Three Cheers for Tildes (Android version) is open for alpha testing on the Google Play Store
Play Store link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talklittle.android.tildes
Alternatively, opt-in to testing via web: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.talklittle.android.tildes
Three Cheers for Tildes is an unofficial mobile app for Tildes, originally announced on Tildes' 5th birthday. The original announcement answers some basic questions about the app.
It is still missing tons of features—hence "alpha"—but I felt it would be better to release something instead of waiting too long. Alpha version 0.5 is currently good enough for light use, to help check on Tildes once or twice a day. You can log in, vote, and comment.
Notable missing features as of v0.5: Submitting topics; Markdown editor; In-app notifications; Comment labels; Sort options.
The iOS version is underway and I am aiming to have it done by the October deadline achieved during our June fundraiser.
Other iOS apps are already in beta testing: Backtick by @wababa and Surfboard by @earlsweatshirt.
I'll try to keep this post updated with changelogs and known bugs.
I don't have a public issue tracker for feature requests; feel free to leave requests in comments here. Thanks my Tildren!
Congratulations on the release, @talklittle, and thanks again for all your work on this (and all the donations you encouraged through it)! I'll definitely be trying it out this weekend.
I think it's also neat how we've got this weird little feedback loop going on—RIF was the only way I used Reddit on mobile for over 10 years, so it absolutely influenced aspects of features and design I wanted Tildes to have for mobile. And now the Tildes design is influencing what you do in this app.
When deciding what Three Cheers should look like, the two options were: Take RIF and change it a bit to fit Tildes; or rewrite most core things and treat it as a wholly different app, to clarify how Tildes is its own thing. I'm taking the latter approach for the most part. Tildes is really fantastic. Not afraid to evolve, and vitally in a community-centric way rather than a profitability-driven way.
It's cool that Tildes itself is still technically in "alpha". Symbolizes that we can change, adapt, and improve as needed. Yet I know stability is an important aspect of Tildes' and my own engineering philosophy. No change for change's sake. A balancing act that I think you have performed well.
On that note, I think the official PWA approach should be taken too, in addition to native apps. The average person probably won't care as much about PWA, but Tildes' current audience has enough people who will want a proper web app experience without dealing with dependencies along the lines of Hermit.
From recent comments I saw here around PWA, it looks like the main issue people are having is a decision around which display flag to use in the manifest? Currently it's "browser" to open a browser tab, but IMO "minimal-ui" is a more intuitive option to give a more app-like feel. A browser tab can already be opened by a bookmark if desired.
I kinda like how some of the design language carried over to cheers from rif. There are little things (pull down to refresh, asking if I want to exit, etc) that makes it feel familiar but different. It feels very solid and I look forward to seeing how it evolves (as someone who used rif golden platinum for years).
Suggestion: Idk if tildes supports markdown but I'd love to see the markdown buttons appear when replying to a post.
https://docs.tildes.net/instructions/text-formatting
I was also an exclusive RIF user and love this familiar transition. I am eagerly awaiting all of the future updates.
Reddit is dead to me.
Wow I'm blown away. What a tremendous effort, and the current foundation you have is already incredibly usable and pleasant to use.
Kudos to you, and thank you.
I have a couple questions:
Thanks for your kind words.
The funding model will be donation-based. No ads, as long as Tildes itself does not have ads. I would be happy to collaborate with Tildes, and other apps presumably would do the same, if Tildes' funding model ever evolves, e.g. selling digital perks (very hypothetical).
Good question on design philosophy. I will definitely add convenience features where they make sense and do not contradict Tildes' design. If this app or others come up with any exceptionally cool features, I would also like to contribute them upstream to the official mobile site.
I intend to keep this a solo project.
Could I ask you what codebase you used to make this app
@talklittle had the code for Reddit Is Fun. Just looking at general design philosophy, Three Cheers for Tildes appears to be heavily influenced by RIF - which is good for me, since I used RIF for 11 years xD
Interesting. One of the first things I thought when opening the app, an opinion which I've continued to hold, was that this app is strikingly different from RiF in almost every way.
There are lots of things that are different, but some things (font, color palette, etc) show their provenance. It feels like a cousin of RIF to me!
how does one... get the code for Reddit Is Fun?
He built it from scratch in the first place. He is the original Reddit is fun developer.
By writing the code for Reddit is Fun lol. He's the creator of it.
Can't say if they'll do the same for the tildes app, but the developer's reddit app, rif, had a premium "golden platinum" version. It was only a few bucks and it was a one time payment so idk how much that was actually making, but rif stayed available until the API got shut down.
It seriously feels like I have rif back again....in a slightly different color. It's honestly a nice feeling.
I am tempted to ask if there is a "RIF-reskin" option possible for TCT...
Currently there's nothing but the bare bones on the app. We'll have to wait and see how far Talklittle wants to take it.
I'm aware, perhaps my comment could have been, "ask for a RIF-reskin option" :) It's still quite good!
