The Boost android client for Lemmy is displaying these dark pattern ads pretending to be system notifications. What security/privacy conscious Lemmy clients do you recommend?
The ads come from an ad network where there is very little visibility into what's going to be displayed in your app. And bad people also keep managing to get their ads published even though the ad network doesn't allow them
And it all ties into the whole targeted advertising, where they also make sure very few people get the bad ad, and tries to target people they think may be more susceptible to these kinds of tactics. Depending on the amount of interactivity allowed, the ad can even display two different things if it deems you too savvy to fall for it.
It's basically unescapable unless you only use apps without ads, or pay for the ad-free versions.
The whole advertising industry is sketchy, more news at 10.
Pi-hole blocks ads served by these networks just fine. Never seen an ad in Boost for Lemmy or for Reddit, though I tend to use Jerboa now that I've gotten used to it while I was waiting for Boost for Lemmy to release.
DNS based adblocking like Pihole or Adguard limits you to receiving advertising hosted by the app provider (youtube for example) which is usually better curated than third party advertising networks and less commonly found at all.
Yep, also the ads don't get initialized at all if the user buys the ad-free version (going to top all in the Lemmy Boost community should bring up the post about it). It's relatively cheap and the dev is very active with bugs and requests. The dev is developing for the Fediverse and I'm happy to support that (as well as devs for Sync, Connect, Lemmy, etc.)
I like Boost and paid for ad-Free, but a lot of other clients should work for your needs. While they might not be privacy focussed, many are open source so you can check what is going on.
My preference goes
I uninstalled the other ones and haven't kept up with them. There may be better ones out there, these are the ones I'm keeping up with
Dns adblocking blocks these 100%
Love how the top comment is a rando saying it's unavoidable but the dev literally says below that they fixed it.
The [exact ad from the] specific advertiser will never be seen again, so indeed the issue has been mitigated.
Other bad actors are still out there, though, hence the need for the report button the dev mentioned.
Jerboa (FOSS. Play Store + F-Droid)
Voyager (FOSS. Play Store + F-Droid + PWA + iOS App Store)
Thunder (FOSS. Play Store + IzzyOnDroid + iOS App Store)
Eternity (FOSS. Play Store + F-Droid)
edit: formatting
10/10 for Voyager, with a shout-out to Eternity too!
Eternity is great and there's a work in progress to add multicommunity support.
Also just like Infinity enabling amoled theme makes it look a whole lot more modern.
The only thing it is missing for me is community search. It is great! Also the most customizable of the bunch in my opinion
Jerboa's great
I need to do another round of trying everything. Currently using Liftoff and happy with it, but I should check out the alternatives anyway.
Voyager is so good! Basically a drop in replacement for Apollo.
As a user of RedReader since launch a decade+ ago, I dig Thunder. Simple, no bullshit, logical settings.
Please. For the love of god, NEVER use a proprietary app to use a piece of FOSS software. I think it's kind of sad that we have this amazing FOSS social network and people use fucking proprietary software to use it.
i use sync. there's nothing even close to the quality of the client. (The onlt client that implements material you in a fun and usable way, sync is usable one-handed)
I had been using Liftoff for a while (before switching to Sync as soon as it came out), which i quite liked but it feels a lot worse than sync
(The onlt client that implements material you in a fun and usable way, sync is usable one-handed)
Touchscreen keyboards and their consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
Open-source it a better interface then.
Until it's as useful as at least Sync for Lemmy, people will use 3rd party proprietary apps
I mean isn't Lemmy licensed under the AGPL? I'm just asking because AFAIK a proprietary client is not even allowed under this license.
There are a bunch of good FOSS Lemmy clients, which I'd argue are as good as Sync or Boost (I can't know for sure since I don't use proprietary software, I judge by the screenshots).
Jerboa sucks, I'll give you that. But both Voyager and Eternity are high quality clients that work amazingly well and are constantly updated. They have plenty of features and are very configurable.
That's silly and I'm a long time Linux user.
Indeed.
Voyager
It's a FOSS privacy respecting Lemmy client.
It's available on Android and IOS
You can also try it as a PWA: https://vger.app
Another one URL I use: https://wefwef.app/
The OG
Your lemmy app has ads???
Jerboa. It lacks some features, but it's the official app and it's also pretty minimalistic with its material you UI. Other than that Thunder is pretty good. They're both FOSS.
I used Thunder at first but it would crash frequently. Why? I don't know. It'd just stop working. Very frustrating because it is otherwise very good.
Switched to Jerboa after a couple of weeks and it's been great.
I start with whatever is on F-Droid, and narrow it down from there.
Jerboa was the only option there until recently. I see Voyager and Eternity are there now. I'll have to give them a try.
