Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#11

Post by skellera » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 2:54 AM UTC

The link to expand the content is right above the get app button but it’s grey so it’s hard to see.

Really annoying but still technically usable. I’d still quit for them doing that.

After looking, it seems it’s only like that on your feed. Once you get into a topic then the normal continue reading buttons are there.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#12

Post by makecheck » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 3:16 AM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #7

ezekg wrote: post #2

This is also one of the reasons I refuse to use Reddit’s mobile site, and instead choose to zoom and pan the desktop site on my phone. I’d imagine mobile is more profitable, seeing as users cannot use an ad-blocker within the native apps.

It helps the reddit desktop site is 3x faster than the mobile site/app on mobile.

I love how they show a pop-up every single time you use the mobile web site, listing things the app can do, and every one is something I don’t want.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#13

Post by godot » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 5:06 AM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #7

ezekg wrote: post #2

This is also one of the reasons I refuse to use Reddit’s mobile site, and instead choose to zoom and pan the desktop site on my phone. I’d imagine mobile is more profitable, seeing as users cannot use an ad-blocker within the native apps.

It helps the reddit desktop site is 3x faster than the mobile site/app on mobile.

Wow, I didn't believe you, and had to try it myself. You are totally right. Checking the "Request desktop site" checkbox, reddit loads a lot faster on my phone. That is really sad.

I never downloaded the reddit mobile app, and have always just stuck with mobile web whenever I wanted to browse it. But now I'll be sure to just request desktop site.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#14

Post by beenBoutIT » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 5:07 AM UTC

It would bother me less if the banners were accurate. Any app ad that says it offers a better experience than can be had browsing in Chrome on Android is an obvious lie. Reddit's Android app that promises faster speeds is inferior in every way to simply navigating to Reddit.com in Chrome or Chromium on Android.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#15

Post by beenBoutIT » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 5:14 AM UTC

ezekg wrote: post #2

This is also one of the reasons I refuse to use Reddit’s mobile site, and instead choose to zoom and pan the desktop site on my phone. I’d imagine mobile is more profitable, seeing as users cannot use an ad-blocker within the native apps.

You can actually block in-app advertising on Android with apps that block DNS servers. These apps aren't on Google Play because they violate the TOS, so you'll find them with all of the wonderful open source Android apps that violate Google Play's TOS in the F-droid repository. DNS66 (Block ads/hosts via DNS) - https://f-droid.org/app/org.jak_linux.dns66

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#16

Post by cm2012 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 5:21 AM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #12

cm2012 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It helps the reddit desktop site is 3x faster than the mobile site/app on mobile.

I love how they show a pop-up every single time you use the mobile web site, listing things the app can do, and every one is something I don’t want.

If you go to a nsfw subreddit first, you can switch to desktop without the popup (on the 18+ page) and then browse the rest at leisure.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#17

Post by techcode » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 6:18 AM UTC

Besides the irony of mobile apps not really offering better/faster experience in most cases.

Also ironically - many companies just buy into "best practices" (hype) without actually checking conversion rate/ROI between the mobile apps, mobile site (non-responsive) and responsive.

At which point we're also probably talking about corporate politics and sinking costs - where I don't find it hard to imagine someone needs to prove investment into apps was not a mistake ...

Though everything I just said is nothing more than my impression looking from the outside.

Place where I work at www.booking.com has both mobile apps and mobile website (request desktop website functionality works). And my general industry impression is based on things I know from most of my time here being in mobile web teams.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#18

Post by hiven » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 6:28 AM UTC

I specifically don’t visit the site for that very reason now. Not only does it make it unusable on phone without the app (why any company wants to make that decision is beyond me) but it has also built resentment against the brand. Overall, a stupid decision and plenty of other similar sites I can visit instead.

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#19

Post by techcode » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 6:30 AM UTC

skellera wrote: post #10

colejohnson66 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chrome and Safari on iOS have a “view desktop site” that, IIRC, work by sending a desktop User-Agent

“Responsive” sites do not work with that sadly. Something that has always bugged me.

Probably because it's same group of people that defined standards like media queries and wrote "best practices" ...

Technically browser would need to report different pixel density or resolution (check what https://www.whatismyscreenresolution.com gives you) to get "desktop looking" site.

Though in reality it's one/same site - so I'm not sure how much would you get with that...

Re: Tell HN: Have to quit Quora because of mobile get app screen

#20

Post by idunno246 » Sat, Apr 07, 2018, 6:33 AM UTC

makecheck wrote: post #12

cm2012 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It helps the reddit desktop site is 3x faster than the mobile site/app on mobile.

I love how they show a pop-up every single time you use the mobile web site, listing things the app can do, and every one is something I don’t want.

i turned it off. google indicates it was in the hamburger menu in the top right on the mobile site, but i dont have the option to turn it on/off now, not sure if its because i turned it off already.