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Related question: Why are people making entire apps for things which sound like they should be webpages? Only the QR reader sounds like something that needs to

Related question: Why are people making entire apps for things which sound like they should be webpages? Only the QR reader sounds like something that needs to be an app, and there are 100s of QR reader apps already, and some phones have it integrated natively in their OS.

ksec 6y ago
Typing Web Address is way more troublesome for 95% of consumer ( i.e those that has never heard of HN ) than installing something from App Store. I am seeing lots of QR Code for Apps uptake. The QR Code contains the link address, and the link itself is a PWA of sort. The only problem is those PWA still lives inside Safari and sort of not work as well as an Apps should. There are many things, like meals ordering system for restaurant that should never be an App and only reached inside App Store in the first place. I am thinking if Apple should open up a limited PWA ecosystem outside of App Store. This solution would likely work for Hey as well. 80% of App Store revenue are from gaming anyway. They are not giving in much. May be PWA isn't the right word either. It is simply a functional webpage resembling closer to an App experience.
jrumbut 6y ago
You're not wrong, and beyond web pages some of these things could be PDFs or text files even. My perspective is, if I'm not doing anything evil, why do I have to clear a complexity bar to publish an app? There are also some advantages for simple apps, one is making it really easy to use offline with a nice shortcut on the home screen. The other thing is making it full screen and no address bar helping to decrease distraction. These are not amazing reasons, but they matter for some people.
- kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
  I am definitely not blaming you. It just feels that we have reached this bizarre state of affairs where we create so much useless cruft for vaguely articulated reasons which are often not even true or borne in strong data, but are rather some abstract intuition of some marketing folks somewhere who are probably cargo-culting what they heard from another bunch of marketing folks.

ksec 6y ago

Typing Web Address is way more troublesome for 95% of consumer ( i.e those that has never heard of HN ) than installing something from App Store. I am seeing lots of QR Code for Apps uptake. The QR Code contains the link address, and the link itself is a PWA of sort. The only problem is those PWA still lives inside Safari and sort of not work as well as an Apps should. There are many things, like meals ordering system for restaurant that should never be an App and only reached inside App Store in the first place. I am thinking if Apple should open up a limited PWA ecosystem outside of App Store. This solution would likely work for Hey as well. 80% of App Store revenue are from gaming anyway. They are not giving in much. May be PWA isn't the right word either. It is simply a functional webpage resembling closer to an App experience.

jrumbut 6y ago

You're not wrong, and beyond web pages some of these things could be PDFs or text files even. My perspective is, if I'm not doing anything evil, why do I have to clear a complexity bar to publish an app? There are also some advantages for simple apps, one is making it really easy to use offline with a nice shortcut on the home screen. The other thing is making it full screen and no address bar helping to decrease distraction. These are not amazing reasons, but they matter for some people.

kinkrtyavimoodh 6y ago
I am definitely not blaming you. It just feels that we have reached this bizarre state of affairs where we create so much useless cruft for vaguely articulated reasons which are often not even true or borne in strong data, but are rather some abstract intuition of some marketing folks somewhere who are probably cargo-culting what they heard from another bunch of marketing folks.