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Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

atrium.co

291–300 of 587 posts

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#291
post #137

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 got my core 10 apps and haven't bought a new one in a year.

I think I never had more than 10 apps installed on a smartphone since like 2008. Not for privacy or security concerns, I just never had any use for more than a few core apps and always used the browser for the rest.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Think of it like this: If Hacker News required a fat client to function on your desktop, would you actually be here at all? HN essentially is a service that provides only a couple of text views to list and read submittions and their discussions, and requires zero processing or interaction. That's hardly a challenging problem that requires a fat client. If however we were discussing an application that required sign…

They wouldn’t have to change much about Instagram to make it into Twitter.

If you take away those features then you cease to have instagram.

Instagram users only use instagram because it provides access to those functionalities.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#293
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me: Personal Capital (finance), WhatsApp, Slack, Overcast (podcasts), Kindle, Dark Sky (hyper accurate weather app), Google Authenticator, Lyft, RENPHO (my smart scale’s app), 1Password Everything else is very situational and totally optional.

off topic of the thread: do you have a strong opinion of Dark Sky vs Weather Underground?

I was recommended yr.no many years ago and find it very accurate. I'm UK-based.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#295
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm speaking to this discussion, not the submitted article. Sure, start with a web app (though it really depends on the target -- if the web app yields a sub-standard interface, performance, or utility it's a dead end) with hopes of building an app when you have an established base. However in this discussion there are a lot of people who are arguing from the perspective of a world that doesn't exist, based upon the…

> I'm speaking to this discussion, not the submitted article. Precisely my point. That's not what the OP was saying. Per their comment: to get people to install your app just to try it out. > based upon the same "this changes everything" argument we've heard every year. Did we read the same comment? Where did the OP write "this changes everything"?

[deleted]

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I figure most things don't need an app unless they are trying to take more data anyway. Anything telling me to install an app whose mobile experience is fine already is very fishy to me. I'm looking at you, Reddit.

Reddit lives on ad revenue. Mobile web reddit is not in fact incredibly optimal which is why a bunch of third party apps exist. These third party apps make it impossible to show ads save for promoted posts which people don't seem to like. Thus the official reddit app. I prefer "Reddit is Fun" which seems to load faster than mobile web reddit and notify me on comment replies.

Both Reddit and Twitter are intentionally designed to be annoying, so as to encourage you to install their apps. So frustrating.

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#297
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Yes, this is part of standard data cleaning practices. You always remove whatever custom formats a provider allows to get the raw minimum email address (this is only for export, you still send official communication with a user to their original specified address).

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To recap. The claim is that PWAs are preferable to apps because "people don't test drive apps." Ah. Now I see where the confusion lies. I don't think that's what the OP was saying. > 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. No one in this thread is cl…

>They're saying it's difficult to get people to install an app even to test drive them, and saying it's easier to get them to visit your webpage. But getting people to visit your website being easy does not mean that is where you should host your app. I don't believe people are going to say "Wow this website was useful, let me pin it to my screen." I believe that is a niche thing that nerds do, and has awful results…

[deleted]

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#299
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…

That's only the case for useless apps. Try creating a useful one. For example, here's my old hobby project, now open source, that got more than 100k installs with zero marketing: https://github.com/Const-me/SkyFM

Re: Start with a Website, Not a Mobile App

#300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I don't give them permission to run code on my device arbitrarily and perpetually. Think of it like this: If Hacker News required a fat client to function on your desktop, would you actually be here at all?

> Think of it like this: If Hacker News required a fat client to function on your desktop, would you actually be here at all? HN essentially is a service that provides only a couple of text views to list and read submittions and their discussions, and requires zero processing or interaction. That's hardly a challenging problem that requires a fat client. If however we were discussing an application that required sign…

Instagram is perfectly usable as a website, at least on an iPhone. I guess some features might be missing, but the core stuff is there: browsing, adding photo, filters, stories.
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