
Ask HN: What are some of the better Hacker News apps? - kyo3
It&#x27;s been awhile since it was asked, so I thought it was time to ask again. I&#x27;d prefer something with a widget on Android, and I don&#x27;t want to exclude iOS offerings for those who use that. 
I&#x27;d also prefer better UIs, of course functionality is important, but in my opinion UI has a functionality factor to it as well.
======
jitl
The best option I’ve found is [https://hckrnews.com/](https://hckrnews.com/)

Not an app, but I think it’s better than almost all of the apps out there.
Clean, quick, and has an “open in new tab” feature.

Rather than writing my own description, here’s the pitch in the site’s own
words:

> Hacker News is a great resource. However, I seemed to constantly run into
> two issues. 1. If I didn't visit at least once a day, top items would scroll
> off the top pages and I would never see them. 2. If I was procrastinating
> and visiting the page often, I would find it difficult to determine what was
> new on the page. That frustration led to hckr news, a chronologic list of
> items that have made it onto the Hacker News homepage.

([https://hckrnews.com/about.html](https://hckrnews.com/about.html))

I think apps don’t have much to offer since HN has thread collapse and vote-
undo these days.

~~~
JonRB
+1 to that - I love that it's time sorted instead of prioritised by what other
people have voted for. I procrastinate/visit enough that I can usually keep up
to date with what's happening.

------
disago
After trying many, I settled with Materialistic [1]

Its easy to navigate, allows good interaction with HN and is very stable.

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.hidr...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.hidroh.materialistic)

~~~
chirau
I used it for a bit, it didn't load all the comments. I regretted using it as
the default app for HN links.

~~~
fatboy93
Try disabling lazy loading. I'm on a consistently slow network and lazy
loading sometimes doesn't work at all.

~~~
mercer
That feels like sufficient reason to not use this tool.

------
juice_bus
I've been using [http://hn.premii.com/about/](http://hn.premii.com/about/)
forever now, the toggle night mode from the homepage is fantastic for
switching between dark/light theme very quickly.

~~~
jniles
I second premii. It caches a lot of content which is useful in low-bandwith
environments.

~~~
mwest
Also very happy with premii. Mostly due to the offline caching, but also the
clean and simple layout, and integration with Pocket.

------
jaredcwhite
Surprised nobody's mentioned:
[https://app.hackerwebapp.com](https://app.hackerwebapp.com)

The web version is clean and fast, and there's a native iOS and Android app
out now as well. (Funny backstory: before the native iOS app was released, the
mobile web version already felt like a native app, and instead the native app
is nearly indistinguishable from the web app. However, the native app is
better in that links open up in the Safari View Controller, so it's easier to
pop back and forth between websites and the news feed.)

------
dotancohen
Honestly I just stick with the website. What do you feel that an app might
give you that the HN website does not? Only on that basis might an app
recommendation be appropriate as they all provide some features but are
missing others.

~~~
Cyph0n
The only thing missing is a notification when someone replies to one of your
comments.

If you are active, your first "threads" page will quickly fill up with more
recent comments, so you end up not noticing replies to older comments.

~~~
omaranto
I like Dan Grossman's HN Replies
([http://www.hnreplies.com](http://www.hnreplies.com)) for that: it gives you
email notifications of comment replies.

------
swanson
I've been using
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manuelmaly...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manuelmaly.hn)
on Android for a long time. It seems to best jive with the ethos of HN --
stripped down design, focused on the content, and just works.

------
winstonschmidt
Quite happy with Hews [1]. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have a widget and
hasn't been updated in a year (but it is open source).

[1]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leavjenn.h...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leavjenn.hews)

~~~
kyo3
Hm I'm liking this the most out of the ones posted thus far, and the lack of
widget isn't a huge drawback. Being open source is a plus though! Thanks!

------
assadk
MiniHack for iOS is great

~~~
mrmondo
Yeah I've stuck with it for years now and while trying others every so often
as it has bugs with voting and editing your own posts I think it's still the
best by far.

~~~
weinzierl
Did you report the bugs? I once reported a bug in MiniHack and it was fixed
pretty quickly.

I think I encountered the problem with editing your own posts but I post
rarely on mobile and when I do I'm in a hurry. BTW a HN sandbox would be cool
where you could test these things without causing noise.

What is the problem with the voting you mentioned?

------
miguelrochefort
I keep going back to the website.

Although I don't like the design and it's not very usable of mobile (buttons
are too small), my consumption flow depends on the "Open in new tab"
functionality. This is also why I prefer the Reddit website to the app.

I would use a client that let me queue links/threads/comments for future
reading. I'll probably end up building it.

