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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

#41

Post by brycewray »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #18
laurencei wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The result of which will be, paraphrasing an old letter to the editor for a magazine that had temporarily stopped publishing such letters...

====

Dear Reddit,

What a coincidence. You've stopped allowing third-party apps to have access to your API, and I've stopped visiting your site.

Sincerely,

A Former User

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

#42

Post by northerdome »

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…

The worst part of this is how the Mobile Web experience is actively hampered on iOS by Apple. When web apps on mobile do have a worse experience for me, it is often due to Safari. This is especially frustrating because the average consumer blames the website for the poor experience and doesn't understand Apple is at fault.

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

#43

Post by leadingthenet »

throwaway2048 wrote: post #18
laurencei wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

To be fair, people have been saying this for years, and it's still yet to happen.

It is, however, true that they've been slowly adding features that can't be accessed via an API, so I think the more likely scenario is that they'll just try to make third-party apps artificially less competitive, betting that it might add up long term.

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

#44

Post by spion »

manigandham wrote: post #26
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…

Why are you calling it an unverified myth? In reality there are petabytes generated everyday proving the efficacy of mobile apps vs websites. This has been tested and measured in pretty much every possible way at this point with 100s of billions in ad spend. It's not just real estate on the screen, it's faster on-device processing with lower latency, rich offline abilities, better and more persistent access to more A…

Having petabytes of stats doesn't mean the interpretation of those stats is any good. The retention for your web app might suck, for example, because you're constantly showing popups to the users telling them to switch to the mobile app and once they leave you no longer see them in "the data".

The problem with data is that you can't see the things that are real but not in the data.

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

#45

Post by Lucasoato »

addicted wrote: post #31
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…

My Reddit usage has basically plummeted to 0 at this point because of their pushing me towards an app. I think there are provable cases where an app almost certainly leads to less retention than more and something like Reddit, whose value lies in allowing you to explore the internet is almost certainly one of them.

I really can't understand why Reddit is pushing the app so hard. I mean, keep that as an option, but why creating an awful UX for the mobile web users? You gather more data but the product is worse, less users are staying and you're losing value at the end...

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

#46

Post by bragh »

addicted wrote: post #31
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…

My Reddit usage has basically plummeted to 0 at this point because of their pushing me towards an app. I think there are provable cases where an app almost certainly leads to less retention than more and something like Reddit, whose value lies in allowing you to explore the internet is almost certainly one of them.

If reddit ever gets rid of old.reddit.com, that is the day that I stop using it.

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

#47

Post by andrepd »

addicted wrote: post #31
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…

My Reddit usage has basically plummeted to 0 at this point because of their pushing me towards an app. I think there are provable cases where an app almost certainly leads to less retention than more and something like Reddit, whose value lies in allowing you to explore the internet is almost certainly one of them.

I'm still shook that the i.reddit.com interface still works and is virtually unchanged for over 10 years now!

If only more companies followed that principle and just left the bloody interfaces alone unless that had a very good reason.

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

#48

Post by atlasunshrugged »

muh_gradle wrote: post #14

I thought this was about Bolt, the payment and checkout app.

I know, it's a bit confusing for non EU users, but Bolt (the ride hailing app, formerly Taxify) is quite popular at least in the Baltics and in a bunch of other random countries (I used it in Kenya a lot and it worked quite well)

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

#49

Post by kylebenzlee »

guilamu wrote: post #8
donatzsky wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More lucrative in the sense that they can collect a lot more information on the user :/

And that's it is a bit harder to block ads in-app.

No post body was provided.

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

#50

Post by nguyenkien »

kuba-orlik wrote: post #13
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

You mean easier to track on app than web, right?
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