from Hacker News

Ask HN: What are some of the better Hacker News apps?

by kyo3 on 7/2/17, 8:06 PM with 47 comments

• by jitl on 7/2/17, 10:02 PM

  The best option I’ve found is https://hckrnews.com/

  Not an app, but I think it’s better than almost all of the apps out there. Clean, quick, and has an “open in new tab” feature.

  Rather than writing my own description, here’s the pitch in the site’s own words:

  > Hacker News is a great resource. However, I seemed to constantly run into two issues. 1. If I didn't visit at least once a day, top items would scroll off the top pages and I would never see them. 2. If I was procrastinating and visiting the page often, I would find it difficult to determine what was new on the page. That frustration led to hckr news, a chronologic list of items that have made it onto the Hacker News homepage.

  (https://hckrnews.com/about.html)

  I think apps don’t have much to offer since HN has thread collapse and vote-undo these days.

• by disago on 7/2/17, 8:19 PM

  After trying many, I settled with Materialistic [1]

  Its easy to navigate, allows good interaction with HN and is very stable.

  [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.hidr...

• by juice_bus on 7/2/17, 9:15 PM

  I've been using http://hn.premii.com/about/ forever now, the toggle night mode from the homepage is fantastic for switching between dark/light theme very quickly.

• by jaredcwhite on 7/3/17, 4:02 AM

  Surprised nobody's mentioned: https://app.hackerwebapp.com

  The web version is clean and fast, and there's a native iOS and Android app out now as well. (Funny backstory: before the native iOS app was released, the mobile web version already felt like a native app, and instead the native app is nearly indistinguishable from the web app. However, the native app is better in that links open up in the Safari View Controller, so it's easier to pop back and forth between websites and the news feed.)

• by dotancohen on 7/2/17, 9:34 PM

  Honestly I just stick with the website. What do you feel that an app might give you that the HN website does not? Only on that basis might an app recommendation be appropriate as they all provide some features but are missing others.

• by swanson on 7/2/17, 9:00 PM

  I've been using https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.manuelmaly... on Android for a long time. It seems to best jive with the ethos of HN -- stripped down design, focused on the content, and just works.

• by winstonschmidt on 7/2/17, 8:56 PM

  Quite happy with Hews [1]. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have a widget and hasn't been updated in a year (but it is open source).

  [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leavjenn.h...

• by assadk on 7/2/17, 9:12 PM

  MiniHack for iOS is great

• by miguelrochefort on 7/2/17, 11:14 PM

  I keep going back to the website.

  Although I don't like the design and it's not very usable of mobile (buttons are too small), my consumption flow depends on the "Open in new tab" functionality. This is also why I prefer the Reddit website to the app.

  I would use a client that let me queue links/threads/comments for future reading. I'll probably end up building it.

• by kgwxd on 7/3/17, 1:50 AM

  New apps shouldn't be needed for this kind of thing. Get an RSS reader and use https://news.ycombinator.com/rss. If you want to get your comment replies too, ask HN to start providing a feed for it, if they do, I couldn't find it. Start using the reader for everything you can. Most YouTube channels have a hidden feed, Reddit has feeds, most sites worth a damn have feeds. You will save countless hours of your life never having to sift through things you've already read or intentionally skipped. You can add your own filters for junk sites that are going to show you a pay wall, tell you to allow tracking or require you to sign up.

• by mercer on 7/3/17, 12:06 PM

  I'm working on my own Better and Improved, but for now i use hn.premii.com for my mobile needs, and hckrnews.com with a few userscripts for everything else.

  EDIT: and hn.algolia.com for anything vaguely related to search.

• by ufmace on 7/3/17, 3:29 AM

  Tried a few, but honestly, the website seems to be better. I suppose the UI could be a little spiffier, but it not only works, but keeps working long-term. Most of the apps I've tried work okay-ish at first, and then fall into disrepair after a year or two due to some combination of developer boredom and site/API changes.

• by adambard on 7/2/17, 9:58 PM

  Since I haven't seen anyone do so yet, I'll cast my vote for DWAK's app on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.dwak.holoha...

• by cjCamel on 7/2/17, 9:43 PM

  Are there any Android apps where you can get the Share menu from long press on URL in a comment? Tried all of the ones linked so far and none of them have this.

  Reason? To feed my Pocket addiction...

• by BrandoElFollito on 7/3/17, 6:31 PM

  I use Feedly on the feed. The huge advantage is that the design is clean and that scrolled down items are automatically marked as read.

• by ahmedfromtunis on 7/2/17, 11:13 PM

  None. They (or rather the API) don't allow to comment or upvote. Sad.

• by harisamin on 7/2/17, 9:39 PM

  Shameless plug but check out mackernews.com for a Mac app :)

• by izolate on 7/3/17, 7:10 AM

  No complaints with Boreal (iOS)