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Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

atrium.co

41–50 of 587 posts

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#41

A handful of social media platforms have launched that I've wholly missed because they didn't bother to have a web version. As a Windows Mobile user, I couldn't install your app if I wanted to, and I spend a lot more time at my desk than staring at my phone.

As a Windows Mobile user, you're too small and niche of a market to care about.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#42
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a user notifications are a problem, but as an app developer they absolutely work to drive engagement, which is why so many apps use them. So if you’re trying to run a business that’s a pretty important thing.

> As a user notifications are a problem, but as an app developer... So do you develop apps but not use them? I can't think of a way the hypocrisy isn't shocking here. "Do unto others" and all that.

I’ve developed software all of my career that I personally have no use for.

I develop software to pay my bills. We are talking about notifications, not killing puppies.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#43
post #31
post #23

The real answer to this question? (Surprise!) It depends. I have worked on a side project for the last year or so that will have a website and a mobile application. It has social elements, so ultimately I decided to prioritize the mobile application, because that is where users have access to their contacts, and do most of their communication with their friends and family. There are, of course, other business ideas t…

> If you are an Apple engineer and can help get that shipped, I will buy you a nice dinner. If you're an Apple recruiter, hire me so I can help ship it! :) Not that I know anything not known publicly but I suspect the reason Apple iOS Safari does not have Web Push API is not because they lack developer resources to write the code to get it done. Apple is under tremendous pressure to increase revenue from its "service…

Wouldn't you say though if that push notifications were allowed PWAs would cannibalize the revenue of the ios app store? It doesn't seem like apple would have much incentive to do this as PWAs would eventually compete with their own platform.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On iOS you won’t get notifications or be able to run anything in the background. But if you are trying to start a business and the $100 a year you would have to pay to distribute your app will make or break you, you have bigger issues.

Too many applications abuse notifications and background processing anyway. If you need those features, you have to convince of far more value before I'll install a thing.

I'd wager you are not a great representation of the market that 99% of apps serve. Apps abuse those features because it works well for their business.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#45
post #2

Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube, you're going to be hard pressed to get people to install your app just to try it out. With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen without installing via the app store and without using up space on their device. Also don't need to pay Apple $100 a ye…

On iOS you won’t get notifications or be able to run anything in the background. But if you are trying to start a business and the $100 a year you would have to pay to distribute your app will make or break you, you have bigger issues.

Service workers allow for push notifications and other background tasks.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#46
post #2

Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube, you're going to be hard pressed to get people to install your app just to try it out. With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen without installing via the app store and without using up space on their device. Also don't need to pay Apple $100 a ye…

> With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen Does anyone even know they can do that? I've never seen anyone do it "in the wild". Would love to see any stats around usage of pwa's added to home screen.

I run a PWA and can track this based on the "standalone" property. But what's more telling is customer requests. It's a confusing request that it seems like many potential customers haven't seen before. Lots of people ask me to "just put it in the app store" despite having an FAQ with instructions on how to add to the home screen. Many more say they will become customers "when you have an app"

Because of this, I'm working on making my UI more app like and using Cordova to publish it to app stores.

edit: My app is still pretty small but the percentage of logged in users who have ever loaded from the PWA is < 5%

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube. I don't even have those apps. If I did, my battery would be dead in a couple of hours. If I need to use those platforms, I do it through a web browser and usually I use a different browser (e.g. duckduckgo) isolated from my other browsing habits.

duckduckgo has a browser now?

Pick your poison: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duckduckgo...

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duckduckgo-privacy-browser/i...

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#48
post #2

Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube, you're going to be hard pressed to get people to install your app just to try it out. With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen without installing via the app store and without using up space on their device. Also don't need to pay Apple $100 a ye…

We've been hearing the same pitch for literally years. Heck, I've made some of them myself: "This is it, people! Native apps have been rendered unnecessary!" No PWA competes with a native experience. Not performance wise, not usability wise, and ultimately for the developer not even development wise. It may still make a lot of sense, and there are a lot of arguments for web apps, but the enthusiasm in this discussion…

> (paraphrasing) No PWA competes with a native experience even development wise

I'm personally too spoiled by the React debugging experience, and I'm saying this as a developer who mainly does C#. On the other hand, I know many developers who can't stand a line of JavaScript. The answer is here a huge "it depends, really".

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#49
post #2

Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube, you're going to be hard pressed to get people to install your app just to try it out. With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen without installing via the app store and without using up space on their device. Also don't need to pay Apple $100 a ye…

PWAs are becoming reasonable for mobile devices and could really help with some apps for initial distribution and usage.

I might implement the first version of mobile reading within Polar (https://getpolarized.io/) by using a PWA.

The general idea is to have both a PWA and a native app.

The PWA gets the users addicted and then you can have an 'install app' button within the PWA.

If your app is insanely complicated it's possible to have your app as just a PWA on steroids (though not always straight forward).

We're using Firebase (just wrote up a post about it here):

https://getpolarized.io/2019/01/03/building-cloud-sync-on-go...

... and the cool thing about Firebase is that there are SDKs for basically all platforms with really solid mobile support.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#50
post #2

Given the fact that most people are already maxed out on apps on their device with just things like facebook and youtube, you're going to be hard pressed to get people to install your app just to try it out. With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen without installing via the app store and without using up space on their device. Also don't need to pay Apple $100 a ye…

> With a progressive web app if they like your app they can add it to their device home screen Does anyone even know they can do that? I've never seen anyone do it "in the wild". Would love to see any stats around usage of pwa's added to home screen.

Chrome on Android will show a banner to add it to your home screen.
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