It's been awhile since it was asked, so I thought it was time to ask again. I'd prefer something with a widget on Android, and I don't want to exclude iOS offerings for those who use that.
I'd also prefer better UIs, of course functionality is important, but in my opinion UI has a functionality factor to it as well.
Not an app, but I think it’s better than almost all of the apps out there. Clean, quick, and has an “open in new tab” feature.
Rather than writing my own description, here’s the pitch in the site’s own words:
> Hacker News is a great resource. However, I seemed to constantly run into two issues. 1. If I didn't visit at least once a day, top items would scroll off the top pages and I would never see them. 2. If I was procrastinating and visiting the page often, I would find it difficult to determine what was new on the page. That frustration led to hckr news, a chronologic list of items that have made it onto the Hacker News homepage.
+1 to that - I love that it's time sorted instead of prioritised by what other people have voted for. I procrastinate/visit enough that I can usually keep up to date with what's happening.
I've been using http://hn.premii.com/about/ forever now, the toggle night mode from the homepage is fantastic for switching between dark/light theme very quickly.
The web version is clean and fast, and there's a native iOS and Android app out now as well. (Funny backstory: before the native iOS app was released, the mobile web version already felt like a native app, and instead the native app is nearly indistinguishable from the web app. However, the native app is better in that links open up in the Safari View Controller, so it's easier to pop back and forth between websites and the news feed.)
Honestly I just stick with the website. What do you feel that an app might give you that the HN website does not? Only on that basis might an app recommendation be appropriate as they all provide some features but are missing others.
I gotta say I tried MiniHack which is nice enough but the fact that it doens’t allow you to use Chrome instead of Safari bothered me to no end.
Personally, what has worked best for me is an RSS aggregator (I use NewsBlur) combined with a good RSS Reader like Reeder (iOS and OSX) [no affiliation with any of these products].
This way I can sync my ‘read’ entries, favourite my faves, and Pinboard the ones I found really useful for later reference.
Yeah I've stuck with it for years now and while trying others every so often as it has bugs with voting and editing your own posts I think it's still the best by far.
Did you report the bugs? I once reported a bug in MiniHack and it was fixed pretty quickly.
I think I encountered the problem with editing your own posts but I post rarely on mobile and when I do I'm in a hurry. BTW a HN sandbox would be cool where you could test these things without causing noise.
What is the problem with the voting you mentioned?
Although I don't like the design and it's not very usable of mobile (buttons are too small), my consumption flow depends on the "Open in new tab" functionality. This is also why I prefer the Reddit website to the app.
I would use a client that let me queue links/threads/comments for future reading. I'll probably end up building it.
Ironically I had to open this in a browser to make this comment (since no app supports that advanced feature) but FYI the mobile version of Firefox supports the queueing up of multiple links for later viewing, rather than immediately switching to the firefox app every time you open a link.
It's not perfectly analogous to "open in new tab" on a desktop but you might find it helpful.
I know nobody uses Firefox on mobile but it seems decent enough to me.
New apps shouldn't be needed for this kind of thing. Get an RSS reader and use https://news.ycombinator.com/rss. If you want to get your comment replies too, ask HN to start providing a feed for it, if they do, I couldn't find it. Start using the reader for everything you can. Most YouTube channels have a hidden feed, Reddit has feeds, most sites worth a damn have feeds. You will save countless hours of your life never having to sift through things you've already read or intentionally skipped. You can add your own filters for junk sites that are going to show you a pay wall, tell you to allow tracking or require you to sign up.
I tried that but it gets quite tedious with HN. Even with hnrss.org "frontpage" lots of stories show up. And even with a filter >10 points there's a ton to look at. Still haven't figured out a good way to consume HN.
Can you think of a feature a standalone app could provide to help with those concerns? Maybe you're just trying to consume too much at once? I leave my RSS reader running in the background against the regular feed and I've never felt like it was too much, even after the weekend. Only thing that bothers me is when titles get adjusted, they get introduced as new items but I'm willing to put up with that in order to never have to rescan over anything else ever again. I only have 4 other, very low volume feeds I deal with, maybe that's why HNs volume doesn't seem as bad to me.
I'm working on my own Better and Improved, but for now i use hn.premii.com for my mobile needs, and hckrnews.com with a few userscripts for everything else.
EDIT: and hn.algolia.com for anything vaguely related to search.
Tried a few, but honestly, the website seems to be better. I suppose the UI could be a little spiffier, but it not only works, but keeps working long-term. Most of the apps I've tried work okay-ish at first, and then fall into disrepair after a year or two due to some combination of developer boredom and site/API changes.
Are there any Android apps where you can get the Share menu from long press on URL in a comment? Tried all of the ones linked so far and none of them have this.
Not an app, but I think it’s better than almost all of the apps out there. Clean, quick, and has an “open in new tab” feature.
Rather than writing my own description, here’s the pitch in the site’s own words:
> Hacker News is a great resource. However, I seemed to constantly run into two issues. 1. If I didn't visit at least once a day, top items would scroll off the top pages and I would never see them. 2. If I was procrastinating and visiting the page often, I would find it difficult to determine what was new on the page. That frustration led to hckr news, a chronologic list of items that have made it onto the Hacker News homepage.
(https://hckrnews.com/about.html)
I think apps don’t have much to offer since HN has thread collapse and vote-undo these days.