Or better yet, why not make your website the app? Flutter.io comes to mind. This will save you considerable time because you won't have to maintain as much native code on android or ios since your app is essentially a native browser window. You will only have one small codebase to maintain and it is cross platform.
Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
251–260 of 587 posts
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of the points in the article are for the benefit of the developer (easier updating, lower dev cost, fewer platforms) and not for the benefit of the end user. If the goal is to make a product better for yourself then make a web application. If your goal is to make a product users will like then make mobile applications. The article talks about how users don't install apps but signing up for a website (enter email…
There are users who prefer to use a desktop web application than a mobile app. Many types of task are better on a large screen with a mouse and keyboard. It depends on the type of app and target audience.
> desktop web application
Web applications are significantly better on the desktop than on mobile so I completely agree. In fact, if you want to support mobile and desktop I'd recommend apps for mobile and a web application for desktop.
But if you expect that a lot of users will be using mobile, the experience of accessing and using an app from mobile isn't that great.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#253Earlier quoted context omitted.
off topic of the thread: do you have a strong opinion of Dark Sky vs Weather Underground?
I have found Dark Sky is great in populated areas (NYC, Denver, Houston), but Wunderground seems to do better outside of the metros (Lower Hudson River Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks -- you can probably tell where I live and work, now).
I've found the best data comes from the nearest/best doppler radar(s). Often this is one of the local tv broadcast stations. Obviously this radar data is licensed to various weather service providers but are usually owned by a broadcast television network operator.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#254My main issue with app development, as I've been saying for close to a decade now, is that with _any_ app dev, you're automatically at the whim of whoever created the platform. Google, Apple, or Microsoft. We say a lot of things about how Google is trying to "take over" the web, but as long as there are Firefox users, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon. No one owns the web, that's why it's still the best place fo…
I don’t disagree with the main thrust of your position, but those examples for Apple are really poor ones, imo. Except for Measure, all of those are obviously features or default apps that a platform is going to offer. The fact that Apple didn’t have a reminders app at launch and then they added one later hardly means they ripped off “Todos”, which I’ve never even heard of. And Skype isn’t primarily an iOS app at all, which makes it a poor example of the phenomenon you’re describing. Also, Apple doesn’t make any money off those apps, so I’m really, really skeptical that they’re scanning the App Store for successful apps they can rip off.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#255case by case. you cannot start uber via a website.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
>They were saying it's difficult to get people to even install for a test run How is it difficult to get someone to install something for a test run when like 90% of app installs are test runs? So you're saying it's difficult to get someone to install your app at all, and that has nothing to do with your product or your marketing, but it has something to do with the technology? And the PWA experience of pinning thing…
> How is it difficult to get someone to install something for a test run when like 90% of app installs are test runs? The link you shared does not provide any statistics about the amount of installs relative to didn't-installs. It only deals with the set of people who have already installed, which says nothing to prove or disprove the point in contention (that increasing the set of people who have installed at all is…
To recap. The claim is that PWAs are preferable to apps because "people don't test drive apps."
In fact, people test drive apps as a rule, and none of them install PWAs. I have shown a 2 second googled piece of evidence showing the degree to which people test drive apps. No evidence to support the ease of use or frequency of PWA homescreen pins exists/has been provided.
I'm going to stop responding to this thread unless your comment contains a substantive argument supporting OP.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#257I don't even bother installing apps anymore, I don't have time to research whether or not they are going to abuse my privacy or have some horrendous TOS. I got my core 10 apps and haven't bought a new one in a year.
> I don't even bother installing apps anymore, I don't have time to research whether or not they are going to abuse my privacy or have some horrendous TOS. I'm going out on a limb but I'd wager you're not exactly representative of the general userbase for which apps are developed.
I would take that even further and venture a guess that 99% of HN readers are not representative of the intended general userbase of 99% of the apps for ios/android.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
How many websites ever get passed the signup stage? I often will leave as soon as I'm tasked with creating an account and I'm not likely to come back.
What is especially frustrating that many sites don’t allow Mailinator and other similar ‘one-time’ email systems to be used for registering an account. No way I am going to give you my email address up front before seeing the product. Now the solution is of course to have a separate gmail account to register. Most sites still allow user+site@gmail.com address syntax so that I can sometimes see who are leaking where.…
Given how well known user+site@gmail.com is wouldn't many sites simply strip the +... part before selling the email data?
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don't even bother installing apps anymore, I don't have time to research whether or not they are going to abuse my privacy or have some horrendous TOS. I'm going out on a limb but I'd wager you're not exactly representative of the general userbase for which apps are developed.
I would take that even further and venture a guess that 99% of HN readers are not representative of the intended general userbase of 99% of the apps for ios/android.
Also called the Malkovich Bias.
Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is that it's rare. Hell, I didn't even know I could do it until I was developing a PWA. I've never seen a website that offers it. It would be very nice if phones put that feature front-and-center. My guess is that they sideline it so the web can't compete with their native apps.
It really reeks of the same kind of anticompetitive behavior that got MS in trouble twenty years ago. Apple is way worse in this regard, but Google is still incentivized to keep at least PWAs from being first class citizens on Android because they don't get their app store sales cuts or microtransaction money from them. And at least on Android you can install other browsers. People consider the hegemony of Chrome to…
I wonder if there is anything like a PWA store?