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Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

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Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#71

Post by jessaustin »

josteink wrote: post #30
icebraining wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"All types of Chrome apps will remain supported and maintained on Chrome OS for the foreseeable future. Additional enhancements to the Chrome apps platform will apply only to Chrome OS devices, including kiosks. Developers can continue to build Chrome apps (or Android apps) for Chrome OS." https://blog.chromium.org/2016/08/from-chrome-apps-to-web.ht...

So basically Google says they'll maintain and further develop this technology, so it can't be bad per se. They will however now reduce the amount of platforms it can run on to a fraction of what it was... But for what reason? (Since it's clearly an OK technology in the eyes of ChromeOS) This only shows yet again to never rely on a Google-based platform for your application or service.

...platforms it can run on to a fraction of what it was...

The plan, of course, is that everyone will be on ChromeOS.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#72

Post by seanwilson »

briandear wrote: post #65
seanwilson wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Many companies outside IT see software development as a cost center, ideally outsourced somewhere, not as something where UI/UX matters. I work in IT and I see it as a small increase in UX for an order of magnitude increase in cost. I don't see how e.g. making Spotify or Slack into native apps would dramatically improve their UX. In contrast, I think many coders are overly sensitive to CPU and memory usage to such…

When Slack on iOS hangs when I am trying to switch channels — or I get irregularly delayed notifications.. or glitching when trying to copy paste. Slack for iOS is pretty terrible in terms of stability and quality. Writing an actual native app in Swift isn’t that hard and they’re Slack — one would think they could afford to hire the proper developers. It’s hoghly irritating when I’m a paying customer of a fairly big…

Why are you making this about native vs non-native? You can write bad native apps with bad UIs that hog memory and CPU. If a company is happy shipping a bad non-native app they're not likely to do a good job of a native app either.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#73

Post by carussell »

icebraining wrote: post #45
seanwilson wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, there are plenty of options when doing native development. I was mostly meaning if you have an existing Chrome App or wanted to rely on existing JavaScript libraries. Electron gets a huge amount of hate on HN but I personally see the native route as very unappealing. With less developer resources (and perhaps a slightly worse UI; I think people really over exaggerate here), you get fairly simple cross platform…

Technically, you can have all those advantages with Qt/QML, since it uses JavaScript and runs on desktop, mobile and even web. That said, I never used it. Another alternative would be React-Native, now that react-native-web exists...

> Technically, you can have all those advantages with Qt/QML

GTK+, too. There was a big uproar several years ago when GNOME tried to anoint JS as the "official" language for GNOME app development. They eventually backpedaled, and overall their story for JS today seems to be technically decent but thoroughly undocumented.

Keep in mind, this was all before GitHub announced Atom and (what was not-yet-then called) Electron. Imagine if the GNOME folks had used that head start to commit themselves to the original decision, instead of reversing. They might have managed to capture the mindshare that eventually poured in Electron, there'd be a straightforward migration path for DOM-based UIs to go "native", and GTK+ and GNOME apps might've been successful outside the increasingly niche space it occupies on the Linux desktop.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#74

Post by timdorr »

PuffinBlue wrote: post #25

Great. Anyone have any suggestions for a replacement for Authy? It's a 2FA Chrome App that syncs your 2FA tokens across devices. They have a 'desktop app' now available for Mac and Windows, but of course nothing for Linux (surprise surprise). So any equivalent that will work cross platform and sync too?

I would avoid Authy's desktop app. It's a 144MB app (due to Electron) to show OTP keys. Kind of ridiculous...

For standard OTP, I use 1Password. It integrates well, syncs with my devices, and is still locked behind a secured central password (or fingerprint, in the case of my mobile device). It's secure enough for my needs while still being performant and encouraging of good habits, such as randomized, unique passwords.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#76

Post by rvanmil »

seanwilson wrote: post #56
pjmlp wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies outside IT see software development as a cost center, ideally outsourced somewhere, not as something where UI/UX matters.

> Many companies outside IT see software development as a cost center, ideally outsourced somewhere, not as something where UI/UX matters. I work in IT and I see it as a small increase in UX for an order of magnitude increase in cost. I don't see how e.g. making Spotify or Slack into native apps would dramatically improve their UX. In contrast, I think many coders are overly sensitive to CPU and memory usage to such…

> I don't see how e.g. making Spotify or Slack into native apps would dramatically improve their UX.

Well then that is something you might want to do something about if you're an app developer. There's no reason arguing if you are unable to discern the big difference between the UX of a (both properly built) native app and an Electron app. I think this might be one of the reasons Electron is actually successful; a lot of developers do not have a good sense for UX so they think what they've built is a proper alternative to a native app. Same goes for those who think PWA's are going to be great and up to par with native apps (hint: nope, not even close).

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#77

Post by MBCook »

tootie wrote: post #63
bad_user wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's Apple's problem though and they've been lagging behind for quite some time. On Android it's possible for example to run Facebook as a web app, because Chrome on Android can deliver notifications, keeping that connection persistent, so even after the page has been closed. And this is pretty cool because the browser is a much better sandbox than the OS. Now I use an iPhone and I'm very uncomfortable giving acces…

They are not lagging, they are obstructing. Google wants to push users to the web because they control search. Apple wants to push people to their proprietary app store. They have consistently obstructed anything that brings native app features to the browser.

Good.

Every time browsers get new features people (ESPECIALLY ad networks) abuse it for tracking and other nefarious purposes.

Battery level, light level, probably even gyroscope stuff. Hell they fingerprint canvas which isn’t even an iOS thing.

I don’t want these issues. I LIKE these restrictions so random sites I visit (and even worse random code injected in them) can’t watch me as easy.

Apps have issues but I control what apps I download and can delete them. At least I have a _chance_ there.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#78

Post by MBCook »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #23
coldtea wrote: post #21

Hopefully this convinced the last person still gullible enough to believe on Google's interest to maintain long term (let's say, more than a decade) any service that's not Search, Ads, YouTube, Gmail or Android. I wouldn't build much on GAE either...

> YouTube Even Youtube is not safe, have a look at the Adpocalypse a few months ago or all the wrong/incorrect demonetization of innocent videos.

You mean that they finally started to pay attention to the ludicrous crap they were giving money to that advertisers wanted nothing to do with?

What a surprise. It was deserved and a long time coming.

People need to learn that whatever horrible thing you put online doesn’t automatically get you paid. Advertisers don’t want to sponsor “anything” because it reflects poorly on them.

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#79

Post by [deleted] »

yoodenvranx wrote: post #23
coldtea wrote: post #21

Hopefully this convinced the last person still gullible enough to believe on Google's interest to maintain long term (let's say, more than a decade) any service that's not Search, Ads, YouTube, Gmail or Android. I wouldn't build much on GAE either...

> YouTube Even Youtube is not safe, have a look at the Adpocalypse a few months ago or all the wrong/incorrect demonetization of innocent videos.

[deleted]

Re: Chrome Apps are dead, as Google shuts down the Chrome Web Store section

#80

Post by xtracto »

coldtea wrote: post #21

Hopefully this convinced the last person still gullible enough to believe on Google's interest to maintain long term (let's say, more than a decade) any service that's not Search, Ads, YouTube, Gmail or Android. I wouldn't build much on GAE either...

The only service that could be considered safe is Ads (which is the only thing that gives Goole money). All the others are only channels to deliver those Ads.

There is a huge graveyard of good products that were or could have been . https://www.lifewire.com/google-graveyard-products-1616198

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