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Why do you have some features on ios but not android? Why isn't this on your website. Maybe I am old (possible), weird (probable), and out touch (definitely).

Why do you have some features on ios but not android? Why isn't this on your website. Maybe I am old (possible), weird (probable), and out touch (definitely). But I couldn't imagine the case where I am planning on doing research for travel and I would go to an app over a website. For looking at data, typing things in, comparing prices, etc. A phone app really is the worst form factor for that. I am not sure how big your company is, or how its done. But your product owners are dropping the ball in my opinion. I backed out of the website as soon as I found I couldn't do anything from the website.

Accacin 6y ago
I guess I'm also old, weird, and out of touch :) I cannot begin to describe the annoyance I experience with filling in forms on a mobile device, especially if I'm hunting for a good deal `to -> from` and need to keep going back and slightly modifying my search params. Phones just aren't good at this use-case. Being (very) cynical, the only reason they're providing a mobile app is because of all the data they harvest (https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/ https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/).
- drewg123 6y ago
  This. I also lost interest as soon as I saw the website just re-directed me to an app.
- roachpepe 6y ago
  Yeah, same. Guess the old saying "if something's "free" then you're the product" hits home here too. Forcing the mobile app is a deal breaker.
  - rockostrich 6y ago
    While that saying applies for things like social media and such, it isn't the case for Hopper because you still have to pay for travel. The app is free, but you still have to pay for any flights or hotels that you book. Usually when an app or online service is free, then you'll see ads serving you content associated with your search behavior because that's the only way that service could monetize itself. Hopper's founder has been pretty adamant that we'll never serve advertisements in the app and we wouldn't be selling user data to 3rd parties and at least in my 4 years at the company that promise has been kept. I would hand in my resignation if we started serving ads in the app.
- rockostrich 6y ago
  Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. I feel your pain around filling in forms and managing context on mobile devices which is why we've tried to make the process simpler and deliver to customers what's actually important. This article was written by our head of design back in 2018 about why we chose the search parameters we chose for flight search: https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-they-want-better-content-3146f650b8f6 https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-th... He's now leading design at a start-up called Fast trying to apply similar principles to paying for things online.
  - Accacin 6y ago
    > Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. How do you know? It's not like you gave them the option. Anyway, like you said, I'm not your demographic and I realise you are helping a lot of people travel more cheaply so I do wish Hopper all the best :)
  - OJFord 6y ago
    And who knows how many more untapped because they don't want to use your app? Every time I've (tried to) use the RyanAir app to book (or browse prices for) a flight, for example, I've given up and used a 'real' computer to go to the website. That's not (just) because the app's bad. Having app-only features and limited functionality website is just infuriating. Things go wrong with phones, websites are sort of a 'lowest common denominator'; you're not locked out because your phone broke and you had to borrow someone's old one but it's $OS and you're used to $OTHEROS, etc.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
rockostrich 6y ago
Not sure how much I can say, but it mostly comes down to engineering capacity. We're still a relatively small engineering team (100-200 engineers) and for a long time were more like 30-50 engineers. There's a lot of moving parts in travel and we chose to focus on iOS mainly since it's the has the biggest market share in the US for mobile.
- OkGoDoIt 6y ago
  Hundreds of engineers and can’t build a website. Something is wrong here...
  - carb 6y ago
    It's likely you're underestimating the complexity required to run Hopper and support all existing features. Only a small subset of those engineers will do mobile work. And they likely have many more priorities than building Auto-buy, the benefits and viability of which isn't obvious. So while the rest of the Hopper Eng team churns on with other long- and short-term changes, one or two engineers may have been able to lobby for a POC on iOS. Or maybe it was just a quick week long hackathon project that's still being monitored for ROI.
    - throwaway823882 6y ago
      Something is potentially wrong. Saying "we only have 100-200 engineers, we can't get around to making a website" is a terrible excuse that points to mis-management. It doesn't take more than a couple developers to put together a basic "shopping for flights" web interface. If they have a backend that serves iOS, it should have a REST API, so slapping a web interface on that shouldn't be a big deal. But it's also possible that it's like someone else mentioned: "if the product is free, then you're the product". Maybe they just don't care to get more customers/solve their problems, because they are harvesting enough data about iOS visitors to make a profit. If they don't want any more customers, then nothing is wrong.
OJFord 6y ago
I am young, and decline to comment on the others, but fully agree. It irritates me to try to do such things on my phone; I often give up and reach for a 'real' computer & keyboard to start again and wish I hadn't bothered with the phone to begin with. If I didn't need a WhatsApp app on a phone in order to use WhatsApp on a computer, I probably wouldn't have a phone, (maybe an emergency use classic Nokia brick) or at least use it extremely infrequently.

