
Show HN: Yack – Community Browser for Hacker News, Reddit, YouTube and More - 7961636B6572
https://yack.io
======
zestyping
It looks pretty, but I'm having trouble understanding the use case.

A core part of browsing Hacker News or Reddit is opening the links and reading
the articles, which are web pages. Once I'm opening web pages, then I want to
be able to bookmark them, arrange them in tabs, find them in my history, have
them saved in sessions by my session manager extension, configure how they are
handled by my ad blocker, search for related information, and so on. In other
words, I want a web browser.

The same issue applies the other way around, too. When I follow a link _to_
Hacker News, I want it to show up consistently. I don't want to end up with
some Hacker News pages in browser tabs and some in a separate app, and then
have trouble remembering where to find that page I was looking at yesterday.

I get that it can be nice to have a slimmed-down UI for specific purposes. But
I'm puzzled by this particular use case because there is no neatly contained
navigation sandbox — as soon as you follow a couple of links, you're just
browsing the Web.

So why won't there be an inexorable push to expand Yack's feature set until it
is a browser? Why won't users eventually switch back to using their regular
browsers?

~~~
ken
My reaction is pretty much the opposite. This looks like what I've wanted the
web to be for years now. It's the best parts of RSS, Gopher, and the web.

What's terrible about the modern web? Mountains of JavaScript, for trackers,
and advertisements, and custom UI so every page acts differently (and slowly)
even though they're 99% the same. This appears to cut through that crap, and
just give me easy access to articles and comments.

I want _just_ a 'web browser'. What we've got today are network-native
application runtimes that happen to run over the web. There are some cases
where that's good, but for "reading an article", it's somewhere between "a
waste" and "a channel ripe for abuse".

You talk about bookmarks, tabs, history, etc. I rarely use those for articles
I see on HN. I use web browsers for a few very distinct use cases. (They just
all happen to be delivered over the web because, I don't know, nobody wants to
write applications any more.) "Reading an article" doesn't require
bookmarks/tabs/history. I read it, and then I'm done. I mostly read HN in
Private Browsing specifically so it doesn't litter up my history with some
article I only want to see once. I mostly use Reader Mode, when possible,
because I don't want any other junk besides the article. A full 2019 web
browser for reading an article is a liability, not a feature. I rarely follow
any links from them.

Saying that one needs to "configure an ad blocker" to read articles on the
internet almost sounds like an admission of failure.

There shouldn't be an "inexorable" drive to make this into a full web browser,
any more than there is for an email program. Email programs display HTML and
let you click links, too. They are specific to one type of data, and display
it using native controls. Nobody is browsing the web in Mail.app. They are
browsing the web in their regular browsers, for the types of online
experiences that require that.

~~~
Accacin
> Saying that one needs to "configure an ad blocker" to read articles on the
> internet almost sounds like an admission of failure.

But having to install a completely new browser for your desktop isn't?
Installing uBlock Origin solves all your problems with trackers all over the
web. Installing this electron app solves it for a few sites.

~~~
0x445442
In addition to uBlock Origin, if you've got some spare hardware lying around,
I highly recommend Pi-Hole. Here's a link of typical numbers from my home LAN.
[https://imgur.com/YfAJUlv](https://imgur.com/YfAJUlv)

~~~
bytematic
Mine are even higher, more like 30-40% of requests blocked. I have a ROKU tv
and it makes constant tracking requests that get blocked. I think I'm over
100k per month at this point

------
trevett
Really like the concept--I think you're on to something in creating a unified
UI for all these similar services.

But..getting into the beta was a giant PITA.

1\. Enter email

2\. Check email

3\. Download client

4\. Go back to email, copy code

5\. Paste code

6\. Go back to email, click sign in link

7\. Browser asks if it's ok to open Yack

8\. Create profile in Yack (at this point I bounced)

Honestly, just let me download the beta directly, open it and have it Just
Work. This is a new product and people will be skeptical. Friction is
therefore your enemy.

