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“It works better in the app”

shkspr.mobi

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Re: “It works better in the app”

#411

Post by drnick1 »

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…

> At this point the barrier for me to install an app is pretty high.

For me, the bar hasn't moved: I will not install any app that isn't a general purpose, open source utility. If something cannot be done in the browser, I will do without it.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#412

Post by snazz »

nunez wrote: post #102
pelotron wrote: post #64

This past weekend I was flying on Delta and my first flight was delayed such that I was going to miss my connecting flight, so I rebooked onto a later one. During my layover I visited the gate agent to get a boarding pass with a seat assignment. "Do you have the Delta app?" "Nope." Then he pressed a few keys on his keyboard and printed out a new boarding pass for me within five seconds. I couldn't believe he was tryi…

MLB is the exact opposite of this. You can't get tickets without the Ballpark app. No paper tickets at most stadiums. The app asks for all sorts of personal info too (which I usually spoof). They're even trying for biometric check-in now.

I have managed to print out a paper ticket (from some dark corner of the website) and scan it on the barcode scanner at an MLB stadium. The employees were surprised it worked.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#413

Post by abustamam »

fallinghawks wrote: post #341
port11 wrote: post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit might be worse, actually, given their app is mediocre at best and they killed 3rd-party apps.

In the last couple months if you go to their site in a mobile browser (e.g. from search results), after a short scroll down they have this popup demanding you install their app and it completely takes over the screen. I take it as a reminder never to install their app.

Ublock origin on Firefox has an option to disable this which is nice.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#414

Post by jitbit »

Gmail mobile app doesn't let me search in the "trash" or "spam" folder.

Opening Gmail in mobile browser does not work too.

I have to open it in the browser - then "request mobile website" - then try to search there - aaaahnd it still reset to the mobile version ever other request.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#415

Post by drnick1 »

sebastiennight wrote: post #310
nunez wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% same. So many apps are just a WebView vessel for Crashlytics and Sentry and Dog knows how much more tracking. (My phone is always VPNed into my home network which has DNS-level ad and tracker blocking. This doesn't cover all the bases though.) Some, like Home Depot, have websites that are terrible and battery-draining enough to make the app nominally useful by comparison.

> My phone is always VPNed into my home network which has DNS-level ad and tracker blocking. I've been looking to do this setup. Would you share a few details of which tools you've used?

My setup is similar: A server at home runs Unbound for recursive DNS, filtered by Hagezi's blacklists. The phone (running GrapheneOS) consumes the DNS service through a Wireguard tunnel. This is 100% self-hosted and does not rely on Tailscale or a third-party DNS service. All the mobile carrier or WiFi hotspot used sees is a single encrypted connection to the server.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#416

Post by mikepurvis »

stackghost wrote: post #328
inigyou wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not carrying coins is your own fault, not the system's. You can't refuse the analog solutions and then complain the digital ones are too digital.

Digital solutions don't have to be abusive. Where I live the city commissioned its own mobile app for parking, and all numbered parking spots in the city use that app. There are private lots that use Honk or Robbins or whatever, but the municipal lots and all parallel parking spaces downtown all use the same single app and the revenue goes to the city. The city parking app works reasonably well, no ads, it just does…

That seems reasonable. The kiosk is still there to pay with cards or cash directly, but the app/website lets you skip that, avoid printing a slip, maybe buy a pass or something.

The risk is mainly that down the road someone looks at the usage numbers and goes hmm, well the kiosk is only getting used 5% of the time, let's just discontinue supporting it.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#417

Post by benjaminoakes »

steezeburger wrote: post #356
fallinghawks wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the last couple months if you go to their site in a mobile browser (e.g. from search results), after a short scroll down they have this popup demanding you install their app and it completely takes over the screen. I take it as a reminder never to install their app.

It's the worst on iPhone, because it won't even let me scroll back up to show the button to open the tabs view, I have to switch out of the browser and re-open it to be able to scroll to show.

Yikes, that shouldn't be possible.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#418

Post by reaperducer »

ericjmorey wrote: post #404
reaperducer wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do. With over 200,000 paying users. The Customer Service department (we're a real business, so we have one of those) forwards all email, social media, and phone contacts about it to me. Number of middle managers who have brought up having an app since 2019: Around five. Number of actual users who asked for an app since 2019: One. Maybe two. Your turn.

If you offered an app, do you think new customers would choose the app over a browser interface? Do you think most existing users would switch? Do you think there are many people who don't use your service because there's no app?

No.

No.

No, because that's not how our industry works.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#419

Post by a2tech »

mikepurvis wrote: post #334
a2tech wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Valid, though I expect this being down the block from the festival theatre, it probably was being actively patrolled. I was a bit shaken by a prominent sign threatening a $400 fine for illegal parking, though having just checked the website for the City of Stratford, it looks like the standard municipal parking ticket is $40 if paid promptly, so the $400 fine was probably specific to parking in the theatre's dropoff…

Yeah usually that’s for fire parking etc. loading zones don’t usually get the super high fine treatment.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#420

Post by mikepurvis »

rovr138 wrote: post #256
mikepurvis wrote: post #218

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…

I have like 5 parking apps. It's exhausting. The worst part is not that, but.. _which is the app for this area?_

It's definitely a case where I see the value of the Asia-style super apps, where you just attach transactions like this to LINE or Grab or whatever, and everyone knows what to do with it.

The only thing remotely comparable in Toronto might be if Presto (payment app for multiple transit agencies in GTHA) took on parking payment, but the Presto network now supports just tapping a credit card so I don't know how many people would be getting cards or using the app for that either.

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