HN Explorer

Show HN: Android Hacker News Widget and App (play.google.com)

50 points by ddxv ↗ HN
This app and widget and related code is free to use for anyone. This was a side project to learn Android, Kotlin and the many libraries that came along with it. Screenshots in the Google Play link above.

app code: https://github.com/ddxv/hackernews-app backend api: https://github.com/ddxv/hackernews-api

There are many Hacker News apps, but this one focused on two features:

- Widgets: This app supports dynamic widgets using Compose Glance. The widgets can be themed and set up with one of the three main categories: "New", "Top" and "Best".

- Themes: Both the widgets and the main app support a number of color schemes based on user preference.

42 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 151 ms ] thread
skilled
> No data collected

> The developer says this app doesn’t collect user data

In theory, can someone flag their app like this but still collect user data? It just caught my eye since the emphasis is on “developer”.

ddxv
Yeah, I work closer to advertising and data collection, the answer here is definitely yes, for example I guess there are nginx logs with IP addresses, but I'm not actively collecting or processing them.

I answered no to the question since so much of the discussion around this has moved to questions about which advertising IDs are collected, none of which I'm collecting.

Gunnerhead
Yes for both Google Play and App Store it’s all self reported. Some developers are fully transparent, some will lie, and some may not be realizing that while they may not be collecting anything, the libraries they are using are.
kysindi
This is great! My only suggestion is to let me configure the font size. I find the text too small. It would also be nice to get rid of as much whitespace as possible.
ddxv
Thanks, I'll add that.
tfsh
It's nice to see that widgets are starting to use the Glance API, however a deal breaker for me is the lack of material you styling. I've started rolling out my own simplified widgets (reminders to drink water, listening to state, etc) because the lack of consistency was getting to me.
mustava
Materialistic is great too! Really like the UI
Ylpertnodi
I use materialistic in dark mode (the screenshots look awfully bright). Love it.
ric2b
It frequently gets buggy when reading comments for me, it shows the same comments multiple times or scrolls in weird ways because of the lazy loading.

And there hasn't been a new release in 4y.

slim
you can't downvote
Ylpertnodi
I see that as a bonus! Upvote, or nothing. I see too many posts "Why the down votes...", "I don't understand why you're being downvoted...".
hegzploit
Nice, I have been using harmonic. wish It had a notifications for comment replies.
toyg
I'm using Harmonic too, although I wish it had better views over my threads.
nmstoker
Does it display comments at all? Simply asking as the Google Play screenshots only show the headlines view
ddxv
No, though I would like to add that. For now comments link to ycombinator itself.
rahulgill
I use this https://github.com/mosc/glider Although it doesn't have a widget, the browsing experience is very good
mt_
+1 for glider
circularfoyers
The best looking HN android app in my opinion. I just wish it was still being developed. Mostly because of the bug where the comments flicker wildly when you open a thread with lots of comments.
albert_e
Looks like this app is not available in Google Play Store from India
taskylizard
Replying from Glider right now (although replies are experimental), it's very good, wish most apps were like this.
FireInsight
Replying on Glider too but IME replying is often pretty painful.
redbell
Some commenters here are totally missing the purpose of the "Show HN" section!

The main point of adding top-level comments to posts of this type is to provide feedback, or more precisely, constructive criticism. This allows the poster to see his product/project/app/site through others' eyes, which greatly helps him improve the product and discover bugs that are not visible at development time.

Having comments such as "nice", "good work" or "great app" does not help the developer, in any way, improve the app or see it from another angle (The Mom Test).

Also, reading comments that say, "I use the X app instead; it is better, and..." is killing me! Yes, personally, I use Materialistic, Harmonic, and Gilder for Android, and I use HACK and Octal for iPhone, but mentioning them here doesn't add any value except if you propose a killer feature that they already have and you'd like the developer to implement.

Anyways, I always salute, encourage, and upvote side projects like this that are related to HackerNews and below are a few critics that might help the developer make the app better:

  The biggest missing feature here that is already supported in all the other apps I've been using is the in-app browser and the comments' section. Clicking on any story would trigger the external default browser to view the page. Also, trying to access the comments would take you to "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=xyz" which ruins the user experience.

  The app is missing the "Show HN" and "Ask HN" sections, just to name a few.

  At any given time, I cannot tell what theme the app is already in because the *themes* list does not have the currently applied theme *highlighted*.

  Since you've already built some widgets, it would be of great value if you could build another *profile* widget where users can see their *karma* being updated regularly without having to open the app or access the HN website.
That was my two cents.

Good work so far, especially the "widgets" part. I wish you the best of luck.

I apologize to other commenters if I've been rude. For me, that was.. "something needs to be said".

Peace!

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
ddxv
Wow,now that's some great feedback! I especially enjoy the last idea,I never would have thought of a widget for a user profile.

As for the in app browser, why is that preferable to the default browser? For example I am logged into HN in my default browser and I thought that would be preferred to inapp? I'll look into this though, as you're likely right for majority preference.

As for missing the comments,that is indeed sorely needed. I will be working to add this.

Anyways, thanks again for the quality feedback,appreciated.

LVB
>Having comments such as "nice", "good work" or "great app" does not help the developer, in any way,

Unless, of course, some of those comments lift the author's spirits, leaving them more motivated to improve it?

No, I don't want Show HN threads to become a sea of "nice" responses. But as someone who has only occasionally gotten to a point of even posting to Show HN, I'll say I also appreciated the lightweight "great work" type comments.

dang
There's definitely room for lightweight positive comments. Those are a natural part of healthy conversation. What we don't want are the shallow dismissal or name-calling kind; not anywhere on HN, but especially not in Show HNs, which have extra rules along those lines (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html).

(We also don't want the kind of thread that fills up with booster comments from friends/fans/users, usually after someone passed a link around. But that's a separate issue.)

I agree with you that posting links to alternatives isn't great in a Show HN thread or a startup launch thread, but people are always going to do that - it's how the mind works (associatively). We usually downweight such comments when we see them, which ranks them lower in the thread. But of course there are many we don't see. (Edit: and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them. Not good.)

Applause for substantive feedback! including what you provided the OP here!

redbell
> and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them

I believe it’s for this reason my comment was downvoted but I really don’t care as long as you and OP found my feedback to be positive!

teo_zero
> The biggest missing feature here [...] is the in-app browser and the comments' section. Clicking on any story would trigger the external default browser to view the page.

Actually I like it more this way! Triggering my default browser so that I can use all the features I'm accustomed to (including tabs, history, bookmarks etc.) works for me.

cheeaun
Interesting to see that you built your own API "wrapper" https://github.com/ddxv/hackernews-api and storing them into a SQLite db. Seems that you run it once an hour so the stories are not updated that fast, especially /newest
ddxv
What do you think about that? I guess it's probably much better to do it on device instead?
cheeaun
There are pros/cons :) The official firebase API is generally not very straightforward, but it allows realtime calls.

Disclaimer: I maintain node-hnapi since 2011.

fattah25
I am using harmonic btw https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.simon.harm...
james2doyle
I came here to say this. It's good to mention that not only is it open source, but it has login support, AMOLED dark mode, and much more.

Another great thing is that it is consistently updated. Something that I've found the other apps to not really care about. They seem to be fire and forget as far as releases go