I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok • Hacker News Board

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#391

Post by FusionX » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:02 PM UTC

I agree...except, I would've appreciated some self-awareness from the author. They represent a minority of the users, yet they fail to comprehend this simple fact.

For the large majority of users, phones are THE primary (if not only) device for their interaction with the internet. You can complain "them-lazy-brainrotting-GenZs" but some people don't have a choice. There are plenty of countries where a smartphone is the cheapest internet enabled device that a person can afford.

Secondly, the UX for "web browsing" on the phone is strictly worse compared to (well-made) apps. In fact, apps are the reason for the explosion in popularity of smartphones. And also the reason only android and iphone have survived the OS race (see windows phone and linux phones). So — much to my own disappointment — it does make sense for companies to treat mobile (app) users as first class citizens. You need to understand that you are not the target user anymore. And, yes it sucks.

That said, it does not justify the gradual enshittification, dark patterns and dopamine hacking that have been normalized in modern apps.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#392

Post by ghaff » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:03 PM UTC

nkrisc wrote: post #131

KellyCriterion wrote: post #49

What most people dont get: Most of folks on HN here are much older than todays "first customers" of 16y/17/18 For them: The "Smartphone is the internet", while for most of us the "Smartphone is an extension of the internet from our desktops" that we were used to (remember the years before dot com bubble, saying: "I will be down in the basement at the computer to surf on the net little bit" ? :-) But today, the very f…

> But today, the very first touchpoint with "the internet" for younger folks is a smartphone display. The even do homework on this small screens! I saw a tweet recently that perfectly encapsulates this: for most people over 30, certain things are "big screen tasks". I use my phone for a lot, but for some things I put the phone down and use my computer instead. I am most comfortable using a large screen and a keyboard…

I’ve been trying a bit of an experiment on my current trip and I’m still skeptical about iPad plus Magic Keyboard. Better than alternatives but still so-so. I think I’ll go back to my 10+ year old MacBook Pro but unless something really changes I’ll just pick up an Air for traveling at some point.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#393

Post by gretch » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:03 PM UTC

Boxxed wrote: post #345

sdfjkhdfjkdhs wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> Or look at the dogged adherence to Windows even to this day after decades of Microsoft abuse Or the people who absolutely refuse to give up Chrome, despite the whole adblock situation. "But I don't like the way Firefox tabs look!"

> Or the people who absolutely refuse to give up Chrome, despite the whole adblock situation. "But I don't like the way Firefox tabs look!"

Or have yourself a learning moment and recognize that how things look matters to a lot of people. And It’s not wrong that they value it differently than you.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#394

Post by zadikian » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:05 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #351

Unless you use it several times a day, downloading an "app" just gets in the way. You should never have to download an "app" for a one-time use. We never went back to the restaurant in Cupertino where the table QR code tried to force downloading an app that onboarded you into a food delivery service. That restaurant was treating on-site customers as delivery orders with a very short delivery distance. The food wasn't…

Would've left just from seeing a QR code on the table

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#395

Post by rkomorn » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:06 PM UTC

FusionX wrote: post #391

I agree...except, I would've appreciated some self-awareness from the author. They represent a minority of the users, yet they fail to comprehend this simple fact. For the large majority of users, phones are THE primary (if not only) device for their interaction with the internet. You can complain "them-lazy-brainrotting-GenZs" but some people don't have a choice. There are plenty of countries where a smartphone is t…

Are you implying with your last sentence that websites are less culpable of enshittification, dark patterns, and dopamine hacking?

Or are you including the web-based properties of "modern apps" in said apps?

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#396

Post by InitialLastName » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:08 PM UTC

bartilg wrote: post #135

KellyCriterion wrote: post #49

What most people dont get: Most of folks on HN here are much older than todays "first customers" of 16y/17/18 For them: The "Smartphone is the internet", while for most of us the "Smartphone is an extension of the internet from our desktops" that we were used to (remember the years before dot com bubble, saying: "I will be down in the basement at the computer to surf on the net little bit" ? :-) But today, the very f…

Even on mobile I find the requirement for app installation to be an irritating requirement. Many of these mobile apps are much larger than they need to be, and clutter the user experience. Throw in excessive push notifications, and in many cases I would like to just go to a website for services I use infrequently.

