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Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

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11–20 of 20 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#11
Privacy. Fuck apps: if it can work on a Browser I'll run it on a browser. It may not be perfect in terms of privacy, but at least it will have a lot less power in fingerprinting me.

I don't care if it's significantly slower or wastes resources: I'll probably keep your app open for like 3 minutes while I do the thing I want it to do. The only apps that stay open for a while are browsers and games. Everything else should be a web page.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#13
Overuse of gestures. Apps that have both swipe left/right and swipe up/down gestures drive me mad.

It feels like walking on banana peels. I am always accidentally activating somewhere with errant swipes. In fact, I just did it while typing up this comment.

I'm either seriously uncoordinated, the touch sensors are too sensitive, or its just plain bad UX.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#14

Privacy. Fuck apps: if it can work on a Browser I'll run it on a browser. It may not be perfect in terms of privacy, but at least it will have a lot less power in fingerprinting me. I don't care if it's significantly slower or wastes resources: I'll probably keep your app open for like 3 minutes while I do the thing I want it to do. The only apps that stay open for a while are browsers and games. Everything else shou…

I build things for phones (natively) and also often for the web. It’s sad to see mobile apps perceived this way due to greedy and questionable tracking practices in the industry. To me a really well made Android or iOS app that takes full advantage of the platform is a satisfying thing to build.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#15

When there is a lag in response and you click a button or menu item, it changes to something else in the blink of an eye and you've clicked something completely different.

+1 This is not just for apps, it also happens with websites. I am not a web guy, so I don't know the jargon but web pages keep changing even after they are done. I tap on something but it just adds another element there and I end up tapping on something else since everything shifts

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#18
post #7

Copy and paste on the iPhone. I would really like to have a physical button at this point for that function. On my devices at least (yours might be ok..) the selection process is hard, the copy process is maddeningly intermittently working at times. Once in while it straight up refuses to copy.

I just switched from Android to iOS and this one thing has been bugging me

It's been so long since I've used Android. How is it done on the latest of those machines?

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#19
post #14

Privacy. Fuck apps: if it can work on a Browser I'll run it on a browser. It may not be perfect in terms of privacy, but at least it will have a lot less power in fingerprinting me. I don't care if it's significantly slower or wastes resources: I'll probably keep your app open for like 3 minutes while I do the thing I want it to do. The only apps that stay open for a while are browsers and games. Everything else shou…

I build things for phones (natively) and also often for the web. It’s sad to see mobile apps perceived this way due to greedy and questionable tracking practices in the industry. To me a really well made Android or iOS app that takes full advantage of the platform is a satisfying thing to build.

Yet it provides no additional value to the user if the user is only going to spend 3 minutes per day on it. Only downsides.

Re: Ask HN: What do you hate the most in mobile apps?

#20

When there is a lag in response and you click a button or menu item, it changes to something else in the blink of an eye and you've clicked something completely different.

+1 This is not just for apps, it also happens with websites. I am not a web guy, so I don't know the jargon but web pages keep changing even after they are done. I tap on something but it just adds another element there and I end up tapping on something else since everything shifts

I remember when the "tableless" concept first appeared a long long time ago and one of the main arguments in favor of implementing it was to prevent the page rearranging itself as it loaded. Look at where we are now...
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