According to the tracking scanner Exodus (can be found on F-Droid), which keeps an updated database on trackers and runs your installed app against its register, you can track what apps are tracking you and clues of how. Saw that Boost is tracking me and uninstalled it and went straight to Jerboa. Jerboa is pretty similar to good ole’ RedditIsFun-app and easy to use, so I am personally recommending it.
From F-Droid:
Exodus (Exodus show you trackers and permissions in apps installed on your device.) https://f-droid.org/packages/org.eu.exodus_privacy.exodusprivacy/
I remembered Boost from the good old days a while back and am using it alongside voyager. It’s not as great as I remembered, so I’ll probably stick with Voyager. My home network keeps me safe of ads though 😉
Nice, I’m on the same boat. Voyager is superior to boost
Big fan Of Sync, but idk if it has tracking
I’ve seen this kind of post about boost several times now. It’s just sad that people are just maliciously uninformed. It made me want to support the dev even more. Paying for the ad free version now.
I love how this post just contributed to more people paying for the paid version lol
I also just paid for no ads to support
-complains about people being uniformed.
-Does nothing to inform them.
Because other users in this thread have already given the relevant info.
i mean, it’s just ads. you’re blowing this way out of proportion just because of some unintrusive ads.
devs gotta eat. if you prefer FOSS, that’s great! i love FOSS software too! but boost is like home to me, even with the ads.
YSK that, in general, you should only use Android apps from F-Droid unless you’ve got a very good justification for doing otherwise. That’s especially true for generic/basic utility apps like calculators, calendars, and file managers, classic games like solitaire or tetris, and Lemmy clients.
This is completely natural common sense for you and me, but to other people its alien to live with the “guilty until proven innocent” mindset that needs to be applied to software.
Weird question maybe but are any of the podcast apps as feature rich and pocketcasts? I really like the trim silence function.
AntennaPod is like 10x better than pocketcasts. Anytime someone asks for a podcast app, Foss or not, Antennapod is the first one brought up.
i use lemmy on firefox browser mobile and desktop?
Or just use a browser, ffs.
everything doesnt need to be an app.
especially when its nothing but a goddamn webbrowser, wrapped in an app, with less protection.
They’re not just browsers, they’re accessing the posts via an API and presenting it in a bespoke manner with purpose-built controls.
That’s good because it’s faster and lower-data than a webpage, and it’s easier and faster to use on mobile.
Not every app is just a web browser, that’s a particular kind of lazy app created by the app hype bubble like 20 years ago.
I really don’t know anything about the technicalities of apps, but you should try http://phtn.app/ on mobile, it’s UI is pretty good.
That being said if there was an app for it I would totally prefer that over a webpage in my browserI use it on desktop, despite some bugs from time to time I really enjoy the experience and slick design ! It’s still in early alpha so honestly I am impressed !
That’s very laggy for me, whereas my lemmy app, voyager, is extremely smooth.
It’s building a general purpose UI as a webpage which then has to be interpreted via your browser which then serves the UI up to you. Because this browser has to handle literally whatever is being thrown at it at all times, there is a lot of overhead and extra processes running to make it work correctly.
All of the graphics are equivalent, every line between every element, every button, every image is represented in the same data that the text is, so the phone is interpreting and rendering many times more stuff.
In contrast, a native app takes the bare text & media data and renders it in native controls, so the phone is able take a tiny amount of data and fit it into a template that renders natively on the phone. It’s doing orders of magnitude less work.
Why use a browser?
Just learn how to parse raw HTTP responses. That’s all a browser does, with less protection.
Nope, you can’t actually do that anymore since there’s SSL in the way. I tried anyway, though, just for giggles:
drath@machine:~$ telnet lemm.ee 80 Trying 2606:4700:20::681a:5f3... Connected to lemm.ee. Escape character is '^]'. GET / <html> <head><title>400 Bad Request</title></head> <body> <center><h1>400 Bad Request</h1></center> <hr><center>cloudflare</center> </body> </html> Connection closed by foreign host.Of course I can curl and wget, but that feels against the spirit of hardcore reading the raw data.