Would it be possible to skip profile creation as well?

~~~
7961636B6572
Hey, thanks for the feedback.

Will consider making the Yack profile optional. For the beta version it was
necessary because the app has a "Feedback" community, which is built on top of
Discourse - This is where users provide feedback and report bugs. Thought
about creating a subreddit on Reddit for feedback/bug reports but for users
who are on HN or YT, it was necessary to have Yack's own community.

Creating Yack profile automatically creates an account on Yack's Discourse
instance but it never associates plugin accounts (hacker news, reddit, etc)
with your Yack profile.

~~~
AlphaWeaver
Would second that this should be optional ASAP. I understand your need and
desire to collect feedback but I don't think it's a great idea to require
users to create a profile for something that is a client.

There are other ways to collect feedback than a Discourse instance. Why not
just stand up a contact form, Twitter account, or email address?

~~~
7961636B6572
Definitely. Received similar feedback from other users as well and will
consider making this optional.

------
crazygringo
The idea that web communities and content have become standardized enough to
have a single look-and-feel client is an intriguing idea. And it looks
beautiful.

Unfortunately, I just wouldn't install a native app for that. My browser is
plenty performant to handle it, and I want to be able to call it up wherever I
am -- on my home computer, work computer, friend's computer, backup work
laptop, whatever -- without having to bother to install something. (And some
companies don't let you install software.) Also I'd want to hide stories I've
already read and want that to be synced, which necessitates a server anyways.

I'm genuinely curious what benefit a native app has here, why that direction
was taken? I can honestly only see drawbacks. (I can understand an app on
mobile, just not on desktop.)

~~~
Legogris
Privacy? With a FOSS (or even just third-party) app, the service operator has
less fine-grained tracking and behavioral data for you as a user.

The UI can also be designed with the user's best interest in mind, as an
alternative to the egagement-driven dark UX patterns that have started
becoming the status quo on the web in just a few years.

I use a CLI for Reddit[0] specifically for this reason - I would definitely be
potential user for something like Yack. Opening links from the app in an
external browser is trivial. Now that you mention it, it'd be a good idea to
make it work in the other direction as well. Surely it wouldn't be too tricky
to make a browser extension for this?

[0]: [https://github.com/michael-lazar/rtv](https://github.com/michael-
lazar/rtv)

------
mastercheif
I would focus on making the best Reddit macOS app you can, that will likely be
your largest and most receptive audience. You should use the Apollo iOS app as
your benchmark as far as responsiveness and feature set is concerned.

I signed up for the beta, the most glaring omissions are:

1\. Keyboard shortcuts. You'll probably want to implement arrow key navigation
as well as Google Reader shortcuts (J=Next, K=Previous, see Reeder.app). RES
is the gold standard you should be shooting for:
[http://joeross.me/res/](http://joeross.me/res/)

2\. Expand at least a few levels of child comments by default. Apollo does a
great job with this.

3\. Remove avatar placeholders for services that do not have avatars.

4\. Increase information density. In the same vertical space that I can see 14
posts on reddit.com, I can only see 10 in the compact view in your app. The
comments are in worse shape, you must remove the spacing between the comment
"cards".

Overall, I'm impressed with what you've built here and could see using this
app. Keyboard shortcuts are a must before I would spend any significant time
using it.

~~~
7961636B6572
Thanks for the feedback. That is my current focus. Keyboard shortcuts & dark
theme are the highest priority right now. Glad to hear you like the app.
Please let me know if you run into any issues.

------
stcredzero
Actually, I was just thinking of something like this. In particular, I'd like
to be able to keep tabs on a group of YouTube creators, without being
dependent on the whims and machinations of what the YouTube team wants to
promote. There are also certain creators who post to both YouTube and
BitChute, but prefer BitChute, and I'd like to have a browser that will show
me the BitChute version preferentially, without my having to think about it.

~~~
7961636B6572
what's BitChute? Never heard of it.

~~~
stcredzero
Basically, a somewhat decentralized YouTube implemented on top of BitTorrent.

~~~
codetrotter
In a similar fashion, there is also PeerTube. A decentralized video hosting
network, based on free/libre software.

[https://joinpeertube.org/en/](https://joinpeertube.org/en/)

I have no involvement with them, but I like the PeerTube project. Might
contribute to it in the future.

