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App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

rogueengine.io

201–210 of 384 posts

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#201

I man don't get me wrong, I love the idea of PWAs but this dude is out to lunch. It's so painful making anything complex work cross browser/cross platform. On iOS iirc they don't even support adding PWAs to the homescreen? You definitely can't Bluetooth outside of Chrome (probably only on Android and Windows too because nothing fun is ever allowed on Macs). Multiplayer games you kind of need UDP. You cannot UDP in th…

[deleted]

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#202

I man don't get me wrong, I love the idea of PWAs but this dude is out to lunch. It's so painful making anything complex work cross browser/cross platform. On iOS iirc they don't even support adding PWAs to the homescreen? You definitely can't Bluetooth outside of Chrome (probably only on Android and Windows too because nothing fun is ever allowed on Macs). Multiplayer games you kind of need UDP. You cannot UDP in th…

> On iOS iirc they don't even support adding PWAs to the homescreen? You've been able to add websites to the home screen going back at least to the iPhone 5 in 2012. Is it the "PWA" part you're questioning? iOS definitely does have PWA support, although with a few notable limitations that may be deal-breakers for certain apps. Oh, and apparently Apple recently disabled PWAs entirely in the EU.

In fact, home-screen web apps on iPhone OS predate third-party apps on the platform. Originally all third-party software was going to be installed this way.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#204
post #83

I'd give anything to move our apps to the web. We're in the medical field (our apps connect to medical devices over Bluetooth), so publishing on Google Play is like a Kafkaesque fever dream. Two days ago they tell us our app fits into categories like: Activity and Fitness Nutrition and Weight Management Sleep Management Medical Device Apps So we gotta update our policies, but today they said something like: "Actually…

The web is just a beautiful publishing platform. - no permission needed (mostly) - built-in discoverability - you get to figure out whatever payment processing you want - works on every device - update code in seconds - no copy protection needed

Isn't some of what you're describing a critique of walled garden platforms rather than web vs native? e.g. When I self-publish a native desktop app, I can pick the DRM, code updater, and payment processor I use.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#205

I man don't get me wrong, I love the idea of PWAs but this dude is out to lunch. It's so painful making anything complex work cross browser/cross platform. On iOS iirc they don't even support adding PWAs to the homescreen? You definitely can't Bluetooth outside of Chrome (probably only on Android and Windows too because nothing fun is ever allowed on Macs). Multiplayer games you kind of need UDP. You cannot UDP in th…

Apple is currently being sued by the DOJ for a variety of abusive business practices, including forcing all web browser apps on iOS to use the Safari browser engine, which limits the usefuleness of all web browsers on iOS, so that developers are forced to develop an app which Apple can then take a 30% cut of all revenue generated by the app. It's a pure money-grab by Apple, and they deserve this legal action against them.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Native apps also give users a type of control that web apps can’t, by way of existing as fully independent executables on storage in possession of the user. Web apps can just up and disappear, spontaneously grow paywalls, or slowly enshittify over time, and unless both the user is technically savvy and the web app is fully open source, there’s nothing the user can do about it. In contrast, when a new release of a nat…

Yes, but native Apps have adds, which at least I don't know how to block. On Firefox mobile I can just use ublock origin to watch YouTube Videos without ads, as one example...

That applies mostly to online-service apps, which are in a bit of different category as their usefulness without a connection is extremely restricted. Most apps don’t need to fall into the bucket.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#207
post #41
post #4

I sympathise, but talking to my sister I've come to appreciate a different point of view. I have an "app", a PWA, that she says she cannot find because it's not in the App Store. Despite telling her it's available as a website, this seems too much... she just doesn't use — or is comfortable using — Safari.

I dislike apps and avoid installing them in general terms. They're bloated and frankly I have better things to store on my phone (mostly music, but also photos, conversation histories etc). I do not need an "app" for submitting a form. Looking at a website. etc etc My favourite thing about using a website? It can't send me attention grabbing notifications. It can't harass me for perms. I'm 100% an outlier. My friends…

Same. I have only a few apps installed that my phone didn't come with. No games. No social media apps. Even email I access via Safari. If I absolutely must use an app for something, I typically install it, do what I need, and then delete it.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#208

I man don't get me wrong, I love the idea of PWAs but this dude is out to lunch. It's so painful making anything complex work cross browser/cross platform. On iOS iirc they don't even support adding PWAs to the homescreen? You definitely can't Bluetooth outside of Chrome (probably only on Android and Windows too because nothing fun is ever allowed on Macs). Multiplayer games you kind of need UDP. You cannot UDP in th…

Apple is currently being sued by the DOJ for a variety of abusive business practices, including forcing all web browser apps on iOS to use the Safari browser engine, which limits the usefuleness of all web browsers on iOS, so that developers are forced to develop an app which Apple can then take a 30% cut of all revenue generated by the app. It's a pure money-grab by Apple, and they deserve this legal action against…

buy android

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The web is just a beautiful publishing platform. - no permission needed (mostly) - built-in discoverability - you get to figure out whatever payment processing you want - works on every device - update code in seconds - no copy protection needed

Developing apps on it still seems really, really primitive. HTML alone is not sufficient for a decent looking UI. Tailwind directives gunk it up rapidly. Component frameworks help some but still don’t seem quite as nice as something like SwiftUI. Server side functionality still requires a lot of manual serialization/deserialization (unless you use the newer crop of frameworks that have figured out this is pure noise)…

>HTML alone is not sufficient for a decent looking UI

Well that's some nonsense. HTML can absolutely achieve 1:1 on any UI you care to mention. It isn't even difficult if you have any skill at all.

>And then there’s JS.

And then there's another person who didn't take the time to learn JS and just hates it for reasons.

>Rails, htmx, and a few others seem like the only ones who really get that a simple web app should be 50-100loc

Show me a native app with a polished UI and any useful functionality in only 50-100loc.

Re: App Should Have Been a Website (and Probably Your Game Too)

#210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True except the part about "works on every device" is dependent on what part of the device you're trying to use, as the parent says about Bluetooth.

I'm a bit curious about what's wrong with Bluetooth on the web. Is it just because Safari and Firefox don't support it yet?

Not just Safari and Firefox, on iOS all browsers are forced to use Safari's web view, because Apple wants to force developers to write apps so they can make 30% revenue from the app should any money exchange hands. They can't force developers to write apps if web browsers on iOS are allowed to access bluetooth and other modern browser APIs.
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