Announcing DEV for Android

Publish Date: Apr 24 '19

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/web views and will include more native code over time. There are a few known issues but we're excited to have a starting point for future enhancements!

We're also on Product Hunt today. 😊

Please let us know your feedback and suggestions as you start to try out the app. And just like our web app and iOS app, the Android app is open-source!

Contributions by way of issues and PRs are very very welcomed:

forem / DEV-Android

DEV Community Android App

DEV Android 💝

This is the official repository for the dev.to's Android app.

Design ethos

DEV Android is an WebView based application. This application is inspired by Basecamp's approach. We will grow to include more native code over time.

By leveraging webviews as much as possible, we can smoothly sync up with our web dev work. And where it makes sense, we can re-implement certain things fully native, or build entirely native features. Life's a journey, not a destination.

Contributions

We expect contributors to abide by our underlying code of conduct. All conversations and discussions on GitHub (issues, pull requests) and across dev.to must be respectful and harassment-free.

System Requirements

You will need to have Android Studio 3.5 or up installed.

Usage

$ ./gradlew tasks --group=custom
------------------------------------------------------------
Tasks runnable from root project
------------------------------------------------------------

Custom tasks
------------
androidTest - Run android instrumentation tests
hello - Hello World task

…

View on GitHub

forem / DEV-ios

DEV Community iOS App

DEV iOS 💖

This is the repo for the dev.to iOS app.

Status:

Released first version, more info: https://twitter.com/bendhalpern/status/1061323718058786822

Design ethos

We will grow to include more native code over time, but for now we are taking the approach of native shell/web views. This approach lost favor early in iOS days, but I believe it is a very valid approach these days. It is inspired by how Basecamp does things. Our tech stack is a bit different, but the ideas are the same.

https://m.signalvnoise.com/basecamp-3-for-ios-hybrid-architecture-afc071589c25

https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3743-hybrid-sweet-spot-native-navigation-web-content

https://signalvnoise.com/posts/3766-hybrid-how-we-took-basecamp-multi-platform-with-a-tiny-team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWEts0rlezA

By leveraging wkwebviews as much as possible, I think we can make this all pretty awesome and sync up with our web dev work pretty smoothly. And where it makes sense, we can re-implement certain things fully native, or build entirely native features. Life's a journey, not a destination.

Contributing

Fork and clone the project.
Build and run the project in XCode.
…

View on GitHub

You can still install the app as PWA and we will continue to support various installation paths of DEV.

Happy Coding ❤️

Comments 97 total

Jess LeeApr 24, 2019

@maestromac , thank you for leading up this effort!!
Peter Kim FrankApr 24, 2019

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.
Basti OrtizApr 24, 2019

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... ☹
Drew BraggApr 24, 2019

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.
- Bhupesh Varshney 👾Apr 24, 2019
  
  Probably the push notification feature would be merged soon 😋😋
  - Subramanian 😎Apr 27, 2019
    
    Doesn't the native app have push notification feature currently?
    - Bhupesh Varshney 👾Apr 28, 2019
      
      It looks like its still in development, see this issue
Adam McNeillyApr 24, 2019

Congrats! This is so exciting! :D Definitely starring and following the repo. Please let me know if I can ever help. :)
Ben HalpernApr 24, 2019
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.
- Luis MontesApr 24, 2019
  
  what are you finding lacking in current state of PWAs that you need for dev.to?
  - Ben HalpernApr 24, 2019
    
    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.
    - kipApr 24, 2019
      
      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 ? 🤓
      - KhoPhiApr 25, 2019
        
        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
- Pavel SusickyApr 24, 2019
  
  The PWA is awesome. I have been using it most of the time on phone. It works pretty well. 😎
- Sylvester NkezeApr 24, 2019
  
  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.
  - MatheusApr 25, 2019
    
    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 :)
- KApr 24, 2019
  
  Is there an API that allows posting on dev.to?
  - Dmitry YakimenkoApr 25, 2019
    
    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.
- Ayush GuptaApr 25, 2019
  
  Is there any beta program one can sign up for??
ɯɐSʞɯɐᴉApr 24, 2019

Just got it! This is exactly what I was looking for! ♥️
Glenn CarremansApr 24, 2019

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!
Erhan KılıçApr 24, 2019

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.
Razan QrainiApr 24, 2019

Congrats👏🏼🤩 the app is super fast and neat!
I'll check and follow the repo for sure
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.DApr 24, 2019

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.
Electrode CathodeApr 24, 2019

Replying from the android app and it's awesome
Sam WightApr 24, 2019

Can't log in with Twitter or Github, and the app feels laggy and jittery like a Cordova app. No thanks.
Jerome RaymundoApr 24, 2019
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.
- Tyler Potts ✌️Apr 24, 2019
  
  Same issue here 😢
- DušanApr 24, 2019
  
  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.
  - Corey AlexanderApr 24, 2019
    
    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!
- Mac SiriApr 24, 2019
  
  Sorry everybody. As stated, having Chrome as the default browser is the temporary work around. We will address this in the upcoming hot fix.
- Aivan MoncellerApr 25, 2019
  
  My default browser is chrome, but this still happens to me. I had to uninstall it and get back to the PWA.
Bhupesh Varshney 👾Apr 24, 2019

Any Chance it could be renamed too dev.to instead of DEV Community??
Dennis Quesada CruzApr 24, 2019

Let's see how it works under 2G Internet Access :D
Ricardo CosteiraApr 24, 2019

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!
- Tyler Potts ✌️Apr 24, 2019
  
  I have the same issue 😢
  - Ricardo CosteiraApr 24, 2019
    
    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.
StokryApr 24, 2019

Great😀
ItsASine (Kayla)Apr 24, 2019

Woo, dark theme works in the app 🎉 Now to go bookmark another 1000 articles because it's so easy
Vinay HegdeApr 24, 2019

@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 😄
javinpaulApr 24, 2019

Congratulations!!
John DoeApr 24, 2019

Really disappointed... I'm sorry this is not a native application.

