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Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

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Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#111

Post by davnicwil »

LoSboccacc wrote: post #67
arrrg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble. I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones),…

poeple especially don't need apps of 150mb+ each, and premium phones come with limited storage forcing costly upgrades on top of an hefty price. the only competitive advantage for apps is push notifications, and the sooner browsers and phones can build that into a standard the better (including opening the right page when clicking on a specific service notification)

> the only competitive advantage for apps is push notifications

Don't know about that. What about UX? It's pretty well accepted now that the native controls in apps provide a much less frustrating UX than all but the most meticulously designed web apps, which is a very low percentage right at the top. That's just talking about controls, that's not even to mention the clunkiness of the browser itself (address bar popping up over content, popups offering to remember passwords, all that kind of stuff that detracts from your tailored experience) and to an extent the navigation model (typing in a url rather than tapping an icon for instantaneous checking of a service). Simple stuff like this really matters to the majority of people.

For technically-minded people, we're not as distracted or put off by this 'minor' stuff because we understand the trade offs, reasons for it, depth of it and even how to work around it. Most people don't, they just (probably rightly based on evidence) trust apps to deliver a better and more tailored UX and that's it, that's what they like and want more of.

Don't get me wrong, I love the web, for probably much the same reasons you do. One advantage it definitely has is the ability to avoid downloading apps in the first place. But its competitive disadvantages vs native apps go way beyond push notifications. There's are a lot of things so deeply baked in to the web and browsers that apps do so much better that it will take (software) generations to 'fix', if at all.

Unfortunately for the web, as seen in the last five years or so, these are disadvantages that really, really matter to the majority of people who actually use services. Much more so than the higher level, arguably 'more important' things like security, privacy, storage space, etc that us techies tend to prioritise.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#112

Post by superuser2 »

lhl wrote: post #108
samcheng wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS allows apps to be pretty user-hostile, too. A bunch of apps require location tracking 'always' or 'never' but without an option for 'while using.' Why would I want the Yelp app to know my location when I am not using it?

It's not ideal, but FYI you can manually go into Privacy > Location Services and change to "While Using" for any app.

I just checked this, and on that page some apps do in fact only offer totally disabled or Always. Seems like an oversight that could be fixed with a software update though.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#113

Post by chadgeidel »

lhl wrote: post #108
samcheng wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS allows apps to be pretty user-hostile, too. A bunch of apps require location tracking 'always' or 'never' but without an option for 'while using.' Why would I want the Yelp app to know my location when I am not using it?

It's not ideal, but FYI you can manually go into Privacy > Location Services and change to "While Using" for any app.

Not for any app. As the grandparent pointed out, many many apps don't give the "While Using" permission. It's only "Always" or "Never".

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#114

Post by CountSessine »

andrepd wrote: post #84
ekianjo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Play Store and installing APK's shows you a full list of permissions that the app will have access to before installing. If you're not happy with it, just don't install the app. That's a shitty way to do things. You should be able to revoke access to things the app is asking and still use the (then crippled) app. There are tons of apps who ask way more access rights than they need (obviously not related to thei…

You can do that, I think. After installing an app you can go the the app settings and disable specific permissions.

Where? I don't see that anywhere in my settings. I'd consider installing the Facebook app again if I could yank all of its privileges. I'm 99% certain that this is NOT an option anymore, post 4.4.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#115

Post by CountSessine »

andybak wrote: post #59
ekianjo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The Play Store and installing APK's shows you a full list of permissions that the app will have access to before installing. If you're not happy with it, just don't install the app. That's a shitty way to do things. You should be able to revoke access to things the app is asking and still use the (then crippled) app. There are tons of apps who ask way more access rights than they need (obviously not related to thei…

Just to note - Android M moves to just in time permissions.

Only for apps that use the new API level, unfortunately. Unless they do what cyanogen does and fake the data exposed, which I guarantee Google won't do.

It's going to be extraordinarily confusing for users who end up exposing their personal data, thinking that an old-API app will be constrained when running on their new 6.0 OS.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#116

Post by err4nt »

kombine wrote: post #18

Isn't it because the browser loads user interface and code all the time (sure, there's caching, but still), while apps only load data?

