On a mobile app it seems natural to me that when I swipe down a synchronization will start.
For example this is what happens in the Gmail app.
For Joplin, this could happen when I swipe down when viewing the note list. To be precise, when I swipe down at the top of the list as if I wanted to reach higher.
As a bonus, I don't have to open sidebar menu and click on synchronize button down there one swipe instead of 3 clicks, this would add up over time!
The feature could also work in note view and note edit modes, to save even more clicks.
On desktop and Android (and other platforms most likely as well), Joplin synchronized changed notes automatically, no swipes needed. Sync occurs about 20 sec after last change.
To be fair, on mobile the sync triggers after literally 1 second of stopping typing, so indeed swipe to sync doesn’t really add benefit on the mobile app. What would really provide benefit is a sync indicator while in the note viewer / editor. This has been raised many times before though and even some PRs raised, but it ultimately did not progress because Laurent did not want to repeat functionality to have a sync indicator in both the sidebar and the note, and no decision has been made about the UI design for a more unified approach
I disagree. You are only considering upstream sync here. Assuming it is indeed instant, the downstream sync is still far from instant as it happens once every 5 minutes only.
If I did some changes on device A and move to device B, I still have to manually trigger sync on B or wait 5 minutes.
If I work all day long on tablets A, B, C simultaneously, because I like to juggle between notes, edit some while consulting others, this kind of situation happens all day long. A simple swipe would save so many clicks. I don't care if the swipe does not show any visual feedback as long as it triggers a sync immediately in the background.
A notification would be great, as it would allow to sync while Joplin is not open. In mobile, it’s common to close an app as soon as you’re done with it. Therefore, that notification would give the needed information even if Joplin is already in the background.
That would be tricky to do because the mobile app is written in React Native. Such solutions would be high maintenance (Google keeps changing their rules for what background / foreground service are allowed to do) and hard to make the background sync reliable
one swipe instead of 3 clicks, this would add up over time!