------
kart23
Yack means throw up in many circles. Just be aware of the name.

[https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yack](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yack)

~~~
pfraze
It also means "talk"

~~~
seandougall
I've only ever seen that spelled as "yak", so it took me a while to make that
connection.

~~~
joegahona
I thought "yak" was the bison animal. And that's what I thought of when I saw
the name of this app -- not vomiting.

------
kikki
> One App to replace them all.

You mean like a browser?

> Intuitive UI

I understand I'm probably not the target market for this - but I'm very
uninspired by the Slack-copy design trend happening everywhere.

~~~
toxican
> You mean like a browser?

I can see this being a nice alternative to a few browser options for checking
the latest across multiple sites. Pinned tabs, "Open All" bookmark folder,
loose tabs, etc. Not ideal, imo, so having them all in one place and unified
under a single UI might be kind of nice.

Can't really speak to the UI though since this is unfortunately macOS only :(

~~~
rovr138
Sounds like RSS.

~~~
jddj
I have to agree.

Nice work, and looks pretty, but Feedly scratches this itch for me almost
perfectly. And it expands well beyond Reddit and HN.

The only better solution would be if I hosted my own and used an open source
app. I'll get around to it.

~~~
skinnymuch
Does Feedly/RSS right now with community sites like HN/reddit support all the
comments? Do they support comments in blog posts? I may have not played around
enough or missed something.

When I tried rss with Feedly before. I wasn’t getting blog post comments. I
don’t think reddit/HN comments either but could be wrong there.

~~~
jddj
Nah, no comments.

You get the title which is a link to the submission, a picture and a link to
the comments. I'm on Android so hitting either opens a webview (powered by
Firefox) with an X in the top left which leads back to feedly. I also have
scrolling past a submission set to mark it as read.

Admittedly something which handled unread comments and notifications for
replies could be more engaging, but I feel like I get enough HN as it is and I
want to remain somewhat productive.

------
rvz
> Do more with less clutter, fewer clicks, less scroll, fewer tabs, fewer
> pages, fewer buttons, fewer ads, less mess...

Looks very promising if it is really a native desktop app, but then if it is
electron, then that is the equivalent to having a fixed set of Chrome tabs
open with an ad-blocker on.

I hope when you say 'native' that this app actually is native, otherwise it
will be yet another bloated app to add to my collection of electron apps on my
MacBook.

~~~
7961636B6572
It's a mix of Electron & native code (Swift). I have done so many
optimizations to make it lightweight, smooth and fast. If you have an older
Mac, try it on it and see how fast it is. I use Apple Mail app for my emails
and for my benchmarks so far, Yack works faster and smoother than Apple Mail.

Give it a try and don't forget to report back here :)

~~~
ngold
Sweet, great work. Does it work on an ipad3?

~~~
zapzupnz
Does _anything_ still work on an iPad 3? I would have thought a lot of newer
apps target iOS 10 or higher by now.

------
7961636B6572
Yack! is a native desktop app built for online communities such as Hacker
News, Reddit, YouTube, Indie Hackers and many more.

It has an open source plugin architecture which allows anyone to build a
plugin for their favorite communities. If you're interested in helping out,
shoot me an email at hello[at]yack.io

Looking forward to your feedback :)

~~~
dewey
> is a native desktop

What does native mean in this context? Looks like Electron from the
screenshots.

~~~
deca6cda37d0
Its a native cross platform app. Not a native Mac app or Windows app.

~~~
dewey
It would be better to say it's a cross-platform app then I think. For me
native app means it's a native Mac or Windows app.

~~~
CathedralBorrow
I'd guess it's written for the normal person rather than someone who
understands that cross-platform means.

------
ghobs91
If anything, the biggest inadvertent feature is that its resemblance to Slack
means you can browse those things at work and look like you're being
productive.

~~~
7961636B6572
it's best when you're working on it :)

------
pratio
I just tried it and i agree with some of the comments here, not as fast or
smooth as a native app should be. Now, as far as I understand HN only has a
readonly API but reddit can be made completely native. Apollo for ios is the
best example there. Personally, i am tired of electron or the mix of electron
and native apps that end up using more and more electron code as they grow.

