7 ms·

One app for iOS, one for Android, and I got over 90% consumer coverage However with a huge friction point of requiring users to download and install an app.

tootie 10y ago
And not being searchable or deep linkable or shareable.
- xenadu02 10y ago
  None of this is true. Universal links on iOS even allow the same links to work whether you have the app installed or not.
- jdmichal 10y ago
  I'm not sure exactly what you mean by each of these, but at least in Android apps can register to open URLs. So you can search for and share, say, a Facebook link. Tap it, and it opens in the Facebook app (or the browser, or any other app registered to handle the URL, your choice!).
  - Sylos 10y ago
    I think these are the definitions that he/she goes by: Searchable: It being possible to find contents on the service via web search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo etc.). Deep linkable: It being possible to link to specific content on the service (and not just to the service as a whole). Shareable: It being likely that your service as a whole is linked to. While you can share with someone that an app exists, it's far less likely that users will do so, because of the install-barrier. And what you mentioned requires the service to maintain both an app and a webpage, so that doesn't work when we're talking about dropping the webpage...
    - jdmichal 10y ago
      So the criticism is that apps alone, without a web presence, cannot be "searchable" and "sharable". "Deep-linkable" is still possible; your app can handle and resolve URLs that another app could not. And I'm going to assume that it's the content of the app we're discussing, and not the app itself, since that's kind of trivial. So, the question is, without a web presence or API of some type, how exactly is data expected to be searched and shared by third-party participants? If the argument is that apps don't solve the problem of having a universal ontology, then I think the GP is not quite understanding just how intractable a problem that has been in computer science for a very long time.
  - tootie 10y ago
    They're achievable, but not native. You can't make your content crawlable unless it's on the web. You can deep link and share, but only if you explicitly build all of that while it's native to the web. And another one that always annoys the hell out of me is that I can't search text on an app screen. Again, you could build it yourself, but very few apps actually do.
wvenable 10y ago
I don't understand why people think this is a huge friction point. Installing apps is comfortable, familiar, and easy for people. By comparison, finding a mobile web application in the browser on a phone has significantly more friction.
- mikeryan 10y ago
  I might of not been clear, but my intent with the comment was to encompass the entirety of friction points involved in getting an app installed on a user's device, from discoverability on down.
  - wvenable 10y ago
    True but there's additional friction on the web app side as well. At this exact moment without looking at my browser, I'm not sure how to add an app to the homescreen. How many users actually know how to do that implicitly?
- btilly 10y ago
  A lot of people in the real world don't want to install apps. Also I disbelieve on how hard it is to find a mobile web application on a phone. Find it once, save a shortcut to a web page on your home screen, and now it is as easy to launch as an app. I actually find this easier to do than it is to install an app.
  - wvenable 10y ago
    > A lot of people in the real world don't want to install apps. A lot of just a specific subset of highly technical people? I don't think I've met anyone with an aversion to apps who also used a ton of mobile web apps. > save a shortcut to a web page on your home screen How many people did you lose at this point?
    - return0 10y ago
      - The study in the sibling reply shows 65% of users dont install any apps in a month. I would think technical people actually install more (for testing etc)! - Actually you don't lose anyone because browser history and address bar autocomplete are your friends. I dont think people care to save a shortcut, because they know they will be able to find it later.

tootie 10y ago

And not being searchable or deep linkable or shareable.

xenadu02 10y ago
None of this is true. Universal links on iOS even allow the same links to work whether you have the app installed or not.
jdmichal 10y ago
I'm not sure exactly what you mean by each of these, but at least in Android apps can register to open URLs. So you can search for and share, say, a Facebook link. Tap it, and it opens in the Facebook app (or the browser, or any other app registered to handle the URL, your choice!).
- Sylos 10y ago
  I think these are the definitions that he/she goes by: Searchable: It being possible to find contents on the service via web search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, DuckDuckGo etc.). Deep linkable: It being possible to link to specific content on the service (and not just to the service as a whole). Shareable: It being likely that your service as a whole is linked to. While you can share with someone that an app exists, it's far less likely that users will do so, because of the install-barrier. And what you mentioned requires the service to maintain both an app and a webpage, so that doesn't work when we're talking about dropping the webpage...
  - jdmichal 10y ago
    So the criticism is that apps alone, without a web presence, cannot be "searchable" and "sharable". "Deep-linkable" is still possible; your app can handle and resolve URLs that another app could not. And I'm going to assume that it's the content of the app we're discussing, and not the app itself, since that's kind of trivial. So, the question is, without a web presence or API of some type, how exactly is data expected to be searched and shared by third-party participants? If the argument is that apps don't solve the problem of having a universal ontology, then I think the GP is not quite understanding just how intractable a problem that has been in computer science for a very long time.
- tootie 10y ago
  They're achievable, but not native. You can't make your content crawlable unless it's on the web. You can deep link and share, but only if you explicitly build all of that while it's native to the web. And another one that always annoys the hell out of me is that I can't search text on an app screen. Again, you could build it yourself, but very few apps actually do.

wvenable 10y ago

I don't understand why people think this is a huge friction point. Installing apps is comfortable, familiar, and easy for people. By comparison, finding a mobile web application in the browser on a phone has significantly more friction.

mikeryan 10y ago
I might of not been clear, but my intent with the comment was to encompass the entirety of friction points involved in getting an app installed on a user's device, from discoverability on down.
- wvenable 10y ago
  True but there's additional friction on the web app side as well. At this exact moment without looking at my browser, I'm not sure how to add an app to the homescreen. How many users actually know how to do that implicitly?
btilly 10y ago
A lot of people in the real world don't want to install apps. Also I disbelieve on how hard it is to find a mobile web application on a phone. Find it once, save a shortcut to a web page on your home screen, and now it is as easy to launch as an app. I actually find this easier to do than it is to install an app.
- wvenable 10y ago
  > A lot of people in the real world don't want to install apps. A lot of just a specific subset of highly technical people? I don't think I've met anyone with an aversion to apps who also used a ton of mobile web apps. > save a shortcut to a web page on your home screen How many people did you lose at this point?
  - return0 10y ago
    - The study in the sibling reply shows 65% of users dont install any apps in a month. I would think technical people actually install more (for testing etc)! - Actually you don't lose anyone because browser history and address bar autocomplete are your friends. I dont think people care to save a shortcut, because they know they will be able to find it later.