7 ms·
Show HN: HackerNows – Native iOS HN Client
- ngalaiko 3mo agogreat app, neat and native, but unfortunately the website still loads faster, which beats the whole purpose to me
- alentodorov 3mo ago+1. downloaded it to see if it’s faster, but comment section takes around 5-7 seconds to load. other than that, gj—-nice ux, polished, icon..
- wwalexander 3mo agoNot really fixable, unfortunately. The API requires an network call for each comment: > The v0 API is essentially a dump of our in-memory data structures. We know, what works great locally in memory isn't so hot over the network. When I played around with making a client, I found the best approach was to only load the first level of comments, and asynchronously fetch children inside DisclosureGroups on appear. Then I realized the only reason I was making an HN app was so it didn’t blind me at night, and then I realized Lobsters has all the same stories as this place but lets me filter out vibe coding articles, and I just gave up.
- trains39472 3mo agoYou can fetch the HTML (1 request), parse that, extract the comments, render the above the fold content, then use the API and blend the rest of the comments for the rest of the comments. You can also use the algolia api to grab comment data but the order doesn't match the website. At least, that's what claude would suggest doing.
- deleted 3mo ago[deleted]
- JSR_FDED 3mo agoThis is the first HN app that immediately clicks for me. Would absolutely love it if the text could be made bigger (both for reading and commenting)! By the way, this reply was posted using the HackerNows app itself :-)
- maguszin 3mo agoThanks, i will work on that. Native dynamic fonts works, but i will add an in app option to change font size
- atombender 3mo agoYou might like HACK [1], then. It has a large set of options (maybe too many!) to change fonts, styles, colors, and spacing. It's probably the most extensive HN client for iOS. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader/id1464477788 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...
- murats 3mo agoI really like this. It feels clean enough that I might make it my main HN app.
- christofori 3mo agoNice job, bro! Keep it up!
- ngsevers 3mo agoAny plans for android?
- maguszin 3mo agoMaybe in the future, im working on a macOS version atm and since the app rely heavily on iCloud it makes it difficult to support Android
- toomuchtodo 3mo agoLooking forward to the macOS version!
- vforno 3mo agoI'm trying it, really interesting!
- maguszin 3mo agoIf some users start seen `HNNetwork.NetworkError error 0`, this could be related to HN rate limit, i will add a friendly message for this error on the next version
- tulio_ribeiro 3mo agoI don’t think the Firebase HN API has rate limits. By the way, how many concurrent requests are you doing?
- maguszin 3mo agoIm using Firebase API, Algolia and HN Site HN Site request are never concurrent and i only use it when i cannot use Firebase and Algolia
- nicce 3mo agoIs there some caching currently? And how login is handled? Are credentials routed through your own infrastructure?
- maguszin 3mo agoEverything is persisted on device using GRDB Credentials are stored on device keychain Nothing leaves the app, its all Firebase, HNSite and iCloud to store custom groups I dont have any infra supporting the app
- wesleynepo 3mo agoMuito foda, obrigado meu bom!
- functionmouse 3mo agowhy does this website need an app?
- forlorn 3mo agoWhy does any?
- _thisdot 3mo agoI have been using an app on my phone (HACK) for a while. The content is way more readable with the app. And the interactions (voting and replying) are much more native. Navigating the comments (collapsing and expanding) are way easier Also on the iPad, the two column view is nice too
- nicce 3mo agoIf it is not the data collection, then it is always the UX. Seems to be UX on this case. But highly opinionated, some people like the old feel here.
- jazzypants 3mo agoDo you read it on your phone? This website's (lack of a) mobile design makes it really hard to read. If I don't use my mobile app of choice (Harmonic), I have to zoom in really close and scroll all over the place. It's really annoying. The font is way too small, and it's hard-coded.
