn’t seem so, but there’s still hope with Artemis
No
Nice app! I like how it has a new twist on this kinda of apps. I look forward trying it out.
Works great, thank you so much!
Will this be coming to the Google Play Store?
No immediate plans yet for Google Play Store, but I would like to try to get it on F-Droid if possible!
Releasing to F-Droid is something outside my knowledge set but if anyone sees this and is interested in helping out that would be awesome
Not sure if it was you who uploaded it, but I found Thunder via IzzyOnDroid.
Yeah, Thunder is officially on IzzyOnDroid! I updated the GitHub page to reflect that
Installed minutes ago and look great. Also finally can reply and post w(°ｏ°)w
Just not edit (ﾉ´ з `)ノ
Editing will hopefully be here soon, I have not started implementation for that but it should work similarly to creating posts/comments crosses fingers
What I really wish to see more is markdown formatting just like Discord has. You can still type raw markdown, but it highlights as you write, so you can be sure the text will be formatted as expected.
Or even something like Github has with it’s issues editor - you have formatting tools and those buttons literally inserts markdown rather than using a full fancy-pants editor.
Yeah, I agree with you and I do want to eventually make it so that markdown is easier to write and preview. However, it is a bit more technically challenging to do that, which is why I opted for this solution for now!
I haven’t gotten an update yet……… but it could be that it hasn’t gotten to my phone yet. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Are you using an Android phone or iPhone? If you’re using an Android phone, then you can download the APK directly from GitHub (linked to this post)
If you’re using an iPhone, then it should be installed automatically through TestFlight unless automatic updates is turned off. I dont know if TestFlight pushed out the update properly so it would be good if you could let me know!
Oh I got it. It just took a bit to come on my phone but that’s to be expected.
Glad to hear that!
Yes. I am, too. This app is shaping up to be a favorite of mine. :)
