After a month of heavy use on iOS, I’m pretty conflicted about the current state of Nostr clients.
From a product and UX perspective, three apps stand out: @primal , @Damus and @YakiHonne — but in a strangely inverted way.
First, @primal :
Widely used, well known, active on Nostr, many reviews and coverage on YouTube, its creators, @miljan and @paul keating are all behind it, super nice people.
Yet:
• Direct Messages are unreliable, especially cross-client
• No built-in translation (a real adoption blocker beyond English)
• UI is functional, but not visually appealing
Then @YakiHonne :
The opposite. Little known, few reviews, almost no coverage on YouTube, no visible developers or founder(s), only a Malaysian tech company in the background… JustHonne Technologies… with no CEO or any person behind it… Their website doesn’t link to real LinkedIn/X profiles, and YakiHonne isn’t even clearly presented as a flagship product.
And yet:
• The UI is beautiful
• Customization is deep and thoughtful
• Built-in translation works
• DM relays and content relays can be finely controlled (read vs write)
• Overall: it feels the most mature and carefully designed
Now, @Damus sits between these two:
There is a well known and well-respected developer behind it, @jb55 who not at least invented zapping ❤️
It offers many settings, features, and customization options, and translation works — which is a big plus for non-English users.
However:
• The UI is not visually appealing
• The DM experience is still weak, cross-client messaging often fails here as well
So the core contradiction remains:
Why do the transparent, community-facing clients ( @primal and @Damus ) feel less refined in UX and messaging, while the most opaque one ( @YakiHonne ) has the best UX, features and customisation?
Am I missing protocol constraints, historical reasons, or design trade-offs?
Genuinely asking, and with respect for every dev behind these growing gems of Nostr social — I only would like to understand this better and help development. (I do leave test and bug reports on all the three clients’ github.)
#asknostr