As the other comments are saying, this is made very clear when you launch the app for the first time that it is ad supported, and you can donate a small amount to get all tracking and ads removed.
Love the app and I want the dev to continue development so I paid for the ad free. Devs are people and need money to live too, you know this post was just sensationalized for your own clicks.
Same deal with sync.
Minus the “small amount” part.
Is it significantly bigger? I don’t remember.
The sync dev made the same app that he did for the… other site, and built up loyalty from that. I switched to it as soon as I could get my hands on it and make sure it still worked the same.
People already liked it because they already knew it. Don’t remember now what the paid version cost, but I imagine he gets a lot of loyalty from before.
I’ve only tried one other app for Lemmy though, so I can’t say much about how it compares to others.
It’s $20
Ho leeeeee
I didn’t think it was that high, even for both versions (reddit and Lemmy) combined.
Either way I’m not too upset.
Lemmings have a huge obsession with shit being both free and adfree, youtube is the most baffling one, they refuse to pay for it, then bitch about the ads, it seems they are entitled to having VoD delivered to them anytime anywhere in the world got completely free.
Counterpoint I think there’s a lot of lemmings who put a lot of money into hosting the very server you just posted this comment on.
Not sure what that has to do with my point, but okay
I’d pay for Youtube if Google would guarantee to not track me. I donate to open source projects that I use, rotating every month whom I choose to donate to. I even donated to Manjaro recently even though I don’t use it any more, but it was something I had used in the past and I was poor and couldn’t donate them then. But I refuse to feel any guilt for watching Youtube for free.
Lemmings have a huge obsession with shit being both free and adfree
Not sure thats very accurate. There’s a healthy percentage who donate to instances and developers, because on open source platforms/services/software you don’t have just trust no ones selling your data for their profit and its good to support that.
If Google open sourced their clients, got rid of adverts and all tracking and stopped selling or giving away user data but charged a reasonable fee I’d happily use YouTube.
I am clearly talking about people who continue to use youtube and want to use youtube but also adfree and for free, if you stopped using YouTube all my respect for you for actually standing up for what you believe in.
YouTube is a little bit different, imo. Ads essentially carpet-bomb you on YouTube, and the money isn’t going to the people who actually create the content. If there were a reasonable number of ads, and they paid creators more, I wouldn’t have nearly as much of a problem with it as I do.
Do you think all those bytes of video data are free to host and get to you?
Did you miss the part where I said “reasonable” and “more”? I did not say that there should be no ads or that they should pay creators everything.
YouTube makes more than $350b annually, and the most liberal operating cost estimate I’ve seen (they don’t release numbers) has put their hosting and distribution costs at about $25b. They pay out $9b annually to creators. They have 122k employees making an average of $117k annually, so that’s another $13b in employee salaries (which is always the biggest cost any company shoulders). To be extremely generous, let’s assume they also spend another $40b for all the other stuff they do as a business (office space, gold for play button plaques, pizza parties for their employees, legal, etc)–to be clear, that’s more than Netflix made in total last year, so while it might be ridiculously high, it’s not ridiculously low.
That adds up to $87b in operating costs annually. To be even more unreasonably liberal here, let’s double that. $174b in operating costs on $350b revenue would be less than half of the total, leaving them them with a whopping $176,000,000,000 in profits annually.
Only about $40b of that is ads; everything else is from subscriptions, deals, etc. And, as noted before, they pay creators about $9b annually. So if they cut ads in half, and doubled their creator payout, they would reduce their total profits to $147b. If they totally eliminated ads altogether and quadrupled their creator payout, they’d still be making more than $107 billion dollars per year above operating expenses.
They can afford to ease up on the gas a little bit.
Youtube shouldn’t be baffling to you if you pay attention. Youtube still hoards tons of data and tracking on top of its ads. And paying doesn’t stop that. Also, they removed the option to pay to remove ads but skip all the other stuff. They removed that option right at the same time they started their war against ad blockers. Combine those points with the typical enshittification and we wind up with a service that doesn’t deserve your pity.
