ELI5: Would it be possible for a "fediverse" app to exist?
ELI5: Would it be possible for a "fediverse" app to exist?
By this I mean: something that can view and fully interact with multiple different services like Lemmy, Mastodon, etc.
Does it exist already?
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Artemis is an upcoming iOS app that is supposed to work for the whole “threadiverse” (so Kbin and Lemmy).
I think it is generally doable but it end up being double the work - you have to take the independently designed architectures of kbin and lemmy and marry them under one UI. This could lead to more bugs and slower development, especially early on. I can see what most apps are focusing on one or the other.
Implementing Mastodon would be even harder, because it’s post at architecture doesn’t follow the same pattern as kbin and lemmy’s . Would people really use an app where Reddit-style threads are mixed in with Twitter-style posts? I think it’s better that Mastodon is kept separate tbh.
Yeah, someone could make a Fediverse app that works with everything, but it’d have to be someone with a lot of time on their hands and enough acumen to make something that can put up a UI for all frontends that can compete with both Ivory and…well, whatever emerges as the big Lemmy/Kbin app.
Well they are using their free time and talent to make a app for a free service. That's kind of a default.
But I think people are approaching this the wrong way. You don't need to support the entire fediverse at once. I know it's OP's question, but the reality is that you'd focus on 1-2 of the biggest sites and add others later when (if?) any other big instance with a fundamentally different part of the API.
You won't support everything but you can eventually support 99% of where people browse.
Kbin is doing this for a bit, see the microblogging tab.
Boost is the same as mastodon, and you can follow users.yes, but you can't see a timeline with followed users only, at least I couldn't find how.
Artemis is also for Android.
Also I do believe they have Mastodon/microblogging support planned for later!Yeah I’m following a couple lemmy.world communities via the mastodon app and it’s a bit of a mess. You can’t distinguish new posts from replies in the mastodon feed. Still really cool though that it’s even possible - it’s just the interface isn’t quite built for it to be conducive.