Funny how many people ended up loyal to the third-party app developer rather than the platform. It's a testament to your prowess, talklittle! Congratulations on this wonderful effort. Despite the missing bits, it's exceptionally functional and elegant. I miss RiF, but I'm sure we'll get used to this :-)
Any way I can donate? I think you might have mentioned it somewhere before, but I figured I'd ask & maybe others would see it here.
If you don't mind, I'll also be adding comments here (as replies to my original comment) to describe issues I run into.
Thanks for the feedback and praise. There will eventually be options in the app to donate to myself and to Tildes. Not there yet.
While 3C4T might not accept donations directly, you can still donate to Tildes options here and for reference the original fundraiser post from Talklittle about developing 3C4T
First post via 3C4T! :D
And now and for ever more it is called 3C4T.
And it is all your fault!
I'm waiting for the "ATM machine" version of the app title we got last time with "RIF is Fun."
I guess it would be "Three Cheers for 3cft"
Everyone is going to call it Three Cat, and they're going to ignore why.
Nono I stole it from @vivarium's comment!
Blame them!
Looks a bit too much like "scat" for my liking ;)
Actually looks more like "3 cats" thinking about it...
Missing: labeling comments (or whatever it's called; exemplary, noise, etc.) and editing comments, as far as I can tell. Will continue to update.
Wound up on Tildes because of the mention on your RIF goodbye post. Happy to see the new app coming along so nicely.
It's extremely responsive and well designed. I like that it keeps aspects of the main site.
Just installed and a wave of nostalgia hit me as I logged in. I was a RIF user for almost a decade and happily upgraded to Golden Platinum.
I would love to have the ability to save a comment like there was in RIF. I loved being able to go back and read the comment I was responding to, especially when there is a multiple level question or comment that you're replying to.
Even though I have no real qualms with the tildes mobile site, I did really not enjoy the sea of tildes tabs I'd have open every time I clicked on my tildes-browser bookmark.
I'm very very happy to have my firefox browser clean again, and am thoroughly enjoying the app!
Something super minor that might be easy to add: I've unsubscribed from quite a few topics (e.g. all of the sports ones), but to remove them from the app I have to select each topic individually and hit "remove". A multi-select feature would be great here, but only if it's easily implemented of course! It's not exactly something that would get used a lot, but it is something that tildes users might do within the first 5 minutes of downloading the app and signing in (like I did), hence me noting it here!
Some clarifications about terminology:
A single post on Tildes is called a "topic".
A home for multiple topics about a related subject, such as ~sports, is called a group (or sub-group for ~sports.football).
Hah, thanks for the correction. To be clear, 3C4T has the correct terminology! It was just late last night when I wrote that ;)
I had Tildes wrapped in an app called Hermit. It saved me from having a thousand tabs in the browser. It was an ok experience but navigation back and forth was still messy.
I really do like the Tildes native web and would probably use it if it was setup as a PWA.
Congratulations on the release !! The app looks incredible. Love the thoughtful mix of Tildes web design & the native design. Especially love the tablet layout.
Can’t wait for the iOS version !
Thanks a lot! I am excited to work on iOS mostly for my personal learning's sake. Have a ways to go to catch up to you and @wababa's apps which both look phenomenal so far.
Playing with new languages and APIs is always fun :) If you ever have any questions re: iOS dev stuff and can’t find good answers online, do feel free to PM me. I don’t know everything but if I happen to know the answer I’d be happy to help.
This makes me very happy.
Although I didn't join Tildes solely based on your mention of it, that was one of the first times I heard about Tildes, and knowing that the RIF dev was planning to make an app for it certainly didn't hurt my optimism about the site. So, it's really nice to see this app in action.
It's sad to leave reddit behind, but the past few months have been enlightening, and I'm glad that I have more appreciation for the users, mods, and devs who made reddit what it was. I'm excited to see what can now be done with other sites moving forward, including this app.
Cheers. :)
Long time rif user, very happy to see this get an alpha! I only just installed but it feels good so far. Glad to see you putting the comment box all the way at the bottom in line with the site's design choices. My only suggestion would be to add ability to make custom themes or to just have equivalent themes based on the built in tildes ones. I've kind of fallen in love with the Gruvbox light look since I'd been using tildes solely in the browser before this came out.
First off. Amazing.
Second, FR, can the collapse comment button move to the right side (optionally), or maybe just clicking anywhere on that bar collapses it? Really I just want a way to quickly navigate between comments. (In RIF I think there was a next button)
Third, when can I pay you with some form of Google Play credit? I have a bunch of "Google opinion rewards" money and no silly games to spend it on.
I agree that this would make a huge difference and is the only thing keeping me from moving from the browser version with tildezy.js.
It was on this day, July 28th 2023, that us Android users gathered here, dawning the wetsuits of the Top Gear cast, to proudly proclaim "Gentlemen, the time has come."
