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Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

apps.apple.com

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Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#1

Post by hnand »

I was struggling with navigating HN discussions using existing solutions, so I decided to implement a completely different approach, think of it as depth-first reading vs breadth-first reading. Visually it looks like swipeable stacks of comments and it offers several advantages over traditional interfaces:

- Comment width doesn't get narrower no matter how deep in the comment tree you are

- You always see the parent of the comment you're currently reading

- Swiping allows you to move in and out of subtrees with animated transitions that you fully control

- You can easily skip subtrees that don't interest you by scrolling

As a result it's easier to maintain the context and to keep track of where you are in the discussion tree. The app is fully featured, it does all the things that you would expect it to do, and there's extra: custom boards, search, in-thread search, anchors, reading list, recent items.

Video preview: https://imgur.com/a/tzBdpXw

or https://streamable.com/arq45m

Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost
apps.apple.com

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#4

Post by jacobp100 »

Neat! A few things

I feel you should be able to tap a comment to expand, rather than just swipe. Also it’d be neat if you just kept the new scroll position when expanding rather than scrolling back

The orange flashes when navigating back are distracting. Just use the default system behaviour here (grey)

If you tap the active tab (both in the heading and tab bar), it should scroll to the top

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#5

Post by prepend »

davely wrote: post #2

Overall, nice. But it immediately hits a pet peeve of mine: requiring an in-app purchase to enable native features built into my device’s OS. In this case, $6 US for dark mode.

I get annoyed by these things too based on some sort of perceived cost/value of the feature being available and implemented, but paygated.

Id rather just have a “donate $6 to help dev” in app purchase as it seems more authentic.

However, maybe there are really people who think dark mode is worth $6. Kids raised on Roblox seem to have no ethical issue with paying $5 for a digital hat that is just flipping a bit.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#6

Post by rollcat »

davely wrote: post #2

Overall, nice. But it immediately hits a pet peeve of mine: requiring an in-app purchase to enable native features built into my device’s OS. In this case, $6 US for dark mode.

Agree. Apps using AppKit support dark mode by default, with zero input from the developer. This isn't even a matter of preference, but basic accessibility.

If the author really wishes to put this feature behind a purchase, "follow system settings" should be the free default.

Re: Show HN: I made an iOS HN app to navigate large threads without getting lost

#8

Post by tkgally »

Nice! My first impressions were quite positive—the app scratches several itches I’ve had with HN’s UI—and I like the full feature set, so I bought the paid version. I hope that gives me the right to make one request: a native iPad version.
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