Hi everyone,
First of all, thanks so much for everyone using Avelon and everyone who’ve decided to support the development by upgrading, it really means a lot! All the feedback in the post following the release of pro was definitely insightful. If you’re unaware, I recommend reading the post as well as my reply here.
I’ve decided to push towards a 1.0.7 release a bit earlier than planned to address everyone’s feedback. My goal with these changes is to provide a wider range of features in a more basic free variant, whilst offering more extensive customization options and an even better experience as an optional upgrade. This way everyone gets to try out more stuff for free, and if you want the full capabilities you can feel confident that the features work as you’d expect. This setup is more in line with other apps as well as the feedback from all of you.
In addition to tweaks to the free tier, the update contains a new text selection tool, a new dark theme, the ability to lock the app with FaceID, more filtering options + lots of QOL improvements and bug fixes.
Full Changelog
Adjustments to the free/pro tiers
- Added a basic jump button to the free version
- The smart jump button with extra settings and customisation remains pro
- Everyone now has access to a limited number of custom filters for free
- The pro version includes unlimited filters and new filtering options
- The maximum number of profiles in the free tier is now three (guest + 2 custom accounts)
- This change does not affect any accounts you’ve already added
- The pro version has unlimited accounts
- Added a free 7 day trial option to enable everyone test out the pro features
- Added various descriptions to pro settings to more clearly explain what they do
- Replaced the groups “pro” tag in subscriptions with a link to a more details about the feature
New pro features
- Added ability to lock the app with FaceID
- Added new dark theme ‘Hacker man’
- Added option to place the smart jump button anywhere, not just around the edges
- Added ability to filter independently on either the post title or post body
New features, QOL improvements and bug fixes
- Added tool to select text from comments & posts
- Added ability to delete your own posts
- Added share option to links and comments
- Improved prioritizations for swipe gestures
- This should prevent accidental downvotes when you’re trying to swipe back!
- Fixed issue where editing markdown links would sometimes show weird characters and symbols
- Limited the maximum number of smart link previews in posts
- This should keep “link aggregation” posts from being unnecessarily long
- Fixed issue where adding accounts would sometimes fail
- Fixed issue where swipe-to-go-forward could sometimes break after tapping the navbar to go back
- Removed option to report/block yourself
- Lots of minor bug fixes and improvements
Fucking entitled people here…
The non pro version works great and has plenty of features, I haven’t gone to pro cuz it’s not fully there yet for what I’m looking for, once it does I’ll buy it.
No one here goes to their jobs and works for free so why should the dev? He made something that works for free, you want something specific that’s not free then pay for it for fucksakes…. If you don’t want to do that then make your own app
Exactly. I’m sure this has taken a ton of time. Lots is offered for free. There are many alternatives if you want to go elsewhere.
Realistically, there aren’t a ton of people here using the app that would pay right now. Hence, the price is a little higher.
If someone wants to volunteer tons of hours to make an app for free that’s fine, but that’s their choice. Nothing wrong with asking for a bit of compensation for something that is not trivial to make at all.
Agreed.
This is the sort of aggressive, sweary, condescending post that makes any discussion impossible.
I’d hope that Avelon fans could have a civilised talk about the way forward. But apparently not.
Oh no “sweary” please anything but that… most people here are adults that can deal with some uncouthness and some condescension, I’m condescending when I see people act like entitled asses
Telling someone how to make something for free for you and to your liking is civilized though?
No, everyone wants Avelon to succeed. There’s a genuine concern (based on what happened to other apps) that if the business model is wrong then it won’t.
We could do this without being condescending or making daft comments about entitlement.
But if that is the sort of community that people want then so be it.
Okay that’s fine you want it to succeed but you aren’t the one actually making the app or doing any of the work so why do you think you should be the one dictating the business model?
And complaining about some things not being in the free version sure doesn’t come across as “suggestions”
What are the business models of the other apps? And where are you coming up with your metrics that those apps haven’t succeeded?
Oh no someone said a bad word!! You better go tell your mommy and daddy!!!
I would gladly play if it wasn’t so expensive. $30 for an app is wild. Thats more expensive than affinity design and procreate. Apps used by professionals to make money
They’re used by many more people. This app will be used by very little comparatively, hence the cost.