What about gentlewomen and other gentlefolks? :P
No, no... I've watched a lot of Top Gear. Let them go first.
I love the app! Very excited to see the rest of the features come in, but so far it's beautiful.
Let me know when the app needs a FAQ. :)
Thank you my dude! I'll try to include some obscure bugs and unintuitive behaviors for you. Need you to get cracking on that FAQ, ASAP!
Seriously I would love to find ways to work together with you again. You're a lifesaver. We'll see how things shake out.
Maybe we're thinking too small with a FAQ... maybe we should aim for a wiki! Let's get some really obscure stuff, like "If the month number is even and the day number is odd (or month is odd and day is even and you're in the southern hemisphere)..."
And for real, just let me know and I'll be happy to help out any way that I can.
If you need help with a TCT wiki, I'm your man!
Installing now! I'm excited to help test this. And can I just say, I am in love with the app logo design. That is incredibly well thought out.
I just literally installed it, so must have more comments later, but one feature that I loved in RiF and don't get from the web UI. Is ability to save drafts of the comment.
There are two reasons why this is useful:
Anyway, thank you for doing it. The app looks great.
// spam comment for saying "Posting from 3C4T!"
I'm posting this from Three Cats! :>
Knowing @talklittle they will probably rename the app ‘3C4Ts for Three Cheers for Tildes’ or something equally funny and redundant now. ;)
Aktshully...... They had to drop "Reddit" from the name, which is how it became RiF. The silly thing is that he was actually paying a licensing fee to Reddit for the name, but the agreement was terminated. Spez is really a terrible businessman.
Three cheers, one for each of the three cats.
Here as well commenting from the app! RIF user for ages...
I really love the app so far - others have already mentioned the handful of things I'd have said, but it's not like you don't know them yourself.
I like how it looks and feels, it's snappy and clear - though the ability to change themes would still be welcomed. Draft comments were my savior in RiF and if you add them here, I'll probably double my number of comments. In the meantime I'll probably do what others have and reply to my own comment with things that I notice!
Thank you, as always @talklittle - you're the friggin best.
Found my first actual thing to comment on:
I would love to have access to my comment history whenever possible - I like to look back at my comments and see how the conversation in those threads have evolved since then. Not top priority, but it would be pretty cool if possible :)
Agreed - I like to see the reaction (or non reaction) to my comments. I haven't poked around the app much yet so not sure if this is included already but also notifications would be great.
Oh crap, just noticed that I can't edit comments. I better go light with the typos.
It's a first release alpha. Give it time and it will probably have all the features of the website plus much more.
There's also always the fall-back option of using the native Tildes website, if people like @Very_Bad_Janet need to edit their comments.
I was waiting for this day, thank you so much @talklittle.
The only feature I am missing is username links in comments. Everything else is wonderful, the app is very responsive, and I love the RiF aesthetic. Great job!
I had never heard of Tildes before you recommended people donate to it and now I'm excited to be using your new app! Here's to another decade plus using one of your apps (that's scary to say...)!
Only thing id like to see return from RiF is the formatting help tab for comments and posts, I can never remember where to put ( vs [ lol.
Yes, that would be great.
Oh my, I'm getting RiF nostalgia! Will definitely help test this, it's already a step up from the mobile browser experience (which is good, so that's saying a lot!)
Thank you so muck! ~/talklittle!
I used rif for over 11 years, so it's good to be back home!
I will buy a paid version once it comes around!
Absolutely fantastic! Three cheers for Three Cheers for Tildes.
I am seeing a lot of suggestions here, but keep in mind this is very much an alpha app. I'm sure it will improve as development moves on.
Seriously blown away though. Absolutely wonderful. Thanks for letting us play around in the app!
Installed. Used redditisfun for over a decade, this feels like a direct replacement. Nicely done @talklittle.
After using RiF for over a decade, this app already feels familiar. I think it's going to make me actually use Tildes now.
One thing I'd really like to see (heh) is a font size option. I'm visually impaired, so making the text bigger would be awesome. I'm not a big screen reader user, but I tried it briefly with TalkBack and while it generally seemed to work, I did notice that the controls are in a weird order. Like when scrolling through posts, it'll jump to the comments link, thumbnail, etc before getting to the post title. I realize accessibility features probably aren't high on your to-do list, but figured I'd put a bug in your ear.
Overall for an alpha this feels really polished already. I can tell it's going to be a great app once it gets to the first release, and I'll definitely get the premium version!
Would having different themes also help? I think I read that X (Twitter) going darkmode only will make it difficult for sight impared people to read.
I've been mainly using Tildes via Firefox mobile and hats off to @Deimos for making the site so useable in that way. Prior to that I was a long time RIF user.
Just tried Three Cheers and it feels like the best of both worlds so amazing work once again @talklittle. Since you mentioned feature requests at the end of your post though, do you have any eventual plans to support the different Tildes themes?
I've had a bit more time to use this. Have some feedback of varying validity given that this is an alpha
Observations
Bug(?)
