Is a Flarum app in the works?

ron_jeremy

My plans have been all along to move my forum over to Flarum when Flarum is ready fro prime time. A few weeks ago, I made the "mistake" of setting up a Slack channel for a select few members of my forum to discuss a few key items for 2016 projects, etc. None of them had used Slack before this, however all of them have seen and used Flarum (in limited time while running on my Mac). The problem is now none of them want to use our current forum any more for regular discussions, they want to keep Slacking! While they liked what they had seen of flarum, I could tell the enthusiasm for Slack was much higher considering many of them used it as a desktop app, too. To make matters worse, word got out to other forum members and now I'm being asked by many for "a new forum, but like Slack".

Further investigation lead me to discover a common "issue" pretty much all members have with our current forum (Flarum included): They want an app with instant push-type communication. They don't want to open a browser, navigate to the forum, etc. This was further stressed by mobile users.

So, my question is: Are there plans to release Flarum as an app?

matpompili

ron_jeremy I think it is not. There are several ways to send push notifications with web applications:
https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2015/03/push-notifications-on-the-open-web
https://developer.apple.com/notifications/safari-push-notifications/

And all major browser developers are developing something like that. Flarum is built to be responsive, so I think that, once the notification issue is overcame, there will be no need for native apps (which needs a lot of development for each platform).

ron_jeremy

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. However, after using Slack for a month I simply cannot discount not having a native modern app. I will definitely have to reconsider my plan for our (future) forum now, as I cannot ignore my user-base. This is further reinforced by constant requests for Tapatalk and similar apps -- they do not want to navigate via web browser.

Also, it really surprised me not only by how many wanted a native mobile app but also the desktop version.

I emailed the team at Slack and asked them if they will be offering a highly customize-able self-hosted version of their app and they replied "not yet".

I will have to wait and see what other options come about over the next year before transitioning.

Thanks again for the reply.

UaMV

ron_jeremy You might also consider Rocket.Chat – an open-source solution that mimics Slack.

Kakifrucht

Additionally, users can always create forum shortcuts on their app drawers. I'm pretty sure that all major browsers support this function.

ron_jeremy

Do you mean simply putting a shortcut on their homepage, and would that have the same UX as an app?

Kakifrucht

Homepage / App Drawer / Homescreen whatever you want to call it.

Flarum is mobile optimized, so it is perfectly usable from a phone without having a dedicated UI.
The only problem right now would be the lack of Notifications, but that is possible aswell.

ron_jeremy

Thank you very much for clarifying. However, after using a mobile and accompanying desktop app in Slack for a while now it's hard to go back to a traditional forum. I think this is magnified by the fact that in my particular community we do not see a lot of single topic multi-page threads. Instead, we mostly see much simpler conversations like "I'm riding tomorrow. Who's coming?" that are handled exceptionally well by Slack.

This has created a real dilemma for me.

jordanjay29

ron_jeremy Sometimes you have to use the tools that are best suited for the job. If your community leans more towards the fluid dynamics of the ongoing conversation, then Flarum might lose out to Slack. Don't feel bad, Flarum can't cover all the bases.