~~~
gavinward
Ironically I had to open this in a browser to make this comment (since no app
supports that advanced feature) but FYI the mobile version of Firefox supports
the queueing up of multiple links for later viewing, rather than immediately
switching to the firefox app every time you open a link.

It's not perfectly analogous to "open in new tab" on a desktop but you might
find it helpful.

I know nobody uses Firefox on mobile but it seems decent enough to me.

~~~
miguelrochefort
I use Chrome on my phone. "Open in new tab" works just like on the desktop.

I wish these basic commands were first class:

\- undo/previous/back

\- read later/snooze/postpone/queue

\- done/next/ignore/skip

\- more/details

\- agree/upvote/recommend/endorse

\- disagree/downvote

\- improve/contribute/comment/add

We could have focused interfaces like Tinder's (one item at a time) and easily
navigate articles/comments/videos/reviews/products on any device.

------
jasonkostempski
New apps shouldn't be needed for this kind of thing. Get an RSS reader and use
[https://news.ycombinator.com/rss](https://news.ycombinator.com/rss). If you
want to get your comment replies too, ask HN to start providing a feed for it,
if they do, I couldn't find it. Start using the reader for everything you can.
Most YouTube channels have a hidden feed, Reddit has feeds, most sites worth a
damn have feeds. You will save countless hours of your life never having to
sift through things you've already read or intentionally skipped. You can add
your own filters for junk sites that are going to show you a pay wall, tell
you to allow tracking or require you to sign up.

~~~
hypercluster
I tried that but it gets quite tedious with HN. Even with hnrss.org
"frontpage" lots of stories show up. And even with a filter >10 points there's
a ton to look at. Still haven't figured out a good way to consume HN.

~~~
jasonkostempski
Can you think of a feature a standalone app could provide to help with those
concerns? Maybe you're just trying to consume too much at once? I leave my RSS
reader running in the background against the regular feed and I've never felt
like it was too much, even after the weekend. Only thing that bothers me is
when titles get adjusted, they get introduced as new items but I'm willing to
put up with that in order to never have to rescan over anything else ever
again. I only have 4 other, very low volume feeds I deal with, maybe that's
why HNs volume doesn't seem as bad to me.

------
mercer
I'm working on my own Better and Improved, but for now i use hn.premii.com for
my mobile needs, and hckrnews.com with a few userscripts for everything else.

EDIT: and hn.algolia.com for anything vaguely related to search.

------
ufmace
Tried a few, but honestly, the website seems to be better. I suppose the UI
could be a little spiffier, but it not only works, but keeps working long-
term. Most of the apps I've tried work okay-ish at first, and then fall into
disrepair after a year or two due to some combination of developer boredom and
site/API changes.

------
adambard
Since I haven't seen anyone do so yet, I'll cast my vote for DWAK's app on
Android:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.dwak.holoha...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.dwak.holohackernews.app)

------
cjCamel
Are there any Android apps where you can get the Share menu from long press on
URL in a comment? Tried all of the ones linked so far and none of them have
this.

Reason? To feed my Pocket addiction...

~~~
purrcat259
I got a share option in the menu by long pressing the article in Materialistic

~~~
cjCamel
Doesn't work on URLs in comments. Helpful if someone posts an interesting
looking link but I don't want to get distracted.

------
BrandoElFollito
I use Feedly on the feed. The huge advantage is that the design is clean and
that scrolled down items are automatically marked as read.

------
ahmedfromtunis
None. They (or rather the API) don't allow to comment or upvote. Sad.

~~~
MehdiHK
Materialistic on play store has both of those functionalities. I'm commenting
with it now.

------
harisamin
Shameless plug but check out mackernews.com for a Mac app :)

------
izolate
No complaints with Boreal (iOS)

