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The absolute killer feature for webapp is privacy and I will use the webapp instead of the native app whenever it is available for that reason only. Besides, a

The absolute killer feature for webapp is privacy and I will use the webapp instead of the native app whenever it is available for that reason only. Besides, all those comments about native being better due to performance and RAM and such go straight to the toilet when the app is something I will keep open for like 5 minutes every 2 days just to do something specific thing. Most apps do not require daemon-like features. Dear native app developers, I'm not buying into your arguments on why a native app is required. You're going to use some kind of SDK that is going to spy the hell out of my phone. Get off my LAN!

thijsvandien 6y ago
The privacy argument works both ways, because native apps can reliably keep data local that (unless it's just some simple utility) web apps would store on a 3rd party server.
- dyingkneepad 6y ago
  There's the theory, then there's the practice. In practice most of the apps I can think about that I could use are used to communicate with some sort of web server that is actually the one storing the info. So you get 3rd party storage + the stronger privacy invasion.
muzani 6y ago
Fun fact: up until the latest Android version, any app with Read Storage access (i.e. nearly all of them) could go through all your photos, pull location data, map out all the places your phone has been, and stealthily upload that. Several years ago, if you gave it microphone permissions, it could stealthily record all your conversations in background, transcribe that to text, and upload that. This was a beginner task that needs about 2 hours experience and I still use it for my tutorials. Lately it prompts a full screen saying that it's recording you, but this doesn't prevent apps that take a few days to build their own stealth recording system.
- dyingkneepad 6y ago
  I wish there was a way to completely prevent an app any kind of network access (Wifi/4G/Bluetooth/etc). This would immensely help: you can grab all the data you want, you won't have a way to upload it.

thijsvandien 6y ago

The privacy argument works both ways, because native apps can reliably keep data local that (unless it's just some simple utility) web apps would store on a 3rd party server.

dyingkneepad 6y ago
There's the theory, then there's the practice. In practice most of the apps I can think about that I could use are used to communicate with some sort of web server that is actually the one storing the info. So you get 3rd party storage + the stronger privacy invasion.

muzani 6y ago

Fun fact: up until the latest Android version, any app with Read Storage access (i.e. nearly all of them) could go through all your photos, pull location data, map out all the places your phone has been, and stealthily upload that. Several years ago, if you gave it microphone permissions, it could stealthily record all your conversations in background, transcribe that to text, and upload that. This was a beginner task that needs about 2 hours experience and I still use it for my tutorials. Lately it prompts a full screen saying that it's recording you, but this doesn't prevent apps that take a few days to build their own stealth recording system.

dyingkneepad 6y ago
I wish there was a way to completely prevent an app any kind of network access (Wifi/4G/Bluetooth/etc). This would immensely help: you can grab all the data you want, you won't have a way to upload it.