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

toot.kuba-orlik.name

81–90 of 158 posts

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

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_Bias More often then not, the front end devs responsible for the app are not very good with "normal" web frontends - so they sabotage the competition, to reduce work. Also, web pages, could be repackaged into Apps by others leeching from the products attention.

Its typical to have a different set of engineers responsible for the web app. Certainly the case if you're not a tiny startup.

Sabotage feels pointless given you're still competing against other native apps. Also I don't even know how you would 'sabotage' the competition, your average app engineer doesn't moonlight as a blackhat hacker.

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

#82
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…

A lot of people I know will simply not use a service if the only way to do so is through an app, due to the dumpster fire that is security and privacy in apps. I understand that such people are a small percentage of the population, but I really do sometimes wonder if companies are even aware that they have a pool of potential customers that they've excluded from even trying their product out.

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

#83
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…

> 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.)

I own a platform with native apps + web, and I can confirm that retention on mobile apps is better, by the numbers. I'm not comparable to Bolt though, neither in the business model or the number of users.

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

#84
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Push notifications. Do people not turn these off? When I get an unwanted notification, I immediately withdraw permissions to send notifications, or even uninstall the app

bold of you to assume that the average user knows how to disable anything on their phone

Kind of scary to imagine the experience of such an average user. "Evil" is not a bad word to describe the attitudes of such apps and services.

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

#85

I'm glad that geo-fencing was mentioned. This is what I think all these apps - Kuba, Bolt and all those food delivery companies are. They are changing behaviour at present, they make things easy and advantageous for the user. Then the trap will be sprung. Similar to how corporate petrol stations and corporate super stores drop their prices to force local shops out of business. Once they have control and a monopolisti…

Yes. The trend I have seen is that companies reversed the process when it comes to blocking. They block everything and then open for the traffic they want. Any new or minor ISP is blocked by default.

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

#86
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Push notifications. Do people not turn these off? When I get an unwanted notification, I immediately withdraw permissions to send notifications, or even uninstall the app

bold of you to assume that the average user knows how to disable anything on their phone

I suppose you need to have some idea of how the system is structured to even consider turning certain "features" off.

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

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Easy, harder for users to block the ads in apps. Apple / Google should allow add blockers for the entire OS.

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

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish I knew why they're pushing the app so hard so I can specifically avoid doing that. If they want you to just have any app installed they'd win even if you install Apollo.

> If they want you to just have any app installed they'd win even if you install Apollo. Sorry but this just isn't true. They want the app for the tracking, push notifications, etc. Apollo doesn't have the tracking and does it's own push notifications (so you don't get Reddit's marketing-type notifications). Also it's much harder, if not impossible, to block ads in an app vs the web. Apollo has zero ads, they absolut…

Does Apollo use their official apis won’t they just deprecate those like Twitter did?

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

#89
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A lot of people I know will simply not use a service if the only way to do so is through an app, due to the dumpster fire that is security and privacy in apps. I understand that such people are a small percentage of the population, but I really do sometimes wonder if companies are even aware that they have a pool of potential customers that they've excluded from even trying their product out.

They are, but they're also aware of the effort vs return on dealing with a "small percentage of the population" as you admit. Sometimes its worth it, often it isn't.

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

#90
post #83
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…

> 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.) I own a platform with native apps + web, and I can confirm that retention on mobile apps is better, by the numbers. I'm not comparable to Bolt though, neither in the busine…

How much of a delta? Does it justify having mobile?
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