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“It works better in the app”

shkspr.mobi

251–260 of 496 posts

Re: “It works better in the app”

#252

Ryan Air just introduced the super-annoying requirements of needing the app to download your boarding pass (which of course they could just provide from the website). I think they do it to be able to send you notifications and sell you more flights, but I don't understand why they need to be so anti-user. I try to NOT fly Ryan Air unless there is no other airline available. I'd rather pay twice as much than support t…

# Me too

I recently chose to fly with a MUCH more expensive airline than deal with this (and yes, I was spending my own money).

Ryan Air is the pits.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Some, like Home Depot, have websites that are terrible and battery-draining enough to make the app nominally useful by comparison. I don't take this as a signal to install the app. It is a signal to avoid the store. They clearly don't feel like they need to work to gain your business, and instead take it for granted. You can see this indicated by their actions - they clearly feel that it is more profitable to inconv…

There are a lot of businesses that have a semi-captive hold on a market. Like a recent example was I drove my daughter and I to a stage play, and to pay for street parking I had to install an app, make an account, and add a credit card. A thing that should have been scan the QR code and click one button to mobile pay became a five minute ordeal. In theory we could have gotten back in the car and looked for parking el…

Just don’t pay. I stopped paying for street parking a long time ago (around the time they started insisting on apps). You get a ticket once and awhile but it all works out.

Mail in a check a few times a year and park whenever you want.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#254
> To subscribe to a new calendar, you must use a computer web browser. You can't subscribe to a calendar in the Google Calendar app for Android, iPhone, or iPad.

Isn't this likely because Google Calendar was abused a lot in phishing? e.g. fake "CLICK TO PROCEED" links as ads -> redirected to Google Calendar named "CLICK [+] SIGN TO CONTINUE" -> "URGENT: re-enter your credit card number at https://scam.example/buy-us-bitcoin" fake schedules recurring every x minutes etc.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#255
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…

Many HN users probably share this distaste for apps that should be websites, but I don't think this is true for the general population.

In addition to choosing not to use needless apps, some HN users here might have the opportunity for a stronger vote: refuse to (or at very least push back on) develop an app that could be a website.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Some, like Home Depot, have websites that are terrible and battery-draining enough to make the app nominally useful by comparison. I don't take this as a signal to install the app. It is a signal to avoid the store. They clearly don't feel like they need to work to gain your business, and instead take it for granted. You can see this indicated by their actions - they clearly feel that it is more profitable to inconv…

There are a lot of businesses that have a semi-captive hold on a market. Like a recent example was I drove my daughter and I to a stage play, and to pay for street parking I had to install an app, make an account, and add a credit card. A thing that should have been scan the QR code and click one button to mobile pay became a five minute ordeal. In theory we could have gotten back in the car and looked for parking el…

I have like 5 parking apps. It's exhausting.

The worst part is not that, but.. _which is the app for this area?_

Re: “It works better in the app”

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a lot of businesses that have a semi-captive hold on a market. Like a recent example was I drove my daughter and I to a stage play, and to pay for street parking I had to install an app, make an account, and add a credit card. A thing that should have been scan the QR code and click one button to mobile pay became a five minute ordeal. In theory we could have gotten back in the car and looked for parking el…

It should have been put coins in a slot.

Or use your card on the machine. We had that for a while, but then these stupid parking companies started to get traction.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#258
post #36

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.

As an iPhone user: good. There is no good that can come from some dipshit website product manager being able to make my phone vibrate on a website. None at all.

An installed PWA should be able to do all the same things an installed app should do. The general web should not, and no one is arguing for that.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twitter is the worst. You go to a page and scroll down and it banners a beater in the app thing and you can’t dismiss it. You either get the app or close the tab. Close the tab.

LinkedIn too. The first time they show a bottom sheet dialog thing on the website, and if you dismiss it, it scrolls you all the way to the top. The second time it appears, it messes with the page and sometimes automatically closes the tab.

It's a real face palm how LinkedIn squandered the opportunity to be a relatively benign social media product. School kids would have zero interest in it except for that guy who wears a bowtie to high school. And yet they have made it such a swamp full of dark patterns. What's the marginal gain on that? They're the only game in town for the kinds of people who advertise on LinkedIn.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#260
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "do something that can be done in a web app" I'll bite. What important features can only be done in an "app" but not a web app nowadays?

NFC reading is one. That's why lots of Governments publish apps - it's a reliable way to check your passport if you need a visa etc. It might be coming to the web - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Web_NFC_API

Do they require it though? I've used a few, but it's always been a convenience thing to use the NFC-scanning app; the alternative is just typing in the details manually.
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