I'm an Android developer, I usually spot a non native app immediately and the flaws in the ui are really annoying. Web apps are even worse.
this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2023
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I'm a backend developer so I may be wrong but if the problems are in the UI can't a different frontend solve the issue? I'm unable to spot the difference between sarif and sens sarif fonts so I really don't have any reason to install an app if the website offer a usable UI
The problem is that a webapp will not offer a ui native to a OS. Android, iOS, web, macOS, Windows, all have different ideas about everything that's concerning the UI and UX, from the way to go back, to the position of buttons, to the durations of animations, to the bounciness of things on the screen. Either the web developer creates 5 different ui/ux version of the same app and preys that the browser supports everything he needs, or the webapp will feel native at best on 1 OS.
Applications also have access to APIs that a webapp can't use, like widgets, shortcuts in various parts of the OS, deeper access to bt, contacts, cameras and a slew of other things. Even a "simple" usecase as Reddit/Lemmy could use deeper APIs than what a webapp can do.
That said, I'm at about 60 delivered apps, at least 20 of them should have been websites.
PWAs work for sure, but you can really tell its just a full screen mobile website in a vast majority of cases. I am in no way saying PWAs are bad, but with apps that hook into APIs you have much wider latitude for how the data is presented and design choices
Can't you just write a new web frontend? without having to write an entire app?
That is a possability
so why do people asks for mobile apps instead of alternative web frontends (besides iOS users that are locked by apple)
man mobile apps are just a needless burden to carry around. instance owners are the ones who moderate them as well, like its a one-man band. instances that arent breaking down and that get to be quickly upgraded are the fittest to survive. we dont need to accomodate ios users and we dont need apps that uploads videos in 4k quality, and ones that include the rest of the bells and wisstles. i really hope that things stay this way and i hope we stay a minority, that way our communities stay healthy and sustainable. once quantity starts to be valued more over quality thats when the ends begins and things start to get worse for everyone. i am π―% on ur side.
To me, properly optimized native apps tend to be less-bloated than their web equivalents. Have you ever used "RIF is fun" for reddit? It is amazing, lots of tiny UI optimizations make it a pleasure to consume content much faster than scrolling up and down reddit's UI for both links and comments
Jerboa is almost 70 times bigger than the PWA ...
Are you going to ignore the rest of what I wrote? lol
Have you ever used βRIF is funβ for reddit? It is amazing, lots of tiny UI optimizations make it a pleasure to consume content much faster than scrolling up and down redditβs UI for both links and comments
The app just feels better/faster. Think of this way: a webapp = browser + pwa. You have all of the resource requirements of the browser itself, plus whatever it needs to render the html/css of the webapp running on top of that. many webapps are just written so poorly (like the new reddit page) that the browser struggles to do simple things like smooth scrolling). Plus being native means there is better support for things like save/print dialogs, themes/dark mode, helper apps/intents, etc)
If none of this matters to you and a webapp feels ok to you, that's great! use what you want! I'm happy for you
But you came in here asking why people prefer native apps and we gave you an answer, you don't have to be antagonistic
first things first ... English isn't my first language and I'm sorry if I sounded antagonistic. I'm a bit frustrated because, a lot of users doesn't even know about PWA and they asks for the development of mobile apps when their needs can be fulfilled with a PWA
I don't recall using RIF for reddit, I remember trying a lot of app and feel like I was let down by them so I switch to the browser. It did what I need, I didn't even feel it lagging while scrolling. Ok, PWA doesn't have access to some native API (and I'm not even sure if apple finally gave up and let its users have browser push notifications) but for some usecases this isn't a problem ...
Are you just unaware of the possibility of installing the website itself?
I haven't heard about this, and I suspect that plenty of people are in the same situation. How do you install a website?
It's almost the same thing as creating a shortcut from your phone to the website but those websites are usually build with more features and can use notifications, can works offline, etc etc https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/9658361?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1
Ah lovely, thanks
glad to be helpful
A lot of the people coming in right now are specifically protesting Reddit due to the shut down of their preferred third party apps, especially Apollo, an iOS exclusive. Android has Jerboa and PWAs, but on iOS we just have the site (and mlem, but itβs very early days there). I think that if/when old Reddit gets shut down, the resulting exodus from that will not care as much about app access, as they were using the web previously.
The experience on the website is awful on mobile, while it's fairly good on desktop
ok, but if this is the issue you can ask for a better mobile website instead of a mobile app
https://github.com/derivator/tafkars/tree/main/tafkars-lemmy they should really just wait for this, honestly.
is it some kind of proxy that translate from a format to another to help moving the reddit apps to talk with lemmy? My question remain ... why an app instead of a website?
Because sync for reddit is absolutely better than the lemmy website in just about every feasible way.
never find an app I liked for reddit ... my question still remain shouldn't be faster to write a web frontend similar to an app instead of writing a proxy just to keep using an app that waste way more space on the device?
The proxy is hosted on the lemmy instance, it allows the reddit apps to interface with lemmy, it won't take up more space on the device than the app itself.
One of the last things i'm worried about on my phone is the amount of space I have, i'd rather have a fluid, native interface.
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