Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native • Hacker News Board

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#181

Post by ohadron » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

Technically, and from user experience point of view, this makes perfect sense. Native apps are rarely actually needed.

However, Apple is making a huge pile of money out of app store sales, and it has huge leverage as long as the 'app' model lives on. They are strong enough to prevent this from happening.

Ever ask yourself why mobile iOS web doesn't support push notifications like Android does? It's because that will be a shift in the wrong direction from Apple's standpoint.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#182

Post by otaviokz » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:47 PM UTC

wpietri wrote: post #115

hota_mazi wrote: post #6

And in a couple of years, "Why we are moving away from React Native at Shopify". Not slamming React Native but the sensationalistic headline. Anyone with a bit of experience in software should know better than making this kind of silly proclamation about the future of your software stack.

Sadly, this sort of public PR campaign is surely related to an internal PR campaign. Often followed by a declaration of Totally Amazing Success, shortly after which the person who led the campaign will use the victory to move to a higher position, possibly at a new company.

Saw it happening a few times in my 12 year of industry. I suppose it's specifically common in companies that use social media (and other media) presence as a recruitment boosting tool.

Twice the "leader" of the "Totally Amazing Success" left the company to "be totally amazing" somewhere else. In both cases the team was made mostly of very young engineers, the level of amazingness was strongly overestimated. It was also declared very early, before the "novelty" of the "new thing" faded, and also before the downsides appeared while maintaining the product.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#183

Post by seemack » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:48 PM UTC

Udik wrote: post #147

seemack wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with the overall points, less so the pointless vitriol. Installing software is cringey as hell now? The main issue here isn't native apps. It's the existing framework for installing them. For instance, would it be that far-fetched to be able to open an app in a single click? Current extended process: 1) Click link that takes me to app store page 2) Find and click install button 3) wait 4) Click "open app" but…

> Installing software is cringey as hell now? When you know that the features you're interested in can be made easily available by a simple web app.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the logic but doesn't that mean using a fancy pen is "cringey as hell" since you can just use a simple ballpoint pen?

Sorry, it just seems unnecessarily negative to me.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#184

Post by divbzero » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:48 PM UTC

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

Ten years ago Facebook fought this battle and lost. [1] [2] [3]

[1]: https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-engineering/using-ht... "Using HTML5 Today"

[2]: https://appleinsider.com/articles/12/09/11/facebook_admits_h... "Facebook admits HTML5 not competitive with Cocoa Touch"

[3]: https://techcrunch.com/2012/12/13/facebook-android-faster/ "Facebook Speeds Up Android App By Ditching HTML5 And Rebuilding It Natively Just Like The iOS Version"

I have always rooted for mobile web apps, but the lack of feature parity and distribution challenge (“Add to Home Screen”) puts them at a constant disadvantage and companies who control mobile OS’s have little incentive to change this.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#185

Post by partiallypro » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:49 PM UTC

avip wrote: post #123

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

Offline is still a thing.

But website can be packed up and saved as PWAs, also "offline sites" have been a thing since the 90s.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#186

Post by partiallypro » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:51 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #102

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

Only if mobile web can jump the hurdle of feel. Even the best mobile web apps still feel kinda clunky/laggy in subtle ways that the average native app doesn’t. It’s actually pretty comparable to the situation with desktop Linux where the gaps between the layers are subtly perceptible, which leads to a sort of slipshod/duct tape impression that isn’t great.

A lot of native apps feel clunky because they are poorly coded and thought out. As OP said, 90% of cases are where companies don't need native apps, because they simply don't require that performance level or permission set.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#187

Post by api » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

I'm convinced that the long-term future of all UI development is web based, at least at the rendering layer. WASM may free us from JavaScript.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#188

Post by aikah » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:53 PM UTC

The_rationalist wrote: post #144

Why not ionic react? https://ionicframework.com/blog/announcing-ionic-react/

> Why not ionic react? https://ionicframework.com/blog/announcing-ionic-react/

React Native uses the Native Components of the platform for UI. Thus Native. Ionic React is basically a web app, this is Ionic with React instead of Angular.

So basically React Native == use native GUI components.

Ionic React = uses HTML/CSS in a webview embedded in a Native App, just like Phone Gap/ Cordova, Ionic is just a framework on top of HTML/CSS, React Native is not.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#189

Post by hopia » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

Androider wrote: post #109

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #80

I wonder if Shopify did their homework and looked at Flutter. Flutter seems to meet their objectives more than React Native does. And as an added bonus, Flutter is easier to reason about, has edit and continue, and is more performant. Perhaps the use of Dart instead of Javascript was a deal killer though?

It would be pants-on-head insane for a company like Shopify to go all-in on Flutter. Is Flutter going to be around 10 years from now? Can Shopify support Flutter on their own if nobody else is using it 10 years from now? I don't mean that technically the license would allow them to, but can they in practice field the manpower and skills to do so across all the platforms they need.

I don't see how it's any crazier than publicly declaring React Native as their future like this.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#190

Post by TulliusCicero » Wed, Jan 29, 2020, 6:56 PM UTC

burnJS wrote: post #172

I guess I'm old, but I can't believe that many people shop on their phones. You have limited screen space and your ability to input data efficiently is limited. It just seems like a really poor medium for researching a purchase. Guess I'm a dinosaur.

I shop on my phone, mostly Amazon. Probably not for serious/expensive purchases, but there's tons of things that don't qualify for that.

I buy a lot of kids' books, for example, I just look at the cover and description, read some reviews, and pull the trigger. Lots of little electronics too, like cables/adapters.