3 ms·

I'd say power users prefer native apps. I genuinely think the jury is out on whether regular users do. The fact that you're citing something like 3D Touch (whic

I'd say power users prefer native apps. I genuinely think the jury is out on whether regular users do. The fact that you're citing something like 3D Touch (which was canned precisely because so few users knew what it even was or how to use it) kind of illustrates the point. I think this is one of those cases where HN is going to just be an echo chamber audience. We're all power users, the majority of whom demand native apps. But we're not typical.

JumpCrisscross 4y ago
> the jury is out on whether regular users do The jury decided, went home and had grandchildren. If anything, power user tools are in web apps. (They benefit from the cloud backend.) It’s Shazam and Uber and your local paper’s goinga-on-about-town sections that have apps. Because they get dramatically more engagement there than on a web app.
- afavour 4y ago
  I think you're oversimplifying. As the article states there are a lot of issues with PWAs that have nothing to do with the actual UI experience: discoverability, installing, that hamper web app adoption. But that's mobile. Look at Slack's desktop app. It's an Electron web app and every time it's mentioned on HN everyone agrees it's an awful resource hog and they should make a native version. The vast majority of people using Slack don't care, though.
  - enos_feedler 4y ago
    It just doesn't matter and the tie breaker is what the developer wants and the developer wants to make an app. Why? because the risk is you want to extend your "app" with features for which there is no browser API, only native access. You can do anything on the web you want on native but not vice versa.
    - afavour 4y ago
      Sure but how many apps out there are doing little other than replicate functionality available on a web site? I'd argue very few apps are doing anything truly native that is impossible on the web. Most are just CRUD forms with a nicer UI than you get on the web. If your reason for spending huge sums of money on (usually two) native apps is because you think at some point in the future you might maybe need to extend beyond what the web can offer then you're making a bad business decision.
      - enos_feedler 4y ago
        This is one of those cases where everything you said is rational and makes sense on paper but that just isn't how people and the organizations they work for behave.
  - jsjohnst 4y ago
    > The vast majority of people using Slack don't care, though. The vast majority of people using Slack aren’t the decision makers if they use Slack or not. How often do employees complain about the tools they are forced to use, yet their employers keep paying for them for <insert one of several> reasons?
    - comex 4y ago
      True - but then consider Discord instead. Similar userbase size, same decision to use Electron on desktop, but no bosses forcing people to use it (for the most part).

JumpCrisscross 4y ago

> the jury is out on whether regular users do The jury decided, went home and had grandchildren. If anything, power user tools are in web apps. (They benefit from the cloud backend.) It’s Shazam and Uber and your local paper’s goinga-on-about-town sections that have apps. Because they get dramatically more engagement there than on a web app.

afavour 4y ago
I think you're oversimplifying. As the article states there are a lot of issues with PWAs that have nothing to do with the actual UI experience: discoverability, installing, that hamper web app adoption. But that's mobile. Look at Slack's desktop app. It's an Electron web app and every time it's mentioned on HN everyone agrees it's an awful resource hog and they should make a native version. The vast majority of people using Slack don't care, though.
- enos_feedler 4y ago
  It just doesn't matter and the tie breaker is what the developer wants and the developer wants to make an app. Why? because the risk is you want to extend your "app" with features for which there is no browser API, only native access. You can do anything on the web you want on native but not vice versa.
  - afavour 4y ago
    Sure but how many apps out there are doing little other than replicate functionality available on a web site? I'd argue very few apps are doing anything truly native that is impossible on the web. Most are just CRUD forms with a nicer UI than you get on the web. If your reason for spending huge sums of money on (usually two) native apps is because you think at some point in the future you might maybe need to extend beyond what the web can offer then you're making a bad business decision.
    - enos_feedler 4y ago
      This is one of those cases where everything you said is rational and makes sense on paper but that just isn't how people and the organizations they work for behave.
- jsjohnst 4y ago
  > The vast majority of people using Slack don't care, though. The vast majority of people using Slack aren’t the decision makers if they use Slack or not. How often do employees complain about the tools they are forced to use, yet their employers keep paying for them for <insert one of several> reasons?
  - comex 4y ago
    True - but then consider Discord instead. Similar userbase size, same decision to use Electron on desktop, but no bosses forcing people to use it (for the most part).