Because although other apps have some of the features of Sync - none have all.

It's really as simple as that, in conjunction with the familiarity aspect. Why fix what ain't broke?

They may not be your feature set, you may not care if a developer is active with your community, but many do.

all of them are literally the same.

That's obviously not true. So if you could explain what you actually mean, that could be helpful.

Familiarity. It's identical to the Reddit version. I was even able to import my Reddit sync backup so all of my settings are identical to how they are on Reddit

To be frank, Sync has a lot of polish. When I used reddit I would try another app every few months just to make sure I wasn't just settling on a familiar experience.

For me Sync has provided design that's consistent, the most accessible and legible settings, and it performs oh so well, even on low end devices.

Sure no one needs Monet support, nor an app that matches the platform its built for, nor do most need an expansive feature set (tablets and foldables support). But, it's great that lj provides these, I've never had anything really break in the app either. In 10 years of use.

Most of the apps I've used don't have smooth scrolling or start to lag and eventually crash on me after a while. Not sync. Performance is exactly like the old app.

Sync has polish. Loads of polish and customization.

Sync Ultra has cloud backups, auto-translation, can extract text from images and a bunch of other features no other app will have.

I'm a Liftoff user, but I was waiting for Sync for Lemmy because I liked the design of Sync for Reddit (based on screenshots). Basically yes, Liftoff and Sync for Lemmy are pretty similar, but Sync also has a ton of adjustments and cool features Liftoff is missing. And Sync has clean appealing design. After using it Liftoff looks worse.

Familiar interface. Sync was a very popular Reddit app.

My only complaint at this point is time - is that the "Sync" feature that is the app's namesake is missing.

Offline reading is a huge deal to me when I travel.

For me it's a familiarity thing. I'd been using Sync for Reddit for close to a decade. It's my defacto standard for feature set in these types of apps. I've tried and continue to use the apps that came out first, but every single one of them has quirks that don't align with how I prefer to use the platform. Sync does.

Saying all the apps are literally the same makes me wonder what it is you're looking to get out of them/how you use them. Do you like to share images from posts with people outside of Lemmy? That's easier on some than others.

For example, on Summit I have to open the image in the internal browser then the external browser then copy the link/share from there. On Connect they have a 3 dot menu that has a share url option. On Sync it's a 3 dot then share option/copy URL to clipboard.

It's little nuances like that that make or break an app for me. At a certain level these are all just interfaces to interact with the Lemmy platform so they are going to be similar in many ways. But some apps can offer a better user experience than others. It really depends on what you want/how you use the platform.

Every app has different users, some liked (in reddit days) Boost some Infinity and some (me included) Sync, it was quite cheap because there were so many users I just bought Pro version for 40 liras and enjoyed it. But now when Lemmy user base is so small dev wants get simmilar ammount of money with lower count of users, thats why he wants me to pay not 40 but 449 liras for ad free, I use also Infinity at the same time but it is really bugged right now so I will stick now with Sync but 450 liras is too much for me.

It runs extremely smooth, and has tons of options and features. Also, many of us were long time Sync for reddit users.

I use my tablet primarily. None of the lemmy apps have a dual pane UI. That alone makes the difference to me.

I got Sync yesterday. I like it, but now it's a fail.

Every time I open it now, it closes immediately.