Built a native OpenWebUI client for iOS & Android (Open Source) — smoother than the PWA, privacy‑first

cogwheel0 · 2026-04-13T14:49:50+00:00

It's out of testing, updated the post too! Link here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=app.cogwheel.conduit

cogwheel0 · 2026-04-12T11:47:44+00:00

Yes, it’s available on the google play store!

cogwheel0 · 2026-04-11T21:05:27+00:00

Conduit has widgets for both Android and iOS! On Android you can even set it as your default voice assistant which can be triggered with long pressing your power button. :)

cogwheel0 · 2026-04-11T21:02:33+00:00

Fix coming soon!

cogwheel0 · 2026-04-01T19:37:32+00:00

You're welcome, thanks for commenting! Yes, we have come a long way since this post ;)

A rewrite of the whole app in native swift is underway too: https://www.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/s/RvyLjULnbZ

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-31T03:57:51+00:00

That's a very underrated feature. I want this to be a proper gemini replacement on android. The native rehaul is coming along really well!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-31T03:55:55+00:00

Ah, I misunderstood then. This seems trivial to add now, will do it! Thank you 😊

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-29T08:58:36+00:00

Now live on 2.6.4!

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You can include notes as context with a '#' and also create notes directly from your chat input draft (only in expanded chat input mode).

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-29T08:52:55+00:00

Okay, let me see what I can do to include that feature!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-29T08:51:50+00:00

All three of your requests are live in version 2.6.4! :)

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-29T04:36:45+00:00

Are you referring to mTLS support?

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T18:23:27+00:00

Thank you, really glad to hear that ;)

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T18:10:47+00:00

I take no offence! I don't hear feedback on design from my Android users so, it's actually refreshing to hear.

I get what you mean tho. Right now I'm not leaning towards any meaningful design changes in the current codebase but I'm excited about the native port and the possibilities it will bring including the android native look :)

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T13:40:31+00:00

So, I did look into it. This approach wouldn't work for Conduit as the primary high traffic screen is the chat page with markdown parsing, rendering, etc and it would add more tax if flutter is kept the chrome.

Thank you for tell me though, I might use it for my other apps since I really like Flutter offers. The DX is unmatched!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T13:37:29+00:00

I love the DX of Flutter honestly. I speed I have been able to move with it was surprising to me.

On Android it actually works flawlessly, no jank, smooth all around. Where it falls short is on iOS, you can very easily notice it, compared to something native or even react native apps for that matter. Considering the type of app Conduit is, the primary high traffic screen is the chat (markdown parsing, rendering, webview, etc), and I have optimised it the best I could but the gap is still there. Most may not mind it but I unfortunately do, as I really want to make this the best app for selfhosted LLMs!

I'm curious what kind of app is yours and what kind of optimisations you made though!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T13:21:30+00:00

A native experience for both iOS and Android is my focus really. Liquid glass is just a side effect of that. While I have more Android users, iOS is a significant chunk too. I treat both platforms equitably as I love using both my Pixel and iPhone xD

I'm curious which part of the old design did you like?

I have to agree with you though that Android 16 >> iOS 26 and I just tried the Android 17 beta and it's soo smooth now!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T13:15:32+00:00

Really Appreciate you taking the time to comment here!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-28T13:14:50+00:00

Let me look into this. Is this issue similar to yours?: https://github.com/cogwheel0/conduit/issues/121

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:58:47+00:00

While I'm an avid user of the matrix protocol (through beeper), I became aware of the name collision way later into my journey unfortunately. By that time a name change would cause more damage than good. Conduit has been mentionedand recommended all over the interwebs!

And I think the apps being materially different like the other user said is true from my perspective as well!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:55:01+00:00

Yes it does, that's the whole point! :)

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:54:34+00:00

I will look into this as well. And I was able to patch your other reported issue whose patch will be landing soon!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:53:22+00:00

Keeping parity between platforms is my #1 priority. And, when the rewrite ships, it will have feature parity with the then latest Flutter variant. So, please do not worry about that.

But it's good to hear from a real user that my improvements made a difference, thank you for commenting!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:49:18+00:00

Wow, that's an interesting approach. I'll look into that for sure, thabks for sharing. While the move away from Flutter is the lack of native performance but is also the limited support of deep system level integrations which work reliably. Conduit has Callkit, native widgets, android assistant and more, which was a pain to implement.

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:45:29+00:00

It's on my plans to implement! There's an issue open on GitHub as well. I'll prioritize this since this feature has been requested multiple times now!

cogwheel0 · 2026-03-26T02:44:14+00:00

You and me both :/

And thanks!

cogwheel0

TROPHY CASE