Yes it’s a lot for an app… but also it’s the cost of 2.5 meals at McDonalds so decide if that’s worth it to you?
Still no update for the messed up GUI for iOS replies and posts? 💁🏼♂️
I posted a reply to your post about that, its a bug with an accessibility setting in iOS. Forgot to include the fix in 1.0.7, but you can resolve it for now by disabling “Button Shapes” in the iOS accessibility settings.
Very cool. Thank you!!! Please let us know if there is a fix in future update. Great app. 🙏🏼
What mess?
Honestly, it’s pretty fair. I appreciate that you listened to the criticisms of the community and reworked it.
Although I’ll probably not buy it due to the price, I think the paid features are reasonable and most importantly, the essential features are all available for free.
Thanks for listening, and most of all, thanks for Avelon!
Great update! I’m really liking the new theme “hacker man”!
Me also. The features rock but the little extras are good to have as well.
Hi, OP of the linked thread about pro, I appreciate your overall handling of the situation and think this update is in the right direction! Great pace of development here and I like the changes you’ve made based on my and others’ feedback. (I added a disclaimer to the original post since it is a bit inflammatory and I worry would be the main thing people see when searching)
For me personally the two options still don’t work, I try to avoid subscriptions and the current “lifetime” price is too risky. But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad price!
You’re seeing the classic challenge of pricing, if you sell 10 copies at $30 would you sell 20 at $15 and make the same off it? You can’t tell without lowering the price, and once you do that, going back up if it doesn’t work will make people angry. Sales can help gauge this if you aren’t feeling confident.
Best of luck - I’m still loving the app and will likely purchase in a future sale or if things continue to go well to make current pricing right for me.
You’re seeing the classic challenge of pricing, if you sell 10 copies at $30 would you sell 20 at $15 and make the same off it? You can’t tell without lowering the price, and once you do that, going back up if it doesn’t work will make people angry. Sales can help gauge this if you aren’t feeling confident.
This is what I don’t see enough people discussing here. Many are saying they are interested in purchasing a lifetime “pay once” option, but not for $30 (I’m one of them). I would 100% buy the lifetime option for $15. How many others would? More than twice the amount willing to pay $30? I wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case.
Ooh great update. Thanks so much for your hard work! I have no problem with the stuff hidden behind paywall and I’d happily pay it if they were anything I cared about, but honestly the free tier is plenty for me. People that complain are so entitled.
EDIT:
Actually, question:
Added tool to select text from comments & posts
This looks to be only implemented as a feature when you’re browsing via the submenu. Can it be added to the post reply screen? That’s usually when I need to copy and paste from someone’s comment.
Hmm, yeah would probably be useful to have it there too, but don’t wanna remove the markdown highlighting either. I’ll have to think about how it could be implemented in a nice way. You can always just swipe the reply sheet down and then select what you need since the draft will be saved meanwhile
You can always just swipe the reply sheet down and then select what you need since the draft will be saved meanwhile
Oh yeah that works too haha. Sorry didn’t know that was a thing.
Enjoying this app immensely. Thank you for all the updates!
Please can you clarify how many are the limited number of filters in the free version?
Hacker man great theme!! This app is at the top now w Voyager easily.
Unfortunately still have the accessibility issue with the default dark theme.
I have light sensitivity issues, and the contrast between text and background on the default dark theme is too high. So in lower light (but not completely black) environments, the light theme is too light, and the dark theme too dark for myself. The “Calm Night” and “Ocean Depths” themes are so much better and do not cause the same issues.
As this is should be an accessibility feature, much like font size, there should be an alternative dark theme available in the free tier. Without one, the app is extremely difficult to use when in darker environments, for people like myself.
I would like to say however, I understand theming and other, non-essential features being a premium option. Let’s be real, you deserve to be paid for your hard work.
Have you checked out the “reduce white point” option in accessibility settings? Does that improve things or is there still too much contrast?
I’m happy you put the FaceID lock in but immensely disappointed in the fact you put everything (literally everything) behind A Paywall.
I understand that €2/month isn’t much, however - the fact that every small thing goes into an paywall, doesn’t show me personally any good.
Last time, I saw the Lifetime option was €30-35 (can’t see prices in TestFlight version anymore) while the app is great but not yet bug-free.
