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Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

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Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#131

Post by JeremyNT »

oferzelig wrote: post #87

The short business answer is that it's currently not a metric that influences people's decision to install or uninstall an app. If it were one, we would've seen an engineering effort to reduce bloatware and duplications as seen in the post.

Although I think you're exactly right, the irony is that they'll never actually be able to determine why somebody doesn't install an app due to this kind of junk. It's not like they can a/b test "bloated app" versus "good app" installation metrics, and they have no way to know why people are not installing something.

The trend towards huge installations is one of the many reasons I install as few apps as possible, especially in this class of "should have a fully functional web version" type social media things.

The damage is also cumulative: I have a perception that "apps" in general are likely to be huge piles of junk, so I'm reluctant to install any of them, regardless of their own merits. Even if LinkedIn were to spend the time improving their app it would suffer from the overall reputational damage to the entire ecosystem, and I still wouldn't even think to install it.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#132

Post by silent_cal »

klabb3 wrote: post #26

This is a perfect example of why the problem isn’t the stack, native vs web, or programming languages. I’ve been saying this for ages when people bash JS for being slow, or the web for being bloated. Yes, you pay a bit for the sandboxing, GC, rendering, built in accessibility. But that’s a rounding error when businesses, especially large ones, go on a PM-centric feature frenzy. You get out exactly what you put in. Pe…

Especially when everything's on 2 week sprint cycles, and all of those new features are rushed. We can refactor later!

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#133

Post by eddd-ddde »

JeremyNT wrote: post #131
oferzelig wrote: post #87

The short business answer is that it's currently not a metric that influences people's decision to install or uninstall an app. If it were one, we would've seen an engineering effort to reduce bloatware and duplications as seen in the post.

Although I think you're exactly right, the irony is that they'll never actually be able to determine why somebody doesn't install an app due to this kind of junk. It's not like they can a/b test "bloated app" versus "good app" installation metrics, and they have no way to know why people are not installing something. The trend towards huge installations is one of the many reasons I install as few apps as possible, es…

When I was in an internship, I needed a new library for some feature in one of the sites. The _first_ thing their PM objected on was bundle size. Only after confirming that adding my feature would bundle size remain sensible could I continue.

They are very sensitive over this kind of bloat over there, and it is definitely a key metric. You will even get a warning in your email if one of your builds increases bundle size too much!

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#134

Post by eddd-ddde »

gertop wrote: post #30
YouWhy wrote: post #14

TL;DR: There're few global incentives for a LinkedIn app developer to make an overall good app, as opposed to making their PM happy. In detail: This is how death by a thousand papercuts looks like. I've had the (dubious) pleasure of observing a roughly similar BigTech app project. There are likely 100s-1000s of app developers involved in the LinkedIn app, and they are likely under immense pressure to Just Ship Alread…

> There are likely 100s-1000s of app developers involved in the LinkedIn app I don't understand why you'd need 1000 or even 100 developers to produce such app. It's a CRUD frontend for a backend that already exists. What am I missing? Are you counting the developers of all the third party libs they integrate?

You are missing: - Every interaction needs to be recorded (metrics!) - Every interaction needs bot protection - A/B testing, show some users new stuff - Gather all that good user data for tracking and selling - Probably at some point they refactored the UI and now they maintain old and new stuff, they still ship everything of course

If you in the web app and open the network tab you will ve surprised how much junk they are moving around for a seemingly simple app.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#135

Post by mnw21cam »

xyst wrote: post #118
mnw21cam wrote: post #116

That's great. Now do one on why Microsoft Teams grinds away with 100% CPU on my laptop for a few minutes just to bring up my calendar, or why Outlook on Android freezes for a minute or so when looking at a single small email.

Microsoft Teams is so awful. Between the subpar audio and video quality, and performance issues with basic chat. The experience all around is awful. I wish my company would use something else but the CIO is hellbent on “rEdUcInG tHe nUmBeR oF tOoLs” and MS was apparently throwing in teams for “free” as part of o365 sub.

Having said that, even though I complain about Teams sitting there with 100% CPU while doing nothing that appears useful, at least it does actually manage to do video conferencing full screen (3200x1800) within the limits of the Intel Atom in my current laptop, which is more than I can say for Google Meet, which was jittering all over the place until I made the window really small and switched off my camera.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#136

Post by johnzimmerman »

passwordoops wrote: post #95
klabb3 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience PMs are not rewarded for good product, but rather a mix of shortsighted metrics and whatever their VP/senior person has on their personal agenda. At big companies, employees are often not even using their own products. The corporate ladder is all that matters. Obviously that’s not unique to the PM role, but seemingly more prevalent. I think it’s an effect of the rootless roaming you get when you spre…

>In my experience PMs are not rewarded for good product, but rather a mix of shortsighted metrics and whatever their VP/senior person has on their personal agenda. At big companies, employees are often not even using their own products. The corporate ladder is all that matters. YES YES YES. It's why I gave up on working as a product manager after nearly a decade. It's turned into KPI Management and everyone suffers,…

What career did you transition to?

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#137

Post by EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK »

tap-snap-or-nap wrote: post #114
drooopy wrote: post #70

Must be all those wonderful and oh-so-important “you are getting noticed” or “your profile was viewed” notifications piling up.

Deleted that toxic app since the covid. I just had it, it is working great for me so far.

Deleted that creepy app one minute after installing it, as it started trying to reconnect me with people from decades ago, whom I had no desire whatsoever to reconnect with.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#138

Post by mavelikara »

eptcyka wrote: post #84
marticode wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the case of Uber, the service they provide is highly dependent on where you are.

Whats the point? I will still want to know the price in both my and the local currency in the language I know.

This is not meant to be disrespectful, but it looks like you have not yet traveled to a location where Uber offers a service that is very different from the one they offer where you live.

I live in the US, use Uber, and have used Uber in India. The service offerings were very different in the two countries. I was glad that the same Uber app I used in the US, connected to my credit card, works well in India without needing a new app to be installed.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#139

Post by mavelikara »

vladxyz wrote: post #54
lifthrasiir wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think App Store's app thinning doesn't care about locales, so any such attempt should download an additional localization file from Uber's servers. While not technically impossible, it will mean that downloading an app is no longer sufficient to use the app; it should also go through the initial (or incremental) download, which was significant in the case of Uber's case (1 MB per locale according to the blog AFAIK)…

I mean, does it matter for an app like Uber? It's not a document editor, you'd never use it without an internet connection.

But the moment you need the new localization information, you'd have just gotten off a long flight in a new country on a data plan that might not be as cost-effective as your plan in your home country.

I believe they optimized for that usecase.

Re: Why is the LinkedIn app almost half a gig?

#140

Post by passwordoops »

johnzimmerman wrote: post #136
passwordoops wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>In my experience PMs are not rewarded for good product, but rather a mix of shortsighted metrics and whatever their VP/senior person has on their personal agenda. At big companies, employees are often not even using their own products. The corporate ladder is all that matters. YES YES YES. It's why I gave up on working as a product manager after nearly a decade. It's turned into KPI Management and everyone suffers,…

What career did you transition to?

My background is natural sciences, so I took a paycut to go back into an academic lab and rekindle my bench chops. Been really fun so far and my hope is to continue working in the field as a lab manager or researcher in the private sector. Won't pay as high as a software PM, but a lot more satisfying and healthy
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