- midasz 3mo agoThis looks fine to me? In long threads it gets a bit hard to follow, only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment. https://i.imgur.com/8e1Syyf.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/8e1Syyf.jpeg
- johnsonjo 3mo ago> only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment That's a two step process currently when you are just going through the comments you click "root" on any sub-root-comment and then "next" on the root comment. Next will always take you to the next sibling comment (called a sibling, because it's a tree data-structure basically and sibling comes from a family tree. In fact where I said sub-root-comment I could have said descendants or children.) EDIT: I just realized that the first child of the root doesn't have the "root" button so you have to click "parent" on it and then "next".
- fallenchromium 3mo agoHey! Why a new app though? It's always interesting to understand the motives and the preferences of a person creating something new. I've skimmed through your website but you haven't highlighted what you missed in existing apps or what was your pain point
- maguszin 3mo agoFor this one i would say Custom Groups and iCloud sync All other features are pretty similar to other HN clients
- artur_makly 3mo agoFeature Request: allow me to see only posts by categories I want to create and filter by. For example: "AI" or "startups" or "discoveries"
- artur_makly 3mo agoFeature Request #2 Allow me to re-edit my comment after posting.
- rvz 3mo agoI predict that building an iOS app for HN will be so common, that it will become a standard AI benchmark.
- fragmede 3mo agoPretty cool. Any way to change the fonts?
- tulio_ribeiro 3mo agoHN clients are one of the most popular projects. I’m gonna agree with some of the other comment: this is nothing new. https://hnpwa.com/ https://hnpwa.com/
- ksncksmckwkf 3mo agoWhy does it have to be “something new”? Unless you’re making the same type of comment on every post about yet another nonsensical and useless AI post around here, I don’t think you have much right to complain. It’s a cool thing someone built. Let it be what it is.
- mstkllah 3mo agoFrist three apps won't even load.
- Glandalf 3mo agoIs it vibe coded? Sorry I ask this about ALL software now.
- ramon156 3mo agoThe website is, no idea about the app, though.
- maguszin 3mo agoYes, the site is vibe coded
- wmichelin 3mo agoHonestly? Why does it matter? This isn’t going away so we can all focus our energy on helping this workflow improve, or just ignoring it.
- mlacks 3mo agoWhy would that be relevant?
- Diti 3mo agoBecause support for the app stops the moment the Claude Code subscription ends. No-one enjoys unmaintained apps.
- fragmede 3mo agoThen use OpenAI Codex?
- nicce 3mo agoI guess it depends whether vibe coding means that human did not even review the code. If reviewed and fine-tuned, there shouldn't be a problem IMO.
- maguszin 3mo agoNo, the app is not vibe coded, all things, good and bad are 100% human made :D
- atombender 3mo agoAlways interesting to see new HN apps, and this one seems OK. Personally I prefer HACK [1], which is probably the most extensive HN client for iOS. The amount of options for controlling the look of the app means you can influence the reading experience quite a bit, which isn't true for this new app. My biggest complaint with HACK is search. Instead of a real UI, it uses its own kludgy search syntax to control what to filter. For example, "foo #stories" filters stories only. [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader/id1464477788 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...
- Jotalea 3mo agoslightly related, what are the best open source RSS readers for iOS? as far as I know, HN has an RSS Feed available.
- stasomatic 3mo agoI don't know about "best", but I've tried many, Reeder, Feedly etc, for many years. These are not OSS though, but Reeder was my favorite of the bunch. I settled on running NewsBlur on an OVH instance, it's open source and so are the apps. https://github.com/samuelclay/newsblur https://github.com/samuelclay/newsblur On the desktop I use the default web interface, it runs and looks nice. A bit too many batteries included, but you can turn things off. It's Django, so you can vibe code to your heart's delight. I did.
- brycewray 3mo agoHighly recommend NetNewsWire, especially if one is already using it on any other Apple device. Recent updates have substantially improved its performance (on both iOS and macOS), so it's worth a second look if you haven't tried it recently.
- caste 3mo agoreally good app! super intuitive and the layout is so clean congrats!
- vfalbor 3mo agoThere is one email-newsletter (Top daily news from HN commented) that works from several months ago for HN that I'm using, you should check it: https://tokenstree.eu https://tokenstree.eu
- earningedged 3mo ago[flagged]