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OP developer here. I am excited to share my beautiful new Hacker News client with you all. After building apps in Objective C for many years, this is my very fi

OP developer here. I am excited to share my beautiful new Hacker News client with you all. After building apps in Objective C for many years, this is my very first all Swift app. I finally decided to transition completely to Swift when Apple announced it's stable enough to be bundled with the 12.2 iOS itself. I have been working non stop for the past 3-4 weeks on this app with 5-6 hours of sleep and working till 7 am to get it done. I am super excited to finally have it released and am open to feedback. Features which make my app stand out to other clients and hacker news on browser - - Swipe on a post or comment to upvote or favorite. - Reply to comments and posts from the app. - Dark theme - both pure black as well as light gray. It is free on a per session basis. If the app is relaunched, it will default to light theme. You can purchase a small one time in app purchase to unlock it permanently. - 10 font choices and many color themes - iPad support with Split View - Landscape and Portrait support - All known hacker news endpoints - News, front page, Ask HN, Show HN, Show HN Newest, classic, active, best stories, best comments, new stories, new comments, noob stories, noob comments, jobs, over 100-500 points - Powerful Search powered by Algolia API. You can sort search by adding "@date". Search for stories only by adding "#story", comments by adding "#comments". Search for a story by a particular user by adding "#story,author_username" etc - Beautiful UI (I understand my opinion is biased though). - No ads, No subscriptions. Many other features which I would let the app speak for itself. I am available here for any questions and feedback to make the app better!

chronogram 7y ago
Hack Premium in-app purchase is only for the dark theme? Ed: the privacy policy sure is a bit too scary for me. But good luck!
- busymom0 7y ago
  That privacy policy was linking to my other app. I just updated my app store page and it should link to the correct privacy policy. Please have a look now and let me know if you have questions. It's available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbrebrvkxn5cthv/hackprivacypolicy.html?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbrebrvkxn5cthv/hackprivacypolicy....
  - chronogram 7y ago
    “The app does not send or collect any data to us.” Nice and easy, I like it! Regarding the premium features, I think they’re a solid idea. The OLED users have a thousand dollar phone anyway, and for the regular phone users white screens are I believe 0,4% more power efficient or something, and they can turn on dark mode for late night reading comfort. Plus, I think it’s good to pay for apps. Font wise I think Source is an excellent screen font, so I am happy that’s the default but I would also not dislike the default being SF. I love the button to go down the comment thread. Really nice app, thanks. Edit: wow the automatic reader mode on links is the best thing I’ve ever seen in an app. (I don’t have many apps installed to be fair)
    - busymom0 7y ago
      Thanks! Yes, I made SF the default font in the update to be released tomorrow. Also added features like font resize, disabling haptic feedback etc. Should be available tomorrow!
- busymom0 7y ago
  The IAP lets you change fonts, tint color for buttons and the dark mode theme is unlocked permanently. I didn't want to lock the dark mode for free users - so free users can still enable dark mode but it's on a per session basis. When the app is relaunched (closed from the app switcher or killed by the OS), it defaults to the light theme for free users. I thought this was a good balance for free users and also have the ability to use dark mode permanently.
  - prh8 7y ago
    That's a very clever way to let users test drive dark mode. There was a HN client posted a couple weeks ago, but virtually all settings and customization was locked behind IAP. Without being able to really try the app at all, I just uninstalled it.
    - busymom0 7y ago
      Thanks, yes I thought I would rather have the user be able to try the dark mode before buying as I would expect the same from other apps.
  - hultner 7y ago
    Would be nice to be able to try out the other settings such as don't like this as well so we easier could make an assessment of the app, I'd gladly pay if it solves the largest quriks/issues I have with the app I'm currently using, but I'd like to try it out properly first.
    - busymom0 7y ago
      That’s a fair point, I will consider making other paid features included on a per session basis too!
  - barefootcoder 7y ago
    Thanks for that. It's a great idea to let people try the feature out.
tabs_masterrace 7y ago
Congrats on shipping!! Some quick feedback: Haptic Feedback, too much. Please don't do it on every push/pop. Home page a bit overloaded, not very clear what the default HN page is. News? Front? Classic? Comment and upvote count not too prominent enough. These two, together with the headline are what you glance for when scrolling the feed. Personally I feel on the XS font size seeems a bit too big, seems about right for a normal app, but for a HN-Reader I'd go one smaller (for everything basically).
- busymom0 7y ago
  Yea, the haptic feedback wasn't supposed to be there for the push/pop/back button. It's a bug, I already fixed it and submitted to Apple, it will be available in an update tomorrow. I will be adding a setting to change font sizes in an update. I can also add a different row view with the comment and upvote count more prominent. The home page items are the same endpoints which HN has as can be found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists The classic as per HN uses the same ranking system, but only counts votes from very early/older users: https://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic
- busymom0 7y ago
  Hey! So I released an update today which adds settings to change the font size for story title, text and metadata. It also removes the haptic feedback for back, setting and search buttons. Plus a setting to disable it entirely. There will also be another update tomorrow available which will also add ability to edit the padding around elements to make it as compact as you like which lets you see more content on screen. Check out the screenshots of what it would look like after tomorrow’s update (note that all sizes will be fully customizable to your liking): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wd2n18vh77y94of/AAC5bwOI1xWL1rtuLR3X_afaa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wd2n18vh77y94of/AAC5bwOI1xWL1rtuL... I will also add auto hide on scroll for the top UI elements. I was going to add it today but the font stuff took priority. I will also add a way to make a page the home page on launch. Let me know what you think and any other feedback!
throwmex 7y ago
Is is too much of an ask if you can add a filter option? For example I do not want to see post titles containing a certain keyword or from a certain popular domain.
- busymom0 7y ago
  That's a good idea, I can add that filter option in an update!
  - throwmex 7y ago
    Thank you for considering this. This is what I am using to filter HN currently. https://github.com/sid-kap/hackernews-filter https://github.com/sid-kap/hackernews-filter
hultner 7y ago
The one thing I'd pay for is a scheduled dark/ample -mode like with night shift. Prefably dark sunset to sunrise and light during the day. But a timed schedule would do as a 90% solution. Currently I use different apps during day and night for this reason.
- busymom0 7y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, I will add that feature in an update!
indentit 7y ago
Was this perhaps inspired at all by the Materialistic Hacker News app for Android? It has most of those features you listed :)
- busymom0 7y ago
  No, it wasn’t actually, even though I do own an android device too as I make android apps, I don’t use it as my primary device. So not familiar with the android store much.
jvzr 7y ago
The app is great! It so smooth and a true iOS citizen However I have a hard time finding my bearings because I use http://hckrnews.com http://hckrnews.com almost exclusively and I've gotten used to the way it works: it displays a chronological list of posts that made it to the front page. This way it's easy to find interesting posts and discussions, as well as what's new. I'm a completionist and I like to see everything and make sure I've not missed anything. Would it be possible to have something similar? I hope so but I understand that it may be a lot of work and that you'd not be willing Also, that makes me think: it'd be great to be able to specify a view to open the app on, instead of the list menu Anyway, thank you and congrats for the launch!
- busymom0 7y ago
  Thank you for the feedback, I am going to take your feedback and implement it in the app. I will get back to you in the next few days!
acheron 7y ago
I need a new HN app and am giving it a try! Is downvoting/flagging in there or just upvoting?
- busymom0 7y ago
  Currently I don’t have downvoting and flagging because I don’t have enough karma to test it lol. I will add it in as soon as I have enough karma here to test.
  - acheron 7y ago
    Then I’ll upvote you, heh. Flagging should only require around 30 karma IIRC. The interface is great though, I’m really liking it.
    - busymom0 7y ago
      I will check the flagging feature! You will love tomorrow’s update too, I am adding more customization to allow more compact views so you can see more content.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

