For a lot of us, Reddit is where we get our news first, or even memes and other humorous media before they go viral on Twitter or Facebook. However, if you're on a Mac, you may have noticed a lack of good native Reddit apps, especially compared to iOS (Apollo is a favorite around here if you want a great iOS Reddit app).
Truth is, there has not been a good way to browse Reddit on Mac, aside from just using the mediocre website in your browser of choice. That's just how it's been, until now. Say hello to Yack!
What is Yack?
Yack! bills itself as a unified community browser that consolidates your favorite networks, communities, accounts, and content into a single space. With Yack, you're able to log in and browse Reddit, YouTube, Hacker News, and Indie Hackers, all within a single app window.
The mission behind Yack is to provide the most simple and streamlined user experience across different social networks and communities on the desktop. The unified experience for your communities is similar to the unified inbox of most email apps these days.
Design and Features
The overall design for Yack reminds me of Slack, to be honest. You have your communities all the way in the most left column, then all of your subscribed forums and topics in the second column, list of posts in the third column, and the actual discussion in the fourth and last column.
Adding a community is easy, as all you need to do is click the big "+" button in the first column. Then choose the network you want to add, and it gets added in the communities column. Each one is represented by their logo and color, so it's easy to tell them apart with a single glance. Simply click on the icon of the one you want to view.
Until you log in to your account, you'll just be an "Anonymous User" with a list of popular channels or recommendations. You can browse freely, but you'll need to log in to your account if you want to post or reply to people. When you log in, all of your data is stored locally on your device — nothing is ever stored on Yack's servers.
One of the best reasons to use Yack is that you're able to have multiple accounts for one community. This means you can have a personal Reddit account, for example, and another one for your work, or perhaps a throwaway account. There is no limit to the number of communities and accounts that you can log into.
I've been using Yack for several weeks now since discovering the public beta, and it's been a delight to use. I've been searching for a good way to browse Reddit on my Mac while I'm at the computer, and I was coming up empty-handed until Yack. The interface is sleek and very streamlined, making it easy to switch between communities in a few clicks and multi-account support is a bonus.
The power of communities
The magic behind Yack lies with the crowd of Yackers who are able to create Yack Connector Plugins with the Yack Plugin Framework. This is open source, so that means more Yack Connector Plugins that real users actually want and will be invested in.
Right now, Yack's open beta has Reddit, YouTube, Hacker News, and Indie Hackers. The developers will soon be engaging the beta user community to drive the direction and vote on what Connector Plugins should be built next.
It's beta time!
As of right now, Yack! is currently in public beta. The app has a built-in Feedback community, where Yack users can leave feedback, suggest features, report issues, and anything else related to the Yack client itself. The developers are great at checking and responding to posts in the Feedback forum, so if you end up discovering any issues, drop a line in the Feedback community.
There are constant updates for Yack as the team continues to work on it and make improvements. I've been in the beta for a while now, and it just keeps getting better and better with each update.
You can download the public beta of Yack right now on yack.io.
What is your way to browse Reddit on Mac?
Yack is off to an extremely solid start in the open beta phase, and I'm looking forward to what the final product will be. Make sure to sign up for the open beta to try it out for yourself.
In the meantime, what is your preferred way to browse Reddit on your Mac? Let us know in the comments, or drop a line on how you're liking Yack so far!