------
droptablemain
Mac only? Isn't this built with Electron? Why not have a Linux version?

Or is this just for the cool kids in the exclusive Apple community?

~~~
7961636B6572
It's a mix of Electron and native code (Swift). Focusing on perfecting the
macOS version for the time being. Will release both for Linux and Windows very
soon.

~~~
Zaskoda
I will be eagerly awaiting the Linux version. =)

------
AngryData
Not related to the app, but I really hate the sliding pages website UI. I
almost closed the site because I thought it was broken at first. My problem is
that I don't have my browser at full screen and it starts flipping pages
before I can get to the bottom of the current page. And its not like I just
had a little slit of a browser either, it is 2/3 of my screen down and 95% the
width. Although the only reason I don't have it smaller now is because all the
websites with fucked up banner ads and popups that don't scroll at all.

But my screen is large, I don't want or need my browser to be at full
resolution, it shouldn't be assumed that it will be.

------
dotdi
Let's chant it together: dark theme, dark theme, DARK THEME.

~~~
7961636B6572
if this comment gets 200 replies, will stay up all night and release it this
morning.

~~~
dotdi
I conjure you, my HN brothers, reply as thou hast never replied in thine life.

~~~
smokelegend
Dark mode is not a option but a feature... or it should be marketed as such...

------
batiudrami
Looks just like Shift [1] which more-or-less promises the same thing for
social media and communication (but is just an Electron skin anyway).

[1] [https://tryshift.com/](https://tryshift.com/)

------
AlchemistCamp
Building on IH is brave. From what I can tell @csallen is basically constantly
changing its core interactions. It went from posting articles to both articles
and tweet-like "posts" to just posts.

In fact, just looking at the screenshots now, I can see Yack is showing hash
tags which were a highly use feature... but Courtland just ripped them out of
the app last week!

[https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-
hackers/-LlYr9ORN...](https://www.indiehackers.com/product/indie-
hackers/-LlYr9ORNwC8KT2rLu14)

------
jccalhoun
This looks nice but "Many Communities, one UI" just doesn't work for me. The
way I use hacker news is different than the way I use youtube. And it is
different than how I use reddit.

~~~
ScottFree
How do you use HN and Reddit that makes them so dissimilar? From a UI
standpoint, not a 'quality of the discussions' standpoint.

~~~
the_watcher
There are many posts on Reddit where I don't particularly care about the
comments, and others where I'm just looking for a specific answer. In
contrast, I'm actually far more likely to open an HN link in the first place
if it has some comments.

------
wyc
I think the implications of an open source API-only access method for these
services are huge for user privacy. Taking reliance off of company-provided
JavaScript will result in truer control over what actually gets sent to their
servers. Advertising would have to be fought for through client acceptance at
the API level. The tradeoff for users is access to new features and accepting
more responsibility for upgrading/maintaining the interface.

------
guessmyname
> _If your work isn 't ready for people to try out yet, please don't do a Show
> HN. Once it's ready, come back and do it then._

> _Blog posts, sign-up pages, and fundraisers can 't be tried out, so they
> can't be Show HNs._

Read the “Show HN” rules please:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

~~~
7961636B6572
Hey, thanks for the heads up. The app is ready and can be downloaded and
unlocked via the landing page. It's beta at the moment but is very stable
based on the feedback we've received from over 1.5k beta testers.

------
manbearpiggy
I was thinking recently about video streaming sites. There is only one,
really, that creators can use. Youtube creators are very vocal about how
frustrating YT is becoming. What if creators could use any video streaming
site (vimeo, tiktok, whatever) and a single app or site could bring all this
together.

This could be the answer, this could solve the problem of monopolies like
YouTube.

------
codesushi42
Remember RSS readers?

Pepperidge Farms remembers.

~~~
drexlspivey
I use feedly with over 100 feeds and an ifttt hook that saves the article to
instapaper when I click 'read later' and it works great.

