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Do not download the app, use the website

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Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#171

Post by cosmic_cheese »

dbtc wrote: post #161
andrewstuart2 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

500MB average seems like a gross exaggeration. I agree apps are oversize but I have maybe 2 native apps on mobile that are so large.

Chase Mobile for iOS is 350MB; far from 500, but still baffling why an app would need to be that large just to show me some numbers. Capital One is 435MB... Garmin Connect is 518MB for some stupid reason, while Strava is half that and Gaia GPS (great app), is under 100.

Almost certainly has to do with how the app is built. Most thoughtfully built native SDK (UIKit, etc) apps clock in well under the 100MB mark, often under half or a quarter that.

Bloat like that is usually due to unnecessarily convoluted tech stacks pulling in a list of dependencies that goes out to Mars and back, or for globally targeted apps sometimes it’s translations for everything in the app for hundreds of different languages.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#172

Post by gxs »

frizlab wrote: post #77
gxs wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You forgot data collection I think if people realized how much data they can get from your iPhone with simple permissions like WiFi they’d think twice about giving so many apps access

This is getting less and less true though. Also WiFi permission is not a thing on iOS.

I understand but less true doesn’t mean not true

Also my bad, been a while since I installed an app believe it or not - also possible I saw this in android, but the general point stands

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#174

Post by frollogaston »

worik wrote: post #160
frollogaston wrote: post #98

Idc about privacy, apps are just annoying cause even downloading free ones requires auth for some reason (on iPhone), then they always want to update, then your OS gets too out of date and they stop working.

> Idc about privacy Until you do. Then it is too late

Yes, except I won't care even when it's too late.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#175

Post by cosmic_cheese »

Zak wrote: post #61
josephcsible wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a bad thing? Wouldn't we be better off with all of them being PWA's?

It's not a bad thing for users . It would reduce the ability of Apple and Google to extract revenue from their stores though, so they're motivated to do the opposite.

For more complex apps, efficiency could be a considerable issue. As capable as the web has become, it’s not very battery friendly for more advanced use cases.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#176

Post by megablast »

dbtc wrote: post #161
andrewstuart2 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

500MB average seems like a gross exaggeration. I agree apps are oversize but I have maybe 2 native apps on mobile that are so large.

Chase Mobile for iOS is 350MB; far from 500, but still baffling why an app would need to be that large just to show me some numbers. Capital One is 435MB... Garmin Connect is 518MB for some stupid reason, while Strava is half that and Gaia GPS (great app), is under 100.

Is it? You can't easily tell with iOS apps because the container might be that big, but the app on your phone is a fraction of that. The container might contain multiple versions.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#177

Post by cosmic_cheese »

frollogaston wrote: post #105
karanbhangui wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta love the HN bubble. Users want apps, not PWAs.

If Apple wanted to make PWAs look like apps, users wouldn't be able to tell the difference. Except that's not what Apple wants at all.

I don’t think that’d be possible without a considerably different web engine than currently exists. Even on desktop with Chrome which is the best case scenario currently, web apps are visibly different from their native counterparts due to differences in things like click handling, latency, etc.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#178

Post by esseph »

bramhaag wrote: post #114
esseph wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TOTP is able to be intercepted on the device.

Yes, and that's also true for SMS messages and your passwords. That is why having MFA is important.

You can't intercept a passkey in the same way.

It is also far less likely to be phished, and there is nothing transmitted.

TOTP is the modern WPA2 of security - it's just not good enough when better alternatives exist.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#180

Post by llm_nerd »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #140
llm_nerd wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like Apple is some lazy target for people to point to why PWAs have little uptake. Android has long had PWA support. Almost no one uses it at all. In fact iOS users have long had significantly high web browser usage than their Android compatriots. "It's because iOS doesn't support it...somehow. Despite entirely separate bases that could be served in entirely different ways, it's actually Apple's fault" A coupl…

>Android has long had PWA support. Almost no one uses it at all. Yes. Because if you're making a mobile app you want to target the two major platforms. If IOS's PWA's suck, you're not going to try and make a PWA for android. So it's a negative feedback loop. >Despite entirely separate bases that could be served in entirely different ways, differnt ways costs money. So often it isn't done. They pick a framework that l…

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