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“It works better in the app”

shkspr.mobi

471–480 of 496 posts

Re: “It works better in the app”

#471

I recently got a Seattle ultrasonics knife, and it was mentioned in the email associated with my purchase it might need a software update I rolled my eyes and braced for the inevitable pretty but buggy and slow app. It didn't use an app. It used the Bluetooth functionality built into chrome and it's derivatives to talk to the knife, update it, and perform a calibration I've only ever used the Bluetooth and serial for…

Yeah, we have one, and same thing. Bluetooth to a web URL on the phone and boom, new sharpening angle calibrator just works! Love not having to download a separate app.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#472
post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is much less about Google developers not using their apps. My experience as a Googler is that people are actually quite good about working on apps they themselves use frequently. "Dogfooding" is a common term around the office. What I think is going on here is: * You have some app developers working on an app and caring about its particular user experience. * Then you have framework UX designers/develope…

The silver bullet is caring. There must be someone working on that app who notices those pain points. "The turtoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs, trying to turn itself over but it can't, not without your help. But you're not helping." Why is that? Perhaps they're incentivised not to care. Perhaps the job is just a paycheque. Perhaps they mirror those around them. Either way, the…

Caring is a necessary but not sufficient condition. The people who care must also be in positions to do something about it, which can be difficult in very large organizations that are also trying to make large coordinated systemic changes like moving to a new design system.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#474
post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [1]The "reasons" primarily are that Apple refused to support PWAs, hamstrung mobile Safari, and refused to allow third-party browsers. So while it's true that native apps can offer a better experience than mobile web apps, that's mostly just because Apple artificially restricts web apps. This is disingenuous. Quoting Steve Jobs himself: > We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software…

But all of those problems with 3rd party libraries also do exist in native iOS development?

Hence Jobs’ rationale for providing native SDKs for iOS development. It wasn’t about any third-party libraries per se, it was about wanting the native SDKs to be the principal way to deliver experiences on the platform. I’m not entirely sure it was borne out by history, but that was his reasoning at least.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please provide your proof of this statement

Data from your own users is the most useful, but here's some published data. There's plenty more to be found and of course methodology, quality and intention varies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK616185 https://www.aba.com/news-research/analysis-guides/preferred-... https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-IAB-Glob...

Very interesting links thank you

Re: “It works better in the app”

#476
post #366

"Never let an abuser take you to a secondary location": It's OK to offer an app, but if a site is pushing, pressuring or forcing you to get one, it's almost certainly because they want to do something abusive that they currently can't. Installing an app is a matter of trust; trying to push me to install one against my will is the best way to demonstrate that you should not be trusted. (Interestingly, I've heard a sta…

I'm a mobile dev and know the iOS ecosystem quite well, i can assure you that iOS APIs are locked and developers can access very little user data without user consent. What an iOS user is vulnerable to is fingerprinting (not too different than what happens on web tbh) and 0days. But given how valuable iOS 0days are it's unlikely they are used inside large scale generic apps and not for targeted attacks. Also it's unl…

Actually there are a lot of information that an app can do by default without asking for any permissions. You can check this opensource iOS app: https://github.com/mysk-research/loupe

For instance: check if some apps are installed or not, and a lot of small informations about your device that can fingerprint your phone with 100% accuracy (like the exact time where the phone was setup).

Re: “It works better in the app”

#477
post #201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Safari on iOS 27 lets you design custom personal browser extensions and customizations just by writing out what you want.

This sounds cool at first but I think I really want vetted, up-to-date, edge-case-covered community extensions. You know, like we already have without arTiFicIAl ‘inteligence’.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#478

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.

I think you can just tap the tab bar to bring the controls back. Works for me on whatever iOS this is before “Lucas would be proud with this numbering” 26.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#479
post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I'd be clever and use iOS's "Hide Distracting Items" to get rid of elements like that. But reddit kills the scroll, too, so even after the dickover[0] is gone the page is still non-functional. Nothing says, "we don't want your business" like a non-functional web page, which seems like a bad move unless you're selling food or potable water. 'cuz I get along just fine w/o reddit. [0] https://daringfireball.ne…

> 'cuz I get along just fine w/o reddit. Killing xcancel and nitter was an awesome callout that I was again spending too much time on social media, even if logged out. Back to my cave.

Reddit does have great communities, and can be useful even when you’re logged out.

Making their website really crappy does mean I use it, like, 15 minutes a week, as opposed to 1h/day on Apollo. It’s indeed a positive.

Re: “It works better in the app”

#480
post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought I'd be clever and use iOS's "Hide Distracting Items" to get rid of elements like that. But reddit kills the scroll, too, so even after the dickover[0] is gone the page is still non-functional. Nothing says, "we don't want your business" like a non-functional web page, which seems like a bad move unless you're selling food or potable water. 'cuz I get along just fine w/o reddit. [0] https://daringfireball.ne…

I've been trying to figure out for years how to keep specific bits of Javascript like that from triggering. But so many modern webpages are procedurally generated messes born from frameworks that I can't reliably track down a way to do it. On Reddit for example there's reddit.com, redd.it, redditstatic.com, and cdn-apple.com that are all subdomains that load on the page, and each pull Javascript from dozens of differ…

Many websites might be broken, but I’d like a toggle to disable listening for scroll events. And no overflow overrides on major and screen-wide elements.
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