Hews for Hacker News

A Hacker News client provides great reading experience and unique features.

Hews for Hacker News - Android Client App

"Hews for Hacker News" is an unofficial Android client for Hacker News that prioritizes a superior reading experience with features like collapsible comments, customizable typography, and multiple themes. This open-source app allows users to browse stories, upvote, and engage with the Hacker News community while offering unique functionalities like post summaries and a scroll-down button for easy navigation. Please note that maintenance for this app will be discontinued soon; users are encouraged to check the updated version.

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App stats

By: Leav Jenn

Users: 43,794

Rating: 4.48

(368)

Version: 1.9.2 (Last updated: 2022-09-15)

Creation date: 2015-07-10

Email: le*****@gmail.com

URLs: Website ,Privacy policy

Permissions

Photos/Media/Files: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Storage: read the contents of your USB storage, modify or delete the contents of your USB storage

Other: view network connections, full network access

Ranking

# 280,131 ▼ 376

Other platforms

Heroku Dyno Hacker (v1.3)

5.00

(1) 39

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Not available on Edge

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App summary

Analyze keywords

• This app will stop being maintained soon. Please try the updated version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.leavjenn.hews2

Hews is a Hacker News client focuses on reading experience with some unique features. And it's open source.

Basic features

• Clear nested comments with two-way collapsing
• Four themes: light, sepia, dark and AmoLED black
• Browse Top, New, Show HN and Ask HN stories
• Browse popular posts by any date range
• Login hacker news account, upvote and reply to post/comment
• Search by any date range, with popularity/date sorting
• Post bookmarking
• Open hacker news links by this app
• Open post in build-in or external browser
• Check User's HN profile (long press)
• Share comment link/content (long press)
• Material design
• Open source (https://github.com/leavjenn/Hews)

Unique features

* Highly customizable typography
10 distinct fonts, easy to fine-tune font size and line-height, for the best reading experience.
Video demo: https://youtu.be/gGyW0LxO9wg

* Two-way comments Collapsing
Not only collapsible children comments (press comment content), it can also collapse comments between itself and it's parent (press comment info bar).
Video demo: https://youtu.be/FT4aFFUzFIo

* Scroll-down floating button
Scroll down the page by pressing or draging the big floating button, swipe no more.
Video demo: https://youtu.be/kuffdR2GCqU

* Post summary (TL; DR)
Distill the summary (tl; dr) of a post from it's comments, save yourself from clickbait title. Notice that this feature is still in test.
Video demo: https://youtu.be/Yrr4OiqGf7U

DISCLAIMER
Hews is an unofficial Hacker News Android app, and it is neither affiliated with nor endorsed by Y Combinator.

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Google Play Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Great UI and experience
Efficient and simple to use
Nice dark theme
Ability to collapse sub-threads with a single tap

Cons

Issues with posting comments and losing input
App loses position when going to background
Lack of ability to access or edit user profile
Some features not persistent (e.g., collapsing comments)
Color contrast issues in the UI

Most mentioned

Need for user profile access
Issues with comment posting
Desire for a better dark mode
Persistent collapsing of comments
Concerns about UI colors and visibility

User reviews

I can browse articles fine enough, but I can't easily review comments I made or responses to them. There's also a decent chance that after I've typed out a comment, it just fails to post for no reason. I then copy the text, log directly into HN in my browser, and post it just fine.

Steven Reed, 2023-09-22

By far the best UI and experience to use of all HN apps I've tried. Great thing i use every single day!

Kevin N., 2023-07-07

Great app. One thing that should be fixed. When the ilapp no goes into the background and then comes back into the foreground, I lose where I was and goes back to the main news page. So if I'm reading a long comment thread, I lose it and have to find the story again and scroll back to where I was.