Comment on Why AO3 Doesn't Have an Official App

  1. Iynai Fri 24 Jul 2026 08:37AM UTC

    Thank god. I really don't want there to be an official app because of the App Store restrictions. It would be a nightmare. I've used ao3 on iOS browsers for years and it's nearly perfect. My only complaint is I wish my "exclude" options would remember each time I look for a new fix because I'm always excluding the same one each time loool

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    1. Adlez27 Fri 24 Jul 2026 08:56AM UTC

      Author's cosplay of Chip (Just Roll With It)

      I use the ao3 enhancements browser extension to remember my filters, but it would be great to have something like that built into the site!
      I support AO3's mission of maximum inclusiveness, and the community's widespread use of warnings and tags. We should be able to curate our own experiences and saving search filters is such a useful feature for that.

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      1. SolarPixel Sat 25 Jul 2026 09:27PM UTC

        I either just leave the page open (I use firefox, so it's fine) or I save the page that has said filters as a bookmark. Done and done.
        Hope that helps. <3

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    3. MikySP Fri 24 Jul 2026 09:46AM UTC

      Also, since there are 18+ fanfictions, I imagine if they tried to put the app on the appstore, they would be pressured into trying to provide some form of age verification or something, kinda like what other social media are doing lately... they ask for your ID, not just birth date, so it sounds rather invasive....

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      1. doofensmircss Sun 26 Jul 2026 05:11AM UTC

        yeah no please

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    5. A_Dark_Elderberry_Place Fri 24 Jul 2026 09:54AM UTC

      I save filters by making browser bookmarks of pre-filled work search pages and pre-filtered tag pages.

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    6. lmd20140214 Fri 24 Jul 2026 11:48AM UTC

      ho,me too！

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    7. UnfamiliarCreature Fri 24 Jul 2026 03:08PM UTC

      Sketch of a detail of Shipwreck by JMW Turner

      This is built into the Web browser- if you set up all your inclusions and exclusions, search, and then bookmark the resulting page, that is your saved search. You can also put it on the home screen, like any other bookmark. Every time you visit it, it will display whatever fics match your criteria.

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      1. TinTurtle Sat 25 Jul 2026 04:43PM UTC

        A desert box turtle (Terrapene ornata luteola)

        Yeah, this. I have a number of different searches bookmarked.

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    9. okyay Fri 24 Jul 2026 03:14PM UTC

      One of the things i do is use a skin to make the background of a tag a specific colour so i know to skip over it. You could also use this to completely block out the tag by having the background colour match the text colour.

      .tags a[href*="TAG" i] { background-color: #HEX; }

      You can also single out words & it will change the background colour of any tag that has that word in it.

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    10. 14Muffinz Fri 24 Jul 2026 08:02PM UTC

      the phrase "profile pic" on a black background

      You could jot down all the tags somewhere seperated by commas and paste that into the exclude box

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    11. lightninghawke Sat 25 Jul 2026 12:12AM UTC

      You can do that with site skins! For anything that you want permanently hidden use this:

      .blurb:has(a[href$="/tags//TAG/works"]) {
      display: none !important;
      }

      Any tag can be excluded this way. It just won't change the number of fics so it likely won't be correct. Other than that though I've never had issues with this in my site skin

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    12. Glorbuh Sat 25 Jul 2026 01:41AM UTC

      oh man you’d love blackbatcat’s Auto Filter user script! It does exactly that. It’s down at the bottom of this work under the “Add-Ons” heading, along with a bunch of other handy scripts.

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    13. calm Sat 25 Jul 2026 04:31AM UTC

      You can use a skin to not show fics with certain tags or features. For example, I have all ABO and non-English fics filtered out with my custom skin add-on.

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    14. Sammyreadsalot Sat 25 Jul 2026 06:18AM UTC

      Same! A 'remember my search preferences' or something would be amazing.

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    15. argus Sun 26 Jul 2026 09:55AM UTC

      Photo of James May, all around amazing bloke and TV personality, eating an ice cream and smoking a pipe

      THIS. I've helped out with publishing apps on both stores and Apple is ridiculous with their requirements. Google is getting worse by the day. Volunteers (thank you!) should focus on keeping ao3 stable and user accessible, not pandering to the whims of giant software corporations.

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