~~~
skinnymuch
Can you see comments with RSS feeds? Also do you pay for Feedly?

~~~
codesushi42
Comments are supported in the RSS spec.

And Feedly is free.

~~~
skinnymuch
Feedly isn’t free. Site says basic/free is limited to “100 sources and 3
feeds”. It’s freemium. OP says they have over 100 feeds (which would be
sources in this case, no clue what feeds are).

Sorry, I meant if comments are actually available in a majority or even a
strong minority of RSS feeds. Last time I tried them, rarely were comments
included. And def not for HN, etc.

------
and0
I can see some issues with trying to unify disparate communities / features
for power users, but I would love a streamlined HN / Reddit comment browser
with better nesting that sits on my Mac desktop. Signed up for the beta.

EDIT: Oof, not so interesting in making a profile for it, though.

~~~
7961636B6572
Will consider making the Yack profile optional. For the beta version it was
necessary because the app has a "Feedback" community, which is built on top of
Discourse - This is where users provide feedback and report bugs.

Creating Yack profile automatically creates an account on Yack's Discourse
instance but it never associates plugin accounts (hacker news, reddit, etc)
with your Yack profile.

------
hiei
I'd be interested if this were browser based.

------
nestorherre
Looks good. Please make another Show HN once you release for Windows, will use
for sure.

~~~
7961636B6572
will do, thanks :)

------
1023bytes
That makes my procrastination so efficient you can't even call it
procrastinating

~~~
7961636B6572
:)

------
philfrasty
Looks cool! Reminds me of (YCs) Station with a focus on online communities.
Hint: Says "0 beta users signed up since August 1st 2019" in the bottom left
corner. Maybe refresh the cache?

~~~
7961636B6572
thanks for the feedback. Yep, currently looking into the issue. There're over
1.5k beta testers so far.

Didn't know Station was from YC. Yack is a native app with a custom UI/UX
built specifically for browsing online communities. As far as I remember,
Station was another wrapper that points to actual websites, no?

------
cl0ne
This reminds me of a browser I tried out years ago called Raven. It had a
similar interface with icons for different sites along the side. It doesn't
look like the website is still online though.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20111124103600/http://raven.io/](https://web.archive.org/web/20111124103600/http://raven.io/)

------
erklik
I would suggest optimizing the images, or lazy loading them. I have relatively
fast internet but the images were taking a while to load.

I'd also suggest using JPEG 2000 or WebP images, as they can be faster to
load.

Considering this is shared here, I am willing to wait but usually I would
click out if the images are taking too long to load especially considering
that images provide major info in terms of whether I want to use this or not.

------
tekacs
This is really promising and I'm fully set up and using it.

One question I have for the author is about keyboard access - there seem to be
no keyboard shortcuts at all right now, or even basic navigation (up/down,
etc.)

Is there any timeline on those sorts of things being available (or possible to
add with a plugin)? Once those are in place it'll be far more practical for me
to use Yack day-to-day...

~~~
7961636B6572
thanks for the feedback. Yes, keyboard shortcuts will be in the next release.
It's the highest priority item on the list right now.

------
eric-hu
Feedback: I jumped at this headline because HN, YouTube and Reddit are the
main social media sources I consume now. I left the front page because I tend
to browse these more on my phone or iPad. I do browse Reddit on my computer
more than on iOS, but only because the Reddit mobile webpage is so terrible.

Wish youR Mac app blows up and you make an iOS app one day.

~~~
thirdsun
> I do browse Reddit on my computer more than on iOS, but only because the
> Reddit mobile webpage is so terrible.

Have your tried Apollo[0]? It's a much better Reddit experience on iPad or
iPhone than their official options, whether it's the website or their app.

[0] [https://apolloapp.io/](https://apolloapp.io/)

~~~
iaml
Apollo on ipad is torturous. I use it on mobile, but narwhal blows it out of
the water on ipad.

