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Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

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Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#201

Post by freedomben »

sgt wrote: post #168
hnlmorg wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given how toxic many mobile apps are and how a pretty significant amount of time they’re still just a web app under the hood, I think native apps have already lost the war. So like yourself, I very rarely install apps these days.

Most quality apps are native apps, they are not just web app under the hood. Then you are either using uncommon or niche apps, or you perhaps you are on Android (Play Store is a nightmare these days). The App Store (iOS) may not be perfect but there are truly quality apps and the developers have a real incentive to maintain these, seeing that the willingness to pay for apps is high in the Apple ecosystem.

> or you perhaps you are on Android

This is a ridiculous thing to say. there are plenty of wonderful native apps on Android

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#203

Post by freedomben »

cacois wrote: post #187
perilunar wrote: post #173

The terms of service prohibits deep linking. Here's me breaking it: https://store.app/terms Seriously though, WTF? So much for "the web always wins".

I find it discouraging that the poster is very active in comments to this post, but thus far is ignoring concerns like this.

Looking at the timestamps from the activity, they probably haven't seen this concern yet. I'm guessing they are West Coast USA and are still asleep for the night. Let's give them some time.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#204

Post by cacois »

freedomben wrote: post #203
cacois wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it discouraging that the poster is very active in comments to this post, but thus far is ignoring concerns like this.

Looking at the timestamps from the activity, they probably haven't seen this concern yet. I'm guessing they are West Coast USA and are still asleep for the night. Let's give them some time.

That's a good point, and fair. Sorry to jump the gun.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#205

Post by wredue »

hnlmorg wrote: post #189
crimsontech wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the opposite for me. I used to use Twitter and Reddit constantly through 3rd party iOS apps. Both platforms banned 3rd party apps and I simply don’t use the platforms anymore. They added enough friction through ads, cookie banners, forced login to view content and more ads that I don’t care to use them anymore. I’m using a 3rd party app to view HN and I probably visit 3-4 times a day.

Are you not concerned by how much data those apps could be harvesting? There is a reason Reddit et al push you towards their app and it isn’t because they make money from selling it on the App Store ;)

There is zero chance that Apollo was harvesting more data than the official Reddit app.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#206

Post by hombre_fatal »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #181
notpushkin wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like generic boilerplate ToS to me. It's still bad, but I think this is unintentional.

He's not talking about the contents of the ToS. Click the back button on the page, it takes you back here. You'd expect it to take you back to the homepage of the site. If you deeplink to that page then there's no way out other than editing the URL.

No, they're just using history.back() on that button, not making a statement.

That's just being lazy on a /tos or /privacy page as most of us have done in our life.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#207

Post by PaulHoule »

qainsights wrote: post #202
PaulHoule wrote: post #200

Why?

Same here. If I want to install the site as an app, there are options available in the browser itself.

At least on mobile I struggle to find anything in the app collection, it just seems like all the icons look the same, particularly on iOS where instead of the same gear everybody else has for settings I keep wanting to skip that thing that looks like a movie poster for The Golden Compass.

On the other hand, I just type "1" into safari and it autocompletes the URL for my RSS reader, I type "n" and It autocomples Hacker News. It's so much easier that figuring out which one of 5 stylized "N"s or 3 stylized "H"s is the one I want.

(I don't know what it is but on the desktop I find icons easy to scan, yet I still find pressing the Windows key and typing 1-3 letters is almost always faster than any other way of finding applications)

The thundering herd seems to think the mobile home screen is valuable real estate but I am aggressive to delete apps not only because they are 95% "crapps" but also to make it easy to find the two or three that really are valuable. (e.g. Why do I need a Walgreens app when there is a perfectly good Walgreens web site?)

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#208

Post by presson »

cacois wrote: post #204
freedomben wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looking at the timestamps from the activity, they probably haven't seen this concern yet. I'm guessing they are West Coast USA and are still asleep for the night. Let's give them some time.

That's a good point, and fair. Sorry to jump the gun.

Indeed, I was asleep. We have a lawyer who handled the terms, presumably adding a bit of boiler plate text that we should have removed. This should definitely not be the case, thank you all for flagging. Will update today.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#209

Post by JohnFen »

holoduke wrote: post #39
JohnFen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Although this depends a lot on the quality of the software, native apps tend to be much better in terms of UI and performance, and they tend to use less system resources -- sometimes a lot less.

Nowadays i would argue that the css rendering speed is faster than the Android UI renderer which suffers from extreme complexity. Ios might be still faster, but also much more limited. A good SPA is indistinguishable from a native app.

That's possibly true, but I wasn't really talking about Android (native Android apps are pretty inefficient anyway), I was talking about desktop.

Re: Show HN: An app store just for installable web apps

#210

Post by presson »

kunley wrote: post #172
presson wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is great feedback. There are some modifications coming that will enhance the discovery process. It's very early in our journey, so I'd encourage you (I'm biased, of course) to create an account and stay tuned for updates. We believe the web is in the early stages of a renaissance of some sort.

It's quite hilarious that the commenter didn't want to create accounts in all the apps he described, still the crux of your proposal is .. creating another account.

We will have yet a another solution for this. Brick by brick :-)
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