5 ms·

Then we are in agreement: native apps are only made to the benefit of the companies, not the users.

by rglullis 1mo ago

JimDabell 1mo ago
This is not true. I’ve worked in this space. Whenever users had the choice, they chose native iOS about two thirds of the time, native Android about a quarter of the time, and web about 10% of the time. This is across all platforms, including desktop, so the actual user preference for web was even lower than that. We didn’t care which platform people used and weren’t pushing people onto native. Users genuinely prefer native apps. People don’t seem to have any problem accepting this when you compare things like Electron to desktop apps. It matters even more on resource-constrained mobile devices.
- rglullis 1mo ago
  You are talking about their choices over distribution channels. I'm talking about who gets to benefit about the features offered by these platforms.
  - JimDabell 1mo ago
    > native apps are only made to the benefit of the companies, not the users. We literally built the apps because people wanted them. The whole reason the App Store exists is because when Steve Jobs told everybody that to build iPhone apps you should build web apps, people revolted and demanded native apps. The preference for native apps over web apps predates the App Store.
    - rglullis 1mo ago
      Because the web as an application platform sucked back then.
    - hamburglar 1mo ago
      People wanted them because mobile web sites sucked, and because it was difficult to build a decent mobile UX using early mobile web tech. That’s not true anymore but people still reach for apps by reflex even though it makes absolutely no sense most of the time. I don’t want your native code running on my device if a website serves the purpose just as well. The “why are you making me use an app” backlash will come eventually and nobody will be saying “people want apps” anymore.

5 ms·

Then we are in agreement: native apps are only made to the benefit of the companies, not the users.

by rglullis 1mo ago

Then we are in agreement: native apps are only made to the benefit of the companies, not the users.

JimDabell 1mo ago
This is not true. I’ve worked in this space. Whenever users had the choice, they chose native iOS about two thirds of the time, native Android about a quarter of the time, and web about 10% of the time. This is across all platforms, including desktop, so the actual user preference for web was even lower than that. We didn’t care which platform people used and weren’t pushing people onto native. Users genuinely prefer native apps. People don’t seem to have any problem accepting this when you compare things like Electron to desktop apps. It matters even more on resource-constrained mobile devices.
- rglullis 1mo ago
  You are talking about their choices over distribution channels. I'm talking about who gets to benefit about the features offered by these platforms.
  - JimDabell 1mo ago
    > native apps are only made to the benefit of the companies, not the users. We literally built the apps because people wanted them. The whole reason the App Store exists is because when Steve Jobs told everybody that to build iPhone apps you should build web apps, people revolted and demanded native apps. The preference for native apps over web apps predates the App Store.
    - rglullis 1mo ago
      Because the web as an application platform sucked back then.
    - hamburglar 1mo ago
      People wanted them because mobile web sites sucked, and because it was difficult to build a decent mobile UX using early mobile web tech. That’s not true anymore but people still reach for apps by reflex even though it makes absolutely no sense most of the time. I don’t want your native code running on my device if a website serves the purpose just as well. The “why are you making me use an app” backlash will come eventually and nobody will be saying “people want apps” anymore.