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Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

danq.me

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Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#201

Post by brunoborges »

Choosing to do an app is quite often less about the capabilities (of an app on the phone, versus a website in a mobile browser) and more about discoverability and market reach. App Stores serve a "store window" purpose, where it is easy to search, easy to discover, easy to access new tools/solutions.

What annoys me is not that "this app could've been a webpage". It is that "this app should also have a web version".

TripIt comes to mind as the opposite way: they started as a website only, and quickly the need to have an app was obvious: GPS integration, offline access, contact list for sharing, and more.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#202

Post by endemic »

inigyou wrote: post #169
bee_rider wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook only made sense in the context of living on a college campus… I think it doesn’t quite fit this pattern because realistically users were rarely in the “good fit” case for only ~4 years. Then, for each user, it becomes this sort of awkward slowly decaying network as people move on. I agree with everything else you said though.

Facebook was once a friend network and they added more and more advertising and slop to it. If you were the frog in the pot as it heated, it feels normal to you that your feed is entirely made of spam. If you're still out of the pot now, it seems foolish to jump in, unlike when it was lukewarm.

I still have a Facebook account, and will occasionally log in (most recently attempting to sell something on their craigslist equivalent). The default content shown in your "feed" or dashboard is more than 50% engagement bait and/or slop. I attempted to start flagging those posts as "never show me again," but it soon became apparent that it was a Sisyphean task, and I just logged out again.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#203

Post by cosmic_cheese »

criddell wrote: post #87
Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

As someone who uses apps, the hoops you have to jump through are one of the reasons I prefer apps. I'm glad Apple knows who you are and have scrutinized (to some degree) your app. I have no interest in installing a web app that could look innocuous today and be entirely different every time I hit F5.

> I have no interest in installing a web app that could look innocuous today and be entirely different every time I hit F5.

Or as I have encountered several times over the years, it turned out to have vanished without a trace for whatever reason (author got bored, became ill, didn’t want to pay for the domain any more, etc) when I reach for it, sending me searching for an alternative in the midst of a task.

Self-contained binaries stored on my personal devices don’t do that, and one can usually find third party copies scattered across the internet long after the author stopped publishing/maintaining them.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#204

Post by gadders »

Rohansi wrote: post #153
gadders wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The android store is the same. Jump through loads of hoops, fill in tax information for a bunch of countries, dox yourself, etc etc. I'm finding it hard to reconcile a) how difficult the process and b) the load of absolute garbage apps that are out there.

You'll still find people praising Apple (maybe even Google) for their review process even though their store is full of garbage. Really justifies their 30% cut.

Yeah, it's a hard problem at their scale. It's almost you need an App Store++ where someone trusted verifies apps.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#205

Post by dd8601fn »

Grombobulous wrote: post #53

I recently decided to publish an app on the App Store just so I could say I accomplished that, and maybe even make a little bit of beer money on the side. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that my actual app is pretty much garbage. I don’t expect it to be popular. It’s basically a worse version of stuff that is already available. I expected this to be a learning exercise about the process of getting stuff published. Lo…

I did something similar. I wanted to tell myself I had done it, but also it was an inexpensive learning experience and I got an app that I wanted out of it.

And I think I got that. I like how mine does what it does (maps breaker panels and records home maintenance and stuff) without someone trying to sell me something.

But once I realized what advertising costs everywhere, I pretty quickly realized that app exists essentially just for me.

And that’s ok, but it’s a stark contrast from the goldrush years of (even garbage) apps making money.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#206

Post by c0nsumer »

motoroco wrote: post #197
c0nsumer wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like making maps, and I wanted to do a certain bend on a very specific kind of online map, filling a gap I noticed in existing maps. The idea of an app really appealed to me (at first), but the more I thought about it the more I didn't want to deal with iOS and then Android and then maintaining parallel functionality on the web and all that mess just for a fairly-local hobby project that I make no money off of. So,…

Hello fellow map maker! I feel like I’m in the same boat. PWAs work great, I wish Apple would treat them as first class apps. I tinkered with launching a TWA for my app on the Play Store and it works pretty well but I haven’t published it yet. Probably a harder market to monetize than iOS but it seems like good advertising just to have the listing up

Hello! And yeah... :\ The Android/Chrome/Edge support for it is great, and on iOS it's actually nice, but you have to do all the hoop-jumping of clicking Share, whatever, and getting the icon to actually appear.

Also, apparently Apple really doesn't like approving apps that are basically wrapped PWAs (Google will, I guess?) so that is yet another check against bothering with an app.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#207

Post by stronglikedan »

glasffordd wrote: post #183

Booking a flight on the website and then being told I need the app just to see my boarding pass drives me nuts.

I can sort of understand that - device attestation and all. And it's still a choice since you can go to the airline's counter at the airport to get a boarding pass.

Re: Your 'app' could have been a webpage (so I fixed it for you)

#210

Post by berkes »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #188
Grombobulous wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you’re right that much of this only comes up when you’re trying to charge money for an app. However, if you’re running your own website you can make those decisions on your own without being forced into most of them. Plenty of very large “reputable” companies obfuscate their physical address and phone number, and don’t even offer an email address for contact. I’d also say that this shouldn’t be as necessary when…

> Why do App Store customers have any need to contact the underlying developers in this scenario? The EU decided so, and Apple didn't require this before EU did

I find this hard to believe, since Google Play store requires much less info, and doesn't disclose it to consumers (AFAIK).

Did the EU specifically demand this from Apple? Did they specifically require that consumers must be able to contact developers?

Or is this another "spin" by Apple to make the EU look bad when it imposes consumer protection that is bad for Apples revenue? Like they did with "chargers", "cables" and like the ad- and surveillance-industry has done quite successfully with their "spin" on the GDPR (making it seem like the EU or GDPR requires cookie banners - which it doesnt)

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