Seriously, push notifications, requests to review the app, gratuitous permissions, ads that bypass my ad-blocker. Why would I want to do this?

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#397

Post by ssl-3 » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:09 PM UTC

KellyCriterion wrote: post #49

What most people dont get: Most of folks on HN here are much older than todays "first customers" of 16y/17/18 For them: The "Smartphone is the internet", while for most of us the "Smartphone is an extension of the internet from our desktops" that we were used to (remember the years before dot com bubble, saying: "I will be down in the basement at the computer to surf on the net little bit" ? :-) But today, the very f…

Yes, people (including the olds like myself) have been gravitating away from using a PC for everyday tasks and towards things like pocket supercomputers, and people new to the world definitely start with phones these days. Phones are similar to PCs, in that both kinds of devices have quite capable web browsers and can also run purpose-built software.

But if the question in the context of a phone is app-vs-web, then the analog on a PC is program-vs-web.

Which is interesting, I think.

Someone might download an app on their phone to accomplish a specific task instead of use a browser on that same phone, and that trend seems to be increasingly in favor of dedicated apps.

But on the PC side, it appears to be going the other way: Prior to the introduction of things like Sir Tim Berners-Lee's WWW and ubiquitous always-on Internet, most tasks on a PC were done with dedicated, local programs. That has changed.

Nowadays, we have things like whole office suites (pick any of them) and featureful CAD systems (like Onshape) that run quite well within a browser. POP and IMAP used to rule the day, and now we use Gmail in a browser. So on the PC, the longer trend seems to be more in favor of platform-independent web-based things instead of dedicated programs.

So, it seems that the two market segments -- while functionally similar -- are moving in opposite directions.

(I don't have an axe to grind here. I just think it's fun to think about these things.)

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#398

Post by pull_my_finger » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

josephcsible wrote: post #249

Hall of shame: * Reddit won't let you read "unreviewed" content on mobile web (but will on desktop web) * PayPal won't let you pick your 5% rewards category, or set up balance auto-replenish without their app * Robinhood Banking won't let you see your credit card statement or pay your balance without their app * Instagram won't let you share posts as stories without their app * SeatGeek won't let you attend events wi…

Spotify arbitrarily gatekeeps even basic function like accessing your Liked songs on the PWA

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#399

Post by leros » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:16 PM UTC

yomansat wrote: post #385

leros wrote: post #355

I have an app that is literally just a wrapper around the website. The mobile website and the mobile app are the exact same experience. Before I built the app, people were constantly asking me to build a mobile app. Yes, I had a PWA but people still wanted an app. I thought it was kind of silly but I eventually built that wrapper app. It immediately got thousands of downloads, users upgrading to paid plans increased…

How often do you need to push app updates in practice? In theory that's a one-off deployment on the app-stores.

There's usually some random mandatory updates I have to do about 1-2 times a year, so you need updates even with no development.

My React-Native wrapper app handles native auth and native payments, so I occasionally need to tweak that, but it's rare.

I'm considering a rewrite in Capacitor so I can change those things without modifying the mobile app. It's not that releasing the mobile app is a big deal, but it's that it can take many weeks for users to update the mobile app, so I have to keep the website backwards compatible with the old mobile app. It makes testing new checkout flows and stuff more difficult.

Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok

#400

Post by sequoia » Mon, Apr 06, 2026, 7:17 PM UTC

Though I agree with the author & use the web version of various applications, there is another side to this. The author says s/he uses plugins to disable ads and so on. If its an ad supported site for which one does not pay, this is tantamount to expecting the provider to run the service for no compensation/revenue at all.

Furthermore, to say platform owners don't care about offending such users would be an understatement: platform owners likely want to actively repel such users. Why serve someone who neither pays a fee nor agrees to be shown ads?