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The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

cwilso.com

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Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#31

Post by leephillips »

rchaud wrote: post #27

Article should be suffixed with "(2015)". A lot has changed in the past 7 years. People don't install new apps anymore. They have their go-to apps for entertainment, work and logistics (IG, TW, Netflix, Google Docs, Bank, Uber), a couple of games maybe and that's it. For everything else, it makes less and less sense to have to install yet another app.

Also, each app increases your attack surface and reduces your security. I only install apps that when I need the functionality and can’t get it from a website. For everything else, I prefer working through the browser, which already has defined permissions and can apply a certain amount of sandboxing.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#33

Post by CharlesW »

ianbutler wrote: post #32

Platforms, cough apple, cough just need to stop fighting progressive web apps. Then the debate will be completely settled as you’ll get native functionality in the browser.

As TFA notes:

There will always be reasons to build native applications. It's quicker to innovate platform APIs when you don’t have to go through standardization and browser implementation. Exposing new "bedrock" APIs can be done more quickly. As Jeremy aptly summed up, "The price we pay for that incredible cross-platform reach is that features on the web will always be lagging behind."

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#34

Post by makapuf »

leephillips wrote: post #31
rchaud wrote: post #27

Article should be suffixed with "(2015)". A lot has changed in the past 7 years. People don't install new apps anymore. They have their go-to apps for entertainment, work and logistics (IG, TW, Netflix, Google Docs, Bank, Uber), a couple of games maybe and that's it. For everything else, it makes less and less sense to have to install yet another app.

Also, each app increases your attack surface and reduces your security. I only install apps that when I need the functionality and can’t get it from a website. For everything else, I prefer working through the browser, which already has defined permissions and can apply a certain amount of sandboxing.

It's high time we have native local sandboxed and easy to install apps again. Maybe through browser for ui api if we don't know anything else, maybe using a store. I'm not sure somebody has to watch everything I do on a pc.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#35

Post by theK »

Supermancho wrote: post #30
ryaniscool wrote: post #20

This article is all over the place. The debate is over. The web won. You can see that by the way popular websites will try and force you to install their apps. That’s because their web experience is perfectly competent to scratch the users itch. They are forced to artificially cripple their mobile web experience to drive app installs. There is a strong niche left to native. I’m thinking of things like creative tools.…

> The web won. I don't think so. Either way the statements are rife with soft terminology, but I'll use raw traffic as my metric for dominance in the functional space. https://www.perficient.com/insights/research-hub/mobile-vs-d... . The majority of traffic is mobile and apps still rule that platform due to both a superior experience and better interfaces. The trend is clear and ongoing, so I'm not sure why people th…

If I’m reading this correctly this survey only focuses on web usage. They even go to the point where their no. 1 takeaway at the end is „design your mobile web site first“.

So I guess the web really did win, even on mobile.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#36

Post by lampshades »

ryaniscool wrote: post #20

This article is all over the place. The debate is over. The web won. You can see that by the way popular websites will try and force you to install their apps. That’s because their web experience is perfectly competent to scratch the users itch. They are forced to artificially cripple their mobile web experience to drive app installs. There is a strong niche left to native. I’m thinking of things like creative tools.…

Pretty sure companies force their app for monetization reasons and because they know it’s a better experience and want you to see that.

I remember when Reddit started throwing the app in my face everyday until I eventually downloaded it. Now I always open for an app. Even for newspapers. The web experience on mobile blows.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#37

Post by rkeene2 »

moron4hire wrote: post #21
bob1029 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are really 2 use cases: mobile portrait mode and everything else I mostly agree. I am currently tasked with building a brand new mobile/desktop web app from scratch, and this is the path I have chosen as well. The breakpoint I am working with right now is 980px. Seems to be a goldilocks setting in 2022.

I've gotten good results from using just the pointer media query, since that is generally the more pressing issue (how easy is it for users to hit buttons): https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/@media/poin...

Yeah, this kind of check is useful since I sometimes dock my phone and use it with a keyboard, mouse, and 27 inch display and sites and native apps that expect the mouse cursor to be a very precise finger are annoying to use. Selecting text is particularly annoying.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#38

Post by api »

ryaniscool wrote: post #20

This article is all over the place. The debate is over. The web won. You can see that by the way popular websites will try and force you to install their apps. That’s because their web experience is perfectly competent to scratch the users itch. They are forced to artificially cripple their mobile web experience to drive app installs. There is a strong niche left to native. I’m thinking of things like creative tools.…

The web won in the space of casual interaction and SaaS interfaces. Native is still a lot better for "pro" tools of every kind.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#39

Post by wiseowise »

lampshades wrote: post #36
ryaniscool wrote: post #20

This article is all over the place. The debate is over. The web won. You can see that by the way popular websites will try and force you to install their apps. That’s because their web experience is perfectly competent to scratch the users itch. They are forced to artificially cripple their mobile web experience to drive app installs. There is a strong niche left to native. I’m thinking of things like creative tools.…

Pretty sure companies force their app for monetization reasons and because they know it’s a better experience and want you to see that. I remember when Reddit started throwing the app in my face everyday until I eventually downloaded it. Now I always open for an app. Even for newspapers. The web experience on mobile blows.

> and because they know it’s a better experience and want you to see that.

Not for a platform like Reddit.

Re: The web is not poor man’s native (2015)

#40

Post by spideymans »

lampshades wrote: post #36
ryaniscool wrote: post #20

This article is all over the place. The debate is over. The web won. You can see that by the way popular websites will try and force you to install their apps. That’s because their web experience is perfectly competent to scratch the users itch. They are forced to artificially cripple their mobile web experience to drive app installs. There is a strong niche left to native. I’m thinking of things like creative tools.…

Pretty sure companies force their app for monetization reasons and because they know it’s a better experience and want you to see that. I remember when Reddit started throwing the app in my face everyday until I eventually downloaded it. Now I always open for an app. Even for newspapers. The web experience on mobile blows.

At some point the industry needs to have an honest discussion with itself about the state of the UX of the open web. I feel like we keep telling ourselves the mobile web is fine because we have PWAs and all these other native-like gizmos, but truth be told the UX pales in comparison to native apps.
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