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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)

#271

Post by david422 »

Telaneo wrote: post #139
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 might be misremembering or misinterpreting, but it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address. For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be…

> For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be able to contact a human and be made whole, and having the money be handled by a company (even if that company is just a one-man-show) honestly does not seem unreasonable.

You're buying a digital good. You can already get refunds. An email address is fine for contact.

You definitely don't need someone's physical home address, nor an actual phone number.

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

#273

Post by david422 »

berkes wrote: post #210
wahnfrieden wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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"…

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

This changed recently.

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

#274

Post by busymom0 »

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 have been publishing apps as a solo developer for a long time and every app I've published has been something I wanted for myself. For example, I spent so much time here on hacker news. So I wanted an app for a better experience. So I built my app almost a decade ago. Then people requested me build one for Android, so I built that too. I've similarly built various macOS apps which I use daily for myself.

If anyone is interested, it's called HACK and I am writing this comment from it. Link is in my bio.

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

#275

Post by Telaneo »

david422 wrote: post #271
Telaneo wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I might be misremembering or misinterpreting, but it seems like you really need an LLC with a mail forwarding service and a cheap second phone line just to avoid the App Store sending the whole internet to your personal phone and address. For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be…

> For something free I can get why this would seem unreasonable (modulo scams, for which this is a hoop I would rather have than not), but if money's involved, a consumer should be able to contact a human and be made whole, and having the money be handled by a company (even if that company is just a one-man-show) honestly does not seem unreasonable. You're buying a digital good. You can already get refunds. An email…

I don't need a physical address nor a phone number to get a refund from my local electronics store either, but I do believe they should be available.

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

#276

Post by baud9600 »

I remember when Steve Jobs stood on stage and complained about Flash, how he hated its dominance of the free web, how it was a heavy and proprietary technology that prevented mobile devices from participating. His solution? To adopt the latest HTML standards… and also to build responsive apps. But now some apps have become heavy, advertising-bound, subscription nightmares. So it’s back to HTML, right?

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

#277

Post by SquareWheel »

jorisw wrote: post #89
crabmusket wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

React was open sourced in 2013. Service workers, which I consider to be essential to what we understand as PWAs, shipped first in Chrome in 2015, Safari in 2018.

Sure. But Jobs was talking about running 'web apps' on iPhone OS as a software distribution channel, pre App Store, 2007-2008.

If anyone wishes to remember what that looked like.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071012231544/http://www.apple....

https://web.archive.org/web/20071012025941/http://www.apple....

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

#278

Post by Zak »

I once read that app users are seven times more profitable than web users. That easily answers the author's question about why a company would bother make an app when a web page is the natural fit for the use case.

I don't remember the source or methodology for that number, but I have no trouble believing it. An app gives the developer a foothold on the user's device. It can more easily send notifications, track the user's location, resist customization like ad blocking, and remain present on the user's device even when closed. It's easier to funnel users into profitable behavior with an app.

Companies wouldn't do this if a large fraction of users refused the app, but most users don't.

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

#279

Post by drunken_thor »

The terrible thing is that everything is moving to apps so that the developers can get more access to the user's fingerprint and get more data. Get access to photos, location ect. All webpages that suddenly have an app, which in my experience ends up having less functionality than the website, are quite simply there to get data, and be able to push notifications. They are parasitic. I miss the days when an app was the better offering but it isn't anymore.

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

#280

Post by DonHopkins »

baud9600 wrote: post #276

I remember when Steve Jobs stood on stage and complained about Flash, how he hated its dominance of the free web, how it was a heavy and proprietary technology that prevented mobile devices from participating. His solution? To adopt the latest HTML standards… and also to build responsive apps. But now some apps have become heavy, advertising-bound, subscription nightmares. So it’s back to HTML, right?

I want my lickable pixels back.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581424

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