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Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

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Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#591

Post by TaylorAlexander »

slashtab wrote: post #262
TaylorAlexander wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I’ve been using BaconReader for years. It’s going to stop working soon and I’m simply going to stop using Reddit. I used to use it for more but the last few years I only use it for porn and I recently discovered that the redgifs site is great for that. Obviously not everyone uses Reddit only for this purpose but I suspect that when the third party apps go dark redgifs will get a nice bump in new users.

Is jumping from one corporate ship to another a good idea? At some point they peak and become greedy. I don't know what's the solution. Can we have better open source alternative and people fund it? Recently I learned DPRreviews went down because Amazon didn't profit enough from it. There are way too many stories like this.

Oh jumping from one corporate ship to another sucks, but like really I’m only talking about porn so it’s not a huge deal for me.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#592

Post by [deleted] »

tuukkah wrote: post #575
blibble wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for android you pull down the apk using adb, patch maybe 1 byte in it and push it back very very easy, no root required

I wouldn't call patching a binary very easy, especially since our point of reference was installing an ad blocker extension in the browser. Also, it takes more than one byte if the binary is obfuscated and full of various ways to check that it hasn't been tampered with.

[deleted]

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#593

Post by geysersam »

kroltan wrote: post #498
indigochill wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> apps are roughly the opposite of that Although I broadly agree with this assessment, I'd just like to add a slight nuance that, at least in my view, it's specifically _app store apps_ that are roughly the opposite. You can still, for example, install random APKs (on Android, I doubt Apple has anything similar) if you're so inclined, so they can be as user-centric as you want. It's just that the major manufacturers…

That depends on the implementation, but its just a fundamental technology difference. On the web, the default way to do things is to use a bunch of HTML elements and whatnot, which are user-agent-introspectable, even if they are modified using a blob of code. With apps, you kind of by definition only have a blob of code. As an user and with a sufficiently advanced operating system, you can block some outside-world in…

> Expect content blockers to become way less effective in the coming years

That's s very sad and probably very accurate analysis!

Wonder if the arms-race will give rise to other kinds of add blockers that use image recognition to identify ads. But that still requires rendering the ads (even if only in the background), removing much of the benefit of ad-blockers.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#594

Post by blibble »

tuukkah wrote: post #575
blibble wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

for android you pull down the apk using adb, patch maybe 1 byte in it and push it back very very easy, no root required

I wouldn't call patching a binary very easy, especially since our point of reference was installing an ad blocker extension in the browser. Also, it takes more than one byte if the binary is obfuscated and full of various ways to check that it hasn't been tampered with.

> I wouldn't call patching a binary very easy

it's even easier than that as all apps (except native ones) will be using the java TrustManager interface

> Also, it takes more than one byte if the binary is obfuscated

but they can't hide the calls into TrustManager

a small utility could automatically take in the APK, patch out the calls and return the fixed APK for you

(would probably work for 99% of apps out of the box)

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#595

Post by awiejrliawjer »

c7b wrote: post #357

There's something that I don't get about forcing mobile browser users into mobile apps - how does it make sense for the company? They're forcing themselves into a walled garden, where the gardener takes a hefty "app store tax" on your revenues and has countless levers to force you to style the app how it suits their interests, not yours. For some apps, this might still be the best way to gain traction. But if have al…

In addition to all of the control issues that other commenters have mentioned like blocking adblock and including tracking, an app also puts the user in the mindset of using your service by default and exclusively. If you view Reddit on the web, you might copy and link and repost it to Twitter. You're less likely to do that in an app. Additionally, it leads people to use Reddit by default, for all purposes. On the web, I might think "Oh, I should search for this on Reddit", but then if Reddit doesn't have the results that I need I'll check another website. Humans are creatures of habit. Once I get used to opening the Reddit app by default, I'll subconsciously invent ways to use the Reddit app for everything, as my one-stop-shop. Which is why I don't use any proprietary apps, ever, if I can do the same thing on the website. And also why I don't use mobile internet very much, to be honest.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#596

Post by jghn »

jacurtis wrote: post #578
bjoli wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped using reddit when the .compact interface was removed. No I go back once in a while but if this goes through I will probably simply never visit.

