Are there any Tapatalk alternatives?

I hope to one day have the money and/or knowledge to build (or pay to build) my own custom forum app for my site(s) that will integrate with all the important plugins we have installed, not just the forum functionality that Tapatalk covers. It would be a huge project, but it would only have to work with Xenforo and my plugins, as to where Tapatalk is developed to work with all popular forum software options - an added complexity that I don't need, and it is only compatible with the forums functionality.

A responsive theme is fine for browsing. But that's not necessarily where an app delivers the most benefit. I want users to be able to take photos on their phone, click a share button, and choose a few places on my site to post them (maybe a new thread, or in their profile, or a gallery, or to one of their showcase items - places where admins can specifiy) and add a caption like they can do with Facebook and other social networks. This is one area that my site is really losing out to Facebook, and I know I'm not the only forum admin experiencing this.

There's a huge annual 3-day event in our niche market taking place this weekend, which in year's past, would be covered extensively by members in our Hangout forum with photos flooding the "coverage" threads. This year everyone is mostly just posting their photos on Facebook instead, mainly because they can point and shoot with their phones, then click and share, done. Easy. There is no urgency to jump on to the site, navigate to a forum, find a thread or start a new one, upload attachments and submit the post. Why, when they can do it in 2 steps and reach some of the same people? We are still the better destination for Q&A technical discussions for our niche compared to FB, but for quickly and easily sharing photos and content (especially from community meets and events) FB is definitely eating away at our forum model.

A responsive mobile theme isn't going to do much to address that, though it does make browsing easier. It's obvious I'll need an app to combat this, and I don't like the options that are available, and I don't want to use Tapatalk because their interests will probably conflict with mine, and in recent times already have - example: the option they were giving to our members allowing them to host attachments on their servers instead of ours. I want full control over the mobile user experience and I don't want the app developer trying to host our content on their servers, market the other forums in their network to our users, or try and monetize our site outside of a plain text copyright notice. Maybe someone will create an app like that for Xenforo which is extendable for plugins, but it's not likely. As our members rely more and more on mobile for interaction and sharing content, it's going to become more critical. I'll have to find a way to create an app at some point, hopefully before we miss the boat.
 
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