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Announcing DEV for Android

Mac Siri on April 24, 2019

The wait is over! We are excited to announce the DEV Community app for Android. Similar to our approach with iOS, we heavily leveraged native shell...
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Ben Halpern

We have more features to implement but we wanted to get this up as soon as it was a solid, usable solution.

Speaking of installable instances of DEV, did you know you can install our site as a desktop PWA? There are some definite gotchas to the current state of desktop PWA but it's an interesting possible future.

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Pavel Susicky

The PWA is awesome. I have been using it most of the time on phone. It works pretty well. 😎

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Luis Montes

what are you finding lacking in current state of PWAs that you need for dev.to?

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Ben Halpern

Specifically for desktop, there are just a few unanswered questions about how certain functionality would be delivered. It's just early and some of the features we might want to use are not yet shipped.

On mobile, especially Android, it's been really nice. But we wanted to get into the native realm because certain APIs may never ship to PWA and getting into native is important to ensure the best longterm user experience.

By mostly relying on webviews, it's not that hard to ship to as many platforms as possible.

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kip

But we wanted to get into the native realm because certain APIs may never ship to PWA and getting into native is important to ensure the best longterm user experience.

Can you show us what APIs ? 🤓

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KhoPhi

Curious to learn what specific APIs too myself.

I'm all for the iOS, Android apps as options, however, I doubt there's anything that'll be implemented in the natives that isn't supported in the browser at the moment.

The web API support has advanced interestingly.

Anyway kudos to the team behind the platform apps. Enjoying the PWA

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K

Is there an API that allows posting on dev.to?

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Dmitry Yakimenko

I was not able to figure it out. I was browsing thorough the code for an hour and couldn't figure out how to login using the API.

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Sylvester Nkeze • Edited

Was React Native used to develop the app ? If so, What UI kit was used to give the app the same web ui feel ? This app is really cool like its PWA sibling.

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Matheus

I took a look at the source code on github and it looks like that it's a native Android app, but it uses a webview that contains the website. But I don't know that for sure...

It would be cool if this was developed using React Native. I would want to contribute :)

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Ayush Gupta

Is there any beta program one can sign up for??

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Jerome Raymundo

I tried to login via twitter/github using the app. It redirects me to my mobile browser and asks me to login with twitter, but when I do I only get logged in my Dev account in the browser not in the app.

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Mac Siri

Sorry everybody. As stated, having Chrome as the default browser is the temporary work around. We will address this in the upcoming hot fix.

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Dušan

I have had the same issue before I removed the PWA version of the app. Try removing it and then logging in again :) worked for me.

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Corey Alexander

Ahh perfect! I was having the same issue but this seemed to fix it! Thank you!

I bet the PWA service worker is being a bit too aggressive in what requests it captures and tries to handle, but that's really just a shot in the dark lol!

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Tyler Potts ✌️

Same issue here 😢

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Aivan Monceller

My default browser is chrome, but this still happens to me. I had to uninstall it and get back to the PWA.

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Peter Kim Frank

Super excited about this announcement. Awesome job and hat-tip to @maestromac who led the charge here!

We now have apps for Android, iOS, PWAs, and even some (community-built) CLI tools. Of course, all of the above are open-source, and are ready to be improved with the community's help.

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Drew Bragg

Neat! Any advantage to the Android app over the PWA? Been using the PWA for a while now and it's great! Better than most native apps I've used.

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Bhupesh Varshney 👾

Probably the push notification feature would be merged soon 😋😋

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Subramanian 😎

Doesn't the native app have push notification feature currently?

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Bhupesh Varshney 👾

It looks like its still in development, see this issue

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Glenn Carremans

Last time I checked the repo there was nothing there, I was planning on working on a poc version and making a PR to open a discussion.
I guess work was being done in private 😉

Congrats on the Android release!

