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2025-01-08 11:43:36

Hubzilla Network

info@hubzilla.network

Ever wonder how Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, and Hubzilla match up? Check out this comparison table.

https://hubzilla.network/page/info/compare

show all 13 comments

2025-01-08 16:05:26

Alexander Goeres

jabgoe2089@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

this looks great but there is one aspect missing that to my experience it central for twits: no smartphone app for hubzilla! even though the normal web interface looks good enough for me on my smartphone, most people think, that "SocMed" is an app on their smartphone. and not finding one will put them off of hubzilla!

2025-01-08 16:16:06

Hamiller Hubzilla

hamiller@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Alexander Goeres

That is true, but it overlooks the more important social network effect:

From a network theory perspective, Twitter consisted of the main hubs, relevant clusters and central players in the public sphere. Twitter was home to (almost) everyone who is publicly active: Scientists, authors, artists, activists, politicians of all ranks, lawyers, media people, all sorts of celebrities and public figures and experts on practically everything.

2025-01-08 21:08:20

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Alexander Goeres That is listed in the Mobile and Desktop section of the table, where is shows that Hubzilla only has a Progressive Web App (PWA) and not an Android or iOS app.

And I agree, that is a major shortcoming of Hubzilla. Eventually, we need an Android or iOS app.

Although I did read that it is possible to submit a PWA to Google Play and the Apple Store. But there are a lot of hoops to jump through, and we would have to make some changes on our side.

2025-01-08 21:15:11

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Scott M. Stolz

Although I did read that it is possible to submit a PWA to Google Play...

I had a look at it earlier. It's really not trivial, but it's more feasible than familiarising yourself with app development.

2025-01-08 21:28:01

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ It also might be easier to jump through the hoops as an individual website, rather than having one app that can connect to any Hubzilla server. That way you can point to one organization and one privacy policy and one moderation team and state that they will comply with Google Play and Apple Store rules.

Although, the Mastodon app did get approved, and that can connect to any Mastodon server, so it is possible for a generic Hubzilla one to get approved too. But there is a risk that a bad site can get us kicked off.

I suppose that is why most Mastodon apps connect directly to an official instance such as Mastodon.Social, but allow you to change servers. Officially they are a Mastodon.Social app, but you can use it to connect to any Mastodon server. That way they stay in compliance.

2025-01-08 21:40:32

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Scott M. Stolz

And I agree, that is a major shortcoming of Hubzilla. Eventually, we need an Android or iOS app.

I'm not even sure if Hubzilla has a client API. In fact, I'm not sure if a client API for Hubzilla makes sense in the first place.

A good official mobile app would have to be fully-featured, so that its users would never have to fall back to the Web interface. I mean, a lot of people don't even have computers anymore nowadays, only phones. At least all settings would have to be available in the app.

But a fully-featured native mobile app for Hubzilla would end up every bit as complex as Hubzilla itself. FairEmail would pale in comparison.

2025-01-08 22:36:38

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Jupiter Rowland Hubzilla actually does have an API. But I don't think anyone has used it in awhile, so I am not sure if it is even fully functional.

And we could use the same technique that many other apps use. They have the main functionality as a native app, but for certain things it opens an internal web browser and just shows a web view. That way we don't have to make 100% of Hubzilla native.

2025-01-08 22:51:33

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

@Scott M. Stolz

@Jupiter Rowland is absolutely right. A native app that really offers all the functions and possibilities of Hubzilla is like rewriting the entire client software at mobile level. A mammoth project (oh... a pun 😁). I don't even know if the ‘mammoth’ apps really offer all the functions of Mastodon. Even there it's already a lot.

But Hubzilla's responsive design is really really good and you can actually use everything very well with a browser. That's why I don't see any need to create a native app (or have one created... certainly not cheap).

It is now possible to create a PWA as an apk package and offer it for installation. But then you're just stuck with a domain - i.e. a specific hub. You would have to create a PWA package for each hub. I don't know whether the web stores would play along. And the effort would be enormous.

In the end, someone who is familiar with app creation would have to develop an app that ultimately displays Hubzilla quite simply using a web engine. All that would have to be programmed in advance is a selection of the hub (possibly also the registration process if you don't have an account yet), which is then called up in the web engine. If you haven't already done so, you could log in there and the operation would then correspond to the web app.

I don't know if we can find someone to do this... but until then we could offer a guide that explains how to create a PWA on your own mobile device. Then users will have their ‘app’ with an icon on the screen. The procedure is not that complicated and quickly explained.

BTW: I have already created screenshots 😉😂 ...

2025-01-08 23:28:57

Jupiter Rowland

jupiter_rowland@hub.netzgemeinde.eu

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ Basically, what we need is a newer incarnation of Nomad with a more up-to-date, more secure, more trustworthy Web engine underneath. One that's available for iOS as well. Ideally, one that has its own storage for cookies, cache etc.

2025-01-08 23:33:24

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ For a Hubzilla branded Android or iOS app, one thing we can do is create a gateway page when you first start the app. It directs you to log into or create an account on a recommended instance, or it lets you choose another domain name. If you enter another domain name, it redirects you to that domain.

This is similar to how the Mastodon app works, where it defaults to mastodon.social but you can pick any server.

We can keep it as a PWA as long as we have a gateway page that lets you select a server.

2025-01-09 01:04:13

Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝

pepecyb@hub.hubzilla.hu

If waiting for Father Christmas takes too long, you can also do it this way 😉😂:

A Hubzilla app

Eine Hubzilla-App

2025-01-09 03:39:04

Scott M. Stolz

scott@loves.tech

@Der Pepe (Hubzilla) ⁂ ⚝ Nice docs. I've been using the Hubzilla PWA for years now and it works well.

The only reason to get added to Google Play and the Apple Store is for publicity and credibility. That's where people look for it.

2025-01-09 12:42:09

Hubzilla Network

info@hubzilla.network

@Hamiller Hubzilla

That is true, but it overlooks the more important social network effect:

But over time, the "fediverse" will eventually take over because of the network effect.

When every blog has a fediverse address, and online forums become fediverse-connected, and more platforms connect to the fediverse, it will wind up being a bigger network than the centralized ones. It will take time, of course, but it's coming. Even Meta sees that, which is why they created Threads.