Definitely a dissenting view but one I can’t help but agree with. Same applies to piracy for me. You don’t want to give Disney money? Fair enough. Very reasonable. You still “need” to watch The Mandalorian? Okay…
I disagree with that, Piracy doesn’t cost anyone anything, it’s people using their own internet connection and hardware to share the data, I also paid way more for my Plex setup than what it would cost to pay for streaming services.
I have everything in one place, conveniently, that’s the big difference, that’s why I am willing to pay more for my own setup.
I used to pay for netflix too, but then everyone started doing their own streaming service and now you need to have like 5-6 and then every country has something different on it, it’s a mess.
Not to mention they did shit like removed a Community episode because I guess that fixed racism?
another thing is that Scrubs is one of my favorite shows, but because licensing deals expired they changed the soundtrack and the original soundtrack was a huge part of that show, so to see it in it’s original version, you have to pirate it.
I don’t think that’s how most pirates, myself included, see it. It’s not about “needing” to see the mandalorian, it’s simply about wanting to see it, but if the only way to see it “legally” is to make a monthly subscription for a service that offers me no other value, offered by a company I don’t want to support, I’m not doing that. And the thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way - I happily paid for Netflix for years, before content started being fragmented. As a wise man once put it, piracy is a service problem, not a price problem.
Same with Youtube - it’s not the ads, it’s the endless amount, the annoying implementations, and non-creator-friendly practices. They’re not doing ads in order to keep the servers running - they simply need to find new ways to squeeze every cent of profit quarter after quarter, and I’m not playing that game.
This only applies to big corps though - if you pirate indie content and don’t even make a donation to the artist, you’re an ass.
I really appreciate you responding to me in good faith, thanks. I know it’s a fine line, but generally for me not liking the terms of the agreement isn’t enough for me to force my own terms. That said, the one time I’ve pirated something in the last few years was when Prime removed a show from the platform when I had 1.5 episodes of 5 seasons left to go. The idea of paying an extra 10 quid to watch maybe 1% of an otherwise ‘free’ show pissed me off haha.
So I’m not following my philosophy perfectly either. If it came to something like wanting to watch The Mandalorian from scratch though, I would wait and buy the DVD/BluRay.
For me at least, my objection with YouTube is that Google takes a cut. I’d much rather contribute an equivalent amount to some creators via patreon and adblock the site.
Also I’m not saying the host doesn’t deserve a cut, I just think that corporations like Google are a general pest that should be eradicated
So, stop using their service? That’s the best way to eradicate google
Do have any idea how difficult it is to host a video platform? The cut they take is absolutely fair.
Anyone with a cell phone can be a youtuber.
I have close to 20 years of experience in IT and I would need to spend many days to set up an alternative for myself (forget about other people) even using software already made, and it would still cost a ridiculous amount of (partially upfront) money.
My issue with that is, g didn’t have to buy yt. They chose to. They fucked it. They knew going in that yt was a money pit. They understood everything, and they still did it. The users expected a decent, not ad-riddled experience, with no paywalled features, as yt was 20 years ago. For me, when g cried ‘it’s so hard, it costs so much money’ I pulled out my tiny violin as they assfucked their users, when they realized it hurts to hemorrhage money.
That’s what you signed up for, g. You saw a lemon on the dealership lot, stated ‘I can fix that’, and then when you realized you can’t, you expect everyone else to chip in for the repair bills - by money, personal data, or both. Nah fam, that’s not how we do things round here.
They knew what it costs, it was their plan all along as with every major service.
- get a bunch of money (either from other products or VC)
- offer a free or ridiculously cheap service to attract users, losing money in the process
- explosion in the number of users
- establish yourself as the standard
- stop losing money by rising prices or implementing ads
- users put Pikachu face, they thought the free service would magically run forever
If Google hadn’t bought it, YouTube would implement ads on their own, it was just not sustainable. Google had deeper pockets, could run it losing money for longer, get an even bigger share of the market and now they are cashing in, billions per quarter.
And i am one of the people paying for it, because it is a good product. Attracts good creators by paying them better than other platforms and works well everyday, on every device.
It’s called a loss leader, FYI.
