fedilab

Something important to understand with #Fedilab and remote timelines, conversations and threads. This feature uses the public API of remote instances, that means there is no direct interaction between your account (token) and the remote instances when messages or accounts are displayed.
This is only when you decide to interact that the app will apply the appropriate actions in the background.
That's why it is impossible to apply your moderation rules (muted/blocked accounts remain visible).

I've been testing #snac2 for a few days now, more specificly I want to see if it can replace my #friendica installation that I have been using since 2019. This will be a somewhat longer piece that is also meant to see how Snac copes with longer Markdown formatted text.

Friendica

First things first. Friendica is awesome. It is the everything and the kitchen sink of the Fediverse and does a lot of things right. The only downside I see is the reason why I am looking for an alterantive though. Over time it has become harder and harder to host Friendica on my vserver with 8GB of RAM. I could of course opt for a bigger server, but honestly I am only using a fraction of Friendica's features and would prefer something less demanding.

Snac

Snac is lightweight, easiy to install, uses no database and does not even require coockies or Javascript in its Web-UI. I mean, how cool ist that!

Compared to Friendica, its featureset is basic at best. But compared to other Fediverse tools like #mastodon it does not fare so bad. But how usable is it as an alternative to my peronal Friendica use.

The good stuff

Setup is really easy for anyone who has self-hosted any services before. The documentation in manpage format might be old school but it is very complete - read it. If you're on Debian you can even use the package from trixie-backports which is kept very current!

It shows the timeline chronologically but with nested threads. This is the only way that makes sense to me and is exactly what I use in Friendica (where different settings are available). This means every new activity on a thread brings it up again (partly collapsed) so you always see the necessary context to follow conversations. For me this is the most important feature, I would not even have continued testing without it. Snac just does it right!

It has the looks! Well at least after applying some stylesheets. Calling the vanilla install basic would already be an overstatement. But have a look at the styles that are linked from snac's Reaedme. I chose the next.css style and have attached an image of how it looks below. The screenshot is from an Android phone and this works remarkably well, even on mobile (some caveats below)!

It's compatible with Mastodon apps. I have only tested #Fedilab because I use it for other stuff too. Everything just works as expected. Although I have to admit, I like the native Web-UI (next.css) even more.

Long Text with Markdown formatting. 500 character per Toot - No thank you, I am not chatting here!

What is missing (or is it?)

There is only the timeline and you can follow Hashtags, that's it. No Channels, no groups, no theme-specific timelines. But honestly, I did not use any of that on Friendica, mainly for performance reasons. So this is a non-issue for me personally.

Following RSS feeds. This feature I will really miss. In Friendica I could direclty follow Feeds and interact with them from my timeline exactly like with ActivityPub Notes or Articles. I will have to use an external translation service or write my own for that (having written an ActivityPub related tool with tootgroup.py before.)

Message formatting is somewhat less flexible but this post shows what is possible still. Sometimes I like to put images in between paragraphs but not having that is also not a big deal.

Event Calendar. This is not a feature I expect Snac to support but I do use it on Friendica and will have to think about how to replace it.

What could be improved

I love that snac works without Javascript and cookies - that's exactly how I still build my webpages. But there is one usecase where a bit of one or the other would make life much easier - when using the Web-UI on mobile platforms.

I have already stated how great the mobile experience is when using the next.css stylesheet. The only downside is that I have to login with username/password again and again, every time the mobile browser is sent to sleep by Android.

Optionally enabling the use of a login cookie would make life much easier. Even better would be enabling Snac to be installed as a Progressive Web App, but I have to admit, I'm not sure how hard or feasible this would be.

Overall, I do not see many shortcomings with Snac. Obviously it offers less features than Friendica, but what it does, it does very well and at least in my view, the important stuff is exactly where it needs to be.

Conclusion

I am pretty impressed with snac. I'll be running my test server for a little bit longer but I do expect replace my Friendica install in the not too distant future.

Adding [email protected] because maybe you're interested. Please don't treat this as a feature-request or even critizism. It's mostly meant as info for people who have not tried snac yet.

#Fedilab 3.36.0-beta-4 is available. We need feedback from beta testers using #Misskey. Full release notes: https://codeberg.org/tom79/Fedilab/releases/tag/3.36.0-beta-4

I moved the #HolosSocial projects (app, relay and discover, to stay consistent) to my own git at https://git.holos.social/tom79

As a reminder about this choice: I used an AI to write part of the #Holos docs, and also to review and help me fix some code I had written. At first I didn't feel concerned by the debate (no vibe coding on my side), but it went further than that. Out of respect for everyone using my work, transparency and action were needed.

#Fedilab isn't affected and stays on #Codeberg.

#Fedilab 3.37.2 has been published. It should be the last fixes with the "reverse" timeline.

Release notes: https://codeberg.org/tom79/Fedilab/releases/tag/3.37.2

If we only have minor fixes with the last beta, we should be able to publish #Fedilab 3.36.0 in production this weekend.
There are a lot of changes and fixes (see all beta release notes at https://codeberg.org/tom79/Fedilab/releases)
Also, Fedilab now supports #Misskey, so don't hesitate to share so we can get more feedback. Thank you!

The translation service has been restarted. Sorry for the outage.
As a reminder, you can use #DeepL in #Fedilab with a free API key.