You can still use old.reddit.com, which is vastly superior and faster than the modern reddit. It also loads videos and images inline (when you click for them to load) and it de-emphasizes comments. This allows you to work like the compact feed where you scroll through posts and only go into comments sections if you _really_ want to. It is a good alternative.

It's funny because I also sing the praises of old.reddit.com but would describe it/my preferences in a totally different manner. My preference would be for reddit to be as close to HN in UI format as possible, perhaps with some minor thumbnails for visual content.

What I like about the old UI is that I find it emphasizes the post titles instead of content. I *don't* feel inundated with images & videos, besides the little thumbnail. I usually just want to skim titles, not look at visual content, and I find that impossible in the new UI. And I find that it's easier to get at/see the comments than in the new UI.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#597

Post by bamfly »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #473
cshimmin wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow haven't seen a "peak hn" comment like this in the wild for quite a while :) Make a sure you write everything in brainfuck too! As for myself, I'll just stop using Reddit (largely have over the last year), and do something else with the free time.

They have a point, though. In my honest opinion, more than 50% modern apps and services I've used - including e.g. Spotify, or pretty much every e-commerce site - have UI/UX strictly inferior to that of MS Access . Less functional, less ergonomic, less integrated, less useful. A lot of UI and design work that people think is creative, making a positive contribution, is actually spending millions of dollars on removin…

If you do much mobile dev, you'll see companies burn so very much money making their app harder to use, possibly less accessible, and slower to develop, in the name of chasing some "on-brand" look, rather than just using built-in excellent UI elements that users are already familiar with, with minimal customization.

It's so frustrating. The Web, of course, has a similar but much worse problem with that, in no small part because there aren't—for no good reason—excellent built-in UI elements. They could be good, and there could be a lot more very helpful more-complex and smarter elements (think: mobile listviews, native hands-off payment prompts, that kind of thing), but they're not and there aren't :-/

Damn near every app on my phone would be better if the designers and brand-obsessed product managers hadn't gotten their way.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#599

Post by kroltan »

geysersam wrote: post #593
kroltan wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That depends on the implementation, but its just a fundamental technology difference. On the web, the default way to do things is to use a bunch of HTML elements and whatnot, which are user-agent-introspectable, even if they are modified using a blob of code. With apps, you kind of by definition only have a blob of code. As an user and with a sufficiently advanced operating system, you can block some outside-world in…

> Expect content blockers to become way less effective in the coming years That's s very sad and probably very accurate analysis! Wonder if the arms-race will give rise to other kinds of add blockers that use image recognition to identify ads. But that still requires rendering the ads (even if only in the background), removing much of the benefit of ad-blockers.

I suspect some might be able to rise up by injecting themselves at framework level, since it's very likely that the programs will still keep some sort of in-memory representation. Though I don't think that injecting code into other WebAssembly blobs is possible with the security models we have today.

The surefire way would be an external application that uses OS APIs to fiddle with memory directly (bye bye mobile content blockers).

But whatever form it takes, it would have to be programmed to operate on every framework available, so it's way less universal than writing a CSS selector or URL regex.

Re: Did Reddit just destroy mobile browser access?

#600

Post by paulmd »

jeltz wrote: post #488
pixl97 wrote: post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can do push notifications to the app and gamify them opening up and reading again. FB was the masters of doing this.

I have uninstalled several apps that I actually wanted to use due to trying to do this. I feel you probably increase engagement of the users who stay at the cost of scaring away a whole bunch of other users. I have for example uninstalled the FB app and only user their website.

> I have for example uninstalled the FB app and only user their website.

Well, that is why Facebook and others are pushing to "allow alternative app stores" on iphone. Getting past the app-review process means the dark patterns and data mining can get way more noxious, and at that point they just do like reddit and kill the mobile experience. No, no phones allowed on the website, we have a native app for that.

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