Show HN: HackerNows – Native iOS HN Client
hackernows.appAlways 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...
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
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 :-)
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...
Thanks, i will work on that.
Native dynamic fonts works, but i will add an in app option to change font size
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
Is there some caching currently? And how login is handled? Are credentials routed through your own infrastructure?
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
I don’t think the Firebase HN API has rate limits. By the way, how many concurrent requests are you doing?
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
Feature Request: allow me to see only posts by categories I want to create and filter by.
For example: "AI" or "startups" or "discoveries"
great app, neat and native, but unfortunately the website still loads faster, which beats the whole purpose to me
+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..
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.
You can fetch the HTML (1 request), parse that, extract the comments, render the above the fold content, then use the API and blend the rest of the comments for the rest of the comments. You can also use the algolia api to grab comment data but the order doesn't match the website.
At least, that's what claude would suggest doing.
I predict that building an iOS app for HN will be so common, that it will become a standard AI benchmark.
I really like this. It feels clean enough that I might make it my main HN app.
Feature Request #2 Allow me to re-edit my comment after posting.
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
For this one i would say Custom Groups and iCloud sync All other features are pretty similar to other HN clients
slightly related, what are the best open source RSS readers for iOS? as far as I know, HN has an RSS Feed available.
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.
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.
Pretty cool. Any way to change the fonts?
I'm trying it, really interesting!
Muito foda, obrigado meu bom!
Any plans for android?
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
Looking forward to the macOS version!
really good app! super intuitive and the layout is so clean
congrats!
Nice job, bro! Keep it up!
why does this website need an app?
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.
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
> only thing I'm missing is a jump to next root comment
That's a two step process currently when you are just going through the comments you click "root" on any sub-root-comment and then "next" on the root comment. Next will always take you to the next sibling comment (called a sibling, because it's a tree data-structure basically and sibling comes from a family tree. In fact where I said sub-root-comment I could have said descendants or children.)
EDIT: I just realized that the first child of the root doesn't have the "root" button so you have to click "parent" on it and then "next".
Do you up or downvote? The icons are very small on mobile.
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
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.
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).
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.
To "delve into comments" (quoting from the app's website).
it's a perfectly cromulent word!
Why does any?
HN clients are one of the most popular projects. I’m gonna agree with some of the other comment: this is nothing new.
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.
Frist three apps won't even load.
Is it vibe coded? Sorry I ask this about ALL software now.
No, the app is not vibe coded, all things, good and bad are 100% human made :D
Why would that be relevant?
Because support for the app stops the moment the Claude Code subscription ends. No-one enjoys unmaintained apps.
Then use OpenAI Codex?
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.
The website is, no idea about the app, though.
Yes, the site is vibe coded
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.