Voyager is currently many versions ahead of the one listed on F-Droid. It is still usable but you may want to get the latest version from GitHub.
thunder is awesome too
Eternity FTW
I'm not sure why people insist on F-Droid, considering the F-Droid Security Issues.
Eternity is great! free, no ads, and no lag while scrolling. it also supports swipe to go back from posts.
I'm so used to navigating in Eternity at this point that all other apps seem clunky and unintuitive
same
I use Connect for lemmy, it's really great and ad-free.
I've tried all the other popular apps, and keep coming back to Connect.
The main features that pull me back are profile-specific settings so I can set up different accounts without having to reconfigure everything every time I switch instances, and the ability to customize post card quick actions, specifically the Mark As Read quick button combined with the persistent Hide All Read toggle. It's just so convenient, I keep coming back even though it deletes my account info every time it logs me out.
Connect rarely makes it on these lists, but I think it's fantastic.
Eternity.
PREACH, after using infinity for reddit for years this is the only app that I can ever be comfortable with. It's genuinely amazing, thank you to the person who ported it.
This is the right answer
This is why ad blockers should always be used. Small devs don't have relationships with advertisers or control over what ad networks will do.
Or you can pay once and be done with them. I think the price of a burger is not a big ask for something you use every day.
I do both.
Even the FBI recommends ad blockers for security.
voyager is great, progressive web app, or in your favorite app store.
I am using vger right now, in firefox. I also use the web app without a download on my phone, as does my husband. Voyager is amazing.
I am using Voyager & Eternity and both have no ads.
And they are free
I use eternity chase its Foss and easily available in the fdroid store
Same with Connect.
Install the fdroid apps. Eternity is a good example of a fdroid app for lemmy
I use Eternity, it's a fork of Infinity for reddit
Me too, absolutely love it! Been working great for me the last couple of months.
Sync Pro (paid) Jerboa (free)
Sync pro is an absolute ripoff.
I had it for reddit and I'm not buying it again
Thunder gets regular updates and is open source and ad free.
Second this. Thunder has been great
Thanks for the warning, switching to Jerboa.
Maybe I'm behind on my terms but does this count as a dark pattern?
It was my understanding that dark patterns are a thing designed to use a service in a way that they wouldn't normally intend to, like renew a subscription or leave privacy options to the benefit of the company instead of the user.
This just seems like a scam, or at best highly deceptive advertising? Like, for it to be a dark pattern it would have to actually be able to send you to some android update system, but it almost certainly isn't ever going to do that.
I suppose that is correct per the definition, thanks for the correction.
I really like Voyager.
I am on Connect, loving it
Connect is proprietary so be careful. I use it too but will slowly move to eternity or some other client from fdroid.
Jerboa works well
Does it? I moved to Boost because I can't load past one page in Jerboa when viewing a community.
Yep, It work pretty well. Only Lemmy client I ever use
I recall that was a bug for a couple days and only on some sort modes when some instances upgraded to v19 and were shitting errors everywhere. All fixed now
Use F-Droid, Google store is a malware vendor at this point.
I like Thunder a lot.
Seconded for Thunder and it is available cross platform (iOS and Android). I like Voyager too but Thunder uses iPad screen real estate better IMO. RIP Liftoff
DNS adblocking. I don't see those ads.
Unfortunately this break LTE internet.
What phone? Never had an issue with private DNS on Android. Unfortunately IOS requires it setup on every connection, but works.
https://adguard-dns.io/en/public-dns.html
https://youtu.be/ovqRt_qGV7c?si=iMxKS_tMMyKJV6ie
Make sure you restart the app after applying settings, should pickup new DNS and poof, 95% of ads are gone instantly.
It should not. Some phones don't play well with private DNS though, mostly entry level ones that thrives on spying.
Eternity. It was a FOSS Reddit client before the API stuff but they became a Lemmy client.
Maybe pedantic, but it's a totally different developer that took the Infinity for Reddit source code and forked it into Eternity for Lemmy. The Infinity dev was not interested.
Voyager, eternity, jerboa in that order
I tried voyager once and it was the worst thing I have ever touched. The UI is absolutely horrible. Way to much stuff and not intuitive(why do I have to click on the three dots to fucking upvote?).
Oh I just use swipe actions. Tap on comment and swipe left/right, there are 2 actions on each side depending on how much you swipe.
Also voyager was the only client allowing me to increase the font size (when I started using lemmy on phone)
Voyager!
+1. No ads; doesn't track you (at least according to the DDG app).
It's wild just how many apps there are for Lemmy, ha
Wow, no kidding
Yeah I love it
Jerboah??
No h on the end - just Jerboa
+1
I don't think it shows any ads.
