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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)

#411

Post by tlh »

EGreg wrote: post #381
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #312

Nobody here is talking about the fact that a significant number of users want apps, too. I'm responsible for an internal tool at the company I work for, hosted as a website, that handles a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that other employees need. Think reimbursements, documentation and reporting, gathering and presenting business data. That sort of thing. When I took it over, it was desktop only ( a lot of formatted pa…

On iOS, I think the only two reasons to have an app are: notifications and access to contacts.

Rich widgets on the Home Screen are valuable too. As a web developer, I wish I were able to make widgets for people to put on their Home Screen to perform certain actions in less clicks, or have information from my (web) apps easily viewable at a glance. Which I know they would want. Right now, as far as I’m aware, for me to do that in iOS (and possibly Android) is to build those in native land.

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

#413

Post by da_chicken »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #312

Nobody here is talking about the fact that a significant number of users want apps, too. I'm responsible for an internal tool at the company I work for, hosted as a website, that handles a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that other employees need. Think reimbursements, documentation and reporting, gathering and presenting business data. That sort of thing. When I took it over, it was desktop only ( a lot of formatted pa…

End users don't care about if it's an app or not.

What they care about:

- Does it do what I need it to

- Can I access it easily

- Is it easy to navigate

- Does it work or is it buggy

- Is it slow

- Does it abuse notifications

- Is it prompting me to log in all the time

- Are there too many ads

- Can I use it on any device I have

- Does it complain about updating constantly

I don't think any of those actually has to do with being a website. The problem is that web browsers and websites didn't get a not-stupid UI for phones faster than the phone vendors could funnel everyone into their walled garden. Remember "click here for mobile" and having to develop two web interfaces? And half the time functions would be missing on one side?

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

#414

Post by bearjaws »

pvtmert wrote: post #335

> With only a couple of minutes experimentation I discovered that the app works by concatenating the username and password5 and using it in a URL of the form: In 2026, these terrible practices still common . Meanwhile we are discussing the LLM generated code quality, the race to the bottom continues...

I don't think an LLM would propose this terrible method ever, at least not any of the big 3.

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

#415

Post by notnullorvoid »

jbverschoor wrote: post #353
adamddev1 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish PWAs were more well-known among average users. If people knew and expected they could install certain websites as apps, that would simplify things so much and really balance the power of the app stores.

My problem with PWA, is that it usually completely ruins the multiple tabs/windows of the same app/data

On desktop or on mobile?

On mobile it's rare for apps other than web browsers to allow multiple tabs/windows and the ones that do (Ex: Gmail allows a draft to be a second window) have many multi window related bugs.

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

#416

Post by notnullorvoid »

hadlock wrote: post #357
OkayPhysicist wrote: post #312

Nobody here is talking about the fact that a significant number of users want apps, too. I'm responsible for an internal tool at the company I work for, hosted as a website, that handles a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that other employees need. Think reimbursements, documentation and reporting, gathering and presenting business data. That sort of thing. When I took it over, it was desktop only ( a lot of formatted pa…

If the app store allowed you to install bookmarks, I doubt most people would notice.

The Google Play store did (maybe still does?) allow installing some PWAs advertised as light versions of the apps.

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

#417

Post by matltc »

hashworks wrote: post #60
billyp-rva wrote: post #18

> I can’t understand how we got to this place with “app culture”! The short version: ad blockers work on browsers but not apps[0]. [0] https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle

For most app ads it's enough to set a DoT or DoH in the system that blocks ad domains. Android supports this with a settings menu entry, on Apple one needs a more "technical" solution I think (loading some XML?). Most VPN apps also support DNS enforcement. Apps like YouTube are an exception, but there are other ways around that on Android.

> YouTube... Ways around that on Android

Have DoH/DoT enabled as you mention, then open brave, go to YouTube.com

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

#419

Post by JoshTriplett »

notnullorvoid wrote: post #415
jbverschoor wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My problem with PWA, is that it usually completely ruins the multiple tabs/windows of the same app/data

On desktop or on mobile? On mobile it's rare for apps other than web browsers to allow multiple tabs/windows and the ones that do (Ex: Gmail allows a draft to be a second window) have many multi window related bugs.

> On mobile it's rare for apps other than web browsers

One more reason I'd rather have a site than an app: because I can open multiple copies, open a link in a new tab, open different installations of the same site, and all the other things that browsers automatically support.

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

#420

Post by DANmode »

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #312

Nobody here is talking about the fact that a significant number of users want apps, too. I'm responsible for an internal tool at the company I work for, hosted as a website, that handles a bunch of miscellaneous tasks that other employees need. Think reimbursements, documentation and reporting, gathering and presenting business data. That sort of thing. When I took it over, it was desktop only ( a lot of formatted pa…

Wrap the page in an app and publish to app store.

Can someone explain why this isn’t obvious?

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