Privacy oriented apps like, "Signal" are more relevant than ever.
Are apps even that relevant anymore?
21–30 of 47 posts
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#22As long as iOS Safari still hasn't implemented push notifications, apps are needed to fill that gap. Everything from a messaging to news, even a weather app benefits from push notifications.
If you're willing to give up some control over presentation, you can offer an rss feed and users can subscribe to it with their app of choice. It's pull rather than push, but it also saved you the trouble of maintaining an app.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#23I have almost no apps on my iPhone, and rarely use it other than calls, text, News, photos and maps. When I use it for web surfing, which is how I access News, I use Firefox, not Safari. As for myself, I decided from the start not to develop "apps" for iOS or Android and instead keep building "web apps" instead. My apps are all business tools so I really don't need any special access or permissions to make them usabl…
Have you used say gmail on web vs app, or youtube web vs app. You may not have much of a need for a apps in your life or you are opting for an inferior experience and making your life harder.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#24There are challenges retaining users and bringing them back to a webapp instead of a native app. That being said I also am hugely in favour of web apps because the likelihood of people visiting my site is higher than them downloading my app. So user acquisition is easier but retention is hard. I do like the idea of email notifications as a replacement for push notifications - I think others such as Twitter/FB notific…
Apple’s app clips and Googles instant apps are meant to fix that
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#25There are challenges retaining users and bringing them back to a webapp instead of a native app. That being said I also am hugely in favour of web apps because the likelihood of people visiting my site is higher than them downloading my app. So user acquisition is easier but retention is hard. I do like the idea of email notifications as a replacement for push notifications - I think others such as Twitter/FB notific…
Apple’s app clips and Googles instant apps are meant to fix that
Instant Apps was out since 2017. In the 3 years since, I don't think I've once seen a prompt to install an instant app out in the wild, ever.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#26The argument was, the web and its tech is too slow for phones, we need apps. This is no longer true and apps are a pain in the rear when it comes to all the integrations you have for mobile aware sites. How can app content be crawled, don't ask it's a major pain. How do you track usage like site clicks, ouch! How about integrations like commenting or site support chat, good luck, there might be one for your app. Not…
The lock-in and the App Store/Play store rules are not nice.
But, a world of PWAs only is not the panacea.
How you are going to monetize your PWA? I imagine a few options: 1. Your “app” is a SaaS 2. Your app is paid by ads 3. Your app is free
Guess who loves no. 2... that’s why Google loves PWAs, it’s part of their business strategy.
Not every app fits in the SaaS model, and sadly there is a trend now to use more and more subscriptions. I love to have a viable “option 4”: I pay for an app version once, without selling my data or attaching my CC to a subscription.
So please don’t stop making wonderful apps like ProCreate, MindNode, Affinity... and others that don’t have a subscription model and are great.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#27I have almost no apps on my iPhone, and rarely use it other than calls, text, News, photos and maps. When I use it for web surfing, which is how I access News, I use Firefox, not Safari. As for myself, I decided from the start not to develop "apps" for iOS or Android and instead keep building "web apps" instead. My apps are all business tools so I really don't need any special access or permissions to make them usabl…
Have you used say gmail on web vs app, or youtube web vs app. You may not have much of a need for a apps in your life or you are opting for an inferior experience and making your life harder.
The YouTube iOS app is worse than using their app. Their app doesn’t do picture in picture and you click on an embedded video it takes you out of the browser if you have it installed.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#28As a consumer, apps are a privacy concern. Firefox lets me tightly control what websites do, but apps can silently track me. They also often use notifications to increase engagement. Apps often benefit the makers more than the users.
As a maker, apps are a pain in the butt. I can get a website online in a few minutes, and it stays there forever. Every app I've made is now gone because I got tired of keeping up with app store requirements. I never made an iOS app because I won't pay 100€ for the privilege.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#29I think that there are still certain classes of app that benefit strongly from being native rather than just a web app. To give an example, Christian Selig's Apollo iOS client for Reddit is lightyears ahead of both the Reddit mobile website and the official Reddit iOS app. By using the native iOS APIs and matching what people expect from gestures on an iOS app, he's able to create an amazing experience for users.
That doesn't seem like the best example, since you just said his native app is better than a native app. Perhaps he's just a better designer.
Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?
#30There are many reasons: 1. They want the distribution effect of the app store. You can go from zero to king overnight if the app store features your product. 2. Unless you're building a dumb wrapper around a CRUD backend app, most apps need access to the state of the art API. Especially if you're aiming high, chances are, you won't be able to find a new app idea without using the new APIs because the old APIs have be…
re 3, How is that good for user privacy, and if it is then should they also be aggressively deleting native app storage? As a user, and a privacy conscious one at that, this would surprise and dismay me.