Voyager @lemmy.world Tangent5280 @lemmy.world 1y ago

I've been thinking of switching over to Voyager, but I heard that Voyager was built on elements from Chrome. As a layman what does this mean?

Is using Voyager giving Chrome an opportunity to harvest user data? I'll take whatever you know about the Voyager dependence on chrome.

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Voyager is built using capacitor and ionic framework, which is a web framework to build mobile apps, basically. It doesn’t “use elements from chrome”, it uses progressive web apps (PWAs), which you can set up with whatever browser you choose. They’re basically web apps that you install to your phone’s desktop.

Additionally, there’s currently an app in TestFlight to install it on iOS natively and will probably soon be a version for Android. It’s still a web app wrapped in a native wrapper, but it unlocks native functionality and feels much nicer.

Anyway, all of this to say, nothing about the way the app was built inherently includes anything from chrome. Only if you use chrome to make it a PWA.
- I’m pretty happy with the PWA. What sort of specific improvements does “native functionality” bring?
  
  Haptic feedback and the status bar being able to match color right now. Not sure if there’s anything else right now, but man the app feels so much nicer with haptic feedback.
It's a webapp so you run it in your browser - it only uses chrome if you choose to use chrome.

I'm using it in Firefox on Android, but you could also use it in Safari on iOS for example.
It's a webapp. If you're uncomfortable with Chrome, run it with Firefox.
- Ok I think I understand. You just go to vger.app whenever you want to use Voyager then.
  
  Yes but also your phone gives you the ability to “install” a web app as if it was a normal app. Go into the voyager settings and follow the instructions to do this. Basically what your phone is doing is saving a bookmark to the web app with an icon, but when it runs, it has the feel of an app instead of a website because it doesn’t open up the full browser with the url bar and all that other browsery stuff.
  
  That's right. Sorry, if I'd been thinking I would have included the URL.
  
  I hope you enjoy the (web)app!
When I installed it it had to be safari. You save a bookmark of the web app on your iOS app home page so it appears like an app.

Try it out on safari and see what you think. The App Store version is imminent anyway if you wanted to wait.
There's a testflight for the iOS app now, so you might be able to find a link to that. But they are coming out with a native ios app.

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