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Ricardo Costeira

This is probably a known issue already, but although I'm able to login with GitHub, I have to login again every time I kill the app. The login flow itself (i.e., having to open the browser) could use some work as well. Other than that, it's a great start! It's already faster and smoother than the PWA version, so well done!

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Tyler Potts ✌️

I have the same issue 😢

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Ricardo Costeira

Haha, just tried it again, and now it works :P my session gets restored. They probably updated the website to persist the session token or something.

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Jess Lee

@maestromac , thank you for leading up this effort!!

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Jenner Fusari

I have both Firefox and Chrome installed in my phone (running Android 5.1). I managed to login using Chrome and I was successful in this... but the App never loads my avatar and my feed. I see only the first article and the following ones keeps loading.
I tried the process (erasing data, performing the login with Chrome) several time with always the same result.
Is there something I can do to correctly login or is it better waiting for an update?

Thank you for the good work!

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Mac Siri

A new version was just released. Can you please try it out and let me know if the problem still persists?

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Jenner Fusari

I'm still in the same situation and I cannot figure why.
I erased the data and I log in via github (the login process is now inside app).
That's a screenshot of what I got:
still loading...
(hope this helps)

Thank you!

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Mac Siri

Sorry to you that you are still expericing this. I'll create an issue on your behalf.

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Mac Siri

This is the issue. Can you please tell me your phone's specs?

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Excited to see this. And happy to say that this is my first data entry from aforementioned app. 🙌🎉💯

Just installed bit and it is super responsive! Look forward to using it more.

 
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Jerome Raymundo

Thanks for this. I was also using firefox as my default browser. I switched to chrome as my default browser, but the app still opened firefox for the login. I had to uninstall firefox first, now I've successfully logged into the app with chrome.

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Vinay Hegde • Edited

@dev.to team - Kudos to you for releasing an Android app to enable everyone access content right on their fingertips.

Like it's been already pointed out, could there be a feature to include Github auth within the app itself than opening a browser?

PS: Comments work flawlessly 😄

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Mike Bifulco

Great work on this, y'all. I'm super pumped to have a native dev.to app on my phone, at long last! The PWA was doing the trick for quite a while, but a full app is 🎉

This is quickly becoming one of my favorite places to learn and discuss the world I work in. Thank you for that. 🙏

(An authoring question: how does one embed github repo cards in posts like you've done?)

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Mac Siri

It's our liquid tags. 😊

{% github https://github.com/thepracticaldev/your-repo-url-here %}
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Mike Bifulco

Sweet! Ah goodness there's so many of these. Wow!

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Anand Kumar

Downloaded and install. It is Awesome.
Thanks Dev.

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Electrode Cathode

Replying from the android app and it's awesome

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rhymes

Well done!!!

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geraldew • Edited

Oh well, I just uninstalled the app after trying to use it for a month. In the end the killer non-feature was the inability to easily Share an item to email. As I'd keep finding myself copying the URL to clipboard and going to Firefox anyway, I've replaced the app with a home page link for Firefox.

Trying to use the URL pasted straight into an email was a fail as it seems impossible to then clip the title text from the app.

For context, I use Firefox across all platforms, albeit with no Apple platforms in the set.

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Mac Siri

Thanks for this. We'll make improvement in that front in the upcoming version.

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ItsASine (Kayla)

Woo, dark theme works in the app 🎉 Now to go bookmark another 1000 articles because it's so easy

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Razan Qraini

Congrats👏🏼🤩 the app is super fast and neat!
I'll check and follow the repo for sure

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Timothy Odaniel

The recent announcement of DEV for Android opens up exciting possibilities for users, bringing the well-loved DEV community directly to mobile devices. This launch is likely to make engaging with tech content, sharing insights, and connecting with fellow developers more accessible than ever on the go. As DEV continues to expand, this mobile-first approach has the potential to reach even more users worldwide. Additionally, with platforms like Globe Telechome globesim-registration.ph/ possibly supporting app-friendly data packages, there could be a convenient way for users to stay connected to DEV on their Android devices effortlessly, anytime and anywhere.

