Yeah, came here to say this. The fediverse sites are so diverse that instead of trying to implement everything in one gigaapp it's better to just browse the site in the browser.
heck, most some of the sites even allow for installing it as an app. Kbin works pretty good and for lemmy I use wefwef.app which mimics Apollo layout and even have gesture based actions, only downside is that I'm using android and the iPhone app UX threw me off lol (like the no universal back button).
though I think OP wants something like one place to see everything, and seamless experience when visiting each server / site.
You would have to support each service separately, because they all work differently.
What connects Lemmy, Mastodon and other fediverse services is the ActivityPub protocol, that's the standardized communication protocol that makes everything run. The individual instances run different software that offer entirely different APIs (application programming interface; basically the language that defines how an app talks to a service) so in order to support Mastodon, Lemmy and Kbin, an app must explicitly implement the APIs for those three services.
So an app that generally just supports every service that will be added to the fediverse in the future can't be made unless we agree on some form of standard API, which we haven't (yet) and which may not even be feasable, because different services have much different capabilities.
A fediverse discord clone would offer completely different data structures and functionality than Lemmy, so an app that magically just works with both isn't possible to make.
I wouldn’t say it’s not possible it’s just too hard for the reward. The app would not be user-friendly because of the very different kinds of services that exists. OP just imagine you had an one app that basically lets you access discord, twitter, instagram, Facebook, Reddit and others. It would be possible but it’s a lot of work for a really crappy app. That app would be messy and cluttered and not a good experience.
Artemis is an upcoming iOS app that is supposed to work for the whole “threadiverse” (so Kbin and Lemmy).
I think it is generally doable but it end up being double the work - you have to take the independently designed architectures of kbin and lemmy and marry them under one UI. This could lead to more bugs and slower development, especially early on. I can see what most apps are focusing on one or the other.
Implementing Mastodon would be even harder, because it’s post at architecture doesn’t follow the same pattern as kbin and lemmy’s . Would people really use an app where Reddit-style threads are mixed in with Twitter-style posts? I think it’s better that Mastodon is kept separate tbh.
Yeah, someone could make a Fediverse app that works with everything, but it’d have to be someone with a lot of time on their hands and enough acumen to make something that can put up a UI for all frontends that can compete with both Ivory and…well, whatever emerges as the big Lemmy/Kbin app.
It's definitely possible, but it would be a swiss army knife of an app that's way too hard to make compared to how confusing and messy the end result would probably be
Closest thing I know is Fedilab, which works with Mastodon, Pleroma, Pixelfed and Friendica. While compatible with each other, each fediverse service uses different parts and features of ActivityPub (the protocol they all share). It's technically possible to build an app that does it all, but doesn't really sound sensible.
it also sort-of-kind-of-little-bit-of works with Misskey/Calckey. I don't think any official work has been done to enable support, but you can login with your account and browse posts.
I remember having an app like that on my old Nokia smart phone. The app supported Twitter, Foursquare, Facebook and some other social platform too. I can only imagine how difficult it was to maintain.
I would love this! At least for Mastodon and Lemmy, which I consider somewhat similar. I use Mona for Mastodon and would love have a separate tab within that app for accessing Lemmy. I just really like the design and feature set of the app and having it extended to Lemmy would be so nice.
Seriously though, “fediverse” just means internet plus shared hosting of content. Why would you want a single app to amalgate photos and chat and videos and weather and restaurant reviews and auctions and whatever else people choose to federate?
As ActivityPub is just an underlying protocol, the question is similar to asking something like "Is it possible to make an Internet app for everything?".
There will be new ways to use the #fediverse in the future and new applications will be developed and adopted and it makes little sense in trying to provide every possible way to view the fediverse in an ever playing catch-up implementation of a view into it.
Try to look at it as the Internet itself.
It's an attempt at providing a finite and limited answer to an open ended question. Doesn't make a lot of sense.
In Mastodon you can follow people (and Lemmy communities) in other Fediverse implementations. It's not the full featured experience you get on them but you get a feed of the posts and can comment and like them, giving them a boost there.
It's early days and I'm still experimenting with it but it looks like I might be using Mastodon as my hub for the Fediverse.
This is true but I am still very confused about various kbin submission types. I once created a microblog post and then when I later checked that community on its lemmy domain view, my "micropost" was a whole thread with the entire contents as both title and body in it, duplicated. Some kbin threads also show up on mastodon (articles IIRC) but others don't and there is no visual indication in the app which one it's going to be.
If the various "redditish" projects could agree an shared framework providing access to all the features common across all implementations then sure, it'd be easy. But the thing is, that things are done just different enough that dedicated apps make sense to make use of any unique features.
Also, I've been using my phone's browser to post to kbin and I think it is fine.
Technically I think yes, you could pull all the data you are subscribed to from the instances. Getting the UI to be clean would be the major challenge imo.
I would like to see this though. Maybe I'll start a project I will abandon soon after 🤣