I'm the developer of one of the most popular Android clients for HN, Harmonic for Hacker News. Over the years I have recieved many requests to open source the app which I am finally doing - sorry about taking so long :)
Having been very busy working on my PhD during the last two years - Harmonic has not recieved the attention it deserves. I therefore hope that open sourcing it can give it a new lease on life. I also hope that by posting here many of the nice people who have reached out to me will notice that the app is finally open source. I'm also happy to answer questions about the app but cannot make any hard promises about future features.
(As a note; I wouldn't call the architecture of the app a beauty by any means - it is very much cobbled together using my (somewhat outdated) knowledge about Android development.)
Cobbled together or not, the app is functional, has an awesome UI and I love that I don't have to leave the app to actually read articles. Awesome work!
You're very welcome! Always nice to hear that someone has been happy with the app for a long time. Would be very cool if you could make some form of contribution. Again I apologize for the code being somewhat of a mess - it was not made with open source in mind but if you have any issues I'll try to help you out :)
First of all, I love the app (I'm writing this comment on it write now)!
I'd always wondered, is the UI inspired by Relay for Reddit? The sliding between, colour-coded comment chains you tap to collapse, I absolutely love it and it's the only other place I've seen it. I wish more apps used this style, it's so intuitive, pretty, and pleasant to use
Thank you! It is partly - I use Sync for reddit as my reddit client and that is an inspiration for much of the UI however I did actually download Relay because I know it had some interesting UI choices and stole some ideas from there. It's amusing that it is noticable
Thanks! I don't have any design background but have spent a lot of time zooming into pixels and comparing alternatives so it's nice to hear that the choices resonate with others
Harmonic has been my favourite, but only as an HN client but as an overall app. Have been using it for ~2 years now. Huge thank you for building this and thank you for open sourcing it!
Wow that is very kind of you to say! Maybe it's because I've spent so much time with it that I see the cracks but it makes me glad that you view it so fondly :)
I do all my HN browsing on this "minimalist" mobile client called Glider. It's actually great, feels modern and you upvote and reply with swipe actions instead of buttons, which I actually like.
I've tried glider for some time but it had a very unpleasant tendency to freeze my phone completely. I've since switched to Hacki which is really responsive and has similar swipe controls.
This is what I often use, though I have noticed some weirdness where votes won't stick despite the app saying that they did and comment threads that are too big constantly refresh until all the comments are loaded. Might give some of the other apps in this thread a try.
Others have mentioned Materialistic and Glider. Both are great options that I used for a few years. However, I've recently changed to Hacki. It's also in the core F-Droid repo and works great for me as a HN client. Since it will even try to notify you of replies
I love it, releases on GitHub to so I can avoid F-Droid builds. Dev is nice and receptive too and the app is feature filled.
Finally replaced Materialistic for me.
Been using Harmonic daily for a few years now and I love it so much, it's an incredibly well made app. Thanks for making it, awesome that it's open source now as well!
I absolutely love Harmonic! Great UI/UX and nice attention to details. Almost prefer browsing HN using it rather than the website :) Thank you for open sourcing!
Hey there Simon, thanks for writing this great app. Although you said that you wouldn't call the architecture of the app a beauty, I think the UI really stands out as a pretty app that provides only the features that are really needed without delving into anything unnecessary. Really well done and congratulations on the OSS release.
Thank you! I am glad you appreciate the choice of focus! It does however make tweaking the app a bit harder at times but as long as it looks and behaves good I am happy as well :)
Thanks! You're right that the README needs a little prettifying, I added a link to the Play Store for now where screenshots are available but for sure it would be better to have something in the README as well.
Another daily Harmonic user of a few years standing here. I tried a good few HN clients until I clicked with Harmonic and never looked back. I find it to be one of those rare apps that works so well and unobtrusively that you hardly notice it until it dawns on you how good it is. Great work, thanks for making and open-sourcing it!
Always good to hear from the day 1 OG:s :) I also went through the ritual of trying almost all available HN clients back in 2020 and being unhappy and Harmonic was the result. I'm glad it worked out the same way for you!
I love Harmonic! Browsing HN is so much more enjoyable with it than with the website. The UI is great too. Thanks for making and open sourcing the app!
First of all, thank you for creating this app. A couple of years ago you've finally put an end to my decade of looking for a decent HN client for Android and I haven't looked back. I actually run Harmonic in Windows Subsystem for Android and on ChromeOS to use it as my primary way of browsing HN on all devices!
That said, if you have any spare time to dedicate to it, it would be great if you could open some issues on GitHub to express what you have been wanting to do but didn't manage to. I don't have any gripes with the app as-is (other than adding Material You support, but that's likely to require some large changes) and it would be great to have some guidance on what would be useful to contribute.
Wow I never thought anyone would be so hardcore as to actually run Harmonic on windows subsystem and Chrome OS - I figured not a lot of people don't use the big screen mode and I mostly made the tablet changes for when I bought myself an Android tablet a couple of years back to use Harmonic more comfortably in the couch.
The GitHub issues is a very good point! I have a long Google Keep list with things I've been meaning to do and hadn't even thought about opening issues to guide to help. I'll try to get some of those up tomorrow :)
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 177 ms ] threadI'm the developer of one of the most popular Android clients for HN, Harmonic for Hacker News. Over the years I have recieved many requests to open source the app which I am finally doing - sorry about taking so long :)
Having been very busy working on my PhD during the last two years - Harmonic has not recieved the attention it deserves. I therefore hope that open sourcing it can give it a new lease on life. I also hope that by posting here many of the nice people who have reached out to me will notice that the app is finally open source. I'm also happy to answer questions about the app but cannot make any hard promises about future features.
(As a note; I wouldn't call the architecture of the app a beauty by any means - it is very much cobbled together using my (somewhat outdated) knowledge about Android development.)
-- Simon
I'd always wondered, is the UI inspired by Relay for Reddit? The sliding between, colour-coded comment chains you tap to collapse, I absolutely love it and it's the only other place I've seen it. I wish more apps used this style, it's so intuitive, pretty, and pleasant to use
Anyways, fantastic work with the app. I'm using it right now for writing this comment. Thank you for making it available.
Thanks a lot for open-sourcing it.
I wait for the day, where I can finally get a good HN client at F-Droid :)
That said, if you have any spare time to dedicate to it, it would be great if you could open some issues on GitHub to express what you have been wanting to do but didn't manage to. I don't have any gripes with the app as-is (other than adding Material You support, but that's likely to require some large changes) and it would be great to have some guidance on what would be useful to contribute.
Thanks!
The GitHub issues is a very good point! I have a long Google Keep list with things I've been meaning to do and hadn't even thought about opening issues to guide to help. I'll try to get some of those up tomorrow :)