4 ms·

IMHO both this and the Android Instant Apps are half assed ideas. The ultimate goal should be working towards having the ephemeral nature of web apps while mai

by gerash 6y ago

IMHO both this and the Android Instant Apps are half assed ideas. The ultimate goal should be working towards having the ephemeral nature of web apps while maintaining the native app performance. That is, access to raw sensors, running native code rather than JS and working offline. I know it's technically challenging but that should be the direction.

mercutio2 6y ago
How is downloading a < 10MB native instant app any worse than downloading a frequently-larger web app?
- wayneftw 6y ago
  > ...a frequently-larger web app Got any stats for that? I was quickly able to find [0] and [1] which state that web page sizes are 1.5mb (median), 2mb (mean) and the average is about 3mb. [0] https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-year-and-heres-why-it-matters/ https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-... [1] https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/ https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/
  - fabiospampinato 6y ago
    Are those web apps or web pages though? Like I don't think blogs are what OP had in mind.
    - wayneftw 6y ago
      I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking for clarification. I'd like to know where the OP got their "frequently larger" stat from because I wasn't able to find one that specifically used the term "web apps".
  - gabagool 6y ago
    Is there a functional difference between "mean" and "average"? I've always thought that they're the same thing.
    - wayneftw 6y ago
      Yes, they are. I was repeating the terms used in the respective articles.
saagarjha 6y ago
> That is, access to raw sensors, running native code rather than JS and working offline. So, a native app?
- solarkraft 6y ago
  GP wants web apps that feel native. I'm not sure that'll happen mid-term.
  - jamil7 6y ago
    If you'd asked my 5 years ago I would have said the web would dominate. Now I'm not so sure (although I'm also currently working in mobile). It feels like by the time we get to something like webapps that feel native they may not really be webapps anymore, maybe something like what google is doing with Flutter or something WASM based that can run on anything.
- gerash 6y ago
  No, native apps UX comes with installation, worrying about it wasting the device resources and ultimately uninstallation. The distribution is also centralized through App stores rather than self-hosted web sites. Both PWAs (using web app toolkit) and Instant App / App clip are trying to fill the gap across web and native apps but both seem like band-aids. So a more concerted effort seems necessary. I remember Google's Fuchsia was working towards such a thing but idk how much progress they've had.
jumelles 6y ago
> the ephemeral nature of web apps while maintaining the native app performance ...that's... what this is?

by gerash 6y ago

mercutio2 6y ago

How is downloading a < 10MB native instant app any worse than downloading a frequently-larger web app?

wayneftw 6y ago
> ...a frequently-larger web app Got any stats for that? I was quickly able to find [0] and [1] which state that web page sizes are 1.5mb (median), 2mb (mean) and the average is about 3mb. [0] https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-year-and-heres-why-it-matters/ https://royal.pingdom.com/webpages-are-getting-larger-every-... [1] https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/ https://speedcurve.com/blog/web-performance-page-bloat/
- fabiospampinato 6y ago
  Are those web apps or web pages though? Like I don't think blogs are what OP had in mind.
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    I'm not sure, that's why I'm asking for clarification. I'd like to know where the OP got their "frequently larger" stat from because I wasn't able to find one that specifically used the term "web apps".
- gabagool 6y ago
  Is there a functional difference between "mean" and "average"? I've always thought that they're the same thing.
  - wayneftw 6y ago
    Yes, they are. I was repeating the terms used in the respective articles.

saagarjha 6y ago

> That is, access to raw sensors, running native code rather than JS and working offline. So, a native app?

solarkraft 6y ago
GP wants web apps that feel native. I'm not sure that'll happen mid-term.
- jamil7 6y ago
  If you'd asked my 5 years ago I would have said the web would dominate. Now I'm not so sure (although I'm also currently working in mobile). It feels like by the time we get to something like webapps that feel native they may not really be webapps anymore, maybe something like what google is doing with Flutter or something WASM based that can run on anything.
gerash 6y ago
No, native apps UX comes with installation, worrying about it wasting the device resources and ultimately uninstallation. The distribution is also centralized through App stores rather than self-hosted web sites. Both PWAs (using web app toolkit) and Instant App / App clip are trying to fill the gap across web and native apps but both seem like band-aids. So a more concerted effort seems necessary. I remember Google's Fuchsia was working towards such a thing but idk how much progress they've had.

jumelles 6y ago

> the ephemeral nature of web apps while maintaining the native app performance ...that's... what this is?