171–180 of 230 posts
I cannot possibly think of something I would want to use less. A Snapchat-developed UI framework where communication is done via Discord sounds like something carefully designed to repulse me.
I looked at the source code (as an amateur application developer) and boy, is it over-engineered and complex! Then I remember having built a complex Cordova app more than a decade ago, where I had to make C++, JNI and Javascript interop all play nice and this project feels a lot like that. Lots of moving parts. I suppose this is just the way things are when you are targetting such different ecosystems as Android and…
Not only are they often overengineered (at least, for the vast majority of people's usecases), but adopting them means you're adopting a consistently moving target who's priorities are chasing whatever trend BigTech has convinced itself is The Next Big Thing(TM) - often reinventing the wheel yet again in the process - whether you're on board or not. Not to mention possibly getting caught up in change-of-licensing issues (eg Terraform switching to BSL/BUSL) or cult-of-personality drama by the maintainers (Wordpress)
There is a place for these frameworks, even beyond their use in the house they were built at and for, but for the vast majority of usecases, they're not merely overcomplicated, but continually changing in their complexity to boot.
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I have never once experienced a WebView app that I would say had “a really good experience.”
It’s because if a webview app experience is good, you don’t notice it, you only notice if it’s bad. A while ago saw a blog link on HN that explained how Apple uses it everywhere and we never notice it because they are done well. Of course I can’t find that link now, I summon the HN gods…
Working at a company that uses react-native I wish nothing more than for the end of app stores and differing platform languages. We're heavily considering just having a website next year with a mobile app using webview, and then native code for the native notifications, GPS and healthkit / health connect. I feel like AI is changing the equation, its nearly better to write your business UI 3 times one for each platfor…
> its nearly better to write your business UI 3 times one for each platform. Anyone have any experience of doing this for a complex and long-life app? Sounds like a nightmare that would increase friction and decrease development fun by x10 because of the huge overhead and tedium of having to keep your features and tests in sync across platform for every change you want to iterate on, and requiring developers be profi…
When it comes to native stuff it get’s tricky. As always it really depends on the use case of the app. In our case we develop a navigation app using a native SDK to show a map + turn-by-turn nav + offline maps etc. This is probably the most non ideal use case for a hybrid app. We developed a few plugins to share data between js /native to initialize the map etc. However, the idea of sharing business logic is long gone. There’s so much stuff that’s happening natively and each time we implement it on Android, we have to switch to iOS and implement the Swift version of it.
Some others have also mentioned that a single person now has to know three platforms (iOS, android and Cordova (in our case with ionic + angular). This is true and the real downside. I’m quite familiar with iOS and android yet I’d never call myself a native iOS / Android developer. Yet, I’ve to write so much native code regarding permission handling, geolocation, threading (Ui/non-ui) and there’s always a ton to stuff happening from version to version (e.g. 16 KB Page Size on Android, iOS support for rotation the device/adaptive layout on iPadOS, etc). This is where a lot of time is lost. And the time is not only lost there but also with unmaintained outdated community plugins you suddenly need to understand and fix.
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Yes, Apple's apps are really really bad - including the app store. I am not even sure whether that app store can be considered a stand alone app or we should call it part of the OS. A webview app is by design bad. Webviews were made for one thing - web views.
The app store is the only application that I am aware of that you can't find through spotlight search. You can search the app store directly from spotlight search, but it will never list the App Store as an app. Very annoying.
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I have never once experienced a WebView app that I would say had “a really good experience.”
I have experienced the opposite with Zed, which has its own bespoke UI framework - it behaved somewhat unexpectedly and didn't work exactly how I'm used to an UI to behave giving me this uncanny feeling. This kinda shows you how much effort and experience goes into getting an UI framework right, and the long tail quirks (of which there are a zillion) matter for UX, and while I appreciate they took on the task of brea…
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I have never once experienced a WebView app that I would say had “a really good experience.”
I use Voyager, a client for Lemmy, on a daily basis and it’s my favorite mobile (iPad) app. Voyager is the spiritual successor to the Apollo client for Reddit. https://github.com/aeharding/voyager The app uses Ionic’s Capacitor, which to my rudimentary understanding is the webview-based upgrade of Cordova. I’ve had far fewer issues with this app than the likes of Bluesky (react native) and Discord (I think also react…
Working at a company that uses react-native I wish nothing more than for the end of app stores and differing platform languages. We're heavily considering just having a website next year with a mobile app using webview, and then native code for the native notifications, GPS and healthkit / health connect. I feel like AI is changing the equation, its nearly better to write your business UI 3 times one for each platfor…
4.2 Minimum Functionality Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store. If your App doesn’t provide some sort of lasting entertainment value or adequate utility, it may not be accepted. Apps that are simply a song or movie should be submitted to the iTunes Store. Apps that are simply a book or game guide should be submitted to the Apple Books Store.
I’m not sure I trust snap of all companies to make a good cross platform framework after how terrible their android app has been.
I think it’s been changed since, but wow was it weird finding out that instead of taking photos, the Android app used to essentially take a screenshot of the camera view.
Blame Google if you want to blame anyone. They could have mandated maximum shutter lag times (maybe they do now, I don't know).
Just write 2 native UIs in the 2 platform native languages and share a common core written in any language that offers a C like FFI. How hard could it be?
Every time I see a new project like Valdi, I am hoping for something that is truly magical and cross platform, but I'm always steered away by comments like yours and people saying "you have to do native".
For context, I am a dev, and I've done RN apps in the past.