chronogram 7y ago

Hack Premium in-app purchase is only for the dark theme? Ed: the privacy policy sure is a bit too scary for me. But good luck!

busymom0 7y ago
That privacy policy was linking to my other app. I just updated my app store page and it should link to the correct privacy policy. Please have a look now and let me know if you have questions. It's available here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbrebrvkxn5cthv/hackprivacypolicy.html?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/qbrebrvkxn5cthv/hackprivacypolicy....
- chronogram 7y ago
  “The app does not send or collect any data to us.” Nice and easy, I like it! Regarding the premium features, I think they’re a solid idea. The OLED users have a thousand dollar phone anyway, and for the regular phone users white screens are I believe 0,4% more power efficient or something, and they can turn on dark mode for late night reading comfort. Plus, I think it’s good to pay for apps. Font wise I think Source is an excellent screen font, so I am happy that’s the default but I would also not dislike the default being SF. I love the button to go down the comment thread. Really nice app, thanks. Edit: wow the automatic reader mode on links is the best thing I’ve ever seen in an app. (I don’t have many apps installed to be fair)
  - busymom0 7y ago
    Thanks! Yes, I made SF the default font in the update to be released tomorrow. Also added features like font resize, disabling haptic feedback etc. Should be available tomorrow!
busymom0 7y ago
The IAP lets you change fonts, tint color for buttons and the dark mode theme is unlocked permanently. I didn't want to lock the dark mode for free users - so free users can still enable dark mode but it's on a per session basis. When the app is relaunched (closed from the app switcher or killed by the OS), it defaults to the light theme for free users. I thought this was a good balance for free users and also have the ability to use dark mode permanently.
- prh8 7y ago
  That's a very clever way to let users test drive dark mode. There was a HN client posted a couple weeks ago, but virtually all settings and customization was locked behind IAP. Without being able to really try the app at all, I just uninstalled it.
  - busymom0 7y ago
    Thanks, yes I thought I would rather have the user be able to try the dark mode before buying as I would expect the same from other apps.
- hultner 7y ago
  Would be nice to be able to try out the other settings such as don't like this as well so we easier could make an assessment of the app, I'd gladly pay if it solves the largest quriks/issues I have with the app I'm currently using, but I'd like to try it out properly first.
  - busymom0 7y ago
    That’s a fair point, I will consider making other paid features included on a per session basis too!
- barefootcoder 7y ago
  Thanks for that. It's a great idea to let people try the feature out.

