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I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

jerseyfonseca.com

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Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#251

Post by domsom »

wccrawford wrote: post #25

The complaints about having to have enough screenshots and information seems really ... dumb? The website has a bunch of screenshots and info, and users will not download the app without it. Google and Apple are doing you a favor by requiring that you provide enough information. I think Apple's $100/yr is crazy, but I don't think Google's $25 is bad. If you plan to make any money at all on it, that's nothing. Scrolli…

I had two Google Play accounts once. When I finally merged them, Google refunded the 25 bucks I paid years back for the now obsolete second account. Seemed more like some kind of deposit to reduce fake accounts. Not sure if that's changed the past years.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#252

Post by lenkite »

askafriend wrote: post #19
dvt wrote: post #11

> Eat my butt, Apple. Eat my butt, Google. Just let me publish my frickin app, you already emptied my pockets. I feel this. A few years ago, I made a joke app[1] which got a bit famous on campus back when I was in school, and the process of getting it on the Play store was literally harder than writing the darn thing. Nowadays, it even got removed from the Play store for some reason. I couldn't imagine running an app…

As a user, I'm very happy the stores impose stringent rules. "And there are all these stupid requirements. I need at least X screenshots, and they have to be this exact resolution blah blah blah. On top of that, it took so long to get approved. My ADHD brain really suffered waiting for the gratification." I would hate to browse a store where the products didn't have at least X screenshots with at least X resolution,…

I really wish Apple and Google had a Beta/Alpha Store. Folks like you can use the Primary Privileged Store. The less expensive, cheap/free and not ship-shape-to-AppGoog standards can be in the Alpha-Beta Cheapskate Store.

I won't be surprised if this store actually became more popular than the Primary one.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#253

Post by Shorel »

askafriend wrote: post #29
wccrawford wrote: post #25

The complaints about having to have enough screenshots and information seems really ... dumb? The website has a bunch of screenshots and info, and users will not download the app without it. Google and Apple are doing you a favor by requiring that you provide enough information. I think Apple's $100/yr is crazy, but I don't think Google's $25 is bad. If you plan to make any money at all on it, that's nothing. Scrolli…

$100 a year is nothing for a developer toolkit. In fact, it's a great deal if you really think about all the infrastructure that you get for free. Let's take a look at what MSDN costs for a pro-level subscription (not even enterprise): "At the Professional subscription level, you pay a not-insignificant sum: $539 per year for an annual cloud subscription or $1,199 for the first year of a perpetual license subscriptio…

You don't get all that infrastructure for free, you are paying $100 a year!

That sounds like marketing speak, straight from 1984.

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#254

Post by atestu »

spockz wrote: post #229
Version467 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but pwa's open in a standalone browser, and everything else just opens a new tab. Ich

Is there a way to force this standalone browser behaviour for non PWA?

Yes it’s a meta tag:

more info: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Ap...

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#255

Post by JeremyNT »

kelnos wrote: post #152

Given the annoyance the author expresses at the difficultly in getting the app into the Google and Apple app stores, I'm surprised they didn't just make a webapp instead. Since they were already using React, that would seem pretty natural. This app doesn't use any mobile-specific features, so it seems like doing a webapp would fit well.

It sounds like they mostly just wanted to learn a bit about mobile development.

And also, it's probably easier to sell something like this as an "app" than as a web site (ironically, I guess, thanks to those app stores that the poster is complaining about).

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#256

Post by bloak »

My immediate thought: the algorithm is wrong! Deciding which film to watch together isn't a matter of both parties saying which films they are willing to watch and then picking one from the intersection of those two sets. It's a negotiation, and it could be like negotiating Brexit.

Take just a simple example: suppose P1 and P2 are both willing to watch films F1 and F2, but P1 would prefer to watch F1 and P2 would prefer to watch F2. But suppose P1 knows, because of an unguarded remark that P2 made, that P2 is willing to watch F1, but P1 has managed to keep quiet about their willingness to watch F2. Then P1 can "win" the negotiation by claiming that they are only willing to watch F1.

So this app needs to be upgraded to act as an agent on behalf of each user. Each user tells the app which films they are willing to watch and what their preferences are, and also what information they have managed to obtain about the preferences of the adversary (significant other). The two AI-powered agents then negotiate on behalf of the users, complete with bogus deadlines, threats to walk out and so on.

A premium version of the app could take account of other household duties, long-standing grievances and so on and use them as additional "bargaining chips".

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#258

Post by oriolid »

hoophoop wrote: post #248
oriolid wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're specific to Linux distribution families, so they don't really apply to those who are running Android or iOS. Also, getting your app into repository isn't really easier than getting it into app store (see https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMentorsFaq#How_do_I_get_a_spon... ) and good luck if you're trying to make money from the app.

> getting your app into repository isn't really easier than getting it into app store ... and good luck if you're trying to make money from the app. Good. That's why the quality is so high.

I thought the original subject was that there's too much gatekeeping. Or is there just double standard, so that gatekeeping is good for Linux distros and bad for commercial app stores?

Re: I made a mobile app for my significant other and she won't use it

#259

Post by JimDabell »

ksec wrote: post #122
admax88q wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why make it an app at all. A webpage wouldn't have to deal with the play store, and when a bunch of friends gather they wouldn't have to wait for people to install it.

If only they could make the WebPage or WebApp installing on Home Screen as easy as pressing a link. ( Which has all sort of other implications ) Otherwise modern day Web Browsing on Smartphone is mentally incompatible with Apps usage.

> If only they could make the WebPage or WebApp installing on Home Screen as easy as pressing a link.

When you have the web page / web application open, press the action button, then select Add to Home Screen.

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