The Boost android client for Lemmy is displaying these dark pattern ads pretending to be system notifications. What security/privacy conscious Lemmy clients do you recommend?
The Boost android client for Lemmy is displaying these dark pattern ads pretending to be system notifications. What security/privacy conscious Lemmy clients do you recommend?
Boost dev here. There should be an Ad icon on the top right to report the ad. Not sure why it is not showing in this case. I will try to block those ads in the AdMob console. Edit: Done
The ads come from an ad network where there is very little visibility into what's going to be displayed in your app. And bad people also keep managing to get their ads published even though the ad network doesn't allow them
And it all ties into the whole targeted advertising, where they also make sure very few people get the bad ad, and tries to target people they think may be more susceptible to these kinds of tactics. Depending on the amount of interactivity allowed, the ad can even display two different things if it deems you too savvy to fall for it.
It's basically unescapable unless you only use apps without ads, or pay for the ad-free versions.
The whole advertising industry is sketchy, more news at 10.
Voyager
It's a FOSS privacy respecting Lemmy client.
It's available on Android and IOS
You can also try it as a PWA: https://vger.app
Your lemmy app has ads???
I start with whatever is on F-Droid, and narrow it down from there.
Jerboa was the only option there until recently. I see Voyager and Eternity are there now. I'll have to give them a try.
Install the fdroid apps. Eternity is a good example of a fdroid app for lemmy
- Voyager for Lemmy
- NextDNS to kill basically all 3rd party ad networks and tracking
Thanks for the warning, switching to Jerboa.
Use foss apps
Use F-Droid, Google store is a malware vendor at this point.
I really like Voyager.
Maybe I'm behind on my terms but does this count as a dark pattern?
It was my understanding that dark patterns are a thing designed to use a service in a way that they wouldn't normally intend to, like renew a subscription or leave privacy options to the benefit of the company instead of the user.
This just seems like a scam, or at best highly deceptive advertising? Like, for it to be a dark pattern it would have to actually be able to send you to some android update system, but it almost certainly isn't ever going to do that.
The dev has to do what they have to do to feed themselves. If you really like the app, deal with the ads or pay for the app. I personally can't deal with ads so I'm on Eternity for Lemmy (through the fdroid store)
Ads in the feed now? Yikes, that's reason enough for me to switch before I'm forced to update it.
Good god I thought that was my client for a moment. Almost uninstalled before realising it was an image.
Phew
I'm not so sure about clients that are specifically focused on security and privacy, however my general FOSS mobile app suggestions would be Voyager for a polished UX, or Eternity for a more native Android experience.
Both are available on GitHub and F-Droid
i bought boost the first day because i loved boost for reddit but, honestly, i'm loving eternity even more these days.
it's on neo store/fdroid and the repo is here: https://codeberg.org/Bazsalanszky/Eternity
What’s your absolute must needs? I’m on iOS but Voyager (android as well) has been my top choice for a while now even beating out apps I’ve paid lifetime subscriptions for because the developers disappeared or have been extremely quiet. I like Thunder a lot too. It’s missing key features I like in Voyager but I love its design and how smooth it is.
Thunder! It is
- FOSS
- Cross-platform (Android/iOS and you can even build for desktop or web)
- Has some neat features that I haven't seen in other clients, like a really customizable FAB, material you theming, multiple anonymous instances, ping time and version info for instances, supports 0.19 including new features like instance blocking, an advanced share that can create a microblog style image to share posts
- Very good accessibility
- and lots more.
Coming from Relay for Reddit, I feel very at home in Thunder!
I just use my mobile browser (firefox for android) to view it.
I'm reading this on Boost (once off payment) and no ads...
Why would you need an app when an account settings page and a web interface for posts exist? What need is that combination not meeting for you?
Connect does not have ads
I have Boost, but I haven't seen any ads like that before. The main one I use is Jerboa though.
Idk, I've tried a few but still like Boost; just can't get into Jerboa or Liftoff, which I tried. It's mostly just their ad network being meh --- though I mostly just get crappy fake gameplay ads, and not enough to bother me. I'm not even sure if they're targeting me, cause if they are, they're pretty bad at it.
Unfortunately I'm sure the app developer doesn't get much say, virtually all mobile app networks are cancer.
I paid $3.49 to support the developers and the ads go away as a bonus.
Wefwef. It's so normal.
I use the webpage as a webapp. It's adless.
Sync, but it still has ads. Honestly just get an adblocker, it's free.
Lemmy website does provide official PWA app.
On iOS: Safari > Lemmy website > Hit share button > Add to home screen. On android, I assume steps will be similar.
I wholeheartedly recommend PWA app as such is published by the publisher of website itself, and I don’t need to download it either from official or 3rd party store.
In case you don’t know, PWA is basically a web app, running using your browser engine, which has almost same look-n-feel of native app.
I recommend ignoring update requests when they pop up. It's not just Boost, I've seen so many of those kids of ads now that I just go check for updates through the system.
Use Jerboa.
I think your ads got hacked.
I used my Google rewards credit to remove ads in Sync, because I ain't paying for that shit and they would have expired anyway.
As long as you go out every now and then (to shops or next to shops) and consistently answer the rewards stuff (doesn't need to be true it seems, just consistent) then you'll eventually be in the same boat as me and probably many others where you'll eventually have nothing to spend the rewards on as you'll have bought all the apps you need and will ditch the rewards in the end.
I've just started logging in via Alexandrite then saving it to my home screen.
Also not FOSS, but I'm using Summit.
It's the only client on Android I'm aware of that has mod-tools built in.