tabs_masterrace 7y ago

Congrats on shipping!! Some quick feedback: Haptic Feedback, too much. Please don't do it on every push/pop. Home page a bit overloaded, not very clear what the default HN page is. News? Front? Classic? Comment and upvote count not too prominent enough. These two, together with the headline are what you glance for when scrolling the feed. Personally I feel on the XS font size seeems a bit too big, seems about right for a normal app, but for a HN-Reader I'd go one smaller (for everything basically).

busymom0 7y ago
Yea, the haptic feedback wasn't supposed to be there for the push/pop/back button. It's a bug, I already fixed it and submitted to Apple, it will be available in an update tomorrow. I will be adding a setting to change font sizes in an update. I can also add a different row view with the comment and upvote count more prominent. The home page items are the same endpoints which HN has as can be found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists The classic as per HN uses the same ranking system, but only counts votes from very early/older users: https://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic
busymom0 7y ago
Hey! So I released an update today which adds settings to change the font size for story title, text and metadata. It also removes the haptic feedback for back, setting and search buttons. Plus a setting to disable it entirely. There will also be another update tomorrow available which will also add ability to edit the padding around elements to make it as compact as you like which lets you see more content on screen. Check out the screenshots of what it would look like after tomorrow’s update (note that all sizes will be fully customizable to your liking): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wd2n18vh77y94of/AAC5bwOI1xWL1rtuLR3X_afaa?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wd2n18vh77y94of/AAC5bwOI1xWL1rtuL... I will also add auto hide on scroll for the top UI elements. I was going to add it today but the font stuff took priority. I will also add a way to make a page the home page on launch. Let me know what you think and any other feedback!

throwmex 7y ago

Is is too much of an ask if you can add a filter option? For example I do not want to see post titles containing a certain keyword or from a certain popular domain.

busymom0 7y ago
That's a good idea, I can add that filter option in an update!
- throwmex 7y ago
  Thank you for considering this. This is what I am using to filter HN currently. https://github.com/sid-kap/hackernews-filter https://github.com/sid-kap/hackernews-filter

hultner 7y ago

The one thing I'd pay for is a scheduled dark/ample -mode like with night shift. Prefably dark sunset to sunrise and light during the day. But a timed schedule would do as a 90% solution. Currently I use different apps during day and night for this reason.

busymom0 7y ago
Thanks for the feedback, I will add that feature in an update!

indentit 7y ago

Was this perhaps inspired at all by the Materialistic Hacker News app for Android? It has most of those features you listed :)

busymom0 7y ago
No, it wasn’t actually, even though I do own an android device too as I make android apps, I don’t use it as my primary device. So not familiar with the android store much.

jvzr 7y ago

The app is great! It so smooth and a true iOS citizen However I have a hard time finding my bearings because I use http://hckrnews.com http://hckrnews.com almost exclusively and I've gotten used to the way it works: it displays a chronological list of posts that made it to the front page. This way it's easy to find interesting posts and discussions, as well as what's new. I'm a completionist and I like to see everything and make sure I've not missed anything. Would it be possible to have something similar? I hope so but I understand that it may be a lot of work and that you'd not be willing Also, that makes me think: it'd be great to be able to specify a view to open the app on, instead of the list menu Anyway, thank you and congrats for the launch!

busymom0 7y ago
Thank you for the feedback, I am going to take your feedback and implement it in the app. I will get back to you in the next few days!

acheron 7y ago

I need a new HN app and am giving it a try! Is downvoting/flagging in there or just upvoting?

busymom0 7y ago
Currently I don’t have downvoting and flagging because I don’t have enough karma to test it lol. I will add it in as soon as I have enough karma here to test.
- acheron 7y ago
  Then I’ll upvote you, heh. Flagging should only require around 30 karma IIRC. The interface is great though, I’m really liking it.
  - busymom0 7y ago
    I will check the flagging feature! You will love tomorrow’s update too, I am adding more customization to allow more compact views so you can see more content.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]