278
dfox
7y

The mobile web version of GitHub is absolute garbage. It's so shitty I don't even get why they bother. It lacks basic features like issue searching and the interface is so dumbed down everything just feels cheap and I always feel like I'm missing out.

All the devs I've talked to say they always just select "show desktop version." I do that too. It works perfectly. It's so fucking annoying. I wish they would just make a real mobile version, that's not missing features, or just default to the desktop app on mobile - works fine and everyone uses it anyway.

Comments
  • 56
    Just use fasthub, not an advertisement but it is really great and i know the dev well. He is really a good guy.

    (only android)
  • 11
    @CozyPlanes thanks, sounds cool, I'd check it out but I have an iPhone.
  • 29
    @dfox install custom android rom in a iphone! Somehow...
    (screams)
  • 3
    Yea, any people have tried to create apps using the api but they aren't any good either....

    At least the ones I've tried
  • 1
    I think its great for having a status overview, less is more
  • 3
    @ChappIO github api sucks as hell, but their support is pretty good
  • 11
    Finally a rant from @dfox!
  • 28
    @karma less is more but it's 2017 and being a billion dollar company and having a "mobile web" version that lacks the most basic features of your product is a terrible decision IMO. My anecdotal experience speaking to devs I know (one who happens to manage one of the biggest open source JS projects in existence) find it useless in almost every scenario where you have to do anything remotely meaningful.
  • 4
    Yeah, I use the desktop versikn on other phones, too. On my phone, I use FastHub.
  • 3
    Perhaps we have here @mdo to give us more insight on the matter? ^^

    Nope. Oh well, I gave it a try.
  • 5
    @dfox ohh the times ive had to use show desktop version :p as cozy said fasthub is good and yeah I had a plan to do a github API but one example was enough to realize I was gonna hate myself for consuming that messy API
  • 5
    My personal favorite is fasthub. Not great but good enough 🙂
  • 9
    At least they made the "show desktop" button big
  • 10
    When I started reading this I thought was going to be like a an official announcement like this:

    The mobile GitHub webapp is shitty. While using it, I accidentally deleted a devrant repo and changes to the source code.
  • 2
    Yeah, they really should have a proper mobile site. I use FastHub myself and am pretty happy with it but I just believe that companies that are so essential for modern development should act as a good example...
    Which means proper mobile web and possibly even set up as a progressive web app.
  • 1
    @CozyPlanes Really? I work with many apis for a living but very few of them are such a breeze as GitHub.
  • 2
    @CozyPlanes I will find you and I will teach you what should and shouldn't be done to phones xD
  • 10
    Devs @ GitHub: "Crap! Our users are complaining about the useless mobile version! Ughhhh ...!"

    Manager @ GitHub: "Let them use the desktop version. Make the button huuuuuge!"
  • 1
  • 2
  • 1
    @billgates dR isn't opensource
  • 5
    It drives me crazy that for some reason it is considered acceptable for mobile versions of sites/apps to be less functional than their desktop counterparts. There's no excuse for this anymore!
  • 1
    <@PhantomBKB>
    I tried OctoDroid but I like FastHub more.
  • 2
    @Skayo your <> syntax breaks the mention
  • 1
    <@Dacexi>
    Does it?
  • 1
    @Skayo It includes the >
  • 1
    @Dacexi
    lol?
    Using WebApp?
  • 3
    @Skayo no, why would the "proud ui designer of devRantron" not use it lol
  • 1
    @Dacexi
    Oh sorry. Well... Your little DevRantron has a bug then...
  • 7
    @jpichardo @Pizza @Naptic haha yeah it's pretty funny, you can tell someone or some team there knows it's an issue so they just "corrected" it by making show desktop version button really visible. Definitely the right thing to do if they aren't willing to make the mobile app more usable. It's kind of crazy though haha, they should just make a full-featured mobile version already.

    @Dacexi good find - if you can I'd greatly appreciate if you could make a GitHub issue for that.
  • 5
    Oh, I thought that was the official web app, so you can disregard my previous message :)
  • 1
    @dfox
    It's a bug in DevRantron.
    None of your business...
  • 2
    I also use desktop version, I can't cope with an app for every service I use, I'd need more phone space.

    On the whole functionality difference thing, if you browse Instagram on desktop you lose the upload controls. Unless you Dev tools and mobile view/headers, then you get upload back on desktop.
  • 3
    ++1 for fasthub 👌
  • 1
    At least they have a mobile version. Bitbucket only works on desktop!
  • 4
    @dfox hey! is there any special characters allowed in username? Or is it just a-z and 0-9?
  • 4
    @chrisrhymes I think Bitbucket is missing a true mobile version, but much like GitHub, their desktop version works perfectly fine on mobile.

    @tahnik just a-z, 0-9, and -

    The API should also be providing attributed data about usernames and links to tell you exactly where the link appears, so if you want to, you should be able to just rely on that instead of parsing stuff out on your own. Either should work though.
  • 7
    Update on this rant:

    GitHub mobile web version is even more of a fucking joke than I originally thought. It seems validated in this rant based on all the feedback that no one likes it.

    Today I noticed that on mobile they don't even bother to show reactions on comments. I opened up a GitHub issue and was looking at a comment, and I was like "hmm, I could've sworn I added a reaction to that comment." Switched to desktop version, and of course, there it is. Their mobile website is a completely useless counter-productive joke.
  • 1
    Here I was thinking I did a great job building the github mobile site
  • 2
    @dfox earlier today I did a comment (on a devrant issue actually) using the mobile version. After submitting I noticed I had a typo, tried to edit and guess what? No fucking "edit comment" button! 😡
  • 2
    I do use the mobile version a lot to browse trending repos and that works fine. I even think the filters there work better then in the desktop version.
    What I do hate is that I have to click "View all of README.md". Of course I want to fucking view all of the fucking readme!
  • 2
    Fasthub is really great on android. 😂😂 I repeat, Android!
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