Feature Request
edit: grammar
I think Infinite Scroll is fine as it's just really convenient. I don't think the content on Tildes inherently encourages "mindless scrolling" as someone will quite quickly encounter the same threads they've already seen yesterday.
An option would be nice of course
@Interesting, @selib I think the "auto load next page" is the setting for infinite scroll.
Turning off infinite scroll was a feature of RiF, so it's probably somewhere on TalkLittle's to do list already.
On it right now and seems to be working really well, Honestly I'm not surprised considering the developer is a master at making stable apps.
Seriously. I can only remember one or two times I had an issue with RiF. Seldom does one run into software that just works these days, and I would say talklittle is one of the few remaining examples of an old breed—developers who not only consider the user experience, but actually give a damn and make concerted efforts to make a functional and stable software. Cheers to talklittle. The public need more like him.
Couldn't agree more, I even side loaded RIF on Kindle fires without any issues and the app wasn't even on Amazons app store.
Works perfect so far, great job!
Where does the name come from?
I needed a name that started with T and ended with "for Tildes". The logo with the party popper and 3 tilde symbols happily ties everything together.
Why did the name need to start with "T"?
It's so the app matches Tildes. When someone installs the app and then forgets about it for a week, and then goes "okay, I installed that Tildes app a while back, what was it called again?" Personally, my first instinct would be to scroll down my alphabetically-sorted app drawer to the T's.
Makes sense. I wondered if it might be something like that.
For what it's worth, I Iove the simple logo. I saw it as a combo of the less than symbol and three tildes which works well!
<~~~
I was convinced I didn't need an app until I logged into yours and my opinion immediately changed.
I would love for you to add the link to comment formatting when posting a comment. Even better the app can add links/buttons for it. I never remember how to properly link stuff or quote stuff so having it linked in the comment section really helps me.
Woooo! I'm using it now! Thanks so much, talklittle, I used RiF for years!
I was wondering, can the app have the up/down arrows that jump from parent comment to parent comment like RiF did? I loved using that functionality. (Also the easy-access button that jumps back to the root comment, that was great too.)
Could the app have a "jump to comment box" feature? Or could the "make a comment" UI be at the top of the comments?
The absolute grin on my face slotting this in the empty spot where reddit is fun used to be.
Since the app is free, any chance you could make the apk available to sideload for devices without Google ? Does it rely on any google services ?
Sure why not, thanks for asking. For now I linked an APK at https://www.talklittle.com/three-cheers/
I probably need to come up with a better system if I'm going to keep it in sync with the app store versions. We'll see.
Eventually some things that will break on a de-googled device will include: Push notifications; Emergency announcements from dev (via Firebase); In-app purchases.
I think crash reporting (Crashlytics) still works but haven't tested.
It's likely not paramount right now, since Tildes is small enough for a bit of security by obscurity, but providing a checksum for your APK is a good security practice so that people can verify that the version they're downloading is unaltered.
Thanks for the feedback; added a SHA256 for the APK file.
Having some kind of notification once a new version comes out that references the donwload-page and only appears in the non-app-store version would be nice. FairEmail does it that way. If you get the app via the PlayStore or F-Droid it uses their built-in update procedure, but if you download the .apk from github you get a notification when a new .apk is available to download on GitHub. They're OpenSource - so I guess you could just look at their codebase for inspiration if you wanted to do it that way as well.
Thank you !!
iOS user here, does the app work on an android emulator (like bluestacks)? Want to make sure before I install one
edit: installed bluestacks and tried the app out for a bit, reminds me of when i had an android phone and used RIF. good job 👍
Fantastic! Congratulations on the Alpha release 😊
Decade long RIF paid user here. I'm ready to pay for Lemmy is Fun! Or LIF is Fun!
=P
An app that could swap back and forth between lemmy and tildes would be even better.
Thank you for continuing to develop highly functional apps that allow me to navigate the interwebz with relative ease. I have no qualms against the Tildes website itself, but I find dedicated apps to be more fluid and less distracting in general.
Would be even better if there was a multiprotocol app that works with multiple sites and the fediverse, but that is a far-off idea.
The app is wayyy snappier than the Firefox instance I have on my phone, which is so bogged down by mandatory addons that make other websites only halfway usable.
I've had a blank spot on my home screen since uninstalling RiF, I did not expect to fill it this quickly. Thanks for making neat projects, the app looks and feels great!
Editing is the primary feature I use that still requires web.
Rad
Rad
Rad
Rad
Rad
I used RIF for almost a decade. While Tildes has been super easy to access using my phone's browser, I'm happy to have an app option since I tend to leave tabs open (my phone is the equivalent of a teenager's bedroom) and have to scroll forever to find it again. Just downloaded 3C and tucked the icon in RIF's old spot!
I love it already! Really simple and intuitive. Liking the design and the subtle animations too.
If only I could "exemplary" label a post. Congratulations on this achievement! Very exciting to see the third party ecosystem begin churning here.
