My App Is Dead in the Water • Hacker News Board

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#61

Post by tkcins » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

>kicking the user out to Safari would significantly reduce the usability of the app

Am I the only one who HATES when apps open links inside a webview and you have to tap yet another button to open the link in Safari? Most apps do that and they annoy the hell out of me.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#62

Post by z3t4 » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

rpeden wrote: post #37

z3t4 wrote: post #21

I wouln't like if someone scraped my web site, and put it in a iPhone app. Why not just open the links in a web browser !?

...that's what the app is doing. It was just opening the links in a webview inside the app instead of tossing the user over into Safari every time they click a link. There was no scraping happening.

How much control do the app have over a web-view? Would it for example be able to log user input (steal passwords), or insert content (ads) ? Do the web view make it's own https request ?

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#63

Post by kalleboo » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

lathiat wrote: post #42

dsjoerg wrote: post #39

Why not launch Safari when the user clicks on an article? And make it clear that you have permission from HN to use their API? Having used your app for exactly one minute, that seems like it would address their concerns and preserve usability.

Given the "back" link from Safari to your app since iOS 11? (10?) - this is the right solution IMHO.

Especially with the swipe gestures on the new phones since the X, my pet peeve are apps that use web views inside their app inside of just opening Safari.

The worst offender is the Gmail app since half the links I click on there interact with cookies in the Safari app (account activation, notifications, etc). And Gmail will even keep nagging me to install Chrome which I will never do. Ugh, I really need to switch away from Gmail.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#64

Post by rubinelli » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #60

colonelpopcorn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Be important 2. Don't be unimportant

Wondering if 1 or 2 are achievable when spending 100% of your time programming.

3. Be John Carmack

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#65

Post by latortuga » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

sydd wrote: post #53

apo wrote: post #41

This might be a good time to reconsider what made iOS the best platform for this application in the first place. For example, can the app be re-packaged as an HTML5 app instead? What's the compelling advantage for building on iOS for this application?

That would be the same from a legal standpoint. You app would just get shittier UX, nothing else.

This is not a situation where legality is in play, it's an Apple policy rejection. Apple can say it's "for legal reasons" but Apple is enforcing it, not the government. Nobody is suing OP.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#66

Post by VikingCoder » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:10 PM UTC

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #40

I see the comments are already filling up with the usual cries of how this is what you get when you play in a curated market, but something about this doesn't make sense. Apple provides several views specifically designed to show web content: UIWebView, WKWebView, and SFSafariViewController. This ruling of theirs would apply to all uses of these views that aren't for specific domains and URLs known in advance, which…

Thank you, this is the best comment so far.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#67

Post by amelius » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:13 PM UTC

rubinelli wrote: post #64

amelius wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wondering if 1 or 2 are achievable when spending 100% of your time programming.

3. Be John Carmack

He attends conferences and gives talks.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#68

Post by pashabitz » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:15 PM UTC

I think it's important to look at the broader issue: "App stores" are walled gardens, policed by corporations and are the opposite of freedom. The web is open and free. We made a deal with the devil when we collectively decided to write and use apps and not the web. This is just one symptom.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#69

Post by jasonmp85 » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #63

lathiat wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the "back" link from Safari to your app since iOS 11? (10?) - this is the right solution IMHO.

Especially with the swipe gestures on the new phones since the X, my pet peeve are apps that use web views inside their app inside of just opening Safari. The worst offender is the Gmail app since half the links I click on there interact with cookies in the Safari app (account activation, notifications, etc). And Gmail will even keep nagging me to install Chrome which I will never do. Ugh, I really need to switch awa…

this ain’t it

I don’t want my twitter and RSS reader app exploding my safari tab count. I look at articles all the time in those apps and decide not to open them in safari.

Re: My App Is Dead in the Water

#70

Post by jurip » Tue, Nov 13, 2018, 4:16 PM UTC

apo wrote: post #41

This might be a good time to reconsider what made iOS the best platform for this application in the first place. For example, can the app be re-packaged as an HTML5 app instead? What's the compelling advantage for building on iOS for this application?

I'd imagine the compelling advantage is being a native iOS application: "I wasn’t satisfied with the features of the Hacker News clients I had downloaded from the app store".