~~~
thirdsun
What's the problem on iPad? I used Narwhal briefly, before Apollo, but it
never particularly impressed me, though I can't name any specific faults
either - maybe the design language, which doesn't feel very native or in line
with iOS' overall appearance.

~~~
iaml
It's not optimized for tablets, just scaled. Narwhal displays a normal ipad-
oriented layout like mail.

------
vmurthy
A great looking app. Just signed up for Beta :-) Went through the website but
couldn't find a piece of info: Keyboard shortcuts (preferably vim-like). Is it
already there or something in the works? I've been using a plugin for HN for
sometime now and would love the same experience on a desktop client as well.

~~~
7961636B6572
keyboard shortcuts is in the works :)

------
anigbrowl
Super cool, but why would you limit yourself to mac users even in alpha? Oh
well.

Anyway, we need more of this sort of thing. Most social websites only have
value as endpoints and relying on their own UI is just a vertical trap. CSS
and designers have done huge damage to the web; a lot of the blame lies with
marketing departments.

------
ghostbrainalpha
I like it. All of my procrastination sites in one app so my browser history
doesn't get cluttered by non work stuff.

One of my biggest fears is when I start to type in a URL during a screen share
with a client who's website is REGEX.COM, and they will see my auto fill
trying to take us to Reddit.com/SEXY_TOE_PARTY

------
diminoten
I'd love a way to interact with each site using many users. E.g. "Comment"
button has a dropdown for all the registered users for that site.

I've found having more purpose-driven usernames for some sites to be helpful,
but the burden of switching between those users is immense and doesn't feel
great.

------
johndubchak
I love the idea...when is the Linux beta?

~~~
7961636B6572
Focusing on macOS version and building more plugins at the moment, thinking
about Stackoverflow and StackExchange next, but also open to suggestions. Let
me know what you think :)

Linux and Windows support will be added with the final release.

~~~
O_H_E
Will be waiting for Linux :D

PS: you mention Windows in the landing page, but not Linux.

~~~
7961636B6572
will update the landing page now.

------
oehtXRwMkIs
I'm guessing this is proprietary? Couldn't find any info about the licensing
from the website.

------
vijaybritto
I would like to know the amount of ram it uses since it's gonna be a long
running application

------
qwerty456127
Looks cool. But it should have a Python API letting you wrte your own source
drivers so you could add other blogs.

PS: If only everybody were implementing ATOM and doing it properly - we
wouldn't have to implement any site-specific clients then.

~~~
7961636B6572
It has plugin architecture that allows anyone to build plugins for Yack. Once
out of beta, users will be able to install custom plugins directly from
GitHub. Plugins must be written in TypeScript though.

~~~
qwerty456127
Great. TypeScript doesn't feel as great for this kind of task (I mean content
processing) as Python does but still feels a sufficiently reasonable
alternative.

Will you also release Linux and Windows versions or is it meant to be Mac-
only?

~~~
7961636B6572
Why do you think Python is better than TypeScript?

~~~
qwerty456127
Does TypeScript have BeautifulSoup? TypeScript seems very appealing to me (a
C# programmer) but it also seems like Python lets you write more concise
text/XML/HTML processing code and already has particularly helpful libraries
for this. Also, virtually everybody writes at least some Python which makes it
a perfect language for user-developed extensions.

I don't mean TypeScript is much worse. Python just is the first thing to come
to my mind as "right tool for the job" when it's about textual content
processing. I'm not saying "please implement Python support instead", I'm just
explaining why I've mentioned Python first. TypeScript is great too.

------
tyagis
Do you really need "Beta Signup" at 8 different places on a single webpage?
Sounds being a little desperate to me.

Not nit picking here, but may put off some of us with mild OCD. :)

Otherwise, great concept! When are sign-ups for Mac opening?

~~~
7961636B6572
Hey, thanks for the feedback. Sign-ups are open for macOS. As soon as you sign
up, you'll receive an email with the invitation code and download link.

------
zapzupnz
This was all very cool up until I needed to create a Yack account. Yeah, nah.

------
rsashwin
What is your business model?

~~~
7961636B6572
Hey, thanks for the question. Haven't really thought about monetization yet.
Want to focus on building the best desktop experience for online communities.
Would love to be able to focus on it full time at some point (would be a
dream). Maybe will introduce some paid features in the future, but everything
in this version will always stay free.

~~~
rsashwin
Ok. I will consider adopting this in my life.

