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“It works better in the app”

shkspr.mobi

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Re: “It works better in the app”

#161

Post by carlosjobim »

freedomben wrote: post #150
carlosjobim wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real native app practically always has better performance than web apps. And your data is on your machine. And it can integrate with the operating system. And you can do work offline. And performance saves battery. A web app is almost never better.

> And your data is on your machine. Not really true anymore, especially on mobile. Plus the privacy invading abilities of native are much higher

With a native app your data can be on your machine (or not, or both). With a web app it can't be on your machine.

> Plus the privacy invading abilities of native are much higher

Your privacy is already completely invaded if your data is in the cloud, as it has to be with web apps.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#162

Post by graemep »

goosejuice wrote: post #23
brk wrote: post #9

At this point the barrier for me to install an app is pretty high. If you're going to needlessly gate certain functions behind an app that work on a desktop browser (or could work in-browser), then I just won't use those functions. If by extension that degrades the value I get from your site, then I just won't use the site, and I won't be contributing to ADU stats you promote to advertisers. Every single company has…

I wish everyone thought like this. Unfortunately the average user demands an app and thinks they have nothing to hide.

The average user does not demand an app.

If they did they would not need to be pushed to apps by "it works better on the app" or offered discounts for using the app.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#163

Post by top_rooster »

the_bear wrote: post #61

In Google's defense, they weren't the ones that championed the "everything must be an app" movement. My memory of the 2010s is that Google (and while they were relevant, Palm) pushed cross-platform web apps, but Apple ran a successful marketing campaign to convince everyone that everything on mobile must be a native app for reasons[1]. So we end up with a walled garden of native apps that must be approved by and pay…

In fairness though, I think its pretty clear that mobile is the future. Something like 40% of Gen Z only access things by mobile.

(Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/search-behavior-being-rede...)

So in the future, when you have those three versions you need to build, its starting to make sense to have the mobile version be the full functionality version. Although, I guess it would be crazy to go to a link on your computer and be told it only works on mobile.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#164

Post by nomilk »

> and think you're too thick to use your browser's bookmarks feature

To be fair, bookmarking is easy but browsing and locating a bookmarked URL is far from easy. To bookmark in chrome on desktop requires pressing an obvious star button on the right of the address bar (it's always there, so easy to locate). But browsing/locating a bookmark requires clicking on the vertical ellipses on the right-most of the browser, finding 'Bookmarks and lists' amongst a lot of wordy options, then the fun starts: you can scroll bookmarks but cannot even see the full bookmark (only the first 40 characters and favicon) and they're not even in alphabetical order. If you have several hundred, like I do, that's a lot of work, and consequently, I approximately never do it. Easier to copy the url into an email and send it to yourself.

For folks like myself who use different browsers across operating systems, it's even more convoluted for obvious reasons (e.g. I use safari on iOS and chrome on macOS, so something bookmarked on iPhone doesn't make it to macbook and vice-versa).

tl;dr bookmarks are a mess, even for the tech-savvy

Re: “It works better in the app”

#166

Post by nchmy »

afavour wrote: post #35
davidmurdoch wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not it. It's Apple. They are crippling the web on purpose. We can't even have haptic vibration on Safari. And when we did for a little while earlier this year, it was because of a "bug" that that they promptly fixed. Apple is not interested in making with apps as seamless and integrated as native because: money.

I agree that Apple has been awful here. But there are countries deeply dominated by Android that still heavily use apps when they could be using PWAs. I don’t mean to let Apple off the hook but I also don’t think they’re the only ones to blame.

Again, this is Apple's work. Developers don't make good web apps when they cant work on iOS.

https://infrequently.org/series/browser-choice-must-matter/

Re: “It works better in the app”

#167

Post by nchmy »

afavour wrote: post #20

It’s a shame the web was so slow to adapt to this new mobile world. When it all started things like offline capabilities were very difficult to do on the web and native development felt necessary. These days the web can actually do a lot… but it’s too late. People expect to find something in the App Store, pinning a web site to their Home Screen is just not something they know they can do. So a lot of people waste an…

Apple is almost completely to blame for all of this.

https://infrequently.org/series/browser-choice-must-matter/

Re: “It works better in the app”

#169

Post by kkfx »

These days, applications (whether they're web, mobile, or desktop) with absurd shortcomings in terms of UI/UX are a daily occurrence, yet most people seem to have become incapable of noticing, or at least of giving sensible feedback on the matter.

Obviously, the bulk of it is noticeable in notoriously crapware software like management systems, but it's increasingly emerging just about everywhere.

I wonder how long it will take to understand even just this small slice of the problem, without even getting into "anything apps" and the need to return to the OS as a single integrated application/framework with end-user programming—a trend of which we're only seeing a few hints.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#170

Post by adfignaioernio »

top_rooster wrote: post #163
the_bear wrote: post #61

In Google's defense, they weren't the ones that championed the "everything must be an app" movement. My memory of the 2010s is that Google (and while they were relevant, Palm) pushed cross-platform web apps, but Apple ran a successful marketing campaign to convince everyone that everything on mobile must be a native app for reasons[1]. So we end up with a walled garden of native apps that must be approved by and pay…

In fairness though, I think its pretty clear that mobile is the future. Something like 40% of Gen Z only access things by mobile. (Source: https://www.emarketer.com/content/search-behavior-being-rede... ) So in the future, when you have those three versions you need to build, its starting to make sense to have the mobile version be the full functionality version. Although, I guess it would be crazy to go to a link on…

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