This is just an application all based on a Webview (I just decompiled and checked and I'm not just asserting).

Better stick to PWA.
- rhymesApr 24, 2019
  
  Hi Erwan, why do you think it would be better as a native app? I personally find the hybrid approach interesting since there's already a functioning web app.
  
  Is it for specific reasons?
  - John DoeApr 24, 2019
    
    Hi rhymes
    
    Yes hybrid is my daily tech. But there is hybrid and hybrid.
    
    Anyway, native (more visible and sensitive on iOS) offers:
    
    better user experience,
    
    security (hacking a website is far easier than a native)
    
    I just point out that I'm disappointed with tech decisions. But this not my app so be it 😉
    - rhymesApr 24, 2019
      
      How is the mobile pwa less or more secure than the website itself? They are the same codebase.
      
      What other tech decisions you disagree with? Maybe there's the start of a nice conversation there.
rhymesApr 24, 2019

Well done!!!
diekApr 24, 2019

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!
Carles MataApr 24, 2019

Or the KaiOS version!
Marco TraspelApr 24, 2019

PWA? :(

But awesome anyways! thx!
AutumnApr 24, 2019

Side note: Love your Foster's home profile pic!!!
Carles MataApr 24, 2019

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?
- Mac SiriApr 24, 2019
  
  Thanks for the feedback! Following our repo is the best way to stay up to date with our plans.
  - sean cookApr 24, 2019
  - Carles MataApr 25, 2019
    
    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.
Tari R. AlfaroApr 24, 2019

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.
- Mac SiriApr 24, 2019
  
  I see no reason not to. Stay tuned.
Derek DelaneyApr 24, 2019

Has the team thought about using flutter to create an app for both platforms? Only one code base to maintain.
Anand KumarApr 24, 2019

Downloaded and install. It is Awesome.
Thanks Dev.
Jerome RaymundoApr 24, 2019

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.
Ben GreenbergApr 24, 2019

Just installed it. Beautifully done!
sean cookApr 24, 2019
Vijay Singh KhatriApr 24, 2019

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.
AnfossiStudioApr 24, 2019

Finally, why not create challenge for designe application
AhmadDeelApr 24, 2019

What's wrong with PWA app ????
Boris KrstićApr 24, 2019

On my Pixel 3, I am getting logged out every time I start the app.
Is it only me?
K-SatoApr 25, 2019

Dope
Ibrohim HanafiApr 25, 2019

This app same with PWA version, like webview 😀
Hammed OyedeleApr 25, 2019

Nice interface... I think it is time for official API. It would make creating dev.to clients easier.
Ben SinclairApr 25, 2019

Can I get a tl;dr of how this is different/better than using the site in my phone's web browser?
VinayApr 25, 2019

The wait is over. Just installed the app
DerrickWangoApr 25, 2019

The PWA worked perfectly. If ain't broke don't fix it.
Davidson SousaApr 25, 2019

Just downloaded and, minus some annoyances, it seems pretty amazing so far.
Ronnie VillariniApr 25, 2019

This looks great! Great job!
Mike BifulcoApr 25, 2019

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?)
- Mac SiriApr 27, 2019
  It's our liquid tags. 😊
  
  {% github https://github.com/thepracticaldev/your-repo-url-here %}
  - Mike BifulcoApr 27, 2019
    
    Sweet! Ah goodness there's so many of these. Wow!
Fernando B 🚀Apr 26, 2019

Only thing I am missing on PWA is dark mode. :( I wonder if there is a monkeyscript web browser for Android.
Jenner FusariApr 29, 2019

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!
- Mac SiriApr 29, 2019
  
  A new version was just released. Can you please try it out and let me know if the problem still persists?
  - Jenner FusariApr 30, 2019
    
    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:
    
    (hope this helps)
    
    Thank you!
    - Mac SiriMay 1, 2019
      
      Sorry to you that you are still expericing this. I'll create an issue on your behalf.
      - Mac SiriMay 1, 2019
        
        This is the issue. Can you please tell me your phone's specs?
geraldewMay 18, 2019

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.
- Mac SiriMay 20, 2019
  
  Thanks for this. We'll make improvement in that front in the upcoming version.
124125Feb 3, 2021
interesting fact is i am reading this article on android 😂. App is full functional.
钟智强Feb 25, 2021
Nice!
Jean-Michel 🕵🏻‍♂️ FayardMay 1, 2021
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
Antonio Davide CalìApr 22, 2022
is there a reason why I cannot find the app on play store?
- Rafay106Jun 14, 2023
  I am also wondering the same.
  - yaohewomaAug 4, 2024
    同问
  - yaohewomaAug 4, 2024
    这个是什么啊
Aman GodaraJan 13, 2024
play.google.com/store/apps/details...

This link is giving me error, may be it is not available in India?
Timothy OdanielNov 6, 2024
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.

Add comment

Mac Siri @maestromac

Announcing DEV for Android

forem / DEV-Android

DEV Community Android App

DEV Android 💝

Design ethos

Contributions

System Requirements

Usage

forem / DEV-ios

DEV Community iOS App

DEV iOS 💖

Status:

Design ethos

Contributing

Comments 97 total