Might be the gratefulness speaking but, dare I say it, this looks even better than RIF.
Instant download. I've been using a browser link for the last month and it's been awful. Nothing against the native design, it works well, but resuming where I left off has not worked at all. Thanks for RIF and now thanks for Three Cheers.
Exceptional work. Very reminiscent of the RiF interface I knew so well. I can't wait to donate/pay for a Golden Platinum version, when available.
Three cheers for Tidles, in general -- but three cheers for TalkLittle, today!
As a long term RIF user, this app immediately made me feel at home.
Fantastic work. Thank you so much.
This is an alpha?. It is astoundingly refined for what is usually considered a barebones first pass. Unbelievably good work and I can't wait to see it grow.
This is incredible, it feels like I have RIF back but even better because it's a new fresh evolving community full of thoughtful people and new ideas, and the app is clearly going to evolve with it. You do great work.
The two features I'm missing the most so far are:
I can't wait to see where this goes! It's already great.
It took me a while to first find Tildes, second figure out a way to get an invite, third wait for an invite to arrive (thanks Deimos!).
And now I'm just sitting here late to the party browsing Tildes using a new but still familiar feeling app. I love it!
If you are reading this Talklittle: RIF is the reason I used Reddit until a couple of months ago, because all the annoying stuff they implemented like coins, nfts, ugly and busy design changes didn't really bother me. For me Reddit was RIF. And since I mostly stayed out of subs that were too toxic I enjoyed Reddit a lot! When I would come across someone else browsing new Reddit on a computer I was honestly shocked how ugly Reddit has become.
Anyway, I just wanted to drop by and say that Three Cheers, at least at this time, fills the void the death of RIF has left me with.
It feels like RIF, yet is distinct enough. Fresh but familiar.
The only reason I found out about Tildes is the fact that Talklittle is making an app for it.
And now I'm excited to explore Tildes deeper!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the nice comment! Hope you do end up enjoying the Tildes community.
I really like it. Id been using Hermit as a stand-in for having a separate app, the layout of Three Cheers is definitely preferable. Thank you!
Honestly the promise of this app was one of the reasons I've started reading Tildes. The app looks fantastic so far! Great work!
Yeeeeeeaaaaaaaassssss! Thank you so much for all the hard work. Looks and feels great. Looking forward to testing and watching the development of the app.
Thank you for doing this, and so quickly too! As soon as I opened the app it felt as familiar to me as opening RiF which I'd been using for over a decade. It's looking great!
Thank you talklittle. Rif was basically my life the last 10 years. I will gladly buy premium tildes too
If you're serious about buying premium Tildes... this page might be of interest to you:
https://docs.tildes.net/donate
You don't get access to extra features personally, but you do contribute to Tildes having extra features in general.
Thanks mate, downloaded. I used RIF since it came out, so this feels a little bit like getting an old friend back. I appreciate everything you do.
Just downloaded and using Three Cheers right now. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much @talklittle.
We definitely need a subgroup of ~tildes to discuss feedback, bugs, etc
I agree I should probably set up a better place to get feedback. Ironically this points out a flaw with the default Tildes sorting: when people want to go really deep into a topic but feel uncomfortable bumping the topic to the top for everyone else who's already sick of it.
Ignore for a day / 3 days / a week would be useful here. On Tildes issue tracker.
Awesome! I have been looking for something to replace the empty space where RIF has once been on my Homescreen. At first impression it seems to run amazing! Glad to be a part of this from Alpha Stage onwards. =]
Woo I made it into the screenshots! Guess I have to install it now.
Well done mate. I'll happily test this out.
Big fan of RIF:P, so well done.
Wow, thank you so much for your work! To me, this was the only thing that was missing from Tildes.
Love it so far!
Thank you very much for designing this. It is amazing how fast you got this out(even if it is Alpha) well done!
Like everyone here, thanks for all the effort. I started using rif more than 10 years ago, as that was the only app for reddit. It was the best experience and I'm happy to follow along on this ride from Three Cheers for Tildes
I am loving the new app!
Your app does not like my phone, or vice versa.
I suspect this is because I'm using an old-ish phone that's running Android 7.1.1, which is the latest version of Android that the phone manufacturer has released for this niche phone (which I happen to love).
Oh well. It's not like I was going to use the app. I'm happy with Tildes' native mobile web interface. I was just curious to see what this app would do differently.
Although your intent isn't to use the app long-term, I'd still like to solve this puzzle at least, if you're game.
I looked up on the Google Play Developer console, which has a catalog of all known Android devices, and the specific device you linked does appear as "Supported" for this app. (Three Cheers supports Android 6 and higher.)
Was there an error message of some sort when you opened the Play Store page for Three Cheers, in the Play Store app? Did it offer you a button along the lines of "Testing" or "Opt in" or "Register"? Since the app is in testing-only mode, you will need to opt-in to testing before it can be installed.