Accacin 6y ago

I guess I'm also old, weird, and out of touch :) I cannot begin to describe the annoyance I experience with filling in forms on a mobile device, especially if I'm hunting for a good deal `to -> from` and need to keep going back and slightly modifying my search params. Phones just aren't good at this use-case. Being (very) cynical, the only reason they're providing a mobile app is because of all the data they harvest (https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/ https://www.hopper.com/legal/privacy-policy/).

drewg123 6y ago
This. I also lost interest as soon as I saw the website just re-directed me to an app.
roachpepe 6y ago
Yeah, same. Guess the old saying "if something's "free" then you're the product" hits home here too. Forcing the mobile app is a deal breaker.
- rockostrich 6y ago
  While that saying applies for things like social media and such, it isn't the case for Hopper because you still have to pay for travel. The app is free, but you still have to pay for any flights or hotels that you book. Usually when an app or online service is free, then you'll see ads serving you content associated with your search behavior because that's the only way that service could monetize itself. Hopper's founder has been pretty adamant that we'll never serve advertisements in the app and we wouldn't be selling user data to 3rd parties and at least in my 4 years at the company that promise has been kept. I would hand in my resignation if we started serving ads in the app.
rockostrich 6y ago
Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. I feel your pain around filling in forms and managing context on mobile devices which is why we've tried to make the process simpler and deliver to customers what's actually important. This article was written by our head of design back in 2018 about why we chose the search parameters we chose for flight search: https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-they-want-better-content-3146f650b8f6 https://medium.com/life-at-hopper/users-dont-want-filters-th... He's now leading design at a start-up called Fast trying to apply similar principles to paying for things online.
- Accacin 6y ago
  > Thankfully there are millions of people that prefer to use their phone for searching and booking travel and we've been able to build a business around it. How do you know? It's not like you gave them the option. Anyway, like you said, I'm not your demographic and I realise you are helping a lot of people travel more cheaply so I do wish Hopper all the best :)
- OJFord 6y ago
  And who knows how many more untapped because they don't want to use your app? Every time I've (tried to) use the RyanAir app to book (or browse prices for) a flight, for example, I've given up and used a 'real' computer to go to the website. That's not (just) because the app's bad. Having app-only features and limited functionality website is just infuriating. Things go wrong with phones, websites are sort of a 'lowest common denominator'; you're not locked out because your phone broke and you had to borrow someone's old one but it's $OS and you're used to $OTHEROS, etc.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

rockostrich 6y ago

Not sure how much I can say, but it mostly comes down to engineering capacity. We're still a relatively small engineering team (100-200 engineers) and for a long time were more like 30-50 engineers. There's a lot of moving parts in travel and we chose to focus on iOS mainly since it's the has the biggest market share in the US for mobile.

OkGoDoIt 6y ago
Hundreds of engineers and can’t build a website. Something is wrong here...
- carb 6y ago
  It's likely you're underestimating the complexity required to run Hopper and support all existing features. Only a small subset of those engineers will do mobile work. And they likely have many more priorities than building Auto-buy, the benefits and viability of which isn't obvious. So while the rest of the Hopper Eng team churns on with other long- and short-term changes, one or two engineers may have been able to lobby for a POC on iOS. Or maybe it was just a quick week long hackathon project that's still being monitored for ROI.
  - throwaway823882 6y ago
    Something is potentially wrong. Saying "we only have 100-200 engineers, we can't get around to making a website" is a terrible excuse that points to mis-management. It doesn't take more than a couple developers to put together a basic "shopping for flights" web interface. If they have a backend that serves iOS, it should have a REST API, so slapping a web interface on that shouldn't be a big deal. But it's also possible that it's like someone else mentioned: "if the product is free, then you're the product". Maybe they just don't care to get more customers/solve their problems, because they are harvesting enough data about iOS visitors to make a profit. If they don't want any more customers, then nothing is wrong.

OJFord 6y ago

I am young, and decline to comment on the others, but fully agree. It irritates me to try to do such things on my phone; I often give up and reach for a 'real' computer & keyboard to start again and wish I hadn't bothered with the phone to begin with. If I didn't need a WhatsApp app on a phone in order to use WhatsApp on a computer, I probably wouldn't have a phone, (maybe an emergency use classic Nokia brick) or at least use it extremely infrequently.