6 ms·

90% of apps just deliver information and work just fine (or better) on the web, at least for me. Nobody needs a reddit app or a Medium app, even though those co

90% of apps just deliver information and work just fine (or better) on the web, at least for me. Nobody needs a reddit app or a Medium app, even though those companies try to convince you otherwise. Yeah, I'll download an app for Uber or Southwest airlines or Airbnb because their two-way information requirements work better as apps. But I won't clutter up my phone with things that work just fine in a browser, which is most of what I need. I don't play games, so maybe I'm not most people.

puranjay 8y ago
Yeah, same for me. The only apps I have are the ones where the web experience is either non existent (Camscanner) or extremely sub par (Spotify/Google Music) I do have apps for all the shoppibg platforms I use, even though the performance isn't substantially better
Uberphallus 8y ago
> Nobody needs a reddit app Oh, reddit on mobile without an app is a displeasing experience. The official app though, isn't much better.
- king_magic 8y ago
  It’s only a displeasing experience because Reddit is doing everything they can to make the mobile web experience miserable so you use their app.
ryanwaggoner 8y ago
Nobody needs an app for anything, but the Reddit app is far superior for me vs. their mobile experience. So much so that I refuse to install it because it makes Reddit far more addictive. Same for Facebook. A huge percentage of their usage is the mobile app vs. mobile web. Like Reddit, part of that is due to them making the mobile web experience crappier to drive app adoption, but that's not the only thing going on. The web just for UX in many ways, and will never beat a well-built app for anything other than ease of initial installation.
- dreamcompiler 8y ago
  Good point. Another reason not to do business with a company is if they remove information from their mobile website that's available on their app. Looking at you here, Yelp.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
passwd 8y ago
>Nobody needs a reddit app Here it's true if you talk about official app, which you seem to be doing, but there's a couple of other options - apps made by community, which can be way better than official anything. I guess that Reddit doesn't want to fall behind and that's it.
- kyriakos 8y ago
  Relay is awesome on android. Way better than the official.
  - vivab0rg 8y ago
    Sync Pro Master Race.
eddieroger 8y ago
> But I won't clutter up my phone with things that work just fine in a browser That's the window for apps to compete. If "just fine" works for you, cool, but it's possible for apps to make the experience better in meaningful ways. A web page can't notify of you a new message, but an app can, for example. Look at all the Twitter apps that came up, and they've had to start to systematically kill over time because the experiences are _so much_ better than Twitter in the app. "Just fine" doesn't push us forward.
- grigjd3 8y ago
  I see notifications as a downside as a user, not an upside.
  - dreamcompiler 8y ago
    Yet another problem with apps. Every time I download a new one I start getting pointless notifications and I have to go to the Apps Manager (which on Android is O[n] slow) to turn them off.
  - eddieroger 8y ago
    Well I'm not going to tell you that the way you use a mobile device is wrong, but it is not the way I use my devices. I guess we'll have to see which one of us most people agree with. If people stop downloading apps, we'll stop seeing companies put effort in to them.
    - grigjd3 8y ago
      I don't give a rat's ass what makes the most money. You're shitty app needs to earn my attention, rather than annoy me into giving it attention.
- CaptSpify 8y ago
  > it's possible for apps to make the experience better in meaningful ways. Now if we could just get app designers to realize that! IME, apps are usually just poor front-ends for the website, where companies think it's OK to shove stupid things like unblockable ads, notifications, data-harvesting, etc.
TeMPOraL 8y ago
If only the web made it easier to completely revamp someone else's pages... Reddit is a great example - on mobile, I still use the "reddit is fun" application, which is a solid piece of work. It's lighter than the old Reddit, not to mention the shitshow the new Reddit is. It has much better UX than the webpage. I'd use it on my PC if I could. All this is possible, because right now, APIs change slower than webpages, so if a service is publishing a functional enough API, there is a way to fix problems with the official interface.
- dreamcompiler 8y ago
  Good point. I miss Twitter's API.

puranjay 8y ago

Yeah, same for me. The only apps I have are the ones where the web experience is either non existent (Camscanner) or extremely sub par (Spotify/Google Music) I do have apps for all the shoppibg platforms I use, even though the performance isn't substantially better

Uberphallus 8y ago

> Nobody needs a reddit app Oh, reddit on mobile without an app is a displeasing experience. The official app though, isn't much better.

king_magic 8y ago
It’s only a displeasing experience because Reddit is doing everything they can to make the mobile web experience miserable so you use their app.

ryanwaggoner 8y ago

Nobody needs an app for anything, but the Reddit app is far superior for me vs. their mobile experience. So much so that I refuse to install it because it makes Reddit far more addictive. Same for Facebook. A huge percentage of their usage is the mobile app vs. mobile web. Like Reddit, part of that is due to them making the mobile web experience crappier to drive app adoption, but that's not the only thing going on. The web just for UX in many ways, and will never beat a well-built app for anything other than ease of initial installation.

dreamcompiler 8y ago
Good point. Another reason not to do business with a company is if they remove information from their mobile website that's available on their app. Looking at you here, Yelp.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

passwd 8y ago

>Nobody needs a reddit app Here it's true if you talk about official app, which you seem to be doing, but there's a couple of other options - apps made by community, which can be way better than official anything. I guess that Reddit doesn't want to fall behind and that's it.

kyriakos 8y ago
Relay is awesome on android. Way better than the official.
- vivab0rg 8y ago
  Sync Pro Master Race.

eddieroger 8y ago

> But I won't clutter up my phone with things that work just fine in a browser That's the window for apps to compete. If "just fine" works for you, cool, but it's possible for apps to make the experience better in meaningful ways. A web page can't notify of you a new message, but an app can, for example. Look at all the Twitter apps that came up, and they've had to start to systematically kill over time because the experiences are _so much_ better than Twitter in the app. "Just fine" doesn't push us forward.

grigjd3 8y ago
I see notifications as a downside as a user, not an upside.
- dreamcompiler 8y ago
  Yet another problem with apps. Every time I download a new one I start getting pointless notifications and I have to go to the Apps Manager (which on Android is O[n] slow) to turn them off.
- eddieroger 8y ago
  Well I'm not going to tell you that the way you use a mobile device is wrong, but it is not the way I use my devices. I guess we'll have to see which one of us most people agree with. If people stop downloading apps, we'll stop seeing companies put effort in to them.
  - grigjd3 8y ago
    I don't give a rat's ass what makes the most money. You're shitty app needs to earn my attention, rather than annoy me into giving it attention.
CaptSpify 8y ago
> it's possible for apps to make the experience better in meaningful ways. Now if we could just get app designers to realize that! IME, apps are usually just poor front-ends for the website, where companies think it's OK to shove stupid things like unblockable ads, notifications, data-harvesting, etc.

TeMPOraL 8y ago

If only the web made it easier to completely revamp someone else's pages... Reddit is a great example - on mobile, I still use the "reddit is fun" application, which is a solid piece of work. It's lighter than the old Reddit, not to mention the shitshow the new Reddit is. It has much better UX than the webpage. I'd use it on my PC if I could. All this is possible, because right now, APIs change slower than webpages, so if a service is publishing a functional enough API, there is a way to fix problems with the official interface.

dreamcompiler 8y ago
Good point. I miss Twitter's API.