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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

#331

Post by WWLink »

Mehuleo wrote: post #270

I think for companies, the main advantage of an app is the opportunity for uncontrolled data ab/use. Let me explain. Say you order food online — you’d want a notification to update you, instead of having to manually refresh a webpage. So you prefer using the app. But what’s the guarantee the company won’t also send you marketing notifications? You give contact permission to access just one contact, but what’s stoppin…

> Say you order food online — you’d want a notification to update you, instead of having to manually refresh a webpage

Browsers have a notification feature where websites can send you notifications, and it's usually enabled by default.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#332

Post by mh- »

tonyhart7 wrote: post #325
mh- wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought these couldn't possibly be right and you must be including their storage and cache usage, but I'm seeing similar reported on my iPhone. Rounded to the nearest megabyte. Gmail: 612mb Facebook: 359mb YouTube: 303mb Amex: 365mb I'm still skeptical (or just hopeful?) that there's some storage accounting bug here, and it's including caches. I'm not in a place to plug it into Xcode right now, maybe someone else c…

its including cache + data files not just an 'APP' my youtube is literally 10gb because I use it a lot, doesnt mean youtube is "bloated" or "heavy"

I am leaving out the "data" figure in my counts. As I said, I think there's a bug/misrepresentation in the figures shown in iOS settings.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#333

Post by bokkies »

Needed a new SIM in the UK recently so ordered a pay as you go one from Vodafone. Discovered to my horror that the new payg 'plus' can only be used with an app (that's locked to UK Google play Store) and a credit card for monthly recurring payments. No possibility of buying credit on a website or In store. Presumably so Vodafone can slurp up credit card details and all the juicy data mentioned in this article. Tossed in the bin and found a regular old school payg sim that I can top up with cash from a corner shop, but presumably this won't be possible for much longer.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#334

Post by viccis »

>The answer, in short, is data. A lot of it. And access. A whole lot more of that too.

This is it for reddit. They changed the Best sort to use general engagement metrics rather than upvotes (which are just one metric) back in 2021 [1], and this means that a lot of their metrics (time spent in comments, number of comments up/down voted, number of comments left on a post, etc.) benefit greatly from their app, which can track that with precision.

This is (IMO) responsible for reddit's degenerated current form, as it prioritizes gossip subs, AITA type Jerry Springer subs, etc., but that's a whole different conversation.

1: https://www.reddit.com/r/blog/comments/o5tjcn/evolving_the_b...

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#335

Post by dbtc »

LostMyLogin wrote: post #223
dbtc wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Gaia used to be so great and I used it every day but it’s really hard to support Outside.

Yes, the Outside aspect is annoying. Did you switch to another app?

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#336

Post by DocTomoe »

apigalore wrote: post #296
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #294

I don't offer a native app for my business. We have a PWA. It works great on mobile. Yet users keep asking for an app. They're so conditioned to look in the app store now. I keep having to tell them to just pin the website to their desktop. Just a couple taps. All good. I don't need or want their data. It's a liability. They pay a monthly subscription. I want their money. Not their data.

Just don't collect any data. Having an app doesn't mean you need to collect any data.

Sometimes it is not whether or not you do, but if you send the signal that you could.

By refusing to provide a (superfluous) app, not only do you spare yourself the dev (and continued maintenance) costs, you also are not even as exposed to the data protection argument.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#337

Post by econ »

kristopolous wrote: post #319
andoando wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way about reddit. Modals are bigger than the page with unclickable buttons. Profile/settings icon/button is rendered half way or fully out of the page. Chat feature is completely unusable

I really think Reddit did it as a rebrand. It's somehow 20 years old and still gets teenagers. Social media almost always skews older as it ages, beyond the natural pace of time. AOL became mostly seniors as did Facebook and Yahoo. Reddit has not only shaken off most of the aging legacy users but had also captured a new generation of effectively children. I personally don't like what they've done but it's worked. The…

The formula to clear out the old people is to clear out their input area half way the first draft of their TL;DR They will just go away for a few years.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#339

Post by usr1106 »

apigalore wrote: post #296
8n4vidtmkvmk wrote: post #294

I don't offer a native app for my business. We have a PWA. It works great on mobile. Yet users keep asking for an app. They're so conditioned to look in the app store now. I keep having to tell them to just pin the website to their desktop. Just a couple taps. All good. I don't need or want their data. It's a liability. They pay a monthly subscription. I want their money. Not their data.

Just don't collect any data. Having an app doesn't mean you need to collect any data.

But you need to develop and maintain 2 apps. And to deal with 2 ugly companies. And even F-Droid if you were an ethically responsible business. So the GP's approach makes sense if you want to run your business in a lightway fashion.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#340

Post by alex1138 »

Beijinger wrote: post #127
RajT88 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook as well. They responded to the criticism of people leaving their platform because the feed was all garbage and no friend updates by making a friends only feed feature you could only enable in the app.

If you use Facebook in a browser, install the social fixer plug in and put this into the hide options: follow Reels People you may know join

Reels are ridiculously ham-fisted and there's no granularity

Facebook has "content preferences" as an option, but you can't put "don't show Reels" in it

Reels are listed 3 at a time so what is "hide this" even doing?

It's kind of the same with Youtube Shorts. Show less of? Okay, very good, we'll just ignore that setting next time

These companies need some serious goddamn competition, there should be real consequences for just ignoring your userbase

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