Some thoughts on Surf, Flipboard's fediverse app

Some thoughts on Surf, Flipboard's fediverse app
from Picasso@thelemmy.club to fediverse@lemmy.world on 18 Jul 11:57
https://thelemmy.club/post/31089207

I’ve got access to the beta of the Surf app. Some thoughts:

some stuff I really liked:

rss works (though no custom URLs yet, just what they already scraped)
you get lemmy, mastodon, bluesky, threads all together
you can make your own feeds and check what other people made (like a custom timeline, or topic-specific like “NBA”, “woodworking”, “retro gaming stuff”)
has different modes: you can switch between videos, articles, podcasts depending on the feed

but also…

can’t add your own RSS feeds (huge miss)
some feeds break and show no posts even when they’re active (ok, it’s still a beta)
YouTube videos have ads (not into that—I support creators through patreon, affiliate links, whatever. not ads)
feeds you create are public by default unless you manually change it
not open source. built on open protocols, sure. but the app is locked up. (HUGE MISS)

all that said, I really believe: better feeds = better experience = better shot at the fediverse going mainstream.

anyone else tried it?

do you know anyone building an open source version of this? is that even realistic?

I’d love to hear what do you think :)

#fediverse

threaded - newest

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 18 Jul 12:36 next collapse

you get lemmy, mastodon, bluesky, threads all together

Wait, I’ve been waiting for an app like this. How does it support threaded link aggregation like Lemmy? Can you browse communities and feeds as you would any other Lemmy app, or does it display all scuffed like if you try to follow Lemmy communities on Mastodon/Misskey?

DieserTypMatthias@lemmy.ml on 18 Jul 12:40 collapse

There is also Fedilab.

recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Jul 12:48 next collapse

I just went to download it and realized I needed an invite code because the beta is closed.

When I went to sign up for the wait-list, it turns out I’m already on it, since last DECEMBER!

So they either need to let more folks in real quick, or they cannot gain traction by word of mouth.

FundMECFS@quokk.au on 18 Jul 12:57 next collapse

Perhaps the point is to fix it up a little before getting more folks to join?

recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Jul 13:08 collapse

I just find it weird I’ve been on the wait-list for 7 months. Long enough for me to have completely forgotten I even signed up in the first place.

They’re certainly taking plenty of time.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 18 Jul 15:25 collapse

I got in several months ago but they require a fucking Google account to activate it. I don’t understand how they can pretend to make an entire app “built for the open web” that has big tech dependencies. It’s a fuckin’ joke, as far as I’m concerned.

rglullis@communick.news on 19 Jul 18:21 collapse

If your goal is to get the masses to try something new, making it as easy as possible to onboard them makes absolute sense. That includes letting them sign up using something that 98.123456789% of the people use.

And if you already are out of Big Tech hell hole, then you likely already know how to find and manage and curate your own feeds.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 19 Jul 18:37 collapse

making it as easy as possible to onboard them makes absolute sense

I don’t understand how one could possibly think that requiring a Google account would make it easier to onboard new users…

And if you already are out of Big Tech hell hole, then you likely already know how to find and manage and curate your own feeds.

The software necessary to do what Surf does, as far as I’m aware, doesn’t exist elsewhere.

rglullis@communick.news on 19 Jul 22:23 collapse

I don’t understand how one could possibly think that requiring a Google account would make it easier to onboard new users…

Simple. “Log in with Google” is a lot less friction than getting people to sign up to a new service. Even more so for a mobile-focused application like Surf/Flipboard.

doesn’t exist elsewhere.

Isn’t it “just” a feed reader with a pre-curated list of feeds? Doing that is not complicated. The hard part is doing it in a way that it is easy for non-techies.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 19 Jul 22:30 collapse

You should probably educate yourself about this app before you start arguing about it.

“Log in with Google” is a lot less friction than getting people to sign up to a new service.

There is no new service. You log in with your existing BlueSky, Mastodon, YouTube account(s). The Google account is only needed to download the app.

Isn’t it “just” a feed reader with a pre-curated list of feeds?

No.

rglullis@communick.news on 20 Jul 02:02 collapse

You are right. I thought it was just a different take on the flipboard client, but more focused on the different feeds.

MacStainless@piefed.social on 18 Jul 12:48 next collapse

I find tapestry to be way better than surf. I use both but surf just feels confusing while tapestry do everything in a cleaner way.

recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Jul 13:10 collapse

Do you have a link? When I search tapestry I find a proprietary app for a learning program

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 18 Jul 14:13 next collapse

Same. I’m also interested

darcmage@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 18 Jul 16:25 collapse

apps.apple.com/us/app/…/id6448078074

First review was interesting.

recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 18 Jul 17:15 next collapse

thanks! I’m keep an eye out for an android APK.

jinx@lemmy.zip on 20 Jul 05:02 collapse

…happyfox.com/…/165-will-there-be-an-android-vers… :(

Coelacanth@feddit.nu on 18 Jul 17:46 next collapse

Oh, is it iOS only?

reddig33@lemmy.world on 18 Jul 18:19 collapse

That is one janky app icon for a developer group calling itself “Icon Factory”.

0x01@lemmy.ml on 18 Jul 13:07 next collapse

Fuck flipboard and their stupid ass non disable-able default action on old samsung devices. I’ll hold that grudge till I die

You hit one button on your phone and it opened flipboard, an app I’ve never once wanted to open. Insanity.

…androidcentral.com/…/anyone-know-how-can-i-remov…

reddig33@lemmy.world on 18 Jul 18:14 collapse

Sounds like a Samsung issue. Maybe hold the grudge against them.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 18 Jul 18:35 collapse

Pretty sure Samsung didn’t install it because they thought their customers would just love it so much!

Jayjader@jlai.lu on 18 Jul 13:13 next collapse

Wanted to try it, signed up for the beta, still waiting on my invite code.

On the surface, bluesky integration makes sense if they’re trying to onboard people onto “the social web”. Still, I’m disappointed they seem to want to be a curated view on what they determine is a feed, and not some kind of plug’n’play feed viewer beyond RSS.

squinky@sh.itjust.works on 18 Jul 18:32 next collapse

Soooo…

I’ve been working on something for a while now. It has RSS feeds and partial support for ActivityPub, and it’s also got federated web search.

I’m considering adding AT proto for bsky support soon but it’s not a top priority.

It’s been in friends-and-family testing for about a year now. The intent is to release under AGPL, but development is closed until I feel the code quality can withstand scrutiny from this brutal community 😅

Right now I have a to-do list full of things that are stopping me from letting more people access it. My hope is to get them knocked out this summer, though. I’ll definitely post something here when that happens.

I heard about Surf well after I’d already been working on this, and signed up for the beta but have been on the waiting list since last year. I’d really love to see their approach.

Picasso@thelemmy.club on 21 Jul 17:35 collapse

would love to see it when it’s ready ;)

jinx@lemmy.zip on 20 Jul 04:54 collapse

i also have the same grievances with surf.

i've seen a few that are clients for both the (microblogging) fediverse and bluesky,

but none seem to have any of the rest of the features, unfortunately.

Picasso@thelemmy.club on 21 Jul 17:36 collapse

interesting… i only knew about openvibe