Show HN: HackerNows – Native iOS HN Client

https://hackernows.app/

by maguszin • 22 days ago

28 55 22 days ago

hackernows.app

JSR_FDED• 22 days ago

This is the first HN app that immediately clicks for me.

Would absolutely love it if the text could be made bigger (both for reading and commenting)!

By the way, this reply was posted using the HackerNows app itself :-)

maguszin8• 22 days ago

Thanks, i will work on that.

Native dynamic fonts works, but i will add an in app option to change font size

atombender2• 21 days ago

You might like HACK [1], then. It has a large set of options (maybe too many!) to change fonts, styles, colors, and spacing. It's probably the most extensive HN client for iOS.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...

murats• 22 days ago

I really like this. It feels clean enough that I might make it my main HN app.

christofori• 22 days ago

Nice job, bro! Keep it up!

ngsevers• 22 days ago

Any plans for android?

maguszin8• 22 days ago

Maybe in the future, im working on a macOS version atm and since the app rely heavily on iCloud it makes it difficult to support Android

toomuchtodo2• 21 days ago

Looking forward to the macOS version!

vforno• 22 days ago

I'm trying it, really interesting!

maguszin8• 22 days ago

If some users start seen `HNNetwork.NetworkError error 0`, this could be related to HN rate limit, i will add a friendly message for this error on the next version

tulio_ribeiro2• 21 days ago

I don’t think the Firebase HN API has rate limits. By the way, how many concurrent requests are you doing?

maguszin8• 21 days ago

Im using Firebase API, Algolia and HN Site HN Site request are never concurrent and i only use it when i cannot use Firebase and Algolia

nicce3• 21 days ago

Is there some caching currently? And how login is handled? Are credentials routed through your own infrastructure?

maguszin8• 21 days ago

Everything is persisted on device using GRDB Credentials are stored on device keychain Nothing leaves the app, its all Firebase, HNSite and iCloud to store custom groups I dont have any infra supporting the app

wesleynepo• 21 days ago

Muito foda, obrigado meu bom!

functionmouse• 21 days ago

why does this website need an app?

forlorn• 21 days ago

Why does any?

_thisdot• 21 days ago

I have been using an app on my phone (HACK) for a while. The content is way more readable with the app. And the interactions (voting and replying) are much more native. Navigating the comments (collapsing and expanding) are way easier

Also on the iPad, the two column view is nice too

nicce3• 21 days ago

If it is not the data collection, then it is always the UX. Seems to be UX on this case. But highly opinionated, some people like the old feel here.

jazzypants• 21 days ago

Do you read it on your phone? This website's (lack of a) mobile design makes it really hard to read. If I don't use my mobile app of choice (Harmonic), I have to zoom in really close and scroll all over the place. It's really annoying. The font is way too small, and it's hard-coded.

midasz• 21 days ago

This looks fine to me? In long threads it gets a bit hard to follow, only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment. https://i.imgur.com/8e1Syyf.jpeg

iwjcjwjcjjwf• 21 days ago

Strange question to ask on a forum where people seem intent on showing their new “I used AI to build something completely useless that will be forgotten in a matter of minutes” and the vast majority of people think it’s the next coming of Jesus.

It doesn’t need one, but now the option is there.

woadwarrior01• 21 days ago

To "delve into comments" (quoting from the app's website).

fragmede3• 21 days ago

it's a perfectly cromulent word!

toomuchtodo2• 21 days ago

Web HN is almost perfect, but an app is nice for offline caching of threads and potentially hide and favorites made while without internet access (that could eventually be synced as idempotent ops once connectivity is available again).

ngalaiko• 21 days ago

great app, neat and native, but unfortunately the website still loads faster, which beats the whole purpose to me

alentodorov• 21 days ago

+1. downloaded it to see if it’s faster, but comment section takes around 5-7 seconds to load. other than that, gj—-nice ux, polished, icon..

wwalexander• 21 days ago

Not really fixable, unfortunately. The API requires an network call for each comment:

The v0 API is essentially a dump of our in-memory data structures. We know, what works great locally in memory isn't so hot over the network.

