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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

#391

Post by rambambram »

Aachen wrote: post #6

Dutch: https://appdwang.nl German: https://appzwang.de I don't know if they're affiliated but I recently came across one after already knowing of the other. The name means something like "app compulsion" in both languages, as in being forced to use apps. Very much in line with the submitted article above Is there such a resource for English already? A place or movement we can link to

Appdwang seems to be inspired by the German initiative, I found after clicking around there.

It's a good initiative, and I hope (non-tech) people realize more about this.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#392

Post by tonyhart7 »

mh- wrote: post #332
tonyhart7 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

they use react native maybe

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#393

Post by scarface_74 »

h4ck_th3_pl4n3t wrote: post #283
scarface_74 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well seeing that you could play music in the background from Safari since 2007, Spotify is the one forcing you to use an app Apple makes no money from the Spotify app being on the iPhone and hadn’t for over a decade.

This is an untrue statement. Music was played by the iTunes process on mobile until 2016, and only a single audio stream at a time. How dare you wanted a fade in/out with less than 3 seconds latency! And even then Apple was reluctant to implement a correct Promise based Audio API in WebKit, which in turn was incompatible with all other Web Browsers (up until today, btw) and also had very different audio formats suppo…

It is very true, you think the only way thst music came from your phone before 2016 was iTunes? It was a hack that streaming services - mostly radio streaming services- used before iOS 4 when apps could play music in the background used because Safari was the only thing that could run in the background.

The question was why did Spotify have to use an app instead of using the web.

But then again, are you really saying that Android users don’t use the app?

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#394

Post by rbits »

Gigachad wrote: post #253
spauldo wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit is one of the cases where a native app makes sense. Some of the 3rd party Reddit apps were great. But I'll eat my hat before I'll install Reddit's own app. Reddit killing off 3rd party apps is why I post here and not there.

How does an app for Reddit make sense? It’s an image and text platform. There’s no weird hardware apis required. Native apps make sense when you need to tap in to platform specific features like the Lidar api and such. They don’t make any sense for most websites.

I used vger.app (a frontend for a Reddit alternative) as a PWA for a few weeks. Then when the native Android app released I switched to it and it felt so much better to use. I can't tell you why, it was just more responsive.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#395

Post by donatj »

Tempat1 wrote: post #326
kristopolous wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "download app" notifications on reddit are like some kind of art project to maximimally annoy you. Probably the worst offender is facebook where they have what can only be called an intentionally broken mobile website - the idea of losing the person's name if you edit a comment, the page deciding to reload you back to the main page if you switch tabs to research something or the post box clearing out if you switc…

Reddit used to have a really excellent mobile experience at i.reddit.com. It was a minimalist fast-loading mobile-first formatted version of the website. Unfortunately they shut it down not too long ago.

I personally really like the old.reddit.com experience on my phone. Everything works surprisingly well. Sure you have to zoom in and scroll around and I know some people hate zooming in but it's never bothered me.

I personally can't stand apps that stop me from zooming in on things.

My sister complains about the information density of old Reddit being too high but that's exactly what I like about it!

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#396

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

IshKebab wrote: post #389
tempestn wrote: post #384

At AutoTempest we resisted making an app for years, because anything that a hypothetical app could do, we could do with the website. And in my opinion, when searching for cars, it's more convenient to be in your browser where you can easily open new tabs, bookmark results, etc. And for years, it was our most requested feature, by far. We had instructions for how to pin the site to your home screen, and would explain…

Interesting. Why do you think so many websites try to foist apps on you if people will voluntarily download them anyway?

My guess would be that it's because (as the above poster says) "app users are much more engaged than website users" and only "half our" moved without nudging - the sites would like more engagement from all users.

That said, the harder you "nudge" me, the more I want to avoid the app and the whole business. Especially if you have any other dark patterns - I will assume you want me to download your app just so you can abuse me better.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#397

Post by scarface_74 »

zkmon wrote: post #381

The problem is, this article assumes that you have an option to choose between the app and web page. This is not true in most important cases. The web site is gone or made a useless page which only tells you to download the app. Banks won't allow you to do much on their website. Infact, you can't login to their website if you don't have the app. I can't login into my work PC or laptop, if I don't use my company apps.…

Which bank is that where you can’t log into their website from PC or mobile?

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#398

Post by PhasmaFelis »

rplnt wrote: post #388
tempestn wrote: post #384

At AutoTempest we resisted making an app for years, because anything that a hypothetical app could do, we could do with the website. And in my opinion, when searching for cars, it's more convenient to be in your browser where you can easily open new tabs, bookmark results, etc. And for years, it was our most requested feature, by far. We had instructions for how to pin the site to your home screen, and would explain…

> People just really like apps! I would say people really hate websites on mobile. The browsers are horrible, the pages are slow and oftentimes broken in some way. You get all these popups everywhere, ads are much more intrusive. It's just bad experience, so of course people would prefer app for something they use. I avoid the browser on mobile as much as possible and I don't remember ever having a good time using it…

Mostly that's because devs want to drive people to the app, where they can track you a lot better, so they make their mobile sites shitty on purpose. Plenty of mobile apps are just webapps anyway under the hood. There's absolutely no reason for a mobile site to be massively worse than the app unless the devs want it that way.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#399

Post by RamblingCTO »

AaronAPU wrote: post #159
xxr wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>app icons are just "advertisement" You wouldn't believe the volume of actual advertisements that show up as push notifications on my wife's phone

These things only exist because some people just allow it. They allow it and occasionally buy something, enabling the entire hellhole we now all live in.

These things exist because companies and the people working there are predatory assholes. Let's not make the victims to be the villains and get off your high horse. Most people don't even know how.

Re: Do not download the app, use the website

#400

Post by figassis »

IshKebab wrote: post #389
tempestn wrote: post #384

At AutoTempest we resisted making an app for years, because anything that a hypothetical app could do, we could do with the website. And in my opinion, when searching for cars, it's more convenient to be in your browser where you can easily open new tabs, bookmark results, etc. And for years, it was our most requested feature, by far. We had instructions for how to pin the site to your home screen, and would explain…

Interesting. Why do you think so many websites try to foist apps on you if people will voluntarily download them anyway?

The ones that do are usually the ones that know people will be reluctant to download.
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