The irritating part is that, even if I decide I want the app, I still have to use the website to see the particular piece of content I was linked to. Most sites just tell you to get their app, they don't deep link into the app when you do have it.
Even worse: I can't recall the number of times I've clicked 'No thanks' on a 'Download our app'-page, only to get redirected to the homepage, instead of the page I was originally supposed to view.
Server attention span is still terrible, as explained by XKCD: http://xkcd.com/869/
On Android, my personal pet peeve are apps that don't bother to handle their own links. Fine. You've made a special mobile app for your site and "convinced" (i.e. nagged) me to download it. If your app is so gosh-darn wonderful, why the fsck can't I use it whenever I'm using your site? Third-party app Twitter apps can figure this out. Why not you? Hint: The answer probably is that your app isn't nearly as wonderful a…
Bhe, Github handles all the github.com links. Yet, when it's not something supported by their app (like 95% of the links I stumble upon), they simply redirect the handling to a browser. The result is: - Click github link. - Prompt menu : which application do you wish to use? List of browsers and the github app. - Click on github. - Github loads, then... - Prompt menu : which application do you wish to use? List of br…
This is a problem in Android OS. App have to handle all URLs with a certain prefix (or maybe for a while domain?), not a regex pattern they want. Google itself got burned by this, and they didn't even bother building a workaround like github did. It was just mostly impossible to shop for a Nexus device on a Nexus device, since Play hijacked all play.google.com links and then failed to actually show content, since Nexus devices weren't in the native Play Store
Sadly this is probably a business decision and not a user experience decision. If I know I'm going to have my website there every time you tap to your homescreen or do a search on your phone I know that I'm probably more likely to convert you.
Users aren't going to convert because they want to do you a favor. These "download our app" prompts feel like a beg for a favor.
You underestimate the gullible sheepishness of mass media consumers.
> You spend the time and money developing an app, and you want your visitors to know about the app The problem is that you're thinking about what you want, not what your users want. Your users want to view whatever content they came to your webpage to view. stop getting in the way of that with your wants. the answer really is that all such things suck, your position just seems to be that you don't care how much they…
Here you are just projecting your own underinfomed feelings about it on everyone else. Is there no situation where you see an app as being superior to the website? For AppShopper.com, yes the app is the superior experience to the mobile web. There were overwhelming requests for an app. We made the app to serve our users. Our goals and user goals are not always mutually exclusive.
If you maintain an app that offers the same core functionality as the website, and the user can accomplish their Immediate goal on the website, adding the unnecessary step of transferring over to the app is never a superior experience. Simple as that. The only valid case for prompting a user to open your app is when their goal can't be accomplished on the web. Anything else is promotion serving your goals, not the user's.
Many people do care. It gives context to short emails or emails with errors.
Then change it to 'Sent from my phone.' - changing it is a couple clicks, and anybody advertising a product in every message they send deserves any derision they get.
Knowing which device they are on helps me in small ways I don't even consciously remember. For example if someone replied and I knew they are on an iPad this moment, I know that I probably can't expect them to easily sign the PDF agreement I'm about to send and if I really want it. Ack urgently, I should provide an iPad-friendly method to sign and return.
This becomes crucial when you are doing back and forth between potential customers.
Worst part is, most of these apps are essentially browsers. There is no additional content or interesting extra functionality being offered... just same old content, only formatted differently. So, this concept of installing a new browser every time I visit an unfamiliar site, really is ridiculous. This is almost as bad as "here's a mobile version of our site, opened automatically for your convenience". If your site…
I completely agree. I don't want to install for every website I use. I simply would prefer fluid design or mobile site, even full site over annoying privacy threatening apps. So proper HTML5 site (even with offline features), no app, simply perfect.
Many people do care. It gives context to short emails or emails with errors.
Then change it to 'Sent from my phone.' - changing it is a couple clicks, and anybody advertising a product in every message they send deserves any derision they get.
Then change it to 'Sent from my phone.' - changing it is a couple clicks, and anybody advertising a product in every message they send deserves any derision they get.
Knowing which device they are on helps me in small ways I don't even consciously remember. For example if someone replied and I knew they are on an iPad this moment, I know that I probably can't expect them to easily sign the PDF agreement I'm about to send and if I really want it. Ack urgently, I should provide an iPad-friendly method to sign and return. This becomes crucial when you are doing back and forth between…
You can indicate form-factor / device type without advertising/branding the fact.
Then change it to 'Sent from my phone.' - changing it is a couple clicks, and anybody advertising a product in every message they send deserves any derision they get.
If you're replying to someone you don't mind getting snarky with, you can always sign your message "Sent from my Atari".