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

rogueengine.io

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

#241

Post by SllX »

Asmod4n wrote: post #239
SllX wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of phone are you running and how old is it? Apps don’t get any of that other information either unless you specifically approve it. If you want to give Uber just notifications and just location, you can do that.

"When it's running" also means when it runs in the background, and apps can wake themselves up any time they want when you allow them to send you notifications.

Running location triggers an icon in the UI which puts it in a list of apps that have run location recently. An app abusing this in the background will eventually cause the operating system to ask you “hey, are you okay with this?” alongside a map of your current location as your phone sees it.

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

#242

Post by rubymamis »

alternatex wrote: post #174
rubymamis wrote: post #22

While the web platform is catching up due to the continuous supply of abstractions by modern browsers, once you must deviate from those abstractions, you quickly find yourself needing to implement something yourself that is much less efficient than a native implementation. I wrote about developing my own block editor from scratch[1] using C++ and QML after finding that Notion (and so many other web apps) are extremel…

This app looks exactly like one I had used in the past. Took me a while to find it: https://www.notes-foss.com/ Even the logo is almost identical. Is this the same project? Looks like two separate GitHub repos by the same author. Why two similar projects/websites?

Hi there! Yes, I will switch to a more distinctive icon in the future once I can afford to hire a new designer.

Multiplayer was quoting the correct reason. I also exeplained more about the timeline here: https://github.com/nuttyartist/notes/issues/690#issuecomment...

Tldr: The FOSS version earned a stable revenue through Google Ads placed on the website, since the website ranked high on Google searches. Two years ago, that changed since the website got de-ranked, so I created a different, proprietary version of the app based on the FOSS version but with a totally revamped block editor that I wrote from scratch - that I worked on full-time for a whole 1 year.

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

#243

Post by rubymamis »

kebokyo wrote: post #170
rubymamis wrote: post #22

While the web platform is catching up due to the continuous supply of abstractions by modern browsers, once you must deviate from those abstractions, you quickly find yourself needing to implement something yourself that is much less efficient than a native implementation. I wrote about developing my own block editor from scratch[1] using C++ and QML after finding that Notion (and so many other web apps) are extremel…

I am so happy that you made this, legit. I’m absolutely going to try it whenever I get a chance. I’ve wanted to do the same thing you did but with coding notebooks (e. Jupyter) for a while now. It frustrates me to no end that the only native software for notebooks is JetBrains IDEA (and even that’s only an “I think it’s naive” lol). Hopefully I can take what you learned and documented and apply it to my app ^-^

Very cool! I hope my blog post could be of help. Let me know if you need any help my socials are in my HN profile. And let me know what you think of my app, would love to hear any feedback.

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

#244

Post by kevincox »

aeroghi wrote: post #226
ukoki wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it has anything to do with performance. Apps make it far easier to advertise to users. You can send the users a notification even when they aren't using the app It's much harder or impossible for users to block in-app advertising It's easier to track users via apps, and your tracking data will be richer, more accurate and therefore more valuable. Until this changes, we'll get stupid apps that should hav…

Also, the majority of users are going to search Google for the website they want, rather than enter a url directly. An app avoids exposing the user to competitor's ads.

Both major app stores have similar ads. I don't see the difference. Maybe they could provide a URL and QR code and go straight to the site without depending on third parties.

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

#246

Post by FredPret »

dotancohen wrote: post #158
FredPret wrote: post #145

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

> works on every device Assuming that the device has an up-to-date browser available for it. And today, that usually requires having a multi-MHz multi-core processor and GiBs of memory. No matter how lean your actual application/website is. I have a stack of E-Ink readers, all in terrific condition. My favorite is the B&N Nook Glowlight 3. When it was new just about five years ago, I could install a web browser on it…

True, and regrettable; on the other hand, mobile compute is getting so much cheaper all the time. This is the driving force behind all that bloat.

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

#247

Post by segfaltnh »

thot_experiment wrote: post #159

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…

I think the part where he calls out airline apps is spot on though. They don't need any of that tech.

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

#248

Post by ghjfrdghibt »

There's a clear agenda with this article. I'm all for website wrapping apps being websites again. But I'm definitely sick of websites that should be apps. And I'd use a native app any day over a bloated website masquerading as an app, especially on desktop.

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

#249

Post by soerxpso »

> Yet businesses still push native apps as if it’s 2010, and we’re left downloading apps for things that should just work on the web.

The app icon acts as free marketing. If it were just a website, you wouldn't have a little picture of their logo on your phone to be reminded that they exist every now and then. They know that it could just be a website (usually it IS just a website, packed inside an "app"), but they don't want that for a reason.

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

#250

Post by ToucanLoucan »

ghjfrdghibt wrote: post #248

There's a clear agenda with this article. I'm all for website wrapping apps being websites again. But I'm definitely sick of websites that should be apps. And I'd use a native app any day over a bloated website masquerading as an app, especially on desktop.

Hard agree on all that.

And to be honest, none of these things solve the actual issue which is tons of these apps are software that is built by companies who do not build good software, and no framework or methodology is going to overcome that fact.

My banking app, Chase, is terrific. It is either native or such a well optimized web wrapped one that I can't tell the difference, which would be a first-of-kind. It has quirks but for every daily driver task I need, it's great. In fact the app being so good was actually part of why I decided to pull the trigger on changing banks, because my last was anything but.

That said, other apps I use (and websites, for that matter) are TRASH on mobile. Slow to load, slow to respond, and make my damn phone hot in my hand while I try and use them. And like, maybe they'd be better running native code, from a technical perspective at least, but that doesn't change that the usability is still awful, which is not a technical problem: it's a design problem, that probably originated far above the heads of any of the developers actually building them.

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