3 ms·

Why is this downvoted? This comment is spot on. The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. You can also turn this around: wh

by WA 6y ago

Why is this downvoted? This comment is spot on. The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. You can also turn this around: what stops businesses right now from making extremely lightweight apps that don’t bother the user? The same forces that make companies slap tons of trackers and JS on their websites.

RandallBrown 6y ago
> The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. While this is sometimes true, I think it's more often the case the businesses make junk apps because they pay the lowest bidder to make them a bare minimum app.
- Terretta 6y ago
  And the lowest bidder is often an app factory. See real estate apps or corporate travel apps for instance. A majority seem to be the same few practically unusable apps re-skinned.
  - pfranz 6y ago
    I believe as part of the App Clip announcement they were showing Yelp creating/managing apps for restaurants. So they're specifically trying to improve this type of app.
acdha 6y ago
I wouldn’t assume that’s the only reason for how these apps exist. Most businesses pay considerably more for an app than it would cost to have a website. In some cases that’s due to something like robust offline support or tracking not allowed by the web security model but there are plenty of more common reasons: the owner wanted to be able to tell their friends that they’re in the App Store, they perceived it as more modern/cooler, they got a sales pitch about how this would boost revenue or customer loyalty, etc. One way to guess about what’s happening is to look at the app quality and update history: if it looks like it launched in the original App Store round or has a hideous UX which is never improved, it’s probably not actually doing enough to be worth spending more money on.

3 ms·

Why is this downvoted? This comment is spot on. The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. You can also turn this around: wh

by WA 6y ago

RandallBrown 6y ago
> The junk apps are junk because the businesses make them like that on purpose. While this is sometimes true, I think it's more often the case the businesses make junk apps because they pay the lowest bidder to make them a bare minimum app.
- Terretta 6y ago
  And the lowest bidder is often an app factory. See real estate apps or corporate travel apps for instance. A majority seem to be the same few practically unusable apps re-skinned.
  - pfranz 6y ago
    I believe as part of the App Clip announcement they were showing Yelp creating/managing apps for restaurants. So they're specifically trying to improve this type of app.
acdha 6y ago
I wouldn’t assume that’s the only reason for how these apps exist. Most businesses pay considerably more for an app than it would cost to have a website. In some cases that’s due to something like robust offline support or tracking not allowed by the web security model but there are plenty of more common reasons: the owner wanted to be able to tell their friends that they’re in the App Store, they perceived it as more modern/cooler, they got a sales pitch about how this would boost revenue or customer loyalty, etc. One way to guess about what’s happening is to look at the app quality and update history: if it looks like it launched in the original App Store round or has a hideous UX which is never improved, it’s probably not actually doing enough to be worth spending more money on.