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Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

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Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#21

Post by sehr »

johnpjoseph wrote: post #5

Interesting that a smallish magazine is moving away from native mobile back to web while not too long ago I saw that some large retail company discontinued their mobile web site and require use of their native app (flipkart I think). I don't think expecting a new audience just because you have an app is reasonable. I'd be interested in seeing how many new users they generate with just the mobile web site - I suspect…

They might be focusing on being a pit stop v a destination, catering to in app views and being shared mostly via Twitter and all that

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#22

Post by sehr »

lewisl9029 wrote: post #13
rokhayakebe wrote: post #8

I suspect the reason many think they prefer apps is the one-click launch and the automated bookmark created on your screen. If a mobile browser behaved like an appstore (Search for website, See results, Click to Install, i.e. bookmark), you would have the same behavior, downloads, and most people would not be able to tell whether they are using an app, web app, or website.

This is exactly what the Hosted Web App and Web App Manifest Specs are meant to address: http://www.w3.org/TR/appmanifest/ Unfortunately, the two largest mobile platforms (iOS and Android) don't have native support for these specs yet. And I'm not sure if they ever will properly support them since they'd probably prefer to keep the free developer lock-in they get with their native app platforms. In the mean time thou…

I don't use android, but I remember hearing about it trying to blur the lines between apps & browser tabs. They might be more amenable to the idea of browser apps considering web advertising is their cash cow too IIRC

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#23

Post by stephengillie »

idibidiart wrote: post #9

The web is a great publishing medium for magazines and news outlets. Apps are for doing stuff beyond passive browsing.

Choosing the mobile website over the app is one way of keeping the relationship from going any further. A website can't ask you for your contact list like an app can.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#24

Post by bsilvereagle »

tootie wrote: post #16
dpeck wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres quite a set of privacy concerns wrt tracking and data sharing while using the browser as well. Seems like even drawbacks on all sides at best.

Apps are just as bad. Worse because you can't see if you're transmitting over https or not.

You could argue that apps are worse since they can cert pin and prevent you from mitm'ing your https traffic - you have no clue what data is being sent.

With browsers (for now, Chrome on iOS may start/be cert pinning) you can install a cert and still mitm.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#25

Post by _delirium »

mark_l_watson wrote: post #7

+1 for the article As a web vs. app proponent I love this. I do have a few apps installed on my Note 4 but I prefer getting Twitter, FB, etc. as a web site. Web standards like HTML5 are wonderful so let's use them and make the web awesome. My brother and one friend each have a few hundred apps installed on their phones. I am sometimes surprised that their phones still function with so much cruft installed, never mind…

Websites also can't spam you with push notifications the way installed apps can, so I strongly prefer them as a user. But I suspect this is one reason companies like apps.

I'm not sure whether it's my imagination, but this seems to have gotten a lot worse in the past year or two, and is no longer limited to apps from shady no-name companies. Apps from reputable companies used to try to have some plausible reason related to your actual use of the app for a notification, but lately Yelp and Hotwire have just started brazenly spamming ads unrelated to any activity. So I uninstalled those two, and am now much more resistant to installing new ones.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#26

Post by voltagex_ »

stephengillie wrote: post #23
idibidiart wrote: post #9

The web is a great publishing medium for magazines and news outlets. Apps are for doing stuff beyond passive browsing.

Choosing the mobile website over the app is one way of keeping the relationship from going any further. A website can't ask you for your contact list like an app can.

http://www.w3.org/TR/contacts-api/ - but I get your point.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#27

Post by seivan »

Could have used React and tried to share component source between iOS, Android and Web.

I mean since you're going to fully go web, I don't see the problem in this. It's all JavaScript anyway, unless you want to start playing with the hardware APIs.

Yeah you would have to write some of the UI layer differently, but I think it isn't that much. You can wrap your own UI components to use Android/iOS/Web internally.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#28

Post by GauntletWizard »

_delirium wrote: post #25
mark_l_watson wrote: post #7

+1 for the article As a web vs. app proponent I love this. I do have a few apps installed on my Note 4 but I prefer getting Twitter, FB, etc. as a web site. Web standards like HTML5 are wonderful so let's use them and make the web awesome. My brother and one friend each have a few hundred apps installed on their phones. I am sometimes surprised that their phones still function with so much cruft installed, never mind…

Websites also can't spam you with push notifications the way installed apps can, so I strongly prefer them as a user. But I suspect this is one reason companies like apps. I'm not sure whether it's my imagination, but this seems to have gotten a lot worse in the past year or two, and is no longer limited to apps from shady no-name companies. Apps from reputable companies used to try to have some plausible reason rela…

There's a web feature for push notifications; I got a dialogue box asking me if I wanted to enable it for Facebook the other day. It was easy enough to push No (since push notifications were one of the reasons I got rid of the @#$%er in the first place), but many people will still get those.

Re: Goodbye, Native Mobile Apps

#30

Post by calebegg »

rokhayakebe wrote: post #8

I suspect the reason many think they prefer apps is the one-click launch and the automated bookmark created on your screen. If a mobile browser behaved like an appstore (Search for website, See results, Click to Install, i.e. bookmark), you would have the same behavior, downloads, and most people would not be able to tell whether they are using an app, web app, or website.

Chrome for Android has a feature where if you visit the same site a few times in a two week period (or some sort of heuristic like that), the site can have it prompt you to add it to your homescreen:

http://updates.html5rocks.com/2015/03/increasing-engagement-...

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