Well yes, I’m just gonna watch Youtube videos ad free, how did you know
Ya… I just bought the app. It was like 6 bucks? Totally worth it since I use it all the time and I want to support the dev.
Same! Boost is awesome and it was a no brainer paying for the ad removal
I reported this post because it hurts the dev for no reason. Hope it gets removed but the damage is already done. People are stupid.
If the devs say it up front then how does reporting it hurt them? It’s just accurate.
It’s being presented in such a way that makes it look like malicious/nefarious tracking is in place, when in reality it has to do with ad analytics.
It’s 2025, ad analytics ARE for malicious/nefarious purposes. Who do you think they’re selling them to, Mr. Rogers?
And if you want them gone, you can pay for the app. It’s not like you’re stuck with them.
Don’t abuse the report system.
Your getting downvoted for an accurate statement.
This really is just redditv2. Discussion to the sidelines over vibes and feels.
Boost is the best!
Launch the Rocket! 🚀
Aside from what everyone else has said regarding the ads: Boost is an amazing app and I don’t browse Lemmy without it!
yeah the ad free version is cheap and a real delight! I don’t get why these people are making such a big deal out of it
I guess I’m just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all. Lemmy is free, signing up on an instance is free, people are posting/creating content for free, moderators are taking care of the space for free. No one’s locking in to get “fed” through the entire chain. The arguments about abandoned apps doesn’t really compute since plenty paid and advertising friendly apps go under/stop developing further as well (and the entire Lemmy eco-system is free so silly points of “capitalism better”). There’s also the crux of “Apps just replace a webpage”, they’re really not reinventing the wheel here.
But, if people prefer paid apps, if the developers want to construct the apps in that manner, have at it. I do think spreading awareness of what apps are out there is important, and how they operate (this is YSK after all). I also wouldn’t spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.
You’re missing the part where the lemmy and instance staff needs to get fed too. Donate to your instance the same as you would buy this app. If you use a free service for many hours, and you can spare a couple bucks, then spare it.
Nothing is immune to enshitification, not even non-shitified things.
To enshitify in human (it seems).
To grow past & beyond it is to stride for greatness, for the way forward for society to evolve.
Support foss you would like to see in the future, evolving into next gens.
And no, I do not mean support with ads of the evil megacorps!! I mean support by directly sending devs coffee or whatever the nice donation button says.
I guess I’m just legitimately confused about how to feel about it all.
The freedom of Lemmy and the fediverse let’s people choose how to interact with it.
If a user is looking for a free to use , open source, ad-free experience then that’s their choice.
If others are happy to pay for an app because they prefer the experience that app provides them they can choose to do so.
I also wouldn’t spend time in my day coming into defend organizations that want to monetize on open source community projects either.
OP read that Boost may contain code used for tracking, then started spewing some conspiracy that “Boost is tracking your data for profiling and more!” without any proof or any actual research.
This isn’t a case of defending some giant corporation, it’s just stopping tedious drama before it spreads.
If you check OPs profile they’ve been spreading this for over a week. When I first saw this thread the masses were heavily upvoting the conspiracy and downvoting anyone disagreeing.
OP read that Boost may contain code used for tracking, then started spewing some conspiracy that “Boost is tracking your data for profiling and more!” without any proof or any actual research.
This has actually been on my mind for a while now. Louis Rossmann and his consequences have been a disaster for the human race. He and his ilk talk about profiling in terms so sensationalist (“data stealing”, “spying”) that any connection to reality goes out the window and people become conspiratorial and paranoid. All reasoning about why it happens gets flattened to “they’re evil” and there’s no way to actually engage with the reasons.
I think I am one of the very few people who objects the correlation between streaming services DRM and data collection Louis talks about in his video where he tries to stream Netflix from a Linux box and gets 720p. “Piracy is absolutely justified” or sth like that was the title of the video.
What about connect?
The duck duck go app tracker firewall thing their browser comes with stops trackers coming from Connect. It’s a bummer cuz I like the app but I’ve been using a web browser more and more to access lemmy.
Connect dev here. We have 0 trackers of any kind.
