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Show HN: HackerNewt – Breadth-first exploring HN client for iOS

68 points by hnand 1y ago

I made a HN client that allows you to explore comments in a breadth-first manner. Compared to the classic depth-first approach, it works much better for the larger threads - you don't lose the context and can easily skip discussions you're not interested in. Video preview: https://imgur.com/a/tzBdpXw https://imgur.com/a/tzBdpXw

vrighter 1y ago
i saw the video, and it seems really similar to just a tree view with all the children collapsed by default. How is this different?
fraXis 1y ago
Nice job! Will you be releasing an Android version?
- hnand 1y ago
  Thanks! As of now I don't have any plans for Android. It's a native iOS app written in Swift, so that would require building a new app from the ground up.
  - tnetenbaa 1y ago
    Don't know if you saw, but Swift is coming to Android. Might not require a rebuild after all.
    - xp84 1y ago
      Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44387409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44387409
- defenestrated 1y ago
  For Android users: Download the excellent, and well maintained Harmonic app and enable "Auto-collapse top level comments" to achieve the same BFS effect. No need to download a new shareware app.
pvg 1y ago
A thread 2 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36030350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36030350
- krishnasangeeth 1y ago
  Isn’t it advice from YC itself to launch multiple times :)
sneak 1y ago
Thanks for not surveilling the users of your app. I bought the premium version.
ashish01 1y ago
I also prefer BFS expansion of comments. So I implemented https://hn-reader.pages.dev/ https://hn-reader.pages.dev/ for this. Also has dark mode to be easy on eyes.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
vednig 1y ago
I built one too at hacked.stream few months back in React Native
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
thebruce87m 1y ago
How does this compare to HACK? Getting fed up with the crash bug that’s been around for years.
- CharlesW 1y ago
  I can’t recall it crashing on me (not that I doubt it is for you), but for other issues the author has been extremely responsive. IIRC you can report issues directly from the app.
  - glitchcrab 1y ago
    Yup, a recent update fixed a bug which I corresponded with the developer about a little while ago; I was very pleased to see it implemented.
defenestrated 1y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
recov 1y ago
Been using it for a while. Sometimes it takes a minute+ to initially refresh feeds but I thank that’s a HN issue?
afro88 1y ago
This is great. Thanks for creating it! Matches how I read comments, and fixes my only gripe with HN: I'm forever missing the touch target of the little [-] to collapse a thread once I have read it. Yes there is a next button too, but I prefer to collapse so I don't see what I've already read when scrolling around. I found a bug on first launch. Every item was duplicated in the list. A refresh fixed it. Anyway, thanks for building this, it's very nicely done and useful.
mittermayr 1y ago
Opened it up, first thing I do is set it to dark because every other HN app runs on dark — immediately prompts me to upgrade and pay. Sorry, but making money by not being annoying is such an old-school way to try and make a buck. Totally understand it can't be free, but then let people pay for things that make your app stand out — not the ability to "let the dark mode toggle stay put", I mean...
- ForceBru 1y ago
  What could make such an app "stand out"?
  - tartoran 1y ago
    Should be free first of all, HN is free after all and with it's old tech it is still working well and is also friction free. I've seen plenty of show HN:HN and most don't have traction because the original is just too good. It's probably one reason why it withstood the test of time and why we still have a community here.
    - zamadatix 1y ago
      I think it's less "too good" and more "$0 but been around 18 years so why bother with any alternative for >=$0 which has been around for 2 months. Also, why do I trust you again?". I.e. "not bad enough".
      - al_borland 1y ago
        Or it’s that every platform like this that does a major upgrade to the UI is awful. They are almost always driven by people looking to increase revenue at the expense of the user experience. The users hate it and leave in mass. Having seen this pattern time and time again, I don’t know why sites keep doing it, other than then obvious “investor pressure.” There seems to be an inverse relationship between the spend on development and user experience.
    - dmd 1y ago
xp84 1y ago
I had already downloaded a previous version of this app, so I was happy to see that it was already on my phone. With Octal having an issue recently, it's nice to try out this alternative. We're very fortunate that so many hackers are intrinsically motivated to make excellent (even free) apps for this purpose, since we like hanging out here!
vinnski 1y ago
Nicely done - thanks for making it. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to swipe actions between boards though… other than that I appreciate its simplicity. The haptics slider is a nice touch too
eviks 1y ago
Nice to see innovating trying to solve the common threaded comment design flaw (not a big fan of the forced vertical repositioning on stack un-/grouping as even with animations it slightly breaks your visual fixation)! Though for the width issue there is a simpler solution for most of the cases (except for very deep trees) - just make the margin smaller. In the product video there are two relatively big margins - left of the comment box and left of text within the box. But this is pure waste, you don't need so much whitespace to signal text hierarchy.
krishnasangeeth 1y ago
Congrats on the launch. I built a similar app with search functionality and bookmarking some time back https://apps.apple.com/us/app/h-for-hacker-news/id6744145932 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/h-for-hacker-news/id6744145932 This was primarily built as a way to learn building apps. I went for a style similar to the website and tapping the comment closes the parent comment.
goodburb 1y ago
Feature suggestion, a persistent saved word filter for stories, especially on days when the frontpage is mostly politics or AI. Currently using https://isit.mooo.com https://isit.mooo.com for daily usage and http://hnapp.com http://hnapp.com for advanced search.
- krishnasangeeth 1y ago
  You can checkout h for hacker news. It has a search API over algolia.