------
taf2
Feels like multiple tabs in a browser window already solve this - at the UI
part... Maybe there is a part of this that allows for easier cross referencing
between sites?

------
NilsIRL
Like always centralization seems nice at first except that it is just not
possible to have an app that speaks every API fragmenting the user experience
even more.

------
citilife
I'm sorry, but Why do I need this? This honestly seems harder to have
meaningful interactions on the web and likely more difficult to find things.

------
vinceguidry
Wishful thinking, I'm sure, but I'd love to see Quora support. But that's
probably totally unfeasible.

~~~
7961636B6572
It's feasible and already thinking about Quora plugin. Yack has an open source
plugin architecture. Each community in the app, Hacker News, YouTube, Reddit
are a plugin. Once out of beta, users will be able to install custom plugins
directly from a GitHub url.

~~~
vinceguidry
Godspeed. As far as I've been able to tell Quora is actively hostile to anyone
trying to improve the experience of using their site. Drives me bonkers.

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cshg
Why does it look so much like Slack? :D

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7961636B6572
you can use it at work all day and look productive :P

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TomatoTomato
Is there any support for extensions like Reddit Enhancement Suite?

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7961636B6572
No, Yack is not a full blown browser. It's a community app, but will support
almost all features RES does out of the box. It already supports multiple
accounts across all networks. Few things on the roadmap:

Keyboard Shortcuts Dark Theme Notifications Chat Curated Feeds (Curating posts
across multiple networks into a single feed) Plugins for Stackoverflow &
StackExchange.

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smaili
Wasn't there an anonymous app called Yack as well?

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dev1n
I think you're thinking of yik yak [1].

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yik_Yak](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yik_Yak)

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sylvanaar
All I get is a 404 from the download link.

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baalimago
How is this different from using a browser?

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7961636B6572
Good question. Yack started out as a native macOS app for Reddit. As I was
working on it, I realized most communities are the same, but provide different
and somewhat clunky (especially on desktop) experience.

This lead me into building an open source plugin architecture which allows
anyone to bring their favorite communities to Yack.

Plugin architecture, with the help of some really talented engineers helped me
quickly build plugins for my favorite communities (Reddit, YouTube, Indie
Hackers and Hacker News).

As to answer your question, same argument can be made against Apple's Mail app
(which has been a big inspiration for designing Yack). People have multiple
email accounts, imagine they all had different UI and you had to have multiple
tabs open at all times, switching back and forth, each with different UI/UX.
That would suck. Even with a single email address, lots of people, including
myself use Apple Mail instead of Gmail's website.

I'm a member of multiple Slack teams, it would suck if each looked different
and provided different experience and I'd have to use a web browser to talk to
my coworkers. Do you think Slack would take off if it was just a website and
didn't provide a desktop experience?

Yack! combines multiple communities into a single, unified desktop experience
and takes full advantage of the desktop platform, including native OS level
notifications, keyboard shortcuts, and many more.

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ceezuns
A version for Linux would be nice.

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fastflo
this "desktop app" somehow doesn't want to run on my linux desktop?

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7961636B6572
Focusing on the macOS version for the time being, but will release for Linux &
Windows very soon.

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julienkervizic
great idea, definitely seems like something I would use.

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johnmichaels
Completely agree julien kervizic, it does seems like something that any devout
hackernews reader could use.

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fossuser
Something is weird with all these new accounts with few comments on this
thread supporting this.

Are you using a bunch of secondary accounts just to comment on your post?

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elwell
I have my tinfoil hat on as well.

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maximp
Sweet idea! Looking forward to trying this out.

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7961636B6572
Thanks. Don't forget to report back here :)

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katttrrr
Looks incredible!

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johnmichaels
Agree, Kat, the interface reminds me a bit of slack and having it as a desktop
app makes it quite easy to browse when you have a couple of minutes of free
time.

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zbushqa
Sweet! Pretty good idea.

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foobar_
You created an account to post this comment, how incredibly noble of you.

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recov
Most people create an account to post a comment

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awaisraad
You broke my heart with Mac only. I won't forgive you.