Of course not.
Ads in the feed now? Yikes, that's reason enough for me to switch before I'm forced to update it.
Iirc Sync and Boost are the only proprietary clients right now, so everything else is good. I'm using Eternity right now, it's on f droid
I'm using android Connect for lemmy and it's pretty good
I just found out in this thread that connect is too? But it doesn't have any ads or purchases, so now I'm wondering what that developers goals are
Infinity is great
It's Eternity now but yes it is
i got scared cause i was on infinity and saw this post and thought infinity was showing ads now :p
connect is never mentioned enough in threads like these
I use it. Very similar to boost. I loved boost for reddit.
However, my experience with this boost has had a few quirks that I don't like:
I agree, it's perfect, except for the side menu which could be nicer, but in the end you almost never use it so it's ok
It hasn't been updated in a while, and it's behavior when you post is quite bad when it reset all the view.
No to get into the refresh issues, too.
Its gotten like three updates in the last month. I will agree the refresh issue is annoying.
The developer has done a fine job at adding requested features, and fixing most bugs that come up as long as you let them know.
It's updated very regularly on the beta branch.
I updated it just a couple of minutes ago.
The dev has to do what they have to do to feed themselves. If you really like the app, deal with the ads or pay for the app. I personally can't deal with ads so I'm on Eternity for Lemmy (through the fdroid store)
Voyager
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.vger.voyager
Also on f-droid
Voyager the 🐐no 🧢
I use Boost and I like it. But I gave the dev the few bucks for ad-free.
If there's a malicious ad, report it to the dev. I'm pretty sure they can ban it.
Good god I thought that was my client for a moment. Almost uninstalled before realising it was an image.
Phew
What’s your absolute must needs? I’m on iOS but Voyager (android as well) has been my top choice for a while now even beating out apps I’ve paid lifetime subscriptions for because the developers disappeared or have been extremely quiet. I like Thunder a lot too. It’s missing key features I like in Voyager but I love its design and how smooth it is.
Thunder! It is
Coming from Relay for Reddit, I feel very at home in Thunder!
Unfortunately thunder dont show profile pics or community pictures, which has lead to people eating the onion couple times.
Out of curiosity, can you give an example of this? I would think the "real identity" of people on Lemmy wouldn't matter nearly as much as on a people-focused platform like Mastodon or Twitter/X. Plus, icons can be faked and there's no concept of a verified identity, so the username is the best indicator of identity anyway.
I use Voyager. It's pretty good.
I'm not so sure about clients that are specifically focused on security and privacy, however my general FOSS mobile app suggestions would be Voyager for a polished UX, or Eternity for a more native Android experience.
Both are available on GitHub and F-Droid
I've used Boost since launch and never once seen something like that happen
Same
Same but also paid for no ads. This isn't a boost issue per se, it's just how ads are made to look and boost free has ads.
i bought boost the first day because i loved boost for reddit but, honestly, i'm loving eternity even more these days.
it's on neo store/fdroid and the repo is here: https://codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/Eternity
Kinda sketch if they're not on the official fdroid repo
Personally I like Connect even though it's not FOSS because it's layout is similar to RiF.
I didn't even realize that it wasn't, tbh. There's no ads or purchases or anything
I have Boost, but I haven't seen any ads like that before. The main one I use is Jerboa though.
I like Voyager a lot but it might be iOS only.
No it is not, even though the Android app also uses that weird style
Voyager is on Android as well. It's technically a webapp, so you can run it on any device that supports displaying a webpage.
Example: https://m.lemmy.world
Sync!
Sync gang rise up!
I use the webpage as a webapp. It's adless.
I paid $3.49 to support the developers and the ads go away as a bonus.
Idk, I've tried a few but still like Boost; just can't get into Jerboa or Liftoff, which I tried. It's mostly just their ad network being meh --- though I mostly just get crappy fake gameplay ads, and not enough to bother me. I'm not even sure if they're targeting me, cause if they are, they're pretty bad at it.
Unfortunately I'm sure the app developer doesn't get much say, virtually all mobile app networks are cancer.
Wefwef. It's so normal.
Connect does not have ads
Lemmy website does provide official PWA app.
On iOS: Safari > Lemmy website > Hit share button > Add to home screen. On android, I assume steps will be similar.
I wholeheartedly recommend PWA app as such is published by the publisher of website itself, and I don’t need to download it either from official or 3rd party store.
In case you don’t know, PWA is basically a web app, running using your browser engine, which has almost same look-n-feel of native app.
Why would you need an app when an account settings page and a web interface for posts exist? What need is that combination not meeting for you?
Yup, lemmy works fine in a browser.