Thanks to the beta testers, the migration to Android 16 is confirmed not to bring any side effects to #Fedilab (despite the edge-to-edge opt-out being disabled).
So I'll be able to deliver a more stable app for long sessions (app not killed) and a huge cache db.
Before that, I'll fix some issues that need an emergency fix, thanks to Marco's help.

Tom

I might have been unclear in my messages when I made the choice to move some projects from #Codeberg to a self-hosted git solution.

These projects weren't vibe coding and weren't affected. I did it because the debate goes beyond vibe coding, and I feel more comfortable speaking in full transparency and taking action to respect all views.

I'm proud to be on Codeberg as a dev for 7 years, and all my other projects will stay, #Fedilab included.

Tom

#Holos differs fundamentally from #Fedilab. As the server runs on your phone, using Holos across multiple devices is currently not possible. The relay caches pending activities and clears them once retrieved (multi-device sync not yet implemented). Traditional apps rely on a server API and are limited to what that server knows. Holos fetches data directly via ActivityPub, giving you access to the full Fediverse.

We've started a FAQ based on your feedback: https://holos.social/faq

#Fedilab not playing some custom emojis or worse not displaying them at all will be fixed in the next release. Also, the issue with long messages being truncated at the top should be fixed too, along with some other older issues. We keep fixing them for 3.36.1

We put a lot of work into both #Fedilab and #HolosSocial. We will never neglect one for the other, both deserve attention. Holos allowed us to push boundaries like E2EE DMs over ActivityPub and portable identity, but Fedilab is the app we've been working on since 2017 and will keep integrating new features. This is your app, not ours. Alongside all this, we are volunteers, so if you can help us financially, that would really help. Thank you.

#Fedilab 3.43.0 is available!

It now targets Android 16, with lower memory usage and better stability for long sessions. Timelines load faster with a large cache, and you can set how long cached posts are kept.

Also fixed: voice recording, audio picker, animated GIFs, push on non-Mastodon software, account switching crashes and more.

Full release notes: https://codeberg.org/tom79/Fedilab/releases/tag/3.43.0

For the next release of #Fedilab, I'm mainly planning to fix bugs (see the label on Codeberg that lets you filter them).

Of course, if Marco spots high-priority ones, I'll fix those first.
But thanks to his help linking and prioritizing issues, you can even see three-year-old ones getting fixed.
That's why the #Codeberg repo remains the best place to share your feedback.

Tom

The latest release of #Fedilab clearly shows an improvement with OOM (out of memory) bugs. I won't call it a victory, but it's a clear improvement.

@apps & @krille look here: https://f-droid.org/2026/01/08/unifiedpush-5-years.html
You have been mentioned as the 2 essential apps to support #UnifiedPush in the beginning. 💪️

RE: https://floss.social/@fdroidorg/115904357839472383
#Fedilab #FluffyChat

#Fedilab 3.36.0 is out! Lots of changes. Release notes: https://codeberg.org/tom79/Fedilab/releases/tag/3.36.0

For #FDroid users who don't use our repo, please expect a few days.

Change of plans for this week, and I apologise for moving things around. I was supposed to get back to #Fedilab mid week for the 3.40.2 release, but I will postpone it. I am very focused on #HolosSocial at the moment, and stopping now to come back a few days later would cost too much in context switching, both in time and in concentration. Fedilab 3.40.2 will follow right after the next #Holos milestone (end of the week). (1/5)

For people that have used #Fedilab with #Mastodon 4.5+
What do you think about the quote feature?

#Fedilab is now 9 years old. Thank you to all the people who contributed and keep contributing to the project. Old users know it was called Mastalab. Thank you so much for your trust and support.

The fundraiser for a new computer is still ongoing.

https://ko-fi.com/tom79

This machine is what keeps #HolosSocial, #Fedilab, #Castlab and #Fediplan moving forward on Android, iOS, and soon #Holos on macOS, Windows and Linux, from a single codebase. The current setup is reaching its limits.

Full story:
https://ko-fi.com/post/A-new-computer-to-keep-building-for-every-platform-B0B61ZONP2

Every contribution helps, and sharing helps too :). Thank you.

Vorweg: Wenn im #Fediverse etwas nicht perfekt läuft, sind nie die vielen, meist ehrenamtlichen Admins Schuld.

Ich beobachte gerade, dass meine Instanz, https://muenchen.social, über das Web-Interface schnell ist, über die App #Fedilab aber unbrauchbar lahm. Es dauert Minuten bis nach dem Klick auf einen Tröt der Thread erscheint. Auch der Retröt-Butten reagiert mit brutaler Verzögerung. Kann das jemand erklären?

RE: https://toot.fedilab.app/@apps/115470588370601893

Now you can quote us with #Fedilab

Now that #Mastodon supports quotes, there are three important points to know with #Fedilab

- You can change the default privacy for quoting your messages in Settings>Profile (default anyone can quote you)

- You can customize this privacy for each message (when composing)

- If you don't see the merged Boost/Quote button, make sure that you didn't disable it in Settings > Timelines

In the next release of #Fedilab, I will work on adding a warning popup displayed once when starting the app.

"Android will become a locked-down platform"
https://keepandroidopen.org/

It would be great if more developers maintaining a project on both Google Play and #FDroid did the same.