When comparing Relay for reddit vs Sync for reddit, the Slant community recommends Sync for reddit for most people. In the question“What is the best Reddit app for Android?” Sync for reddit is ranked 3rd while Relay for reddit is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose Sync for reddit is:
Reddit Sync has a beautiful card-based UI. The user can configure the feed with three types of text density as well, if he/she prefers faster skimming through items.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Easy to flip between content & comments
A great feature of Relay is the UX for swiping between the post and the reddit comments. It's very fast to go back and forth between the views.
Pro Excellent material design UI
Relay uses screen space efficiently and can be navigated quickly. It is mostly designed for viewing a single subreddit at a time and making that experience as pleasurable as possible, with easy access to a subs from a dropdown menu at the top.
Pro Tons of features and functionality
With support for multiple accounts, interface themes, and inline picture previews, Relay for reddit offers a large amount of features for any power reddit user.
There are also many unique functionalities that set Relay apart from the competition.
●It has a 'Remove unread' option to swipe away all read threads. This is especially useful when it's a large and busy subreddit with tons and tons of submissions, to the point where it can get overwhelming. This a convenient option for making your reddit-browsing experience a little easier.
●It offers compatability with the Multi-Window feature which is present on Samsung & L.G phones (soon to be present AndroidOS-wide). This greatly enhances multi-tasking.
●It offers an excellent Spoiler tag support and an AMA mode (conspicuously missing from its biggest competitor).
Pro Allows you to view a parent comment
To keep a better context of the conversation, Relay doesn't hide the parent comment while browsing.
Pro Animations make for more pleasurable usage
The abundant animations make browsing more enjoyable because it transitions so nicely.
Pro Fast GIF loading
GIFs are automatically converted to gfycat format; they therefore load much faster than on other apps.
Pro Clutter-free and well thought-out UI
The moment the user opens Relay for reddit and begins exploring all of its ins and outs, it becomes quite clear how wonderfully designed this app is. There is excellent UX for redditors who prefer discussions and news, rather than pictures, videos, and gifs.
● You can alternate between a cards and a lists UI with a compact list view optional.
● A drop-down menu of all your subreddits is present at the top for quick and easy access. If the user is adequately familiarized with the list, he/she can simply swipe on the banner so to quickly switch between subreddits.
●The comment format option is situated right next to the drop-down menu.
It's an all around wonderful application with many Material Design elements employed.
Pro Automatically loads optimized images based on screen size
The app will automatically load a lower resolution image that is a closer match to your screen size to save bandwidth, with a button to load the original image if you need more detail.
Pro Easily save battery with night time theme
The available night time theme allows the background to be dark with light colored text, which uses less battery on AMOLED screens.
Pro Easily moderate from the app
Moderators on Reddit are allowed more functions over a normal user on Reddit, which is possible to be used in Pro for Relay. With these features included in the app it's possible to approve comments, check modque, and get specifically labelled moderator messages.
Pro Colour coded collapsible comments
Pro Smooth as butter
Opening links, animations, and transitions, as well as scrolling, all work well with no glitches or missed frames. The app feels extremely smooth thanks to the attention to detail in all of its inner workings.
Pro Beautiful material design card UI
Reddit Sync has a beautiful card-based UI. The user can configure the feed with three types of text density as well, if he/she prefers faster skimming through items.
Pro Well-implemented (swipe) navigation
Reddit Sync has well-implemented navigation UX. It's easy to swipe back into the main feed from comment sections and to access subreddits by swiping from the main feed.
Pro Easy to jump to parent comments
Intuitive navigation allows for easy jumping to parent comments with a feature where arrows at the bottom of the page will navigate up or down to the next one. This makes for an easy way to quickly see the most voted comments.
Pro Gfycat support
Gfycat videos are embedded inline, which mean the user does not need to open a separate webpage in order to view them, making the use of the app much more convenient.
Pro Multi-reddit support
Multi-reddit allows the user to create and organize groups of subreddits: basically custom feeds of a user's favorite subs.
Pro Great design
Reddit Sync is chosen by a lot of users because of its attractive design. Being one of the first Reddit apps to utilize the cards design, as well as follow Google's material Design guidelines, have together allowed the app to jump ahead of its competition due to its overall good looks.
Pro Shows inline content on the feeds
The card UI makes skimming content on the main feeds on one's phone a pleasure. This is due to the fact that the user gets a quick preview of the content inline.
Pro Multi-user support
Reddit allows for easy switching between multiple accounts. This is great for Redditors who use multiple accounts as well as users who are sharing a device (such as a tablet) with other family members.
Pro Offers varied themes
In the options, there are different theme colors available, as well as night themes. The color themes are aimed moreso towards personalization where as the night themes are for reading in dark rooms (as they are easier on the users' eyes).
Pro WYSIWYG editor for messages and submissions
With the WYSIWYG editor, users can add bold text, bullet points, and links.
Pro Free version available
Sync for Reddit offers a version of the app that is free with ads. Therefore, for those who are willing to put up with ads or who just want to test the app for a short while, the free version is available. Thanks to know it’s free
Pro Energy efficient on AMOLED screens
Helps save battery life on AMOLED by allowing users to set black background.
Pro Sync images and post content for offline viewing
Offline viewing allows the user to read Reddit anywhere, including places without an internet connection.
Pro Easy to switch subreddits
The sidebar in the app allows the user to quickly and easily switch to what subscribed subreddit they want to read next.
Pro Ad free version
A one time payment removes all ads from Reddit forever.
Cons
Con Can not up/downvote comments
Con Can't disable sliding animations
Sliding animations are baked in & can't be disabled, as some don't like animations.
Con Non native image uploading
All images need to be loaded externally when wanting to view full screen, this means another app will need to be loaded, which can be slow and consumes RAM.
Con Poor feedback for network errors
Sometimes comment submission will fail silently and it isn't clear whether it went through.
Con Not open source
Accessing your reddit acount with proprietary software might not be safe.
Con No gallery swipe view
There is no way to swipe through a gallery of posts pics, which means each pic has to be individually clicked on and loaded, which takes time.
Con Sharing link/comment options buried too deep
At present, the sharing menu is buried deep inside: swipe an article > Click More > Swipe again > then Share.
Con Does not sync users' subreddits every time
Some reddit users will find that their subscribed subreddits will not sync. Instead, they are only given the defaults.
Con Themes do not work
When the user changes background colors, or runs reddit in night mode, the background will turn white when multitasking, while the text remains white.