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The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

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Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#111

Post by pgm8705 »

ngrilly wrote: post #108
KaiserPro wrote: post #17

This is written by someone who lives in the "web eats everything" bubble. It also neglects the apple store. The fact is, webapps are suboptimal, and unless something drastically changes, will remain so. Unless you have decent caching, they are slow, difficult to use, and generally annoying. Why? firstly HTML/JS is a very slow presentation layer compared to native, which means less battery. You still can't multithread…

The FastMail mobile app is an example of an "hybrid" app working correctly: it's a native app wrapping the web app using a WebView. The native part takes care of things like notifications. The web part part takes care of the rest and is shared by all platforms. Anyone here using it?

Basecamp's mobile app is also a good example of this. Native navigation and notifications but web based content.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#112

Post by kop316 »

ohazi wrote: post #9

Basically every flashlight app on Google Play contains adware or malware and wants non-negotiable (thanks, Google) access to my contact list and files and network. Same with many task managers and qr code scanners and other random little apps and utilities. Fuck that. I'll install Uber and an IM client or two, but that's it. No more "that looks like it might be cool" apps for me. I've said this before - the app ecosy…

It's funny you mention Uber. Both Uber AND Lyft have Webapps, and they work very well.

https://m.uber.com/

https://ride.lyft.com/

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#113

Post by mkirklions »

me551ah wrote: post #109

To be honest, I wouldn't like mobile going the html/js way at all. Html/js has moved to desktop with electron and the results aren't that great. They take up huge amounts of memory ( gmail web on chrome takes up 500mb of ram on my machine, also slack is a noteworthy mention). Native desktop apps take up a fraction of that memory. For the sake of accessibility we have significantly sacrificed performance. I can't wait…

Whats the issue with using 500mb memory? I have 8gb on a 5 year old computer.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#114

Post by SimeVidas »

me551ah wrote: post #109

To be honest, I wouldn't like mobile going the html/js way at all. Html/js has moved to desktop with electron and the results aren't that great. They take up huge amounts of memory ( gmail web on chrome takes up 500mb of ram on my machine, also slack is a noteworthy mention). Native desktop apps take up a fraction of that memory. For the sake of accessibility we have significantly sacrificed performance. I can't wait…

Never mind Electron. Soon it will become normal to install web apps on desktop, directly from the browser—it will be basically a website rendered in a separate window without any browser UI. That system will not have Electron’s memory problems.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#115

Post by me551ah »

mkirklions wrote: post #113
me551ah wrote: post #109

To be honest, I wouldn't like mobile going the html/js way at all. Html/js has moved to desktop with electron and the results aren't that great. They take up huge amounts of memory ( gmail web on chrome takes up 500mb of ram on my machine, also slack is a noteworthy mention). Native desktop apps take up a fraction of that memory. For the sake of accessibility we have significantly sacrificed performance. I can't wait…

Whats the issue with using 500mb memory? I have 8gb on a 5 year old computer.

That's also multiplied by the number of tabs that you have open. A medium tab is right now taking up 200mb and so is Amazon. I have over 3 browser windows open with many tabs and need to use extensions to auto kills tabs so that the OS doesn't end up into swap space territory. I also run Android Studio and an emulator on the side which compete for memory.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#116

Post by me551ah »

SimeVidas wrote: post #114
me551ah wrote: post #109

To be honest, I wouldn't like mobile going the html/js way at all. Html/js has moved to desktop with electron and the results aren't that great. They take up huge amounts of memory ( gmail web on chrome takes up 500mb of ram on my machine, also slack is a noteworthy mention). Native desktop apps take up a fraction of that memory. For the sake of accessibility we have significantly sacrificed performance. I can't wait…

Never mind Electron. Soon it will become normal to install web apps on desktop, directly from the browser—it will be basically a website rendered in a separate window without any browser UI. That system will not have Electron’s memory problems.

Memory problems aren't inherent to electron, they are inherent to html/js apps and you can also see that in chrome by opening up your task manager. Even small websites with minimal content end up taking 100+mb in memory. It has always been possible to install web apps from browser, chrome has supported it since a number of years but they haven't caught on as much.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#117

Post by mkirklions »

me551ah wrote: post #115
mkirklions wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the issue with using 500mb memory? I have 8gb on a 5 year old computer.

That's also multiplied by the number of tabs that you have open. A medium tab is right now taking up 200mb and so is Amazon. I have over 3 browser windows open with many tabs and need to use extensions to auto kills tabs so that the OS doesn't end up into swap space territory. I also run Android Studio and an emulator on the side which compete for memory.

I do similar where I have 60 tabs and 5 windows open, a few servers, text editors, etc...

But I can always close tabs.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#118

Post by [deleted] »

me551ah wrote: post #115
mkirklions wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whats the issue with using 500mb memory? I have 8gb on a 5 year old computer.

That's also multiplied by the number of tabs that you have open. A medium tab is right now taking up 200mb and so is Amazon. I have over 3 browser windows open with many tabs and need to use extensions to auto kills tabs so that the OS doesn't end up into swap space territory. I also run Android Studio and an emulator on the side which compete for memory.

[deleted]

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#119

Post by me551ah »

mkirklions wrote: post #117
me551ah wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's also multiplied by the number of tabs that you have open. A medium tab is right now taking up 200mb and so is Amazon. I have over 3 browser windows open with many tabs and need to use extensions to auto kills tabs so that the OS doesn't end up into swap space territory. I also run Android Studio and an emulator on the side which compete for memory.

I do similar where I have 60 tabs and 5 windows open, a few servers, text editors, etc... But I can always close tabs.

You need to close tabs, but when was the last time you had to close apps on mobile for performance reasons? Even though mobile devices have significantly lesser specifications.

Re: The End Is Near for Mobile Apps?

#120

Post by RandallBrown »

eugeniub wrote: post #93
zeroname wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most users aren't on iOS, but even the ones that are probably have the perception that apps do stuff in the background that drains battery.

I've seen probably most of my iOS friends open the app switcher and kill every single app after they're done showing me something. It's not worth it to try to explain it to anyone because it's such an ingrained muscle memory now.

My coworker, who is an iOS Developer, does this fully understanding it's counterproductive. He just doesn't want to see any apps in the app switcher.
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