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ɯɐSʞɯɐᴉ

Just got it! This is exactly what I was looking for! ♥️

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Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ Fayard

The Android app works fine here!

I have a feature request related to be less distracted

I would like to be able to focus on my reading list when I'm using the mobile app.

Desktop is great for browsing, looking at notifications, answering comments.

On the mobile app I would prefer to have my reading list open by default - maybe a checkbox in the settings

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javinpaul

Congratulations!!

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Antonio Davide Calì

is there a reason why I cannot find the app on play store?

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Rafay106

I am also wondering the same.

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Basti Ortiz • Edited

Finally! 🥳🥳🥳 I've been waiting for this. Thank you, guys! Keep up the good work!

I'm just sad that I couldn't download it because my phone runs Android 4.1... ☹

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Adam McNeilly

Congrats! This is so exciting! :D Definitely starring and following the repo. Please let me know if I can ever help. :)

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Derek Delaney

Has the team thought about using flutter to create an app for both platforms? Only one code base to maintain.

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Stokry

Great😀

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Erhan Kılıç • Edited

It gives error when you try to login. I tried to login with github, it opens the auth link in browser but when you login on the github, it says csrf error.

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diek

I'm using it! I must say, with Xiaomi,that the login throws cors error and fails with the default MUI's SO browser. Using Chrome as default browser allowed me to successfully login. Good job!

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Carles Mata

Great! It's a good start, sure it will improve over time with the community's contributions!

Just to know, will you post somewhere what do you want to add or improve to the app?

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Mac Siri

Thanks for the feedback! Following our repo is the best way to stay up to date with our plans.

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sean cook

Alt text of image

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Carles Mata

I'm following, so I'll take a look. I suppose you'll post desired features too, so if I want to contribute I can see what would you like to be implemented.

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Autumn

Side note: Love your Foster's home profile pic!!!

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AhmadDeel

What's wrong with PWA app ????

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Boris Krstić

On my Pixel 3, I am getting logged out every time I start the app.
Is it only me?

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Marco Traspel

PWA? :(

But awesome anyways! thx!

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sean cook

Alt text of image

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K-Sato

Dope

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Dennis Quesada Cruz

Let's see how it works under 2G Internet Access :D

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AnfossiStudio

Finally, why not create challenge for designe application

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Ronnie Villarini

This looks great! Great job!

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Vijay Singh Khatri

After visitng and installing, I found the best learning platform,I used medium a lot of time but frankly, I have never used an app like dev.to.

Thanks for this app.

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Nick Shulhin

Great news!!! Waiting for iOS in future! Also love PWA version, it simply rocks

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DerrickWango

The PWA worked perfectly. If ain't broke don't fix it.

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Fernando B 🚀

Only thing I am missing on PWA is dark mode. :( I wonder if there is a monkeyscript web browser for Android.

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Ben Greenberg

Just installed it. Beautifully done!

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Davidson Sousa

Just downloaded and, minus some annoyances, it seems pretty amazing so far.

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Vinay

The wait is over. Just installed the app

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Hammed Oyedele

Nice interface... I think it is time for official API. It would make creating dev.to clients easier.

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Carles Mata

Or the KaiOS version!

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124125

interesting fact is i am reading this article on android 😂. App is full functional.

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Bhupesh Varshney 👾

Any Chance it could be renamed too dev.to instead of DEV Community??

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John Melody Me

Nice!

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Aman Godara • Edited

play.google.com/store/apps/details...

This link is giving me error, may be it is not available in India?

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Tari R. Alfaro

I'd love to keep up on the site. But I try to avoid Google Play Store. Any chance you guys would be willing to publish to F-Droid also? I and many others would love to see it there.

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Mac Siri

I see no reason not to. Stay tuned.

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Ibrohim Hanafi

This app same with PWA version, like webview 😀

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Ben Sinclair

Can I get a tl;dr of how this is different/better than using the site in my phone's web browser?