Also basically no apps support mod and admin actions or do it weird.
I'll say that DMs could be a bit better in the browser, but otherwise it's fine.
I don't undestand the need to have an app for stuff that works just fine on browser. In my books less apps is always better. The desktop and mobile version of Lemmy on browser gets the job done perfectly and is way more polished looking aswell.
Mobile browsers suck imho. Everything has to reload all the time, no good notifications, it's slow etc
I'm reading this on Boost (once off payment) and no ads...
I take it schools aren't teaching tech literacy. We wouldn't want the kids to get in the way of our overlord marketing agencies.
I wonder if they ever really have? When I was in school they taught you how to use a computer, but not what the computer was doing or how it worked.
I'm not too connected to the educational sector anymore but anecdotally it seems like becoming tech literate has a growing stigma (it's always had a stigma). Happily ignoring what it's doing while it's actively abusing you.
I recommend ignoring update requests when they pop up. It's not just Boost, I've seen so many of those kids of ads now that I just go check for updates through the system.
Use Jerboa.
Also not FOSS, but I'm using Summit.
It's the only client on Android I'm aware of that has mod-tools built in.
I use boost. it costs barely anything to remove ads
This is not an ad, this is pure deception
Boost don't operate the Ad network..
And, if you pay for the app, they disappear. I agree ads suck, but you can't really blame boost for this. Even when I did have ads though, honestly, I never saw ads like this
I think your ads got hacked.
Blokada, never seen a single ad in any of my apps. It's a battery hog, but it works like a charm since I can't get access to my router for a pi-hole.
I use AdAway for this
The title is a little disingenuous. Claiming this is a property of the Boost app isn't correct... It's just an ad network.
I didn't make the statement that it's their property, I made the statement that it's being displayed through their application.
Boost loads adds from a shitty network though. Most open source apps don't do this stuff because nobody wants a Lemmy client to load ads; users only ever tolerate it in return for a more polished UI or whatever.
I used my Google rewards credit to remove ads in Sync, because I ain't paying for that shit and they would have expired anyway.
As long as you go out every now and then (to shops or next to shops) and consistently answer the rewards stuff (doesn't need to be true it seems, just consistent) then you'll eventually be in the same boat as me and probably many others where you'll eventually have nothing to spend the rewards on as you'll have bought all the apps you need and will ditch the rewards in the end.
Sync, but it still has ads. Honestly just get an adblocker, it's free.
A paid ad-free Boost
Hell naw. Paid social media apps are for chumps
Look, I get where you're coming from, but there's a difference between a $965B corporation whose sole purpose is to harvest your personal info for ads, and a solo dev who just wants to make their (and your) Lemmy browsing a bit less painful. They're putting in a hellofa lot of time and effort into this thing, which means a hellofa lot of time not spent making money at a regular job. I'm more than happy to kick a few bucks here and there to keep something like that afloat, especially given how apps like Boost and Sync make me actually want to spend time on Lemmy. Encouraging fediverse adoption is a win for the whole ecosystem. You don't have to use Boost, and if you do choose to install it, you don't have to pay. There's an inexpensive ad-free version alongside the ad-supported one for exactly that reason. But complaining about Boost because you hate "social media apps" is like yelling "Fuck Nestle" at the 12-year-old selling lemonade from their driveway. Different scale, different purpose.
It's fine to not pay, but I'm glad that some people do support indie devs when they can. The world would be a lot bleaker without little passion projects like this dotting the landscape and filling in the gaps to help bigger projects like Lemmy take off.
Get a job lol
My dude use a vpn
I'm not sure how VPN will help against ads, without VPN Boost access the ads from IP A, with VPN Boost access the ads from IP B.
Boost dev here. There should be an Ad icon on the top right to report the ad. Not sure why it is not showing in this case. I will try to block those ads in the AdMob console. Edit: Done
thanks for caring!
Awesome, thank you.
This is the stuff I come to Lemmy for. Love the quick feedback and positive approach to the situation.
Thanks, absolutely love the app btw, I've used the Reddit one for years and the Lemmy one is just great.
How about you remove ads entirely like other competing apps do? Until you promise that your app won't advertise to me nor track me, I have no reason to use it over much better alternatives like Voyager that don't invade my privacy.
I'm not a boost user, but why does boost have ads exactly? Why don't you just ask users to buy a license a la grayjay? Make it 0.99 or less. This has a few advantages:
Also quick question, where is the source code for Boost? I can't seem to find it
I don't think Boost is open source, and you can pay a one time fee to permanently remove the ads
Neither boost or Grayjay are FOSS. You've got it all wrong.
It's always fuckin' Ruben breaking shit.
P.S. I want a free license and a BJ. 👍