I just wanna use one that has material design/material you, so it looks good in my Android phone
Thunder has a toggle for Material You
Voyager has two themes: one uses Material design for Android users and one uses the old Apollo look-and-feel for iOS users.
Can check out Eternity
You can do a one time purchase to remove the ads and tracking you know, monetising an app without ads is hard.
You’re being downvoted for providing true information that disputes sensationalism. This place is truly fucking weird
I get that lemmy userbase in general dislikes ads, i dislike ads too but not every dev can go without it on their projects. There has to be some income from somewhere after all.
You can serve ads to your users without being Big Brother and selling users data to data brokers… Unfortunately it doesn’t seems to generate enough revenue anymore :'(
Lol, dude got aa much upvotes as u
When I posted that the comment I was replying to was sitting at
-13Goes to show that the first people to vote on stuff don’t represent the community as a whole
it probably only changed because Rogue made that comment
just like on Reddit, there’s a lot of sheeple here that downvote a comment just because it’s already being downvoted
You’re not wrong but… gestures broadly at the other available apps that don’t do stuff like this
It would also take some huge scandal before voyager seizes to be the absolute king of lemmy apps.
Performance alone i have yet to see anything get close.
Ceases*
Do you get a tracker-free software version, or just an ad-free experience?
The Dev confirmed that the trackers which are part of the ads plugin are not loaded when purchasing the app.
At the very least it is bloaty for being a free alternative and predatory they remove it by you paying for it, when the free alternatives are still just as good.
It’s pretty obvious, nothing is secret here. This strategy has been 1000% standard for like 20 years now.
Lol, it’s not like they have a monopoly (a big base sure).
What they do is transparent, they let you know upfront, and the price for the app it low.
I’m not saying I like that model, so I don’t use Boost, but this is far from megacorp strategy.
I don’t like them because of the (ad) monetisation with the big corpos, but that’s just me going ‘eww’, not me looking at Boost holding a gun to users saying this is the only way to interact with Lemmy.
(I go much more ‘ewwwww’ when I have to install an apk from Google store, via eg Aurora Store)
Also long live the (un??)dead Eternity, rofl.
Also, always use open sauce repos.
I mean if a free software that is funded via ads using tracking for their ads (a required for ad networks after all) is “confusing” to users, I honestly don’t know what to say. 🤷
Also what would be that less favorable option? Paying a dev? What a horrible fate indeed. 😅
“predatory”. You are really stretching it. A full screen message is displayed on first launch explaining the options.
For sure, it’s worth letting people know if they aren’t aware. It’s been a while since I installed boost, but I remember there being very clear messages about the ads and tracking, explaining it was to compensate the developer for the time he spent converting the reddit client to lemmy, and with the option of a one time fee to completely avoid trackers and ads.
While I love it when things are truly FOSS, I understand that I pay my barber and my plumber for their time, and I don’t have a problem paying a one-off fee to buy software I want. What is exploitative are many subscription models, and all software that takes your money AND still monetises you (looking at you microsoft).
It’s good to make people aware of genuinely free alternatives. But I used jerboa, voyager and a few other lemmy clients and I’m much happier with Boost and it was worth every cent.
As long as you are in the know and knowingly know what you are paying for it’s all good.
I personally wouldn’t because supporting them (by using or paying) will bump them up on App-store popularity lists when you search for “Lemmy” and that would only keep misleading more unaware people.
You’re completely free to support the apps and developers you prefer, but I don’t think I understand what you mean by “keep misleading more unaware people”? The play store listing for Boost for Lemmy says “Contains ads.” and “In-app purchases” in multiple places (for one, it’s the the third line after the name and developer). Its really not misleading anyone. Do you have examples of Boost or the developer claiming it is ad free or FOSS? Or do you mean something else?
I don’t approve of predatory practices, so if you can provide any evidence I would be keen to change my 5 star review and stop using the app.
What a cool service, thanks for sharing. You can also check the Exodus database via web if you can’t or don’t want to install the native Android app.
It’s also built into the Aurora Store (frontend for Google Play Store)
That’s great info! Thanks for replying
