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Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

toot.kuba-orlik.name

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Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#11

Post by laurencei »

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of Reddit's approach to mobile. They make their mobile web interface excruciating to use, and block features client side just to push you onto their app. I'm guessing it has to do with mobile users being more lucrative?

Its funny though - because their mobile web interface is SOOOO bad, I'm using the "Apollo" app, which means I dont see any Reddit ads, and its a much better experience.

If they didnt have such a crappy web experience, I would probably just use the native web page and see some ads.

So its actually driving people away to alternatives that reduces their revenue. Crazy...

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#13

Post by kuba-orlik »

jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of Reddit's approach to mobile. They make their mobile web interface excruciating to use, and block features client side just to push you onto their app. I'm guessing it has to do with mobile users being more lucrative?

My suspicion is that it's harder to monitor network traffic in an app than it is on the Web, and they want to push as much trackers as possible

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#15

Post by gregdoesit »

I formerly worked at Uber. I’m surprised that Bolt blocks the web app from working. Uber also built a web app which is incredibly lightweight - here’s a summary on how it was built [1]. It’s a life saver especially if e.g. at an airport and you pay for data over roaming. Uber doesn’t exactly advertise m.uber.com, but there’s no blocking of it.

My suspect is that Bold wants you to use their app as they can eg send push notifications, and gather more metadata from users - some of which can be used for eg more signal on determining if a request might be fraudulent.

[1] https://eng.uber.com/m-uber/

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#16

Post by danpalmer »

mojuba wrote: post #9

There's an (unverified) myth that retention on mobile apps is better. This is one of those things that marketing people keep telling each other without ever verifying the facts. (Unless you deliberately make the web version inferior, of course.) The reasoning behind it is that you should take real estate on the user's home screen at all costs, because your app's icon will serve as a reminder and people will allegedly…

You say unverified, but I’m pretty sure there’s lots of verification for this. Obviously it will depend on the service or app, but it’s a well known trend.

At my previous job our app had much higher retention than our web product, despite the web product being much more mature, modern, and feature rich. We verified this across multiple marketing channels, and looked at long term user retention over years.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#17

Post by current_thing »

> we, the users, are compliant with such abuse of monopoly.

But Bolt is not a monopoly. There are many taxi services in Riga.

> I invite you to boycott any company that forces (or coerces) you to install an app...

I do not think I will boycott Bolt just because you hacked their product and somehow become outraged. Bolt rides are cheaper than the alternative and .. the app works. The alternative mainstream taxi app needs an ios upgrade, and the ios upgrade fails on my shitty old phone.

Edit: There is no uber in riga looks like. Nice work, but running a company that generates cash at scale is hard. So i am sympathetic to the app developer.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#18

Post by throwaway2048 »

laurencei wrote: post #11
jjjjjjjjjjjjjjj wrote: post #2

This reminds me of Reddit's approach to mobile. They make their mobile web interface excruciating to use, and block features client side just to push you onto their app. I'm guessing it has to do with mobile users being more lucrative?

Its funny though - because their mobile web interface is SOOOO bad, I'm using the "Apollo" app, which means I dont see any Reddit ads, and its a much better experience. If they didnt have such a crappy web experience, I would probably just use the native web page and see some ads. So its actually driving people away to alternatives that reduces their revenue. Crazy...

I'm about 90% sure that reddit is going to pull a twitter and kill off API access so apps like Apollo no longer function.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#19

Post by natch »

kuba-orlik wrote: post #12
Fiahil wrote: post #6

> (I'm not going to share the particular details on which request and which query parameter that is) Why not ? It's not like that would matter anyway...

Author here. I just don't want to make patching it easier for Bolt

About one thing you said, Apple and Google need not be lumped together. They are as different as night and day.

Re: Bolt has a cool web interface and they really don't want you to use it

#20

Post by andrew_ »

kuba-orlik wrote: post #12
Fiahil wrote: post #6

> (I'm not going to share the particular details on which request and which query parameter that is) Why not ? It's not like that would matter anyway...

Author here. I just don't want to make patching it easier for Bolt

That doesn't add up. Even if they become aware of the thread and were oblivious as to the side effect of omitting the parameter, they're going to be able to enumerate the query parameters they use internally fairly quickly.
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