(I uninstalled the app yesterday, after the failure. I've gone through the installation process again for the purpose of this reply.)
In the Play Store listing for your app, there's no option to click/check/tap/whatever for "Testing" or "Opt In" or "Register". I just see a single button for "Install". There's a note saying "This app is in development... [etc]", but that's it. Nothing clickable, except the "Install" button.
I install your app, without any problems.
It opens fine.
I can browse, navigate, open topics, read comments... without any problems.
I looked at the app settings. There's nothing there that asks me to opt in to testing. (As an aside: I note that your app is set up for wider phone screens than mine! Under 'Gestures', I have an option to "Double-tap comment to vo..." )
Then I go to the login screen. I enter my username, my password, tap on 'Login'...
... and the app crashes, never to open again. All subsequent attempts to re-open the app give me an error message.
(I made absolutely sure to type in my username and password correctly, to ensure there are no extraneous problems causing the failure.)
Thank you for recognising that! So many people here, over the years, have tried to solve problems I don't have. It's refreshing to see this response from you. :)
Thank you for the detailed bug report. Your report allowed me to fix the crash on Android 7, in the Three Cheers update v0.5.2 that rolled out a few hours ago. Glad to know the Play Store installation process was straightforward also.
(Technical details: An Android feature I was using requires the "Wake Lock" permission on some Android 7 devices, and was crashing because the app didn't request that permission. I could not reproduce the crash on my emulator, but saw the crash logs reported by users.)
Happy to help. (I used to be a Business Analyst in a former life, which included a lot of QA and UAT.)
The login works now. I can see and use your app on my phone, while logged in to my account.
Not that I'm an app user, and I don't intend to be, but... I have two questions. (I still remember being a Business Analyst, so I like asking questions!)
I note there is a comment button at the top of the screen when viewing a topic, but clicking that comment button only brings up a message effectively saying "Scroll down to the bottom of the page to make a comment." Why have a button that implies users can do a thing, only for it to respond with a message saying users can't do that thing?
At some future point, will you be integrating the Tildes themes into your app? When I logged in, I had two choices: black and white, or white and black. I use Solarized Light as my theme on the web, and found the black/white options to be too stark. Will you be integrating Tildes' native themes into your app, or will you be using your own themes?
I also observe that your alpha-testing pre-release app currently doesn't yet have any of the moderation features, such as comment labels or title editing or tag editing, and so on. I assume these features (and more) will be added in future updates. For now, it's got the basics covered: viewing, commenting, voting.
Just out of curiosity (because I'm not an app user, and I don't understand the interface conventions), what's the point of starring a Tildes group? I notice, when I look at my list of groups, it's categorised by groups I have subscribed to and groups I haven't subscribed to. Sensible. But my subscribed groups have an empty star next to them, which I can fill or not. That brings those groups to the top of my list. I can even star groups I'm not subscribed to. Why? What does that do?
This is, I believe, a carryover from RIF, and one that I used extensively (and likely will as topics and groups grow here). As you notice, all your subscribed groups show up first, but starring allows for an easily accessible subset. In RIF I had starred the subs I moderated, my local city subreddit, and a few other frequently accessed communities.
In my case, for instance, I might be most interested in ~transport, ~books, and ~food (but am subscribed to a much wider array); starring those puts them front and center in the sidebar, rather than having to scroll alphabetically.
I can see that starring a group puts them at the top of the list of groups. What I don't understand is why I would want to move them to the top of that list. What does that affect in the app? Does this prioritise those groups on my front page, or something?
It doesn't change anything like that, just the ease of access to those groups in the sidebar (keep in mind, you have to go to a group to submit a post to that group). Right now, Tildes is fairly small, so the list of groups isn't huge, but I could see a point in the future when there are many groups, all of which I'd be subscribed to, but some I want to access quicker than the rest.
Think of it sort of like quick bookmarks for easy navigation. In my desktop browser, I have several bookmarks, most in folders where I can access them if needed (or by typing the start of the game's name), but some of my most frequent pages I have front and center in my bookmarks bar. Another similar analogy might be a record or CD collection organized logically, but with a few of the most-played albums put separately next to the CD/record player, where you can easily grab them rather than having to go through the full collection each time (for example, I have nearly 1,000 vinyl records, arranged by record label and number, but I keep my 10-15 most-played albums next to the record player). Starring groups is a similar type of organization, aside from the all-at-once front page.
Oh. Okay. Thanks for explaining.
If someone new to Tildes logs in and visits a topic with 100+ comments, they will wonder how to comment. Without the button, they will likely try tapping and swiping everywhere, on the topic and on menus etc., a waste of their time. The button provides guidance.
After scrolling to the very bottom, the icon at the top becomes "activated," so even if they scroll back up, they can now use the icon at the top of the screen to post a reply. I recognize this activation part is not very clear; maybe I could dim the icon more when it's inactive, and/or add an animation when it activates.
I would like to at some point, but it isn't currently a priority. One light and one dark theme for now.
