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Even then, most apps are just thinly veiled webapps for which the site (with Firefox and uBlock) provides the same or superior experience, ad-free.
by BbzzbB 4y ago
Even then, most apps are just thinly veiled webapps for which the site (with Firefox and uBlock) provides the same or superior experience, ad-free.
- NavinF 4y agoEr no, most iOS apps are not thinly veiled webapps. Have you ever used iOS?
- judge2020 4y agoMost apps are moving to React Native especially if they're targeting Android and iOS, but that's still a far cry from being a wrapper around a webapp.
- raydev 4y agoI think this is only true for small biz. All the big names quietly or publicly abandoned their efforts to fully migrate to React Native, focusing only on the most simple use-cases/views if they do keep it around. Even with the smartest people working on it, it's tough to keep React Native performant.
- BbzzbB 4y agoSorry I didn't express that clearly FWIW, didn't mean that literally. It's just that most apps people use are pretty much the same as their respective websites. All of FAAMG's websites work as perfectly fine replacement to the apps, even better, IMHO, when you get rid of the ads apparatus.
- xorcist 4y agoExcept when said web site detects your mobile web browser, and serves a page telling you to download their app instead.
- gowld 4y agoAdBlocker + desktop mode or User Agent Switcher blocks that
- BbzzbB 4y agoThat's half of the point of having uBlock Origin. Use the zapper to disappear an element for the session, use the picker to poof them forever. They really work on making their webapps as unbearable as possible, but you can get rid of it to make them webapps great again. Can even add sites/pages as home app icons. Which makes Firefox the obviously better mobile browser, Chrome seems like a pretty strong case of defaults' power. Tho gotta add the "Google Search Fixer" select addon because they sure doesn't want you to get summary cards, financial charts and other goodies if you use a competitor browser. Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and co without the ads circus. Duolingo without daily activity limit for some reason.
- JoshTriplett 4y agoI've only run into one site (Instagram) that forces the use of the app, and I just close the site instead.
- rav3ndust 4y agoAnother great example lately is Reddit. Reddit's mobile experience had become awful. Every time someone sends me a reddit link and I click on it, I'm taken to Reddit's mobile site, which should function just fine and dandy, but the minute it detects you are there on a mobile browser, it spams you with "Reddit works best in the app!" messages, and won't let you view some subs at all without signing in. Reddit is a great example of mobile done wrong. Don't be like Reddit.
- hnburnsy 4y agoThankfully there are third party clients for Reddit. Check out Infinity @ F-Droid.
- 4y ago