[HN Gopher] A feature-rich Hacker News client
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       A feature-rich Hacker News client
        
       Author : taubek
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2025-01-07 08:41 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | Uehreka wrote:
       | It looks like this developer has 2 Hacker News reader apps in the
       | app store: Hacki and Z Combinator. Which is the good one?
        
         | sphars wrote:
         | I'm going to guess that it's Hacki. It's the one in the OP
         | link, and it's been more recently updated. Plus it's cross-
         | platform with iOS and Android. I've used the Android version
         | previously (I'm now using Harmonic), but couldn't tell you
         | which is the better iOS app.
        
       | joshstrange wrote:
       | I bounce between Hack and Octal (I like both for different
       | things)
       | 
       | This looks decent but it misses a feature that I won't give up
       | from Octal which is Apollo-like swipe left->right anywhere to go
       | back (and reverse to drill back into the story you were on, which
       | Octal doesn't support).
        
       | perdomon wrote:
       | This app feels so much more responsive than what I've been using.
       | I think the login option should be a little easier to find (maybe
       | visible when tapping the person in the corner instead of hiding
       | in the Settings option).
       | 
       | I really love the display options for something as minimalist as
       | Hacker News or as detailed as Reddit.
       | 
       | Really exceptionally done. Great work. Is this a free trial?
       | (How) do you plan to monetize?
        
       | mvf4z7 wrote:
       | I used to use a client app like this. But after I switched
       | phones, I never re-downloaded it and have found that using the
       | browser works just as good for such a simple application.
        
         | HaZeust wrote:
         | Does it? It doesn't even notify you of new replies.
        
           | mplanchard wrote:
           | I've come to view this as a feature, personally. It means I'm
           | a lot slower to respond to things, but it helps me to avoid
           | getting drawn into heated conversations.
        
             | lxgr wrote:
             | +1, it's definitely a feature, not a bug.
             | 
             | Getting a push notification or just seeing a little red
             | badge makes me optimize for "be the first to answer".
             | Seeing responses in a polling/async way means I can take a
             | breath, read others' answers, and only respond if somebody
             | else hasn't made the same point already anyway.
        
           | wiseowise wrote:
           | It's not a dating site.
        
         | lowercased wrote:
         | maybe it's just mobile safari, but hacker news in the browser
         | on mobile is unusable for me.
        
           | zero-g wrote:
           | I've been reading hacker news only through hckrnews.com for
           | years and never looked back
        
             | lowercased wrote:
             | Thanks! Never knew about that one!
        
               | tbeseda wrote:
               | I love hckrnews! I even cloned it to tailor it to how I
               | use it[1]. Still working on filters and point threshold.
               | 
               | [1] https://hnr.app
        
           | oneeyedpigeon wrote:
           | What's the problem? It's almost perfect on android, for me.
        
             | cenamus wrote:
             | Text links/buttons are terribly small, almost impossible to
             | click. Text is too small too, but manageable. And of course
             | mobile browser don't just let you zoom like on a PC
        
               | lxgr wrote:
               | Text works ok for me (you also can zoom in iOS Safari in
               | the "tab menu" bar button!), but I've definitely
               | downvoted things I've been meaning to upvote when reading
               | on a shaky bus/train.
        
               | wiseowise wrote:
               | > And of course mobile browser don't just let you zoom
               | like on a PC
               | 
               | You absolutely can. Press button to the left of URL bar
               | (don't know how it is called, where you can also enter
               | reader mode) and at the bottom you'll find 100%. Press it
               | and you'll have to A buttons that allow you to scale.
        
         | codemac wrote:
         | I'd love actually an "app" that was just the bookmark manager
         | for launching the browser.
         | 
         | Chrome, firefox, etc on android all either push me to use piles
         | of shortcut icons w/folders (cluttered and exhausting to
         | manage), or click through a hierarchical menu thats 20 clicks
         | away.
        
           | dbtc wrote:
           | This would be great! Especially if it could sync bookmarks
           | from multiple browsers. And URLs could be custom set to open
           | in a non-default browser.
        