Thanks for answering. I'll stop wasting your time now.
Not at all. I really appreciate you taking the time (re-)installing the app to provide constructive feedback, even without the intent to use it yourself. Thank you!
Chant after me: "Custom. Rom. Custom. Rom."
Is that supposed to mean something to a non-programmer like me?
(I know how to use computers in the same way that I know how to drive a car. In both cases, I know how to make the machine do what I want it to do, but I have very little interest in what's under the hood, and I take the machine to an expert when it needs repairs.)
A custom ROM for android is a third-party OS, so you could install something like LineageOS and get off the older version of Android. I've thought about it myself, but haven't really run into any scenario where it's necessary. Here's a better explanation:
https://www.xda-developers.com/most-popular-custom-roms-android/
Thanks for the explanation.
You are very welcome! I hope you have a great weekend.
I'm happy to see you continuing to work. I'm looking forward to seeing what you do next!
Three cheers for talklittle!
Got the app now. This is my first comment on it! Thanks!
Just curious, what made you choose
the name? Any reason three cheers?
In another comment, he mentions that the app named needed to start with a T, so your phone sorts it accordingly.
Wow. I'm now browsing Tildes using Three Cheers! I wasn't a RIF user so I can't compare the two, but Three Cheers looks great!
I have one question, though: will it be available on F-droid as well?
As the app is closed source, it will not. Some reasons for being closed source mentioned in the original announcement.
What an awesome effort. This is great!
Thanks for the work, love the red highlight (in dark mode) on new comments. Makes it much easier to navigate the comment section.
Yea I didn't think RiF could be better, now I know it could have been lol. Not to say it wasn't great already, I was another decade+ user of it, but it's always nice to get new features you didn't even know you wanted lol
Yay! Former RiF user here and this is exciting to see! Also great to see I'm in such good company!
Amazing! Thank you so much for developing this. I'm really glad to see the legacy of RIF live on within this app. It's looking very promising already, despite it being an early alpha release. I'm really looking forward to experiencing Tildes on the first release version once all Features (such as labels, profile links, editing functionality, etc) have been implemented. :)
It's nice to tap the hamburger menu and see that list just like RIF. I love it!
Thank you! While similar to the website, the feel of the app is better for me. Probably all the years of using RiF.
The change in feel and responsiveness makes tildes more usable to me.
I have one question about the app’s behavior: When I click on a youtube link, it opens it as m.youtube in the app’s internal browser (and clicking “open in browser” then opens this page in chrome). I would like them to open in the actual youtube app. Is there a way to do this?
Yo! I have been waiting for this to happen and it finally has! I'm super stoked to see this come to fruition, and I am excited to see how even this basic alpha will improve my community interaction. Thank you SO much!
Awesome! As I saw a few others mention, my main phone browser was a little clunky (and tends to unload pages when task-switching, causing me to lose a nearly drafted comment) so this lightweight app is great! (Also, thanks for keeping Android 8.1 supported.)
Aside from some minor tweaks others have mentioned (navigation and the like), the only real thing I'd like to see is the implementation of Tildes themes. On desktop, I use the Solarized Light (kinda parchment color) theme, which is gentler on my eyes than the white light mode and easier for me to read than dark mode.
Hey @talklittle First comment using the app. So far so good!
I'm looking to do some work improving and fleshing out some of the wikis on certain groups. As far as I can tell, wikis can't be accessed in 3C4T, is that right? Are there any plans to add a wiki tab? I understand if this is totally not a priority as wikis are basically unused and dead at the moment here, but I hope that changes in the future.
Good to hear you're working on improving wikis. I'd admittedly forgotten about them... I've added it to my to-do list, thanks.
No problem and don't be in a rush on this particle request. It might be a while before they even worth including. I briefly discussed it with Deimos about fleshing out the ~science and ~space wikis for starters into something useful for people.
Hi @talklittle been using your app for a wee bit now and wondering how to find out about upcoming updates etc for it? I was looking to see if there was an option to access my bookmarked posts or just even comments etc and wasn't able to find them. Im not the most tech savvy so happy to hear how to access if is already possible! Otherwise if you already have plans for bookmarking, comments etc look forward to hearing an ETA for them 😊 thank you!
Three Cheers is indeed currently missing many important features, including profiles and bookmarks as you pointed out. I appreciate the feedback.
I'm currently focusing on the iOS app, with a deadline of October for the first alpha. After that, I will work on adding missing features to both Android and iOS.
Typing this out on the app! Great work so far, reminds me of the layout of RIF which is great and is fast, smooth, and intuitive. Great job with such a quick turnaround.
I'm all over this, well done!
Will scour and provide feedback soon.
RRR
Excited to hear this is on the horizon, especially covering all of those OS’. Very impressive. 🥳👍
Looks really good so far. I'm hoping to see that the multi-pane layout becomes more automatic and therfore can switch automatically when using foldable devices or dual screen devices like the Surface Duos. With respect to the Duos, it is important to respect the Jetpack Composer APIs to accommodate for the gap. I never found a Reddit app which understood how to handle the dual pane layout for the Duos, but hopefully this is something which can be planned from the beginning to give 3C4T a better footing.
