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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

#121

Post by shawn-butler »

samcheng wrote: post #100
superuser2 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're referring, of course, to Android's broken and user-hostile permission model. This is not true of iOS.

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?

This comment makes no sense to me. The "While Using" is a user setting / choice in the Privacy options.

It corresponds to kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedWhenInUse authorization status in the SDK.

If an app tries to use any of the background location API without the user having previously authorized kCLAuthorizationStatusAuthorizedAlways (and I believe the user is prompted again in a few days after the initial authorization by iOS8+) the app API calls are denied access with an error code representing unauthorized.

It has been my experience that adding the "Location updates" background mode capability indicating to Apple that your app requires background location sets off closer review during the app store acceptance process.

I have had apps rejected that a reviewer felt did not have a good enough text "reason" for requiring location tracking displayed to the user in the message box.

There are many reasons for a Yelp-type app legitimately to know about your location while not in use. It could make better recommendations, limit searches to "local" sites, etc.

None of this of course stops iOS itself from "spying" on you. The CLVisit seems to be always recording but experts with more knowledge on that topic than me might know how to turn it off.

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

#122

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#123

Post by Encosia »

mnem wrote: post #26

What the report is based on: a median value selected from the traffic to 42 of the top US websites (it ignores those which don't have both and app and a website) from data provided by Comscore. The term "traffic" is never defined. Web requests? Quantity of data transferred? Both of those would have significantly shapes depending on whether the client was a browser or an app. It's also interesting to note that the top…

The y-axis is labeled "Unique Visitors".

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

#124

Post by dogma1138 »

davemel37 wrote: post #120
dogma1138 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Could also be the case, tho it's a bit hard to tell since you don't know how they've accessed the content, however if mobile browser would blow like they did only a handful of years ago that wouldn't be a viable approach. Content access apps like TapTalk are pretty much dead, the only big community i know that still cares about their app is XDA-Developers which well is a very niche community to begin with.

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

#125

Post by gergles »

chadgeidel wrote: post #113
lhl wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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".

These are likely old apps. App Store review guidelines will force them to include "While Using" when updating it, I believe.

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

#126

Post by andrepd »

CountSessine wrote: post #114
andrepd wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm on 5.0 and it's under Settings > Security > App Permisions. I can select each permission in each app and switch individual permissions from the default of Allow to Deny or Ask. I'm on a stock ROM.

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

#127

Post by andrepd »

tdkl wrote: post #98
andrepd wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember having switchable permissions since 4.3. Did something change in the meantime?

AppOps got canned since 4.4 in AOSP and are coming back in 6.0.

It went away in 4.4 but I have it again on 5.0. I had to use Xposed to get it to work on 4.4 but now it's on again by default. I see people complaining it's not present in 5.0, though. Strange...

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

#128

Post by LoSboccacc »

davnicwil wrote: post #111
LoSboccacc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 popp…

address bar popping up over content [true] popups offering to remember passwords [solved] typing in a url rather than tapping an icon [solved]

we're not that far from a good user experience. even the bar problem is only ios specific, android browsers have a better support for full screen apps

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

#129

Post by LoSboccacc »

jzzskijj wrote: post #71
LoSboccacc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 other thing is privacy. I don't want to give every service a "full access" into my phone. At least I have a feeling, that my privacy is in better hands, if I access services using up-to-date mobile browser (or Tinfoil for Facebook) instead of a native app running on my phone. Looking at the ridiculous number of permissions different apps would require to run on my (Android) phone, using mobile site of the most of…

you are right about privacy, but if you follow the thread the parent already makes a good point of user already having been desensitized about app security permission by them being confusing and only really understood by few

I agree that the current browsers represent an exceptionally good model to run remote applications securely, far better than the app store / play store 'sandbox' and 'vetting processes' model, since has been used since forever and tested again loads of different attack vectors.

but I don't know if this is the reason for non nerds not to use native apps

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

#130

Post by LoSboccacc »

jeromenerf wrote: post #109
LoSboccacc wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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)

Offline storage is a great competitive advantage for apps.

uhm while WebSQL and IndexDB aren't mature enough, wrapping libraries that grant some cross platform offline storage do exist and are only getting better
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