Mostly I am quite tired of the 30 step onboarding funnel all apps have. I was trying out a fitness app and the second I opened it, I was about step 9 into it and I just deleted the app.
I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
111–120 of 599 posts
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reddit comes to mind. I have so many issues with their mobile website. The back button has been broken for years, comments will frequently just hang as loading indefinitely (only fixable with a hard refresh), videos will sometimes not be replayable, sometimes if you change the zoom on the page it will just hard refresh, etc. I'm not sure if it is intentional to push you to the mobile app, but I have to imagine the mo…
Their mobile app sucks too. They just killed /r/all recently.
you can launch it from a comment linking to r/All (with a as upper case) iirc. How long that'll still be available, I have no clue, but I like to imagine the devs who work on reddit realise how braindead of a decision removing it is but have to please the shareholders by removing any obvious access of it
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Alternatively, they could just make the web UI good.
This isn't an alternative for the user (the person you're replying to).
I can't think of a web app that really feels like a (good) native one. For example, I would never use Google Calendar as a web app / Google Maps as a web app as they're far inferior IMHO
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#114It depends. The parking app example is an example of an app I want, for so many reasons
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
> some web UIs nowadays are so bad and the app so good that I'm not sure this always holds true. This is by design to force you install the app. Most of these days, I just treat it as a signal to neither use the app nor the website.
If it's really "by design" then you are saying they have a staff of web developers who are told, "No, no, no... all that quality work you're capable of--don't do it. Here are some JIRA tickets to make the web site shitty and slow and eat the user's battery. Go implement them and make everything worse!" What kind of sad, self-loathing software developer sits down and says "OK boss, whatever you say, boss, gonna go mak…
It's usually done in such small portions the developers don't know exactly what they're doing. That, or they've become so numb to it to not really care
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#116I don't understand it from the app developers point of view. Having to pay app store cuts over basic card processing fees. I understand the appeal of access to a market, like selling on eBay gets you eyeballs. But once you have a customer using their app, what does the app give you that a PWA doesn't unless you need access to specific sensors / file system access patterns etc?
Lock-in - and not even some evil thing; just if you're used to using the eBay app you're less likely to go somewhere else.
I think it's somewhat misguided, but companies gonna company.
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#117This is my stance as well, but keep in mind that a lot of people have the opposite preference. They didn't grow up with the world wide web. They only started using technology when Android and iPhone was popular. They only know Whatsapp, Youtube, TikTok. They're not used to using the browser. There's a meme that "Gen Z Kids Don't Understand How File Systems Work" [0] So, it'll depend on your target audiences. [0] http…
When you say "meme", it sounds like it might not be true. But, a few years ago I handed my stepson a USB flash drive with some files on it, he plugged it into his laptop and the very first thing he did was launch Google Chrome and then not have any clue what to do to access the files (it was a Windows laptop).
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#118Yes and now I use AI to build any website which locks me into their workflow and run it locally how I choose!
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#119What most people dont get: Most of folks on HN here are much older than todays "first customers" of 16y/17/18 For them: The "Smartphone is the internet", while for most of us the "Smartphone is an extension of the internet from our desktops" that we were used to (remember the years before dot com bubble, saying: "I will be down in the basement at the computer to surf on the net little bit" ? :-) But today, the very f…
The generation conflict doesn't justify to permanently bug me with "install our app, it's awesome". It ends up with terrible UX.
Re: I won't download your app. The web version is a-ok
#120The site that irks me the most here is New York Times. Opening an article in the mobile browser often has a toast over the bottom third of the article to open it in their app for "a better experience". I struggle to think how nytimes isn't a perfect fit for a site over an app. The only frustrating experience I have with the web version that would be better in the app is not seeing that that pop-up.
NYT occasionally uses fancy interactive articles. They have games, and other things that are better on the app. The NYT app is actually very good