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Are apps even that relevant anymore?

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Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#41

Post by polytely »

sq_ wrote: post #6

I 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.

With this comparison you should keep in mind that the new reddit mobile website seems to be designed to be as annoying as possible to force people into their official app.

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#42

Post by cblconfederate »

odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #8

> Even now with my own projects, a well optimised mobile website beats an app most times. I seriously doubt that, if my 8 core macbookpro has issues with half of the web (event my own react projects of sizable complexity start to have issues), doubt mobile devices don't. And I honestly can't speak for Android, but being both and iOS and React developer, iOS performance in pretty much anything compared to React is ama…

> people spend around 90% of their time in apps versus 10% in mobile web, so seem users find them relevant.

Which apps? 50% of the time is spent in their most popular app, and 97% of the time is spent in their 10 most popular apps. Considering that the top spots are taken by fb/instagram/whatever, what's left for discovery? I'd argue that the 10% spent on the browser is 99% of the discovery that users do, probably via links from their favourite apps.

It seems the app space is way more overcrowded than the web.

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#43

Post by pjmlp »

yen223 wrote: post #25
mandeeeeeep wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It is mostly used by games as modern version of demos.

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#44

Post by pwinnski »

cglong wrote: post #10
pwinnski wrote: post #7

This was what Jobs initially claimed to want, and Apple several times acted to enforce. For a while they were really negative on apps that were simply wrappers around websites. But the market spoke, and now Apple seems to be very much on the other side of things along with nearly every company out there. Some possible reasons: Bookmarks to websites get buried in long ever-growing lists of bookmarks, while installed a…

Almost all of those have been solved by Android's PWA implementation. I can go to an enabled site and add it to my apps list. After that, it looks and acts like any other app on the device [except that it doesn't take up any space on my phone :)]

I keep hearing this, but it is not as if native applications are sitting still while PWAs catch up. By the time PWAs hit current native application levels of functionality--if they ever do--native applications will be operating at a higher level of functionality yet again.

I've got some PWAs on my phone, and they're great. They're also very simple compared to many native apps I use. And I think that will likely be the case for some time to come, and maybe forever on iOS for security reasons.

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#45

Post by mikestew »

scoutt wrote: post #37

I guess If I were to develop an app (free but with ads) for the browser then I would be worried about ads blockers, that doesn't work if my app is a native app.

that doesn't work if my app is a native app

It works if one’s ad blocker is pi-hole. To me it is one of the main features of pi-hole: it blocks everything, not just web ads.

But your point is taken.

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#46

Post by phone8675309 »

pwinnski wrote: post #7

This was what Jobs initially claimed to want, and Apple several times acted to enforce. For a while they were really negative on apps that were simply wrappers around websites. But the market spoke, and now Apple seems to be very much on the other side of things along with nearly every company out there. Some possible reasons: Bookmarks to websites get buried in long ever-growing lists of bookmarks, while installed a…

Another possible reason: being able to take a cut of every transaction that goes through the app ecosystem

Re: Are apps even that relevant anymore?

#47

Post by maxharris »

cblconfederate wrote: post #42
odshoifsdhfs wrote: post #8

> Even now with my own projects, a well optimised mobile website beats an app most times. I seriously doubt that, if my 8 core macbookpro has issues with half of the web (event my own react projects of sizable complexity start to have issues), doubt mobile devices don't. And I honestly can't speak for Android, but being both and iOS and React developer, iOS performance in pretty much anything compared to React is ama…

> people spend around 90% of their time in apps versus 10% in mobile web, so seem users find them relevant. Which apps? 50% of the time is spent in their most popular app, and 97% of the time is spent in their 10 most popular apps. Considering that the top spots are taken by fb/instagram/whatever, what's left for discovery? I'd argue that the 10% spent on the browser is 99% of the discovery that users do, probably vi…

There are a lot of things you just can't do well on the web. I'm writing an iPad drawing app that renders using Metal. It barely sips any power, while doing a great deal more work than Electron apps like Slack do.

It was much easier for me to write without the limitations of the browser and the web APIs getting in my way. Apple's APIs have a few warts, too, of course, but they are easier to work around.

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