           | eitally wrote:
           | You can always just "Saved to home screen" from Chrome on
           | mobile, and then create a shortcut folder with your
           | collection of "web" apps. I've been doing this for the past
           | couple years for a few local restaurants that use Square for
           | direct online ordering, in order to shortcut the link to
           | their ordering site.
        
       | wklm wrote:
       | I like the compactness of the UI, really well done!
       | 
       | I was trying to build the app locally, but it's failing:
       | 
       | ``` wojtek@Mac Hacki % flutter run Launching lib/main.dart on
       | iPhone 16 Pro in debug mode... Running Xcode build... Xcode build
       | done. 51.3s Failed to build iOS app Error (Xcode):
       | lib/blocs/stories/stories_bloc.dart:254:15: Error: Property
       | 'isEmpty' cannot be accessed on 'List<int>?' because it is
       | potentially null.
       | 
       | Could not build the application for the simulator. Error
       | launching application on iPhone 16 Pro. ```
        
       | microflash wrote:
       | Pretty nice but unfortunately scroll performance is extremely
       | choppy like many other Flutter apps. Also, like many other
       | Flutter apps, it can't use system font stack. Still, on iOS, this
       | is probably a better option than many other open source clients.
       | On Android, I like Glider[1] and Harmonic[2] a whole lot more.
       | 
       | [1]: https://github.com/Mosc/Glider
       | 
       | [2]: https://github.com/SimonHalvdansson/Harmonic-HN
        
         | longstation wrote:
         | I am having a pixel 6a and scroll feels normal.
        
         | slimypi wrote:
         | Harmonic is great. Been using it for years ! Has the best
         | UX/function quality ratio imho.
        
         | tiltowait wrote:
         | Scrolling is extremely smooth on my iPhone 14 Pro.
         | 
         | The app, though, feels like an Android transplant. No tap to
         | scroll to the top, odd widgets, and no rubberband scrolling.
         | The tip bubbles are also very "Google".
         | 
         | That said, while it's not for me, it appears to be very solid
         | for Android users (or people who are, to their benefit, less
         | picky than I am).
        
       | cpcallen wrote:
       | I am obviously not the target audience for this, because it seems
       | to be the opposite of what I want: I'd much rather just have a
       | text-only homepage than anything with thumbnails.
       | 
       | I'd really love an iOS app for Reddit that made the site look
       | more like this one (or like the old `.compact` version did).
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | > _I 'd much rather just have a text-only homepage than
         | anything with thumbnails._
         | 
         | The mostly-text HACK is my favorite iOS client for that reason,
         | so if you use iOS you might enjoy it too.
         | https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-yc-hacker-news-reader...
        
           | dvaun wrote:
           | Been using Hack for years. The dev is responsive if you have
           | questions.
        
       | uoaei wrote:
       | Cue the evergreen "there's a reason why the HN UX ia the way it
       | is" conversation.
        
       | johnea wrote:
       | The best HN news client is ##hntop on Libera IRC network!
        
       | jrhey wrote:
       | Does anyone here use Hazumi for HN? I'm looking for new features
       | to add and would love your feedback.
       | 
       | https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/hazumi-for-hacker-news/id16702...
        
       | ziddoap wrote:
       | Do a lot of people use HN clients? It never occurred to me to
       | look for one.
       | 
       | Looking at the feature list here, most of them I can already do
       | (comment, vote, submit, etc.). Some of the other features I feel
       | like would degrade my experience (polls, notifications).
       | 
       | If you are someone that uses a 3rd-party client to access HN, can
       | you sell me on the killer features (of whichever client you use)?
       | Am I missing out?
        
       | atlgator wrote:
       | Can you integrate AI to summarize the talking points from the
       | comments?
        
         | officeplant wrote:
         | At that point might as well have AI summarize the post as well
         | and then boil everything down into a few seconds of reading.
         | Maybe AI summarize the whole site into a once daily morning AI
         | voiced podcast....
        
       | insane_dreamer wrote:
       | Looks nice. FWIW I use Hack and have been pretty happy with it --
       | only gripe is that it lacks a feature to edit a comment after
       | posting.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2025-01-07 23:01 UTC)