HN Reader

Cool that they did that, but they could also start behaving properly. The app labels itself at GPL licensed, but the most recent releases are not available on GitHub. It's been the situation for quite a while now and it's been raised with the author a few times in the issues. They don't seem to care.

Well, you’re talking to a company that trademarked “Apple”.

Small anecdote, but back in early 2024 (like, March), I did a ton of searching for an AI helper app that would allow me to use the gemini API key from AI studio. Chatbox was one of only two that I found (can't remember the other), but even back then I was astounded by its functionality and ease of use. It supported a ton of stuff, like custom system prompts, etc. Basically recreated a lot of the lmstudio experience but on a phone.

You'd be surprised, but it was extremely difficult to find an android app that supported API key usage. Ahead of its time.

Do I need to use the API key, or it uses my subscription?

I stopped using Chatbox as it didnt allow an Openrouter API key (which in turn allows all models Openai, Claude, Grok, Gemini etc) and started using Msty instead. I might revisit Chatbox and see if its improved.

Based on the marketing page and App Store page, I can't really tell what sets this apart from ChatGPT. It looks like essentially the same thing, with a slightly different UI. What features does it have that add value over ChatGPT?

You know what I just realized?

I couldn't tell you the last time I installed a new app on my phone.

Everything there is mostly out to exploit me, or a direct security liability regardless of what app store.