It makes me worry that there will be “another tier” later on which costs more to get the newer features and so on.
My opinion (for what’s worth it): Your app is great and at the moment the best out there but due to paywall on literally every feature. Less good.
I sympathize on the “at the moment” because Memmy is back on track with development and so is Voyager which are currently free with different features but possible getting similar features later on while maintaining being free.
Good luck though!
IMO the most important thing by far is making the core app experience as solid as possible. Things like post feeds, comment sections, posting, sharing, image viewers, inboxes, replying, editing, text selection, user profiles, swipe gestures, searching, font settings, sorting options, display options, hiding read posts and everything else you’d expect takes a lot of time to develop, maintain and polish. The vast majority of my development time is spent on improvements, bug fixes and new features for everyone, and I really do care a lot about creating a great experience that can help improving Lemmy overall. Offering some more niche nice-to-have features on top of that is a good way to support everything else.
I’m not going to add a higher tier - as I briefly mentioned in an earlier comment my goal is rather the opposite. If Lemmy keeps growing, Avelon Pro could at some point make sense as a $5-or-something one-time upgrade. Unfortunately that’s just not the case right now.
That’s a lot of worries for not a lot of reason. Honestly, the dev needs to be supported and new features is a pretty industry standard method of generating an income. Aside from that, you’re literally seeing the dev move features out of the paywall, so it seems weird to be worried about some weird dystopian future in a thread about moving away from exactly that.
Perhaps might not be for you but it is for me. This is quite much the standard formula, paywall everything and a while later put new tiers for more income-streams.
I understand he needs support but this a not-so-friendly way (in a friendly way of saying).
Certainly he might change things from paywall to free but the actual features people want (for example; I requested FaceID) - it gets put behind paywall.
What’s weird for one might not be weird for someone else. Perspective.
Yeah, considering how basic some of these features are it’s kind of shitty and probably the price will rise again
Considering Apollo raised the price because even with all those subscribers they couldn’t break even (there was a lot of hate in the Apollo reddit when that happened) I’d say prices are likely to go up not down.
I’ve moved to Avalon from Memmy, which itself is a great app and the one that spoke to me most when I made the mid year decision to largely cut my Reddit usage. It’s a great app particularly for free.
That said, we probably can’t talk about Memmy in this context without noting the almost two month absence of any updates for the app, which is only early in its life, due to the developers citing burnout. There’s certainly got to be some questions about sustainability for those guys when they have to also carry jobs etc and Memmy for all intents is a hobby for them.
Now maybe the apps in a place where you feel going a few months without updates doesn’t matter, that’s fine. At the same time it’s possible that a revenue stream of some sort would allow the devs to prioritise work on the app over other things. I don’t imagine Lemmy yet has the user base to sustain a developer full time on the single app alone, but having some income from the app may none the less assist greatly. People have even asked the Memmy team to consider adding paid tiers in recognition of some of the issues.
None of that is to say that I didn’t do a double take when I saw the price of Avalon, and did give it a second thought. It’s a decent price commitment, I agree. Apps that are paid for could also be abandoned too which is a risk. At the same time I have noticed a number of the Lemmy apps have had growing pains, burnout issues for devs etc, so while there are good free options out there in the longer term in many cases that may not be sustainable, and there is a place for paid apps particularly where that can contribute to the apps ongoing development.
What do you mean when you say that literally everything is behind a paywall? The core features are accessible for free.
immensely disappointed in the fact you put everything (literally everything) behind A Paywall
Do you understand what literally means?
The free tier is just fine. You don’t have to pay for pro features if you don’t want to and it’s still streets ahead of other Lemmy apps.
Yes, I do and I certainly won’t pay because - I don’t find Lemmy itself worth the money at the moment.
Avelon is great surely however “streets ahead” is a matter of perspective, I like the app that’s for sure.
What percentage of your revenue are you contributing back to Lemmy in general and the instance that hosts your community?
Kinda shitty to lock a lot of this behind a paywall and not even enable in TestFlight.
TestFlight is for testing the app, not getting the paid features for free.
Well, it’s also annoying for those of us that paid for it to not be able to use the TestFlight version anymore (I bought it in the AppStore version and then went back to TestFlight… and then I can no longer use the pro version).
thanks for the brilliant input. truly helpful.