68 points by hnand 1y ago

vrighter 1y ago

i saw the video, and it seems really similar to just a tree view with all the children collapsed by default. How is this different?

fraXis 1y ago

Nice job! Will you be releasing an Android version?

hnand 1y ago
Thanks! As of now I don't have any plans for Android. It's a native iOS app written in Swift, so that would require building a new app from the ground up.
- tnetenbaa 1y ago
  Don't know if you saw, but Swift is coming to Android. Might not require a rebuild after all.
  - xp84 1y ago
    Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44387409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44387409
defenestrated 1y ago
For Android users: Download the excellent, and well maintained Harmonic app and enable "Auto-collapse top level comments" to achieve the same BFS effect. No need to download a new shareware app.

pvg 1y ago

A thread 2 years ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36030350 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36030350

krishnasangeeth 1y ago
Isn’t it advice from YC itself to launch multiple times :)

sneak 1y ago

Thanks for not surveilling the users of your app. I bought the premium version.

ashish01 1y ago

I also prefer BFS expansion of comments. So I implemented https://hn-reader.pages.dev/ https://hn-reader.pages.dev/ for this. Also has dark mode to be easy on eyes.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

vednig 1y ago

I built one too at hacked.stream few months back in React Native

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

thebruce87m 1y ago

How does this compare to HACK? Getting fed up with the crash bug that’s been around for years.

CharlesW 1y ago
I can’t recall it crashing on me (not that I doubt it is for you), but for other issues the author has been extremely responsive. IIRC you can report issues directly from the app.
- glitchcrab 1y ago
  Yup, a recent update fixed a bug which I corresponded with the developer about a little while ago; I was very pleased to see it implemented.

defenestrated 1y ago

[flagged]

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

recov 1y ago

Been using it for a while. Sometimes it takes a minute+ to initially refresh feeds but I thank that’s a HN issue?

afro88 1y ago

This is great. Thanks for creating it! Matches how I read comments, and fixes my only gripe with HN: I'm forever missing the touch target of the little [-] to collapse a thread once I have read it. Yes there is a next button too, but I prefer to collapse so I don't see what I've already read when scrolling around. I found a bug on first launch. Every item was duplicated in the list. A refresh fixed it. Anyway, thanks for building this, it's very nicely done and useful.

mittermayr 1y ago

Opened it up, first thing I do is set it to dark because every other HN app runs on dark — immediately prompts me to upgrade and pay. Sorry, but making money by not being annoying is such an old-school way to try and make a buck. Totally understand it can't be free, but then let people pay for things that make your app stand out — not the ability to "let the dark mode toggle stay put", I mean...

ForceBru 1y ago
What could make such an app "stand out"?
- tartoran 1y ago
  Should be free first of all, HN is free after all and with it's old tech it is still working well and is also friction free. I've seen plenty of show HN:HN and most don't have traction because the original is just too good. It's probably one reason why it withstood the test of time and why we still have a community here.
  - zamadatix 1y ago
    I think it's less "too good" and more "$0 but been around 18 years so why bother with any alternative for >=$0 which has been around for 2 months. Also, why do I trust you again?". I.e. "not bad enough".
    - al_borland 1y ago
      Or it’s that every platform like this that does a major upgrade to the UI is awful. They are almost always driven by people looking to increase revenue at the expense of the user experience. The users hate it and leave in mass. Having seen this pattern time and time again, I don’t know why sites keep doing it, other than then obvious “investor pressure.” There seems to be an inverse relationship between the spend on development and user experience.
  - dmd 1y ago

xp84 1y ago

I had already downloaded a previous version of this app, so I was happy to see that it was already on my phone. With Octal having an issue recently, it's nice to try out this alternative. We're very fortunate that so many hackers are intrinsically motivated to make excellent (even free) apps for this purpose, since we like hanging out here!

vinnski 1y ago

Nicely done - thanks for making it. Not sure if I’ll ever get used to swipe actions between boards though… other than that I appreciate its simplicity. The haptics slider is a nice touch too

eviks 1y ago

Nice to see innovating trying to solve the common threaded comment design flaw (not a big fan of the forced vertical repositioning on stack un-/grouping as even with animations it slightly breaks your visual fixation)! Though for the width issue there is a simpler solution for most of the cases (except for very deep trees) - just make the margin smaller. In the product video there are two relatively big margins - left of the comment box and left of text within the box. But this is pure waste, you don't need so much whitespace to signal text hierarchy.

krishnasangeeth 1y ago

Congrats on the launch. I built a similar app with search functionality and bookmarking some time back https://apps.apple.com/us/app/h-for-hacker-news/id6744145932 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/h-for-hacker-news/id6744145932 This was primarily built as a way to learn building apps. I went for a style similar to the website and tapping the comment closes the parent comment.

goodburb 1y ago

Feature suggestion, a persistent saved word filter for stories, especially on days when the frontpage is mostly politics or AI. Currently using https://isit.mooo.com https://isit.mooo.com for daily usage and http://hnapp.com http://hnapp.com for advanced search.

krishnasangeeth 1y ago
You can checkout h for hacker news. It has a search API over algolia.