Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native • Hacker News Board

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#441

Post by Brakenshire » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:09 AM UTC

kllrnohj wrote: post #319

onion2k wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a fair point but it's one about the current state of apps rather than the future of apps. In the future phones will be more powerful and apps will do mostly the same stuff. In theory that should mean the apps will be faster.

> In the future phones will be more powerful Single-core performance is largely topping out. The gains are incremental at best. Mobile SoCs have gone incredibly multi-core incredibly quickly (6-8 cores are common!). Meanwhile the web is incredibly bad at handling that. JavaScript code still has to fight with the GC for CPU time on the single thread they both occupy. WebWorkers are incredibly heavy & limited. WebAssem…

Web apps need a parallel layout engine, and such a thing exists with Mozilla’s Servo, but they’re for some reason Mozilla using it for WebVR rather than building a functional browser.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#442

Post by ativzzz » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:11 AM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #316

newfeatureok wrote: post #7

Honestly I think the future of mobile will just be... mobile websites. What's missing until regular websites have parity with mobile apps in functionality? - Accelerometer and all sensor support (some of these are already supported on various browsers on various OSes) - Background support - Bluetooth - WiFi - Better notifications - etc. Sure there will always be a need for native, but 99% of apps don't need any of th…

Users hate web apps, especially on mobile, and it has nothing to do with functionality. Web apps on the App Store invariably provoke angry screeds about how the look and feel is not right. Native apps are even more essential on mobile. On the desktop, web apps just look weird and waste battery life. On mobile, they feel wrong. That difference in feel provokes visceral hatred.

I agree with this. When you are creating a mobile experience for a website, you typically are burdened by the knowledge and existing designs/functionality of the desktop version which was usually built first.

When you are designing for a mobile app, you are free from the shackles that bind you to the desktop.

Of course, there is nothing stopping you from creating a separate web mobile experience, but human nature makes it harder to do so.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by JamesSwift » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:14 AM UTC

ENGNR wrote: post #378

JamesSwift wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theres native platform support for that now with shared login context between browsers and apps. e.g. https://developer.apple.com/documentation/authenticationserv...

If I’m reading it right that’s for if you control the app though. They still lose login if they follow a link from a mail client or slack app over to a mobile web app, which wouldn’t happen if they were going to an actual app

It should all be shared as long as the sides are using the official cookie storage. I understand it as its essentially an HTTP only cookie stored at the device level (rather than in the brower).

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by dictum » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:16 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #439

eptcyka wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are places in the world where developer labour (especially if the developer is trying to work for himself) is far cheaper than the 900$ capital investment of what essentially is 500-600$ worth of hardware with a shiny aluminum case. Don't forget that not everywhere in the world developers have to choose between several jobs that pay tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

So these same people couldn’t spend $300 on a used 2014 Mac Mini but could buy a PC?

In those places, old Apple hardware isn't significantly cheaper than new hardware. You might get a 25% discount for a degraded experience (security updates may end in ~3 years) or buy much older hardware (e.g. 9 year old models) that cannot run current macOS and Xcode, etc.

And yes, a local PC can work out to lower prices due to specific tax arrangements, sourcing components straight from manufacturers and assembling them locally.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by varrock » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:27 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #400

koheripbal wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It strikes me that, more than anything, it is the lack of an efficient "Add to Home Screen" flow, that has doomed mobile websites. ...and it's intentional. By having an app store, mobile OS distributors know that they have control over a massive revenue stream.

> more than anything, it is the lack of an efficient "Add to Home Screen" flow, that has doomed mobile websites...and it's intentional It’s literally a default option on the safari “share” button: “Add to Home Screen”. I’m not sure how Apple could have made it easier.

Because it's not very intuitive that the share button would allow you to add something to your home screen.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by scottmotte » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:37 AM UTC

buboard wrote: post #226

dmix wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your point? Do you think you represent most people? Can you not just turn it off? Notifications have fine tuned controls on both iOS and Android with schedule Do Not Disturb features and varying levels of priority (iOS has 3 tiers). Plus per-app controls to disable them from annoying apps, which in newer versions of iOS prompt you before they turn on, making them opt-in. It's essential for communication apps (…

Its true that tons of news sites ask for permission just to spam you, or outright sell notifications to advertisers. I think the web notif channel has already been abused beyond repair. It may be time to redo the concept from scratch Killer feature for email: add an email header that turns an email to notification. Then email apps would push the notification to the user, bypassing apple’s block. Websites already have…

That's a novel thought. I imagine then the native mail apps would expand in settings in order to block some bad senders from abusing that email header.

Tangentially related, iOS mail app has a VIP setting.

[1] https://support.apple.com/lv-lv/HT207213#vip

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by true_religion » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:39 AM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #402

horsawlarway wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone leading a team that does releases to clients, this is a pretty naive take. As you scale you get quite a few constraints that require additional manpower 1. Scaling generally means revenue, which means more internal teams pumping out more business products/features. Those features often need some sort of mobile integration. So you not only have your planned features, you have the features other teams would…

You have what I'm saying backwards. I'm not talking about a small dev team. My whole point is that when you have a large dev team, that you don't need that platform abstraction because you have the manpower to handle multiple platforms natively. Especially if you are a software company and not just a widget company that also has an app. > It turns out being able to get additional employees that don't need extensive m…

From what I see, anytime you have separate iOS and Android apps, they will rapidly diverge on features and UX to the point where it feels like different programs working with the same data set.

RN lets you have 1 team working on the same app, so the features are the same.

In theory, you could enforce that all features must be present in all apps, but in practice it never seems to happen.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

#448

Post by scottmotte » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

Joakal wrote: post #333

beefield wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly curious and hopefully not rude, but how can you concentrate on anything? Or does your work/life not require you to concentrate ever/most of the time on anything? (I have turned all but phone call and sms notifications off on my phone. I will check my email/whatsapp when I want and see notifications there as needed. If someone has something urgent, they know how to call.)

Not grandparent but for me: 1) only certain notifications that are important have unique sound, vibrate, etc. 2) other semi important notifications flash. Light is not that bright to notice. 3) other notifications have numbers on app so there are some despite not seeing any notifications. Result: I stopped checking every hour. It's actually been an improvement for me to stay away from phone. I noticed that some apps…

I wish there was a standardized or common methodology for classifying notifications. App developers could adopt this and consumers could take the pattern with them across all types of interfaces - desktop, smartphone, speakers, tv. Maybe someone knows if any government entity or force has a methodology for this?

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by vbezhenar » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:46 AM UTC

fendy3002 wrote: post #407

scarface74 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But what happens if Apple or Google gives web apps more of the capabilities of native apps?

I'd really hate it if browsers are capable to run in background and accessing microphone or camera. Especially if the tab is closed.

Buy why? People use those apps every day and fine with it. Why browser is bad? You'll still need to give your permission to do so anyway.

Re: Building all of our new mobile apps using React Native

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Post by vbezhenar » Thu, Jan 30, 2020, 2:52 AM UTC

muxator wrote: post #362

globuous wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[2] is from 2012 though, almost a decade ago. The web has come a long way since, and in five years to a decade could be competitive. With wasm and webgpu and what not. And as of today, i dont think the mobile web interfaces for fb and messenger are particularly worse than their native counterparts. They save me the notifications actually...

The web post-wasm could be a whole different beast from what the web was originally supposed to be. Not that the current situation is idyllic, but I fear a post-wasm web would be even more opaque and less inspectable.

wasm is not less inspectable than minified JS.