When I played around with making a client, I found the best approach was to only load the first level of comments, and asynchronously fetch children inside DisclosureGroups on appear.

Then I realized the only reason I was making an HN app was so it didn’t blind me at night, and then I realized Lobsters has all the same stories as this place but lets me filter out vibe coding articles, and I just gave up.

fallenchromium• 21 days ago

Hey! Why a new app though? It's always interesting to understand the motives and the preferences of a person creating something new. I've skimmed through your website but you haven't highlighted what you missed in existing apps or what was your pain point

maguszin8• 21 days ago

For this one i would say Custom Groups and iCloud sync All other features are pretty similar to other HN clients

artur_makly2• 21 days ago

Feature Request: allow me to see only posts by categories I want to create and filter by.

For example: "AI" or "startups" or "discoveries"

artur_makly2• 21 days ago

Feature Request #2 Allow me to re-edit my comment after posting.

rvz• 21 days ago

I predict that building an iOS app for HN will be so common, that it will become a standard AI benchmark.

fragmede3• 21 days ago

Pretty cool. Any way to change the fonts?

tulio_ribeiro2• 21 days ago

HN clients are one of the most popular projects. I’m gonna agree with some of the other comment: this is nothing new.

https://hnpwa.com/

ksncksmckwkf• 21 days ago

Why does it have to be “something new”?

Unless you’re making the same type of comment on every post about yet another nonsensical and useless AI post around here, I don’t think you have much right to complain.

It’s a cool thing someone built. Let it be what it is.

mstkllah• 21 days ago

Frist three apps won't even load.

Glandalf• 21 days ago

Is it vibe coded? Sorry I ask this about ALL software now.

ramon156• 21 days ago

The website is, no idea about the app, though.

maguszin8• 21 days ago

Yes, the site is vibe coded

wmichelin• 21 days ago

Honestly? Why does it matter? This isn’t going away so we can all focus our energy on helping this workflow improve, or just ignoring it.

mlacks• 21 days ago

Why would that be relevant?

Diti• 21 days ago

Because support for the app stops the moment the Claude Code subscription ends. No-one enjoys unmaintained apps.

nicce3• 21 days ago

I guess it depends whether vibe coding means that human did not even review the code. If reviewed and fine-tuned, there shouldn't be a problem IMO.

maguszin8• 21 days ago

No, the app is not vibe coded, all things, good and bad are 100% human made :D

atombender2• 21 days ago

Always interesting to see new HN apps, and this one seems OK.

Personally I prefer HACK [1], which is probably the most extensive HN client for iOS. The amount of options for controlling the look of the app means you can influence the reading experience quite a bit, which isn't true for this new app.

My biggest complaint with HACK is search. Instead of a real UI, it uses its own kludgy search syntax to control what to filter. For example, "foo #stories" filters stories only.

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hack-for-hacker-news-yc-reader...

Jotalea• 21 days ago

slightly related, what are the best open source RSS readers for iOS? as far as I know, HN has an RSS Feed available.

stasomatic• 21 days ago

I don't know about "best", but I've tried many, Reeder, Feedly etc, for many years. These are not OSS though, but Reeder was my favorite of the bunch.

I settled on running NewsBlur on an OVH instance, it's open source and so are the apps. https://github.com/samuelclay/newsblur

On the desktop I use the default web interface, it runs and looks nice. A bit too many batteries included, but you can turn things off.

It's Django, so you can vibe code to your heart's delight. I did.

brycewray• 21 days ago

Highly recommend NetNewsWire, especially if one is already using it on any other Apple device. Recent updates have substantially improved its performance (on both iOS and macOS), so it's worth a second look if you haven't tried it recently.

caste• 21 days ago

really good app! super intuitive and the layout is so clean

congrats!

vfalbor• 21 days ago

There is one email-newsletter (Top daily news from HN commented) that works from several months ago for HN that I'm using, you should check it: https://tokenstree.eu

Show HN: HackerNows – Native iOS HN Client

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