this comment holds true.
#cybersecgirl #amethyst
Discussion
I wish it wasn't so awful for me to actually use.
What's "awful" for you about it? Genuine question.
Ava is the best ever. Remind me to pay you with a hug 🫂 make the bank 🏦 pay you more 🤣🫂😭🏦❤️🩹💤🙏🍀😘🤩
I just made a post about it, actually. There's always something popping up and distracting me from doing whatever I'm trying to do. The UI is also distracting and cluttered. Drives me nuts. The UX is weird. Just don't want to spend more time figuring out how to do things that other clients just do. And I'm not taking the usual blame that comes from many in this space regarding bad UX. These are the things we should openly discuss and admit before the masses come in.
I love the good stuff about it, but I really hate the bad stuff so much that I never use it for more than five minutes. I love the devs too, but they need UI/UX help in my opinion.
I don't have that experience, I mostly love the UX and UI, but I respect your experience. It's not for everyone. Would be cool if someone developed a "bare bones" client with all the security and privacy benefits, but with a simplified interface though 🤔
Yes, you do. And I would probably if I cared to tinker as much as I used to (limited time). This whole issue for me comes from people telling me and brand new users to start on Amethyst. Cool, but good luck keeping them around when their only frame of reference is proprietary social media platfoms (like TikTok). I usually just stop using Amethyst and quietly step away, checking in over time to see how it develops. But I've been seeing a lot of people telling new users to start there. I see it more as an advanced client vs something like Primal.
Agreed. Primal is a good starter client rn, but it's not feature or privacy rich enough for me to use it as anything but a backup or alt client. Though it is growing and is doing a lot right, so we'll see.
Sounds to me like you're describing a Damus-like experience for android (which I am very much looking forward to). I personally wouldn't use a non-privacy first focussed tiktok or insta looking client, but I can see the appeal/usecase for some and simplified onboarding.
I just don't believe in using dumbed down apps (simplifying or focussing the UX, hiding options for a cleaner interface is a different story), especially when it comes to privacy and security.
It's like custodial vs non-custodial, there's too much of a potential rug-pull with the former for me to use, develop for, or recommend to my clients. I believe in better onboarding, not neutering.
I had a lot of gripes about the UI on my Pixel 5a...until I got a Pixel 7a. Nostr clients can be very taxing; nature of the beast. The more offloading you do (privacy leaks), the better the UX can be.
On the 7a, it's still not perfect, but it works much more smoothly.
Kind of a shame considering Amethyst still doesnt have a way to block all external image resource requests.
You can turn off link previews. How do you mean?
Turn off everything...
Then...
View someones profile (banner image loads)
View marketplace, streams, communities, etc and they load media regardless.
NIP05 checks also performed.
its still access leaks all over without direct correlation.
But yes, its the best for privacy so far. Need to set the bar higher.
Gotcha. Thank you
I wish there was an amethyst fork that removed the all the other stuff like streams shorts and marketplace, and just kept the feed and DMs.
What is your precise criteria, for judging how privacy-respecting an app is?
Sort of hard for the others to correct, it they don't know what they're doing wrong.
?? nostr:npub1f6ugxyxkknket3kkdgu4k0fu74vmshawermkj8d06sz6jts9t4kslazcka
I'm serious. We're trying to build something, and so are many others, and would be grateful for the input.
Maybe like a top-ten pet safety peeves note, or something.
nostr:npub1m4ny6hjqzepn4rxknuq94c2gpqzr29ufkkw7ttcxyak7v43n6vvsajc2jl, Here is a quick, mostly non-technical overview of some badic differentiating highlights and indicators for why I stand by my statement that #Amethyst is the best privacy-respecting mobile client we have on #Nostr rn.
______
Must be open source: ✅
Privacy-focussed skilled professional developer: PHD computer scientist, Android developer for ~13 years. Also develops in medical field where privacy and security is a must, not an optional bonus.
https://eyenetra.com/index.html
Clear documentation/onboarding: Amethyst Git description educates about #nostr relay privacy concerns, advocates for Tor and VPN use.
https://github.com/vitorpamplona/amethyst?tab=readme-ov-file#privacy-and-information-permanence
Provides Degoogled version: The official dev recommended way to get Amethyst is from git via Obtanium (not google)
Supports Unified Push: ✅
Orbot/Tor connection option: ✅
Sealed Gift-Wrapped Messages for Private DMs and Small Group Chats (NIP-17)
https://github.com/nostr-protocol/nips/pull/686
Frequent updates: ✅
Encourages competition: ✅
The ability to turn off auto-loading link previews. The recent IP hacker bot likely exploited image previews in DMs to get user IP information.
Future forward development: ✅
* Better privacy for messaging: Sealed gift-wrapped messages for private DMs and small group chats (NIP-17)
* Decentralizing Medical Ecosystems: Developing a medical information app using nostr as a backbone.
https://youtu.be/sFjZ6kIJlCA?si=StLZDK3dKo4bM7CI&t=1539
And much more...
Thanks, that's a good place for us to start. 👍
Awesome. Some have said they find the Amethyst UI too cluttered. That's not my experience at all, but I respect the FB. IMO it would be cool to have a fast, visually minimal, "focussed" client with all the security and privacy benefits of Amethyst as a baseline, but with a simplified interface
It's not too cluttered, he just has too many features implemented that address different user groups. No way to have that not end up with a bunch of menus or workflows, unless you go language prompt.
Probably just needs to be split up into different editions targeting different customer markets, or at least have that be an in-app option, like preset menu collections.
Or do a language prompt. 🤷♀️
I actually really liked that about nostr:npub1nxa4tywfz9nqp7z9zp7nr7d4nchhclsf58lcqt5y782rmf2hefjquaa6q8 DVM from the DMs. It's basically a CLI and once you have the commands down, it's faster and easier than using menus because you don't have to navigate through a visual plane.
You just hit the help, see everything it can do, and pick out what you want. You don't have to go play search-me-find-me with some menu option buried three layers down that doesn't work when you press it.
Why can't I just open the prompt and type "relays --all" or "profile change 'testuser'" or "zaps --default 27" or something?
I was thinking about this, yesterday. Menus are so 1990.
I've got him beat on the resume, concerning QA for safety and privacy-critical software systems, by the way. That's been my specialty for nearly 3 decades and still is. Including the medical and pharmaceutical branch, dangerous goods logistics, and powertrain.
I'm not a Ph.D., but that is a mute point, since he didn't write his academic paper on that subject.
I'm impressed by the career he had while I was off making babies, tho, ngl. That's always painful to see.
But I'm not dead, yet.
So, probably 21 years of work, in total.
When on iOS?