You can create VERY lightweight offline-cacheable offline apps, try adding this to your home screen:

App: http://staticresource.com/quotes.html

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#117

Post by reitanqild »

tempestn wrote: post #103
arrrg wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble. I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones),…

I agree with your point. Do you think it could have been phrased differently though, since some people might take offense at their perspective (and by implication, them) being called nerdy? (Obviously not the most dire of insults, and not an insult at all to many people - yourself included, probably - but still probably unpleasant to some.)

I'm one of the people who could have been insulyed and I say please STOP. Stop this nonsense where we cannot even describe anything.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#118

Post by dogma1138 »

no_gravity wrote: post #6

The difference between web and app is trust. A website has write access to my screen, my speakers and my internet connection. Plus limited read access. To keyboard, mouse, device orientation etc. Other rights can be granted (location, cookies etc). It can do all this only as long as it's "open". An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the m…

It's more likely that sites became better at supporting mobile browsers and mobile browsers just became better in general. This all leads to a better mobile browsing experience, javascript runs better on mobiles now, and site developers have learned what works and what doesn't, sites aren't Flash sponges anymore (which was the case even for sites with Mobile support 5 years ago), HTML5 and other W3C standards have taken off, the mobile screens even on low-end devices are usually similar to desktop/laptop screens in resolution. People rarely care about their privacy, they auto accept pretty much anything that an app requests, Apple's lockdown of the permissions might help that case a bit, but again not because of privacy but because of the hassle of having to go into the settings and enable individual access for apps, this doesn't make people care for their privacy just annoyed and can't be bothered.

Content distribution and companion apps made sense when you needed to go mobile 5 years ago, when redoing your entire site to support mobile was too expensive and even then it wouldn't be a good experience due to how poor mobile browsers performed back then. Now it makes absolutely no sense, it's another thing you need to support and worry about which costs money, it's much harder to make people download an app than press a link, and in the current "link-content-sharing" (e.g. outbrain) eco systems most sites operate in it makes very little sense since allot of the traffic is generated by those click-baity "25 reasons why Node is now considered harmful" links you have at the bottom of each TechCrunch article. And on top of that even a low-end phone will usually have a 1080p(or close enough) screen, 2GB of RAM (unless it's an Iphone ;)) and a quad/hex core CPU which is more than capable of running pretty much any browser served content today mobile or not.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#119

Post by davemel37 »

arrrg wrote: post #54
no_gravity wrote: post #6

The difference between web and app is trust. A website has write access to my screen, my speakers and my internet connection. Plus limited read access. To keyboard, mouse, device orientation etc. Other rights can be granted (location, cookies etc). It can do all this only as long as it's "open". An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the m…

That is such a nerdy perspective, totally stuck in the filter bubble. I don’t think that explains the difference at all. I think it’s about convenience. People don’t want to use apps for the diverse things they do on the web all the time. Apps may be convenient if you use them frequently (and then only marginally, especially with improving speeds and more people paying attention to making websites usable on phones),…

You are partially right. It is about convenience, but it is really about the convenience of search and the proliferation of voice search.

I don't even know anymore what apps I have on my phone.

I simply search and let Google search my phone and the internet at the same time and I click on the most convenient result.

Re: Mobile browser traffic is 2X bigger than app traffic, and growing faster

#120

Post by davemel37 »

dogma1138 wrote: post #118
no_gravity wrote: post #6

The difference between web and app is trust. A website has write access to my screen, my speakers and my internet connection. Plus limited read access. To keyboard, mouse, device orientation etc. Other rights can be granted (location, cookies etc). It can do all this only as long as it's "open". An app usually has read/write access to large parts of my device. The whole sd-card, raw internet access, the camera, the m…

It's more likely that sites became better at supporting mobile browsers and mobile browsers just became better in general. This all leads to a better mobile browsing experience, javascript runs better on mobiles now, and site developers have learned what works and what doesn't, sites aren't Flash sponges anymore (which was the case even for sites with Mobile support 5 years ago), HTML5 and other W3C standards have ta…

This is true at the layer of "why mobile browsers are capable of competing and beating app usage today"... the ante to get in the game...

But, the reason people are using browsers more than apps is simply because search is becoming the main use case of a smartphone.

I never look for an app on my phone beyond my home screen anymore, I just search or voice search my phone and expect it to either direct me to an app on my phone, or a search results page in Google.

I dont care where the solution to my need lives, I just want the quickest, easiest access to that solution.

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