HackerWeb is a super-clean Hacker News app built for maximum readability and has a lean set of features to optimize the reading experience.
It’s created specifically with iOS design guidelines in mind, so it feels native and blends well with the operating system.
It has a simple set of features that are usually invisible:
- Dual Web and Comments tabs for easy switching between the story’s web page and the list of comments
- Revolutionary comments thread UI for easy navigation, with smart collapsing to prevent being overwhelmed by too many comments
- Automatic Dark mode, respecting the system’s appearance settings.
- Smart indentations and formatting for comments, complementing the existing limited formatting from Hacker News.
- Automatic syntax highlighting for code blocks in comments, with best-effort programming language detection.
- Allow interactions like upvoting and replying, which opens up web view with login information and sessions stored in itself, instead of the app.
- Comment’s “Thread view” to list all parent comments of a comment, on a flat list, for easy reading instead of manually drilling down the nested comments.
- “Share as Image” for comments, which allows sharing of a specific comment, optionally including the parent comments and/or story, as an image.
HackerWeb is an unofficial Hacker News client, built with React Native and Expo.
This is a passion side project for learning and experimenting ideas. Since 2012.
Open-sourced: https://github.com/cheeaun/hackerweb-native-2
I've been reading Hacker News for years now and am growing increasingly frustrated at their lack of usability and modern design. HackerWeb is already an improvement by letting me collapse comments. I think it's got a ways to go but I see some huge potential to offer such an improved experience that people would be stupid not to use it.
By far the best Hacker News client
jkotzker
Easily the best Hacker News client available, highly recommend the web app version as well. The interface is a huge improvement over Hacker News itself, and lacks any of the clutter of other clients.
Clean and crisp and sharp and amazing
Glucopilot
It's a web app. But you'd NEVER know because it's amazing work. Work like this deserves your money and time. This has been my go-to app since the start. Brilliant.
Bug fixes
Version 3.0.1
The developer, Chee Aun Lim, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
Identifiers
Diagnostics
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
Seller
Chee Aun Lim
Size
30.1 MB
Category
News
Compatibility
Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 26.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 26.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 12.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
