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/
What about “Eternity”? I love it for Lemmy and no ads
Awesome and smooth UI
Big fan Of Sync, but idk if it has tracking
This reads like a paid advertisement.
Or you can buy Boost and get rid of the ad/tracking.
Boost is brilliant and other apps still have catching up to do but the competition is getting better and better.
I’ve used boost for forever in reddit, I used it when it came to lemmy.
But voyager is better.
Will give it a shot, thanks! Though I’m very happy with boost currently - what does voyager do better?
Yes give it a try.
I’m not saying that boost lacks anything. But it’s the feel that I get when using Voyager. I know it’s weird, but, it’s my enjoyment that made me switch.
It really whips the llamas ass
i use lemmy on firefox browser mobile and desktop?
Jerboa is very cool and works great
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
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.
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.
It’s pretty obvious, nothing is secret here. This strategy has been 1000% standard for like 20 years now.
“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.
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. 😅
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.
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*
Stop using boost ages ago. The lack of updates makes the app unusable anyway.
News to me. Boost is not only extremely usable, it’s more so than the others I tried, which was basically all the android apps.
I have tried most of the android apps there which haven’t been abandoned.
Also, not updating frequently isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I don’t see bugginess and the only feature I actually want but don’t have is spoiler formatting.
In the end, the other apps feel either glitchy, too complicated, or ugly. Sync for example. If the configuration UI was way simpler, I’d probably have used it. But it wasn’t and I had to dick around with settings a lot in various menus to get it about 95% as nice as boost. Why not just use the one with sane defaults? I’m good with giving $4 for software I like and use daily.
I hope you have donated to your lemmy instance too.
I’m not sure why you’re bringing that up, but I have been donating.
Cool just reminding. Insance is more important.
Thanks. Just uninstalled it.
good now delete every other app on your phone that contains Google ads
Big 'yet you live in society. Curious" vibes.
i just thought it’s a bit useless to delete an app “because it has Google trackers” and then keep using 23 other apps that have Google trackers
Difficult for Android users.
that’s the point
But that’s one less app and there are great alternatives, so why continue using one that tracks you?
I have bought the premium version because it was really cheap so no it doesn’t track me
Use this app to make sure. It installs a local VPN to check connections, needs no root.
You do you, most goes with what’s free and there are plenty of good free options available.
Ads are a bad way of funding the development, especially for Lemmy, a place where a lot of people are increasingly privacy-minded.
sure, hope you enjoy your free apps while they last
Ads are a bad way of funding the development, especially for Lemmy
couldn’t agree more! that’s why I bought the premium version
Because it doesn’t?
It does. Check the privacy policy, 6 mentions of trackers as well as opting out of the trackers.
Lemmy looks and works fine in a mobile browser; why do you even need an app?
Gestures, user tagging, UI improvements.
On mobile web on the default Lemmy UI, you need to scroll to the top to get to other communities and change the sorting of posts and comments, where it’s way more accessible on apps.
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.
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.
-complains about people being uniformed.
-Does nothing to inform them.
Because other users in this thread have already given the relevant info.
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
I’ve not found a similar service to Exodus for iOS devices (yeah, I know, but that’s what I’ve got) but to the best of my knowledge Mlem is a pretty good alternative to Boost on apple devices, and the best user-experience I’ve so far found
Mlem is in my opinion the best open source Lemmy client for iOS. There is another amazing client named Arctic for Lemmy that has great UX but the app is proprietary. However it seems to be privacy respecting and nothing compared to Boost privacy nightmare.
Raccoon is also a great alternative for trackerless Lemmy browsing, I personally prefer it over Jerboa and Voyager.
Ooh, that app is fun! I also recommend Eternity for a Lemmy app (or just Fennec and ublock- not that my lemmy instance has anything to worry about)
I also love the difference in apps I got from the Play Store vs Neo store.
Also, ExpressVPN with 2 trackers? Shame. Mullvad wins again.
