Yes, it's due to removing Websocket in v. 0.18. It's supposed to be fixed in 0.18.1. I'm also on Lemmy.world and haven't had too many issues on the latest version of Jerboa but they recommend using the previous version or a different app for the time being. That said, for the main reason we're getting so many Reddit refugees being an issue with third-party apps, particularly on mobile, pushing an update to the official app here that requires a site version not all the main instances are on board with isn't a good PR look.
0.18 was a big change (for example websockets to http), I'd imagine future versions are unlikely to be so drastic and will allow Jerboa to be compatible with older versions
As others already stated, lemmy.world skipping 1.8.0 on purpose because of the captcha.
My main app is jerboa but currently I'm using liftoff, a little bit more aesthetically and they are pushing update after update literally multiple times a day on github
Lots of instances are waiting for 0.18.1 to be released, which will bring back captchas, which got removed in 0.18.0. The devs pushed out 0.18.0 to fix a bunch of annoying bugs and to make their api more sustainable (http vs websockets), but changing api technologies meant that captchas needed to be entirely reimplemented. They didn't want to wait for that to push the bug fixes and the new api, hence why you're seeing the discrepancy. The new jerboa app using the new api got pushed together with the new api, but isn't compatible with the 0.17.4 version
Keep in mind that they are still on the 0.x.x versions. That usually signals a not yet fully matured platform. I'm sure there will be some bumpy times ahead while users keep pouring in.
[Screenshot shows local active feed for Lemmy slightly dimmed in the background, with posts from 'Technology' and 'Fediverse' most prominent in the feed. There is a pop-up window in the middle of the screen that blocks some of the feed. A button labelled 'OK' is displayed below the following text.]
Server version (0.17.4) is under the minimum supported version (0.18).
Please inform your administrator and login to another instance, or sign out and use the default instance.
^I'm a human volunteer transcribing posts in a format compatible with screen readers, for blind and visually impaired users!^