I Have two more questions:
How do I add labels to other people's comments?
How do I edit my own comments?
Edit: Formatting. There. I went and edited it with the web version. Is it not possible to implement labels and editing in the app?
This is an early alpha build. These features will come in time.
You're right, @Talklittle even mentions in the original post that there are a bunch of features still missing. I need to read better.
Looks awesome. Thank you for this and RIF.
Needs Gruvbox dark theme imo (and I guess the others, but Gruvbox Dark is the best color scheme ever, it's a fact xD).
Edit: Also I am running that user script in FF Nightly mobile that color codes user names based on a hash of said username, that would be a nice feature too, maybe with the ability to edit certain colors since sometimes they are a bit too similar (like if you have two prodigious commenters with light cyan and slightly lighter cyan as their assigned colors).
Will this be free and open source?
Free, yes. Open-source, no.
Love it! I'm using it now to write this comment. It reminds me a lot of RIF!
What is the point of showing topic tags on the main page? Scrolling through the main page, I saw no instances where the tags shown (usually there was space for only 1 to 3 tags to be visible) gave me more information than the title of the topic already did. I know this is alpha, so feel free to ignore my question/feedback.
I assume that's to replicate the experience on the original native web version of Tildes, where topic tags are displayed on the main page.
Maybe so. On the web version, all tags are shown, which I still think isn't very useful (it would be more useful when viewing a single topic), but I could see how others might think it is. On Three Cheers, I don't see the point of showing only 1 to 3 of the tags.
Nothing to add, just doing a test post on the app, the preview tab is nice, if I remember to use it I might catch mistakes
Thank you so much for this! I actually just patched RiF with Evanced last night as I've been unable to moderate effectively without RiF.
Amazing!!! Commenting from Three Cheers now. I feel so at home coming from RIF ❤️
Is the app using Jetpack Compose? The UI felt like it with how tab switching works and the margins on the settings page. It's snappy though.
It is not using Jetpack Compose. It's using Fragments and the Material Components library.
My first comment from the app.
First thing I bookmarked few post I liked. Where do I find bookmark list? Is it still in development?
If your list of bookmarks isn't available on the Three Cheers app yet, you can still find them on the Tildes website itself: https://tildes.net/bookmarks
(Go to your user profile page. Open the sidebar. The second item in the list is 'Your Bookmarks'.)
Okay! thanks
First off, thank u so much for making this app!!
Here is the feedback I have after a few hours of usage.
I think it's quite strange how when a link is submitted below the tildes group it lists the Website (e.g. "CNN" or "The Washington Post") but when it's a self post it lists the name of the user that submitted the thread. I think this is a bit inconsistent. Like the name of the user should always be in the same place imo.
The other big thing I don't really like is the same issue I have with the mobile browser site of Tildes: There are no buttons and instead I have to click some text to get somewhere. Like on the landing page I have to click on the small "3 comments" text to get to the comments and I have to click on "v Actions" to get to the actions. Going from the Tildes home to the tildes group is basically impossible because it's a tiny text I have to precisely hit and in 70% of the cases it just takes me to the main link of the post instead.
On RiF I click on the post which then expands all the options with bigger buttons. It takes 3 taps to take me from the Front Page to a post's subreddit (Tap on post -> ... -> "View /r/games"). While that's a few necessary steps, it's way easier than having to super precise with my tapping.
Again thank u sm for your work!!
That reflects the format of Tildes on the website.
huh that's true. for some reason I didn't notice on the website. Maybe because it's less prominent?
That is good feedback. I've updated the "Comments" and "Actions" buttons in v0.5.3 to be easier to hit.
Absolutely awesome and great for my old samsung. Already gave 5 stars.
Also no problems. Thanks for making it accesible to old android too.
For the iOS version, are they any plans for compatibility with iOS 15? Haven’t been able to try out any of the other Tildes clients for iOS, since my iPhone just stopped getting major iOS versions.
From a previous post about TC4T:
Talklittle,
I know this is off-topic but I'm incredibly curious about your opinion. I had been using RIF for many years, as my oldest Reddit account is well over a decade old at this point.
Where do you think Reddit lost it's way? Did you ever feel like you lost that connection to Reddit before this all happened? Because I'm finding something on Tildes I noticed Reddit has been missing for a very long time.
Soooooo happy there's an app!! 👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌
Congrats and awesome work!! 😍 Have only been using Tilds since the great Redxit and LOVE that there's already an app. I saw one for iphone was being developed but not android yet so super surprised and excited/happy 👏👏🙌🙌 thank you!! Also have started a regular Pateron donation as this is my go to. I never paid for R and never will but more than happy to donate and contribute to something so awesome!! ❤️❤️