Kyle-Ye is developing Forumate, a native Discourse client for iOS, watchOS, macOS, and visionOS. The app is in early stages, with ongoing beta testing via TestFlight. Users have reported crashes and bugs, particularly on iOS 17 betas, which the developer is addressing in updates like 0.4.0, 0.5.0, and 0.6.0. Recent updates include support for visionOS, iCloud sync, community search, and theme customization. The app uses native SwiftUI/UIKit, distinguishing it from web-based alternatives. The developer plans to add account login, macOS, and tvOS support in future versions. The project is open-source, with the API wrapper available on GitHub. Users have offered feedback on UI, login, and functionality, while others have praised the app’s design and cross-platform ambition. Kyle-Ye has acknowledged issues and is actively working on improvements, with a stable release expected after iOS 17’s launch. Lexicon and ezstartup have expressed interest in collaboration and support.
For everyone interested in this topic, you can give Forumate a look.
Just have time to build a discourse client myself recently. And it is incomplete and in an early stage. But if you are interested on it, you can join the TestFlight link to have a peek.
7 posts were split to a new topic: Meta discussion about forumate app and discord
Forumate client instantly crashes when selecting a forum @Kyle-Ye
I have provided a bug report using TestFlight’s built-in bug reporter.
Update: It sometimes works, sometimes crashes
Thanks for the reporting. I’ll take a look at it.
What’s new in 0.3.0 TestFlight version:
And most of all, you can check the source code at GitHub - Kyle-Ye/Forumate: A native client to access Discourse server for Apple Platforms · GitHub 
Yes, it is a known issue see Navigate to Subcategory Page · Issue #14 · Kyle-Ye/Forumate · GitHub.
I’ll try to fix it on 0.4.0
Thanks, I do have a few suggestions though.
Firstly, on the community add page:
Misc suggestions:
Besides all of my feedback, nice work! The watchOS client seems cool, I haven’t seen an app do that before, extremely useful.
I’d recommend using the Safari keyboard, which has the period and no autocorrect.
I’ll check the Safari keyboard issue when adding new community. But I am still a little confused on what you’d like to see. Could you help file a Github issue and we can discuss the detail on it?
You could probably remove the markdown + HTML from the post previews + categories:
Discourse API is returning a html version and raw text version. I choose to support html version using
Swift Regex so that user can tap the <a href></a>. Looks like there are missing cases causing the bug. Would you please file a bug and provide the discourse server url (If it was a public one).
My main test discourse servier is Swift Forums
There seems to be no obvious way to login or interact with the community at all
Yes. This feature is on schedule and is tracked via Account System Not implemented · Issue #3 · Kyle-Ye/Forumate · GitHub
It won’t appear on 0.4.0 and I’ll implement it before a public release of 1.0.0
WatchOS client is using watchOS 9 design language instead of 10
WWDC2023 OS release is just 2 days ago. Most of the development happens with Xcode 13.4 on watchOS 9. Give me a little more time, and I’ll support watchOS 10 on 0.4.0 (And I’ll drop watchOS 9 support soon on 0.4.0 or 0.5.0)
I hope to see something similar on the Android side 
Thanks for sharing, I’ll check this out!
And then I share my thoughts, it looks more clear than official Hub and that’s really great for our audience experience.
And then I share my thoughts, it looks more clear than official Hub and that’s really great for our audience experience.
Sure because the official Hub uses Web Technology to build it while this app use native UIKit/SwiftUI to build it. And many designs refer to the previously unmaintained iOS discourse app - Fig.
I hope to see something similar on the Android side
Yes, it is totally fine. The API wrapper and model is open sourced at GitHub - Kyle-Ye/DiscourseKit · GitHub. We can easily use it and Compose framework to build such App on Android.
What’s new in 0.4.0 TestFlight version:
Update minimal supported OS to iOS 17, watchOS 10 and align-OS (Sorry for the drop. But I think most of you don’t need to update to a beta version. Just wait for the release of iOS 17 in September)If you’d like to follow the latest news and update on Forumate, be sure to follow Forumate App on Twitter
Is this a white label app?
The Forumate.app supports all kinds of Discourse community.
But we can do some tweak to make it to be a white label app(eg. remove Communities column, add some featured assets and so on). If you are interested, please DM me for more detail.
Got an initial support on 0.4.0
If you had dropped support for the beta builds, then I won’t be able to use it. I don’t see the update though:
I’ve always thought that mobile apps are only needed to keep users on their platform and give them a positive user experience. For other cases, there is a browser. It’s just as strange if Amazon, Ebay and Aliexpress used a single mobile app. Or Facebook and Twitter
Basically, the web resources that I look at do not have a common platform
My internal team just got the latest v0.4.0 builds successfully.
And you can download the Notarized macOS binary directly via Github Release 0.4.0 Beta · Kyle-Ye/Forumate · GitHub
As for other Apple Platform:
For external test build, Apple will need some time to review them just like when you submit it to App Store.
See more info at App Review Guidelines - Apple Developer
Sorry - I meant “I won’t be able to use it”, not “see”. That’ll probably explain it, I’ll have to wait before I get the beta update.
I don’t have a mac because I use my PC for a lot of gaming, so this won’t help.
